Wisetechie Blog : Ctrl your Tech Life

I had ordered another product from Futurebazaar, the 1st purchase had come to me in 3 days, so naturally i was expecting the same blazing fast delivery. When even after 7 days i got no confirmation that my shipment was ready, i wrote to Futurebazaar customer care, No Reply after 24 hours even, i was worried, another email shot to them.

Then they replied, they told me that my order was still under process and they were yet to charge my Credit Card, this was strange, as i dont think they can store my Credit Card information, plus i enter Credit Card information only at the ICICI bank Credit Card gateway.

So i wrote an email to HDFC Bank, asking about the status of the charge, this is what they replied :

At the outset we wish to clarify that HDFC credit cards are accepted at all Merchant Establishments affiliated to Visa/MasterCard International. Consequently, some of the charges incurred by our cardholders are presented to us by the other banks affiliated to Visa/MasterCard International. The transactions are processed to the card account as and when the same is received from another member bank.

While we have received authorisation requests for the amount of Rs.xxx and the same was approved, our records indicate that the transaction has not been processed to your card account as on date. In absence of any charge being processed to your card account for 20 days, the authorisation amount blocking the limit will be cancelled.

Should you require any further assistance or clarification please do not hesitate to contact our service representatives at any of our 24 hour Call Center telephone numbers given below.

Assuring you of our best service at all times.

Sincerely,
Customer Service Officer

So basically the amount is already approved by my bank, but its waiting for a formal request from their bank to send the money. This is quite an interesting strategy, as in case they run out of a product or fail to deliver , they just dont process the charge and you get your money back automatically.

But anyway, I would only give futurebazaar, 3 out of 5 for this particular shopping event, i hate waiting, and i hate not being replied to early. Otherwise the shopping experience is a 4.5/5, they just gotta work on their CRM. My last product came with a certificate of authenticity, this one did not though.

But anyway, futurebazaar.com is looking really promising , their product portfolio is pretty good and i daresay their prices are tempting, and also they themselves sell their products, unlike Indiatimes, where people sell grey market fakes and smuggled goods often.

Rating:

Well if you would have read the last post, you would know that our Harry Potter was delayed by TNT Couriers Delivery agents without a reason. When i didn’t get my book on Sunday also, i had decided to write about my experience. I tracked the Airway Bill Number and was shocked to see it was released for delivery on Saturday morning itself. For once Indiatimes hadn’t goofed up, but TNT had. I felt sorry about telling that Indiatimes guy his shopping portal wasnt of much use.
So as i wrote the TNT blog post, i wrote in anger that it should not be used. Basically my sites often work as a bridge. Once Indiatimes was not replying to my emails about one of their cash back schemes, one blog post, 10k visits to that post in 1 day, and i had Indiatimes top shots calling me to clarify and apologize. This blog also gets around 10000 hits a day, so it reaches a lot of people.

Being a company of global repute, TNT Courier also contacted me to sort out the matter, Mr. Saikin Bose was instrumental in this. Don’t know how he discovered this blog, but like a responsible employee and human being, he contacted me and offered to help me. I exchanged a few emails with him and a few phone calls (with customer care) later i had the package in my hands in the evening.

So basically TNT’s customer service is top class, the person i got connected to on Sunday was a little rude about Sunday being a holiday and his office being closed, but today has been a good day. I was told the book would be sent to me in an hour, and surely after 1 hour and 15 minutes(cut them some slack !), i saw the delivery man. Did i mention i was waiting for the book desperately in my balcony, i nearly thought the India Today courier was a TNT courier earlier.

The net conclusion is that TNT is a world class company with a great CRM, their franchisee who had to deliver to me though is another story. On inquiring about my delivery, he told me that a ‘new boy’ must have come to deliver and not found my address, no apologies from him. Now i live in a very prominent part of New Delhi, getting to me shouldn’t be a problem for anyone who is in the express courier business. God knows how many Fedex and DHL receipts(and digital machines too sometimes) i sign weekly and how many home pickups i get done by them.

To hide his mess up, the franchise had written that the consignee had moved his residence. This status change was done at 14:25 today. I am tech savvy, i track my items on-line, i call customer care. But i feel sorry for people who are not tech savvy. Their consignments would have been returned saying that they didn’t live at the address given.

However i have been assured by the company that a thorough investigation will be done into the incident and loopholes shall be covered. For the moment though :

Thanks TNT for my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. with employees like Mr. Bose, you cant be going in the wrong direction. Also people don’t worry about using TNT couriers, they are pretty good in what they do!

We have not received the book till Monday afternoon (3rd day after Harry Potter Release), 2:15 pm, someone from TNT India Courier has offered to help after reading this post as you can see in the comments, we will keep you updated.

Dont use TNT Couriers in India, they are THE worst courier company in the whole wide world. Just look at the stats of my Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book. Looks like the delivery person might have stolen the book or delivered it someplace else. I remember the person delivering my TNT couriers looked like a street side vendor. Compare that to DHL’s couriers who are always smartly dressed.TNT Courier’s Delhi office is closed today, lets see what happens tomorrow, but please punish this company for its irresponsible attitude by choosing some other logistics partner. My experience with DHL has been awesome in comparison.

Its high time companies in India owned up to their responsibility to consumers ! , Spread this info plz, lets make India a consumer friendly place. Also if you have any complaint against any company in India, feel free to write to us.
xxxxxxxxx Details
Reference xxxxxxxxxxx
Pick up date 20 Jul 2007
Destination New Delhi
Delivery Date
Signatory

Date Time Location Status
21 Jul 2007 09:09 Out For Delivery
21 Jul 2007 09:05 Delhi Consignment Received At Transit Point
21 Jul 2007 08:49 Shipped From Originating Depot
21 Jul 2007 06:42 Consignment Received At Transit Point

I am one of the Harry Potter fanatics who have actually pre-ordered Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows from Indiatimes. But what Indiatimes does not tell you is that its not selling the books, but a store called Prakash Book Depot whom i assume must have paid a LOT of money to Indiatimes to be able to advertise like that on their shopping portal. And with the lakhs of pre-orders they got they kept slashing the prices, from Rs.780 to Rs.731 to Rs.634. I had ordered when the price was 780 (Ouch !). Just hope i get my copy of the book tomorrow, nowhere on Indiatimes do they say that the book will be shipped ASAP and will reach on 21st July 2007 (The Release Date). So all those who had pre-ordered through Indiatimes, keep your fingers crossed, hope the seller (who is not Indiatimes) actually delivers on time. Bluedart is usually punctual , lets hope they are used.

Last time, Indiatimes had shipped the books at 12:00 am to be able to reach us in time, i had got it at 9:00 am.

Indiaplaza.in was having a better deal on the Harry Potter pre-order, but i went ahead with Indiatimes as i had a gift voucher to use on it.

Its true folks, Blogger.com now allows you to shift all your RSS feed traffic to a Feedburner feed or to any other URL. So if you shifted your blog to WordPress, or to another domain, you can easily point to it. With google having bought Feedburner, this was always in the pipeline. WordPress always had a plugin to shift traffic to Feedburner, now Blogger.com allows it too. Just goto settings of your Blogspot blog and enter the URL as shown :

Really Simple Syndication ! , and see the HUGE spurt my formula one site got when i forwarded its earlier subscribers to the new feed. This is what i call a Feedburner Feed Count Spurt (Elusive).

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