I was duped by Amazon India. This is my story

In the public imagination, global giants like Amazon make dreams come true for the average Indian. Who does not like that laptop for a price which is 5-10 per cent lower than the neighbourhood store? Or that new book? Cellphones, clothes, cultlery, accessories, shoes and almost anything that you can think of. All available at an unimaginable price.

Isn't that the great Indian dream?

In fact, when Amazon India was yet to start operations here, the debate was how Amazon's entry into the Indian market would make the online retail space more competitive. And competition is always a good thing, makes commodities cheaper.

Or so they say.

A continuing war of attrition is adequately masked by leading Indian e-tailers in the glitz of high voltage flash sales. And unless an odd article nudges us, or we start noticing how Flipkart has stopped free shipping for any purchase under a particular value, we love to believe that all is well and these cheap prices are here to stay.

But is there a dark side to this glitz? Are we, as consumers, being blinded by the discreet spell that readily available cheap commodities often cast upon us?

Is it not curious that the ever sceptical Indian populace who treated teleshopping advertisements in the 90s satellite television with such suspicion is today confident that all online purchase will be a happy experience?

Are we overlooking certain critical matters like corporate accountability, honesty and probity in the services that the various e-tailers provide us? Do we ever wonder if adequate safeguards have been put in place by e-tailers like Amazon, Flipkart or Snapdeal so that our retail purchases are secured against post sale troubles?

An experience I am currently living through has forced me to come face to face with the dark side of online retail in India which I am sharing with my readers here.

Here are the facts of the case: I bought a Sony Xperia Z1 phone, worth Rs 24,999, from Amazon India in July 2015. As per Amazon India records, and confirmed by their Customer Care Executive (CCE), the order was placed on July 4, 2015 using my account maintained with www.amazon.in. I received the phone around July 8, 2015.

The phone developed some problems in June 2016. As it was still within warranty, I took it to Sony India Service Centre at Vile Parle, Mumbai on June 30, 2016. To my utter disbelief, Sony India refused to service the phone because as per their record, my phone with IMEI number 358094059219387 does not exist in Sony India database!

The Sony executive told me that the phone was purchased in the UAE!

I was thoroughly confused by what she was telling me! Forget about buying a phone there, I have never even been to the UAE! I ordered the phone using my Amazon account, in Goregaon, Mumbai and received it in Goregaon, Mumbai.

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How could it not be in Sony India's database?! Or worse, as the executive sitting before me was claiming, how could it have been bought in the UAE!

The executive at Sony service centre showed me a message flashing on her computer screen, in bright red, that this phone was sold in the UAE and cannot be serviced in India.

I suspected that Sony India was trying to make some money by refusing to service the phone for free. So, despite the phone being in warranty, I offered to pay whatever the service charge was. Sony refused and said they cannot service the phone because the company won't provide spare parts for a phone that does not exist in their database.

When I called Amazon India with this information, their CCE asked me to get a Denial of Service letter from Sony India. Sony investigated the matter and issued a Denial of Service letter on July 9, 2016. It clearly stated that the phone cannot be serviced in India because a phone with the stated IMEI number does not even exist in Sony India's database.

I immediately called Amazon, who asked me to forward the letter issued by Sony India, along with a screenshot of my phone's IMEI number and the address of the Sony service centre I visited in Vile Parle, Mumbai. I complied with their request.

Subsequently, on July 9, itself, Amazon asked me to use the Contact Seller tab in the My Orders section of my Amazon account and write to Tech Advanced, the Amazon verified seller who sold me the phone. Amazon sent me a copy of the mail I wrote, as well as the communication they had sent to Tech Advanced. I waited for three business days as dictated, but the seller did not respond to the correspondences.

On July 13, I contacted Amazon again. This time they acknowledged the absence of any communication from the seller's side and said a Trouble Ticket had been raised and resolution will be offered in five working days. I waited for a response and called Amazon customer care again on July 20.

First, the CCEs at Amazon India tried to question the validity of an email from Sony India as a legally acceptable document. When I argued with the CCE that emails are acceptable, legally, as legitimate communication, they accepted the letter (after putting me on hold for about 20 minutes) and said that their team was still trying to trace the seller. The CCE asked for 48 more hours and assured me of a resolution. I requested them to please expedite the matter and decided to wait for two more days. Patience is, they say, a virtue.

When I called Amazon India on the morning of July 22, 2016, they informed me that they cannot do anything about my case because the seller, Tech Advanced, is not responding. The CCE claimed that Tech Advanced did not exist on their website anymore but, bizarrely, declared that only Tech Advanced could help me with a refund or a replacement.

The CCE told me that they knew I had written four mails to Tech Advanced without getting a reply but they couldn't do anything about it. That I should keep trying to contact Tech Advanced over email. On my inquiry if there is an address or a phone number for Tech Advanced with Amazon India, the Amazon India CCE smartly told me, just Google it!

I tried to reason with the CCE that I did not choose to buy from Tech Advanced, that I chose Amazon, and therefore Amazon India is liable for a sale made through their portal, I was told that they agree but couldn't do anything.

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This was perhaps the most frustrating conversation I have ever had in my life. It was akin to someone telling me that the sun rises in the east but couldn't help arguing that it did not.

A rather "jugaadu" executive even advised me that there cannot be a positive resolution to this problem and I should just visit the neighbourhood mobile repair guy.

Basically, Amazon was telling me that they were not responsible for a bogus product (not present in Sony India database, and therefore unserviceable in India), sold through  www.amazon.in by a seller they allowed to sell through their portal, in any way. They refused a refund or return. When I tweeted through the day of July 22, raging and ranting about my horrible experience with Amazon, I was contacted by an executive from their social media team.

He spoke to me and told me that it is true that the seller is untraceable. But the Amazon return policy for mobile phones dictates that if there is an issue with a product, it has to be returned within 15 days of delivery.

I pointed out that the argument was unacceptable because I had no way of knowing within 15 days, back in July 2015, that if the phone developed a problem ever, I won't be able to get the phone fixed in India! Not one CCE was able to offer a reasonable response to my queries.

At 6.54 pm on July 22, a representative from the "Leadership Team" of Amazon India sent me an email stating that the claims window for my phone was closed, and I should contact manufacturer for assistance.

This when said manufacturer (Sony India) had already issued a service denial letter, which I had forwarded to Amazon India on July 9, 2016. In a bizarre turn of events, the Amazon India customer care Twitter team, in a series of tweets around 8 pm of July 22, 2016, asked me to send the denial of service letter that I had already sent on July 9, again.

The situation is bizarre because on the basis of this denial of service letter from Sony India, Amazon had written to the seller (copy of which was mailed to me) stating that I was waiting for a refund and I had already submitted a denial of service letter.

Of course, the seller never responded to that mail. Nevertheless, I forwarded the letter I received from Sony India a second time. Around 12.19 am of July 23, 2016, I got another email from Amazon asking for the denial of service letter again! I could not believe what was happening and wrote back asking Amazon to stop this unnecessary harassment.

In the last one month, I have been tossed like a ball from one customer care executive to another, first with Sony India and then Amazon. Sony India was prompt in investigating the matter and issued the document that Amazon required for the refund.

But the Amazon experience left me feeling completely washed out. It seemed I had landed right in the middle of a nightmare.

Or, a Kafka novel.

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Amazon India did not offer me just bad service. Subsequent emails from Amazon have tried to frame the problem as one of a claim, which they have dismissed saying the claim period has expired.

As I see it, their systematic and institutionalised campaign of information denial, or misinformation, or both, border on the criminal. How is it that they cannot trace a seller, who, as a tweet from Amazon Help on the morning of July 22 claimed, are always verified?

How can Amazon India claim that they have no liability for a product sold on their platform, by their verified seller, when the same verified seller disappears from the radar? Is Amazon India trying to shield a dodgy, fly by night operator, who has sold equipments of questionable origin on the Amazon platform, and disappeared?

How was a phone that is not in the database of Sony India, and I have a written statement from Sony India to that effect, sold in India? How did the phone get into India? Was it brought into India illegally?

I am not an expert in this field, but is there a national security aspect to phones that cannot be inventoried by the manufacturer in India, being sold to Indian citizens, in India?

IMEI number of a phone is like the Registration Number of a vehicle. Can one simply drive a vehicle on our streets that the RTO says they did not register?

Or worse, was possibly registered in a foreign country? Is this not a dangerous proposition? And, most importantly, how is it that even after repeated conversations over the last few weeks with myriad Amazon India CCEs, I don't have an answer to any of the above questions?

At the end of this bizarre episode where I have felt emotions ranging from anger to despair to just plain humiliation, I am left with a disturbing question.

I know the business is booming. But do we have enough safeguards in place, short of a Consumer Court, to prevent organisations like Amazon India from taking their customers for a ride?  

A popular assumption is that dishonesty, lack of probity and institutionalised mismanagement breed within paan stained walls of dimly lit government offices.

From my experience with Amazon India, I can tell you that these assumptions are thoroughly misplaced. I had to suffer the dishonesty, lack of probity, misinformation and mismanagement directed at me by Amazon India. I have written this piece so that you don't have to.

PS. I did Google it. Tech Advanced Computers has a registered office in Pensacola, Florida, USA. They don't sell cellphones.

[Editor's note: The author would like to clarify that the issue has been since taken care of and he has been reinbursed. However, because his experience is instructive for many others buying and selling goods on online platforms such as Amazon and Flipkart, we have not and will not take the article down.]