Pepperfry won’t deliver, won’t refund, won’t listen. Help me interneters!

In one of my last posts, I mentioned that I am not the adventurous types. I know that new things are fraught with risks and take care to stay away. Don’t judge me, I am a nice guy otherwise.

For last two months, I have been researching to write on the Indian e-commerce scene. I ordered from almost all major e-commerce sites – Myntra, Infibeam, Zovi, Yebhi, Homeshop 18, Snapdeal. I took photos of their packaging, tracked delivery time, had to return a few and monitored the customer service at every step. I have been trying to complete and planned to post this weekend,
But I made one mistake and have to post this instead. I ordered from an upcoming website – Pepperfry, bloody cheaters. I was being adventurous.

I placed three separate orders on 14th August. Two of them got delivered on 18th. I waited for another 8 days before posting this…so, you know I have waited and tried enough.

The pending product amounts to around Rs.1400, an amount I am unwilling to forget as research fee. Now, this is how it happened. Around 20th, I started to feel everything was not alright with the order. The site does not offer any order tracking from the back end, I took some time to figure out that you have to go to the courier partner’s website and track. But I had never heard of a courier company named Delhivery. I simple line stating the same next to my ordered would have helped.

However, the live chat support told me that the courier company shows that the product has been delivered. Next step: they will ask for proof of delivery company and get back to me. Here is a mail transcript and the only response I had from them:
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Customer Service
Date: Thu, Aug 23, 2012 at 6:01 PM
Subject: No delivery in 9 days

Good Evening,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention.

We see that you had already called about this issue and we have raised an escalation about this.

We have asked for the Proof of Delivery from the courier company in order to track this. We will contact you with an update at the earliest.

We appreciate your patience in this matter.

For any further assistance, feel free to contact our Customer Service team on chat or # 1-800-209-7379 or write to us at tellus@pepperfry.com.

Will anyone get in touch with me?

No. I ordered, my mistake…I have to chase them.

Will they mail me or call me updating on the status?
No

What was I supposed to do?
Wait for 48 hours for the product to be delivered and contact again.

Did I wait?
Yes, for six more days, 12 days in total.

Did I get in touch with them?
Yes, through chat, mail and phone. Me and my wife tried everything.

How is their customer support?
The chat support is robotic, same answers every time and then they vanish. Phone support takes time, sometimes no one picks up. When they do, they have the same answers. They don’t respond to mails.

Did I try to escalate?
They are hiding behind a wall. How do I? I kept mailing asking for a response, for the proof of delivery. I threatened consumer court. No response so far.

Did I ask for a refund?
Finally, I did. They didn’t respond to the mail. The guy on phone said it has been delivered.

Will they show me the proof of delivery?
No, one product not delivered is no big deal.

Some internet search showed me that I am not the only one to have been cheated. Here are a few more pissed off customers.

Pepperfry Reviews on Mouthshut:

pepperfry is BHEJAFRY
pepperfry – only God can delivr ur order from sky
NO REFUND NO ORDERS
Delivered Wrong Product and didn’t gave money back
Dont ever order anything from Pepperfry.com
Avoid pepperfry

There are 90 more pissed off reports. See them all here.

Pepperfry complaints on Consumer Court:

Pepperfry.com-no delivery of products

Pepperfry is cheating and looting. What power do we have when it comes to online shopping? We can’t walk into the shop, we can’t old any one person responsible, we can call and chat, but do no more.

Wait… there is something we can do. We can leave a review and we can alert other people. We can gather our little strengths and fight these unethical establishments who think they can hide in some little corner of the internet. We need to show them that the internet exposes as much as it hides.

I will not stop, I will not forget and I will not forgive.

Dear Misters and founders Ambareesh Murty and Ashish Shah, I was looking forward to your start up. Now, in can’t wait to put it behind me.

In the meantime, I will appeal at every available forum to get my order delivered. Dear Interneters, I know I made a mistake. I should have read reviews first. I have been trying to convince my parents that online shopping is safe, but I am unsure now. Please help me restore my faith and alert others.

You can leave a message in the comments section, post this link on your Facebook and Twitter. If you are a happy costumer of Pepperfry, tell us your experience.

Updated on 28th August 

As you may have seen, I got a response from the Pepperfry team within 24 hours of this blog post. I was surprised by their response and told them so. I also got a call from them inquiring whether I will like to wait for the product or prefer a refund.

I would have loved to get the product. That’s why I had ordered it in the first place. But I was afraid the whole episode may repeat itself. So, I opted for a refund. Today, within 48 hours of posting the blog, I got a mail stating that the refund has been initiated:

We have initiated a refund for the (product) on 27th August, 2012 and the amount will be credited back in the same account used for payment. You should be able to see the credit in maximum 7-8 working days from the date of initiation.

We will keep our eyes out for the refund reaching you on time and request you as well to get back to us, in case you do not see the credit.

We regret that this transaction has ended in a refund and hope to delight you when you make your next purchase on Pepperfry.

Thanks for your interest and business. Hope to see you soon again!

I look forward to the refund. I may not see them again soon. I must confess that in terms of user interface, Zovi was one of my favourite e-commerce sites. That was before Pepperfry. I still love the site and the graphics and the product range but take some time before ordering from them again.

Update 

I got the monthly credit card statement and the good news that my money has been refunded by Pepperfry.

Update 2:

You can also read my Zovi Review, Myntra Review, Snapdeal review and Flipkart review.