Hi,
This happened to a colleague who had shopped at Homeshop18 for a pressure cooker.
The first order was placed around the mid of December 2012. It was shipped within 2~3 days, and turned out to be defective. Most of the handle pieces were broken or chipped and the main cooker body had scratches.
It was immediately brought to the notice of HS18. My colleague got a callback from one of their representatives the same day, stating that return pickup will be done by Bluedart within the week and the product will be replaced. The rep gave all instructions about how to pack and what to stick to the parcel cover and also promised to text the return address within 2 hours to my colleague's number.
The text never came, however, my colleague had already logged a ticket in their system, and found out that HS18 reps had updated the return address in the ticket. So, the parcel was prepared for return pickup the very next day and the wait for a BlueDart guy to show up began.
My colleague would call up HS18 every couple of days and also update the ticket about when the return pickup would be done and every time, HS18 guys would say, that they have raised the issue with their concerned department and provide a new timeline of 96 hours. Sometimes, my colleague would get callbacks from their reps who would get a earful from my colleague and they would again provide a new timeline of 96 hours for pickup.
This kept on happening for about 2 weeks. Frustrated, my colleague called up Bluedart care and was told that Bluedart would do the pickup the very same day if the "account number for return pickup" of HS18 could be provided to them.
My colleague immediately called up HS18 and obtained an account number - 1011 - as provided by HS18 executives. When this number was provided to Bluedart, they said "account numbers" are of 6 digits.
Totally angry and frustrated by now, my colleague called up HS18 and this time, they gave a 6 digit code. When my colleague provided this to Bluedart, they said, "Due to payment issues, Bluedart has stopped return pickups permanently on this account number."
That was it. My colleague gave up on HS18 and wrote off his cooker purchase.
Some days later, an Aramex guy turned up at my colleague's address and handed over a return authorization to my colleague asking for the parcel. My colleague was glad and after handling it over to the Aramex guy, immediately contacted HS18 and informed them of the return AWB code.
The parcel was delivered within 2 days. After about 4~5 days, when there was no revert from HS18, my colleague contacted HS18 again and after some back-n-forth, HS18 sent the replacement via First Flight couriers. It reached my colleague exactly after a month of the original purchase.
And it had broken handles as well.
This time, my colleague took pictures of the broken parts, updated the ticket (you cant paste pictures in the ticket) and sent a mail to HS18 care with the pictures and basically told them to go to hell.
Some hours later, a HS18 guy called up to say, "This time, we will give you refund, please pack the parcel for return shipment." He got much more than an earful from my colleague who told him that "they can keep the money, no refund was required and under no circumstances would he ever deal with such cheats as HS18 ever again."
Well the guy hung up saying, "as per your update, we will close the ticket". 2 days later, a HS18 rep called up again to say, we are processing your refund. My colleague told her, do whatever you feel like, but I will not spend another minute in repacking that parcel. The rep told him, Sir, you don't have to ship the product. My colleague was a bit taken aback by this and asked how they could refund the money without taking the product back - the rep said something about trust our customers etc. and hung up.
My colleague didn't put too much thought to this and ignored it as some kind of ploy on HS18's part.
Today my colleague has got his money back and now he wants to cancel this refund, because he feels, I guess, like a freeloader.
I have never heard or read about this kind of refund without taking back the product; well, I did read about that Hitplay experience someone posted about, but this is really fantastic and surprising customer service from HS18.
Any of you have any idea if there is any method via which the money may be sent back to HS18?
This happened to a colleague who had shopped at Homeshop18 for a pressure cooker.
The first order was placed around the mid of December 2012. It was shipped within 2~3 days, and turned out to be defective. Most of the handle pieces were broken or chipped and the main cooker body had scratches.
It was immediately brought to the notice of HS18. My colleague got a callback from one of their representatives the same day, stating that return pickup will be done by Bluedart within the week and the product will be replaced. The rep gave all instructions about how to pack and what to stick to the parcel cover and also promised to text the return address within 2 hours to my colleague's number.
The text never came, however, my colleague had already logged a ticket in their system, and found out that HS18 reps had updated the return address in the ticket. So, the parcel was prepared for return pickup the very next day and the wait for a BlueDart guy to show up began.
My colleague would call up HS18 every couple of days and also update the ticket about when the return pickup would be done and every time, HS18 guys would say, that they have raised the issue with their concerned department and provide a new timeline of 96 hours. Sometimes, my colleague would get callbacks from their reps who would get a earful from my colleague and they would again provide a new timeline of 96 hours for pickup.
This kept on happening for about 2 weeks. Frustrated, my colleague called up Bluedart care and was told that Bluedart would do the pickup the very same day if the "account number for return pickup" of HS18 could be provided to them.
My colleague immediately called up HS18 and obtained an account number - 1011 - as provided by HS18 executives. When this number was provided to Bluedart, they said "account numbers" are of 6 digits.
Totally angry and frustrated by now, my colleague called up HS18 and this time, they gave a 6 digit code. When my colleague provided this to Bluedart, they said, "Due to payment issues, Bluedart has stopped return pickups permanently on this account number."
That was it. My colleague gave up on HS18 and wrote off his cooker purchase.
Some days later, an Aramex guy turned up at my colleague's address and handed over a return authorization to my colleague asking for the parcel. My colleague was glad and after handling it over to the Aramex guy, immediately contacted HS18 and informed them of the return AWB code.
The parcel was delivered within 2 days. After about 4~5 days, when there was no revert from HS18, my colleague contacted HS18 again and after some back-n-forth, HS18 sent the replacement via First Flight couriers. It reached my colleague exactly after a month of the original purchase.
And it had broken handles as well.
This time, my colleague took pictures of the broken parts, updated the ticket (you cant paste pictures in the ticket) and sent a mail to HS18 care with the pictures and basically told them to go to hell.
Some hours later, a HS18 guy called up to say, "This time, we will give you refund, please pack the parcel for return shipment." He got much more than an earful from my colleague who told him that "they can keep the money, no refund was required and under no circumstances would he ever deal with such cheats as HS18 ever again."
Well the guy hung up saying, "as per your update, we will close the ticket". 2 days later, a HS18 rep called up again to say, we are processing your refund. My colleague told her, do whatever you feel like, but I will not spend another minute in repacking that parcel. The rep told him, Sir, you don't have to ship the product. My colleague was a bit taken aback by this and asked how they could refund the money without taking the product back - the rep said something about trust our customers etc. and hung up.
My colleague didn't put too much thought to this and ignored it as some kind of ploy on HS18's part.
Today my colleague has got his money back and now he wants to cancel this refund, because he feels, I guess, like a freeloader.
I have never heard or read about this kind of refund without taking back the product; well, I did read about that Hitplay experience someone posted about, but this is really fantastic and surprising customer service from HS18.
Any of you have any idea if there is any method via which the money may be sent back to HS18?
Time to drill this into my colleague's thick skull and ask him to stop feeling so god-damned grateful!
