It was 11th April and I was very happy to order "The Great Gatsby", a classic novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald on Infibeam.com. I was even more happy to get a good deal on it. Although while ordering they said that although the book was in stock it would be delivered a fortnight later. It was despite the fact that the delivery was to happen in Delhi and not a remote town in India. Anyways the price conscious consumer in me was very happy.
They Day I Ordered
Then Infibeam did a disappearing act till 24th. Till 23rd April I received no news about the book from Infibeam. Instead I got emails of promotional offers. I am also not sure as to where all have they sold my contact details.
On 24th they came back with the news about the book. "We regret to inform you that the expected shipping date for the item(s) listed below has changed." In short we will deliver your book by 27th.
The day after they were supposed to deliver
Although I was annoyed, the happiness over the fact that I would read it three days later drowned the annoyance over their mismanagement.
And then came 27th of April. Infibeam.com send me this message "Thank you for being our customer. We regret to inform you that your item(s) with order ID : 10565339 have been canceled due to stock issue."
And finally after waiting for 16 days, I was told...
In short I lost 16 days. I did not get my book and their site was a total failure. It is more than the time I would've taken to read a 120 odd page book.
This is not the first time they have messed up their service. Earlier they have often delayed the delivery, but the delivery did happen. Now they went a step ahead and said that delivery was not possible.
I guess their tag line, "Shop with a smile" is a good indicator of what you can expect. Smiling would be important to curb the anger and frustration from a pathetic service.
This is the last time I am buying through Infibeam. I wouldn't recommend you to use such an unreliable service either.