The Other Side Of Online Shopping, When Customer Cheats The Seller

We’ve heard numerous stories of people buying online, only to get cheated; some getting empty packets, some getting stones, etc., but to put it short – it’s always the customer who gets cheated. Sounds familiar? OK, good. Now, let me throw light on the other side of the coin. In fact, the uglier one.
I work for an online shopping site. Despite having a site of our own, we sell on e-commerce websites. Given the traction that these sites get, it makes perfect sense to sell where it actually sells. No brainer for this – Be Where The Market Is.

It’s a great time to be online, to sell online. The market is booming and the industry couldn’t be more happier. More people are buying online, the geographical barriers have been broken and a click is all it takes to buy things that were till recently either unheard of or restricted to local areas. But no more.

But behind the glittering shine of the e-commerce boom lies the truth – the chaos, the madness, the sweat. For a customer, all he/she cares is a product. But behind that single order, what follows is the layers of hard work that a series of people put in. And what does the customer do – Simply say NO and it’s returned back to the vendor, who bears the logistics charge. That to me is perfectly OK, if the vendor sends in defective or damaged product, but what if it’s none of the case. Let me explain. This incident happened last evening. A customer had ordered Universal Clip Lens on 25 October, which was delivered to him on 31st. We were happy, for it was the first few of the lot to be sold on the marketplace. Surprisingly, we got a return packet last evening. We thought there might be some defective issue, which is rare because we personally check each product before packing it off for shipment, but mistakes do happen. But upon opening it up this morning, the pack had missing items. The customer had siphoned off some items. Surprise!! Surprise!! He took off 2 of the lenses (pack had 3) and returned back just 1. Though we’ve raised a dispute and are awaiting a response. it’s likely that the customer would back off saying he received the missing pack and we would be shown off in a negative light.

Cases like these do happen, but most get dimmed out when it comes to customer satisfaction. After all, Customer is King. For a moment, let’s think about the vendors. They are customers too, for someone else!!
So, the next time you reject a product, simply because you feel like, spare a thought for the hard work people behind the scenes put in.
Till then, happy shopping.

Submitted By Krishna Mishra