DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM INDIATIMES

Friends,

I've tried to keep this blog limited to reflections of my positive moodswings. But today after a lot of deliberation I have to write this frustrating account only in the hope that I help anyone of you avoid making the same mistake I did. The mistake of assuming the same service I would get from any average B2C vendor, from Indiatimes Shopping. I was also fooled by the reputation of the Times Group behind it.

What I was trying to do is to buy a simple coffee table book called "India" (India times link) (Amazon link). A latest book (Sep '08) by DK Publication, a wonderful book which covers India from all possible angles. Geography, Poeople, Culture, Architecture, Travel.

Me and Rajiv both were so impressed with this book that we went ahead and bought it on Indiatimes in a hope that it reaches to my place when Mani (my niece) was visiting my parents in December.

Insufficient Payment
First time after charging my Credit Card, I was being told that my order got cancelled because of Insufficient Payment!! Where as I had no choice of selecting the amount and the site automatically had applied the conversion rate and came back telling me that the payment I made was insufficient!!

After following up on this on email, as you would guess there was no response. So I had to make a long distance phone call from US to find the details. I was being told that there was a technical difficulty and it can't be helped. And someone will get back to me on this. I never received an answer to my email.

First Gift Coupon
Then suddenly after some days I got an email giving me a gift coupon of equivalent amount. When we had clearly agreed that I don't need money but I need the book. Well after trying some more follow up I tried to use the gift coupon to buy the same book again

Out-of-Stock
In the mean while Rajiv received a reply that he can't get the book since the Book was "Out of Stock". As you can imagine Rajiv was also quite frustrated and after his follow up he was promised that the book will be removed from the website, which obviously never happened.

Different Book Delivered
But after his call he was delivered a completely different book with the same name ("India"). Obviously Rajiv was enraged and after his some more follow up some pre-paid envelope was sent to his place. His father (a senior citizen) had to take all the efforts of going to the courier service and send the book back that Rajiv had nevered ordered.

Another Follow-up
At which I thought I better be pro-active and gave them a call and reiterated that I don't need any other book but the same book. On which I was promised that the book was in stock and will be sent the same book. An email will be sent to the merchant (India Book House) and I will be carboned. Yes, you guessed it right, an email that I never received.

Resent the same Different Book
In the mean while Rajiv was sent the same wrong book again. This time his father had learnt his lesson and refused to take the order back.

Out-of-Order again
Now it was my turn, I was again told that the book was Out of Order and I will be repaid the full amount on my credit card . I obviously never believed that.

Second Gift coupon
Predictably, I received another Gift Coupon to which I replied again and told that I wasn't interested in buying anything from their website but that email was never answered. Soon enough Rajiv followed suite and received his copy of Gift Coupon too.

Frustrating Phone follow up and Policies
Today I again called their customer service and I was told over and over again that I will not be paid back the credit card but will have to use the gift coupon to buy something else on their website. I was being told that this was 'clearly' mentioned on the website. Obviously in some obscure corner and I was never told this before I completed the transaction.

I highly urge you to not follow the trap called India Times Shopping. Today their website stilll shows the book in stock. God knows how many such product do they show on their website and lure people to buy something and get payment from them only to lock and buy some substandard products on their website.

I plan to use this blog as place to propogate this message and please feel free to pass the link around to your friends in turn. Let's try to use the power of our concious and the internet to stop such frauds and save our friends from falling in this trap.

The Story of India

Folks,

One of the oldest civilizations getting attention of the scholars is nothing new. But being one of the oldest, dives into it always bring up newer jewels to the surface. One such studious yet entertaining, informative yet (or hence?) exciting journey is currently being aired on PBS. PBS by itself could be a topic of discussions, showing how independent information gathering can be entertaining as well as trendy. But we aren’t talking about PBS here today. What we are talking about is their latest documentary ‘Story of India’.

This is a journey through today’s India to find out its roots way back from the Pre-historic era.

I finished watching first two episodes this Monday (1/5/09) and was quite thrilled to see some of the unseen footage so far. I had always seen pictures of Mohenjo Daro and Harrappa, but when Mark Woods, the lively narrator of the show took us to the site, it was quite a thrilling experience. So was the part where in his second episode he visited the Bodhi Vruksha in Gaya, Bihar or the route he took to enter Patna through Ganges River the same way the Greek ambassadors had taken to visit the great Mauryan Empire capital.

Some of the quotes have stayed with me. Mark Wood, a Brit himself when said “… the Greeks and Europeans thought of India to be an uncivilized, barbaric when they invaded, where as India had some of the oldest civilizations…” Or “… Patna was probably the greatest city in the world at that time…”. Not that any of this is news but a world-class objective program acknowledging it makes it that much more special.

Please visit the website http://www.pbs.org/thestoryofindia/ for an in-depth coverage on this series. Also being PBS you can certainly expect much more than just static text. They have the interactive Photo Gallery of the episodes and their hyperlinks. It also has Timeline of Indian History with their corresponding features from the series.

It also has links to the chapters that for the Teachers who would be interested in teaching Indian History to their kids.

I could have waited to finish the series and then report but I wanted those of us on this side of the globe to get an opportunity to catch up with the rest of the series. Here is the Schedule based on where you are situated… (For those are in the Central Illinois region, it is playing on the WILL – 12 channel)