I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S II smartphone from Letsbuy.com. This is my review of their service. (Samsung Galaxy S II is an amazing phone. Absolutely awesome. I love it. It is the best Android phone in the market at the moment with no competition. After seeing my phone, 3 others in my office, bought this phone! A well known reviewer's review here, Part 1 and Part 2.)
A couple of things about online shopping in India.
Online shopping in India is still coming of age and has considerably improved in the last 5 years. Fears of astronomical delays or products not reaching are much reduced now days, however, not completely eliminated. Unlike in the west though, in India, online shopping still is slightly more expensive than going over to a shop. Sounds backwards right? That too is changing nowadays and Flipkart.com is an established website, changing the game.
1. One thing to remember whenever purchasing anything online, that when the item is finally delivered to you, depending on the item and it's price, you may have to pay octroi over and above what you have already paid the dealer website.
In the case of mySamsung Galaxy S II, I had to pay Rs. 1407 as octroi.
2. I have still not experienced 1-3 day deliveries, as I have in UK. In the UK, whenever I placed an order before 14:00 on BT Shop or Dabs.com, it was almost certain to reach the next day, or one day after that.
Right so onto my order. The offer that Letsbuy.com had was as follows:-
Samsung Galaxy S II + Samsung HM1000 bluetooth headset + Molife Fit to use hard case with screen guard + Samsung HDTV adapter, all for R. 32,830 (+ the octroi mentioned above). It sounded like a steal.
I initially called Letsbuy.com to confirm the offer, with it's freebies and that the price included taxes. I waited around 3 minutes on hold this first time that I called them. The sales person who answered the call was not exceptional and was not bad either. It at least seemed that the training was there, but could improve a bit.
He confirmed the details of the offer and answered all my doubts without ambiguity and also explained the process I had to follow (since it was a pre-booking offer with a slightly different process).
I placed a pre-launch booking order for the phone on the website by paying Rs. 1000.
I immediately got an mail confirmation for my order.
The company's work timings mentioned in the order confirmation email were wrong. I mentioned it to them in one of my later calls to them, and have yet to verify if that has been corrected (something you can look out for).
The next email I got from them was a little startling. It said that a shipment was dispatched to my address. I thought maybe they sent the phone directly and were expecting cash on delivery, which I was totally unprepared for.
I received one more mail from them to say that I could now place my final order, and use the voucher which I would receive shortly. The email also detailed a delay in the HDTV adapter for the phone, and mentioned that it would reach by mid June.
I then called them up to ask them about the delivery and also that I had not received the voucher in a follow up email. He gave me the voucher number over the phone.
The shipment delivery later turned out to be the voucher I was supposed to use to book and place my final order. Not sure why they couldn't just email it and physically posted a printout.
Anyway, to cut the story short, I placed my final order and received my Samsung a week later. I think there is room for improvement here to make deliveries in 3 working days. I have seen Flipkart.com deliver books in 3 days, not sure about electronics. The delivery carrier was Aramex. Maybe Bluedart would have been faster!?!
My last call was for the delayed HDTV adapter on the 20th of June. The customer service executive informed me that I need not worry about it, it was not forgotten and would definitely be delivered, and the delay was from the manufacturer. He also let me know I would not require to follow up.
A week later I received the HDTV adapter.
Over all the service at Letsbuy.com was good. They could give some serious competition to Flipkart.
But for now, Flipkart is still ahead in the game.
A couple of things about online shopping in India.
Online shopping in India is still coming of age and has considerably improved in the last 5 years. Fears of astronomical delays or products not reaching are much reduced now days, however, not completely eliminated. Unlike in the west though, in India, online shopping still is slightly more expensive than going over to a shop. Sounds backwards right? That too is changing nowadays and Flipkart.com is an established website, changing the game.
1. One thing to remember whenever purchasing anything online, that when the item is finally delivered to you, depending on the item and it's price, you may have to pay octroi over and above what you have already paid the dealer website.
In the case of mySamsung Galaxy S II, I had to pay Rs. 1407 as octroi.
2. I have still not experienced 1-3 day deliveries, as I have in UK. In the UK, whenever I placed an order before 14:00 on BT Shop or Dabs.com, it was almost certain to reach the next day, or one day after that.
Right so onto my order. The offer that Letsbuy.com had was as follows:-
Samsung Galaxy S II + Samsung HM1000 bluetooth headset + Molife Fit to use hard case with screen guard + Samsung HDTV adapter, all for R. 32,830 (+ the octroi mentioned above). It sounded like a steal.
I initially called Letsbuy.com to confirm the offer, with it's freebies and that the price included taxes. I waited around 3 minutes on hold this first time that I called them. The sales person who answered the call was not exceptional and was not bad either. It at least seemed that the training was there, but could improve a bit.
He confirmed the details of the offer and answered all my doubts without ambiguity and also explained the process I had to follow (since it was a pre-booking offer with a slightly different process).
I placed a pre-launch booking order for the phone on the website by paying Rs. 1000.
I immediately got an mail confirmation for my order.
The company's work timings mentioned in the order confirmation email were wrong. I mentioned it to them in one of my later calls to them, and have yet to verify if that has been corrected (something you can look out for).
The next email I got from them was a little startling. It said that a shipment was dispatched to my address. I thought maybe they sent the phone directly and were expecting cash on delivery, which I was totally unprepared for.
I received one more mail from them to say that I could now place my final order, and use the voucher which I would receive shortly. The email also detailed a delay in the HDTV adapter for the phone, and mentioned that it would reach by mid June.
I then called them up to ask them about the delivery and also that I had not received the voucher in a follow up email. He gave me the voucher number over the phone.
The shipment delivery later turned out to be the voucher I was supposed to use to book and place my final order. Not sure why they couldn't just email it and physically posted a printout.
Anyway, to cut the story short, I placed my final order and received my Samsung a week later. I think there is room for improvement here to make deliveries in 3 working days. I have seen Flipkart.com deliver books in 3 days, not sure about electronics. The delivery carrier was Aramex. Maybe Bluedart would have been faster!?!
My last call was for the delayed HDTV adapter on the 20th of June. The customer service executive informed me that I need not worry about it, it was not forgotten and would definitely be delivered, and the delay was from the manufacturer. He also let me know I would not require to follow up.
A week later I received the HDTV adapter.
Over all the service at Letsbuy.com was good. They could give some serious competition to Flipkart.
But for now, Flipkart is still ahead in the game.
A few annoyances about Letsbuy.com
1. The Letsbuy.com website does seem to be randomly inaccessible. No reason or understanding as to why.
3. It happened on two occasions that I called Letsbuy.com helpline, and I was on hold for a full 5 minutes and then was automatically disconnected. It was exactly 5:12 on the phone time, both times.
[Update]
4. They never bothered to ask/inform me about the octroi over and above the payment that I was going to make. Someone recently told me that Letsbuy.com has mentioned in their FAQ that the Octroi would not be paid or is refunded. I contacted Letsbuy.com recently about the Octroi on my order. They asked me to mail them a scanned copy of my octroi bill and they phoned me to verify and they sent me a cheque for the amount as refund. It would have been better to know this in the first place instead of waiting 5 months to find out.
5. The FAQs page of Letsbuy.com is very difficult to find and not possible from the main page. I logged in, saw a scrolling faq widget and then from there found the FAQs.
My Flipkart.com review here
Fancy some shopping?
14 comments:
hi guys,
any idea what happend to my order, i was ordered on 4th of august(samsung 3D TV 40 INCHES 78 thousand rupees), i was waited until 8th for getting shipping info.when i contact customer care,at the time they ask to send documents...i sent on the same day..when i contact the customer care,they told me it takes 24 to 48 hours for processing...today ,it is about 4 days..still no response..... every thing is not good about the site.....i am still waiting for my shipping info. i dont know how many days they take for shipping my order...its not good site....i never order any thing once i receive my product.....i will write every thing about my experience with customer care and mails conversation once i received the product......when i write mails to them about my order...they just simply copy the previous mail reply and paste and send to me again...its not the rite way....please guys dont order big things more than 20 thousand in this site ...
Hi Venkatesh,
Please do update us about your final experience. All the best.
I ordered Morphy Richards Electric Kettle with cash on delivery option. I even used Pennyful for saving Rs.150 I received my order after one week. Packing was fine, I'm very happy with their service but yes their delivery time is much long. At flipkart the delivery is much fast.
Hi Deepali,
Thanks for sharing your experience. True, Flipkart does give better service (I am going to blog about their service very soon).
Can you please elaborate on what "used Pennyful for saving... "? It would be nce to know how to save more on shopping.
i think u r promoting flipkart thats why u r comparing wit letsbuy....bt i order many products from letsbuy.com and avail within 3 days....
Firstly, it would be nice if you would identify yourself.
Yes, I am promoting Flipkart, I won't deny that, but the truth is that, I wrote the Letsbuy.com review before my Flipkart.com review and also started promoting Flipkart after writing both reviews.
Both reviews are scenarios of what actually happened.
As comparing with Flipkart, well they are the best at the moment and who else should I compare with? There are hundreds of websites and I can't go on purchasing from all for comparison(unless someone is willing to fund the reviews!).
never buy any product from Letsbuy.com...they delivery sucks....first of all they give you partial shipment....and their customer service have no clue whats going on and they have one god damned manager who is forever busy...probably taking other frustrated customer's calls...and they just dont have answers to ur queries.....just a scripted answer...."wait for 24-48 hours"....they tell this to u practically everyday that u call them......i fail to understand, '24-48 hrs' from which day?????
hi Rubia,
Not everyone have a good experience like you have with letsbuy. but there are many other sites like site4shopping.com which you can consider at once.
I placed one order (My First) No. LSB-809864, on dated 26.01.2012 for 2 nos. Ajanta OLC-20 Digital Wall Clock.
After few days, I called up and also wrote to them inquiring status of my order, I was assured that the item will be dispatched soon.
On 03.02.2012 I got a mail from them that the item has been dispatched through Blue Dart with AWB No.43835231565..
When I tried to track the same in blue Dart's site, the no. provided found to be a fake one.
I again wrote to them, and also called them. I was replied on 09.02.2012 that they too are puzzled and they are escalating my complaint to their logistics department. The complaint no. given to me was CC120244596.
Again they confirmed that they have dispatched the item. The AWB nos. 43841599093 & 43841597144 on dated 13.02.2012. of Blue Dart. Again these nos. found to be fake. I again called up and wrote emails, to which they assured to look into the matter.
For the third time they said the item has been dispatched through Blue Dart with AWB nos. 43841617374 & 43841617680 on dated 17.02.2012. When I checked them out I was shocked to find that the shipment was addressed to Delhi and already received by someone named Vishal. I stay in Orissa, and how come the items were shipped & received inside Delhi. I again called up Customer care. They informed that the complain registered earlier has been closed. When I requested to talk with their seniors, after a long wait the call was dropped from their side.
I have made numerous calls and written dozens of emails. However, I am not getting any help and the product ordered not received todate
Hi arsim,
It is rather unfortunate that you are facing such terrible problems with Letsbuy.com.
Off lately I have been receiving a lot of negative comments and feedback about them.
Lets hope that after being taken over by FlipKart, their service improves. Please do chase them relentlessly and do not give up.
They should be made to make right their wrong. Keep us posted
Hi I am Sourav ghosh , and I recently purchase a Fujifilm s2950 camera ,a kodak charger with4 batteries and a SDHC memory card for my camera from LETSBUY.
I'm very impressed with Letsbuy for their fantastic service as they delivered my product within time .I was very afraid when purchasing for the 1st time from them but all their products are very genuine with warranty.
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