Expecting better service in future. Review on Futurebazaar

I have done shopping a number of times through different online shops like eBay.in, indiaplaza.in, sify.com, indiatimes.com, gadgets.in, cafegadets.in etc. In most of the cases the experience was good or OK. But my last experience with Futurebazar was below average.

I occasionally fiddle with different online shopping site and purchase goodies. I was looking for a portable HDD and found that in Futurebazar there was a good deal with verbatim 120GB and there was a discount of Rs 45%. So I just enquired about the product and found that it was good. So I ordered the product.

Here it is worth to mention that more or less every shopping site, you will see that heavy discount is going on. But actually they sell the product with a normal price tag but raise the MRP and a provide heavy discount offer. Here Futurebazar is a master and for almost all the products, they cheat the customer that are providing heavy discount but actually they don't. Another thing I observe if they provide real heavy discount on a product then that is never on their stock. For example a 4GB pen drive has a market price say Rs 400. They will advertise heavily that a 4GB pen drive is sold at Rs200 (75% discount). Customer will think that they are providing really a heavy discount and while ordering they will find that this product is out of stock. Other 4GB pen drives are sold at Rs 500 -600 (again 50% discount tag is attached). Now in this scenario it seems that Futurebazar is really a honest site (as the advertised product price is Rs 200 which is really lower than the market price) and customer believe that Rs 500 price tag is genuine while it is not.

Now the my HDD price was on little bit on higher side but as there was a offer of 10% discount on ICICI bank card, the actual price was more or less same as the market price. So I confirmed the order. Payment was hassle free but after five days I enquired about the status it was still showing payment processing though within 7days it was promised to be delivered.

At that time I found that in eBay there was a good offer on the HDD and it was much cheaper than the Futurebazar offer (Every time this happens to me. After purchasing I found a cheaper deal on other site on next day). So I was going to cancel the order. There I found that on cancelling there was a cancellation charge irrespective of whether it was shipped or not. Other site don't charge anything if it was canceled before shipment. As the cancellation charge was not a small amount so I cancelled my cancellation idea. After 10 days I did not got the product so I mailed them. They replied that the product is not in their stock that's why they were unable to ship. They should proactively inform me about their situation.

After another 10 days I got the product. The product is as they promised but without any warranty paper.

Now I should get the 10% cash back as it was promised to be credited within 21 days. But after 30 days I didn't received any cash back. So again I mailed them. They replied that some transactions have problems with ICICI bank. They will complete the pending process within 7 days. (it is now a days a common term for the customer care that we will get back to you within 7 days, but in reality very few actually do). After 14 days I get my cash back.

Overall it is not a good service from the Futurebazar though big brand names are attached with it. I thought experience with Futurebazar will be a good experience as we get the support from Pantaloon retail organization. But in reality it was not. Hope they will improve in Future.

PS: After 2-3 days of this review I got a call from the Futurebazar Customer Care Manager. He collected the details feedback from me and assured me that they were improving and customer feedback was really helpful for them. So this move is impressive and Futurebazar really thinks for the future. Also thanks to Mouthshut for providing such a beautiful platform.