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Flipkart taught us a lot on its Big Billion Day- not everything is worth following!

By Amit Kumar Sharma on 15 Comments / 2518 views

The story is simple.

 

Before 6th Oct: Hype was created. Expectations were raised. Everyone geared up for a once-in-a-lifetime sale.

 

7:50 am, 6 Oct: Logged in. Wishlist ready. Finger steady on the mouse.

 

8 am, 6 Oct: Sale began. Orders were placed in a hurry. Cart kept throwing surprises. However, some orders went through. But who’s stealing all those deals?

 

8:10 am, 6 Oct: Delighted? Nah! But Ok. It happens. After all, so many are trying at the same time. Hard luck, may be.

 

5:28 pm, 6 Oct: Part order is cancelled. Actually, the better part. Disappointed. The mailer teases me to signup for Flipkart First, which I am already subscribed to- feel like cancelling the first subscription but there’s no refund. Huh! So much for online shopping.

 

1:12 pm, 7 Oct: Category recommendations continue to pour in from Flipkart urging me to buy the latest Chetan Bhagat sensation. I am irritated.

 

6:43 pm, 7 Oct: Apologies from Flipkart arrived in my mailbox in an extremely long, prosaic letter from Sachin and Binny. Who are they? Customer rep? Billion Day managers? How do they look like? I am wondering.

 

10:19 am, 8 Oct: I couldn’t contain my disappointment and want to share my pain. Trying to find a silver lining in the cloud (pun intended). Writing this post.

 

Note: They did show courage by accepting the flaws in the buying experience but failed to inspire me by not providing any concrete actionables and by not making it personal. I still don’t know how do these guys look?

 

Would have been better if they had released a video. Anyways, I hope Snapdeal doesn’t snap that way and amazon doesn’t become the longest river of excuses.

 

Am I disappointed because I felt customer is the king?

 

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15 Comments

  1. hey amit,

    your experience was that bad, huh?!

    am sure a lot of other people hear you….

    meanwhile pls meet binny bansal 🙂

    https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/alok-kejriwal-meena-ganesh-binny-bansal-with-nandan-nilekani-at-i

  2. Was not expecting a rodinhooder to not know who Sachin and Binny are (Even after they got a mail from flipkart).

    After reading the post, i thought who this person could be? Must be some random amazon employee or a genuine indian shopper?

  3. Hmm.. so first of all, just google them.. don’t guess their looks… I am not sure if a video would have made them rockstars.. they would have still said what they wrote. ANd I am sure, all customers must have read each line carefully of this mail. SOme were satisfied that they atleast apologised, while some grinned. My brother, for example, went on to post a status praising their guts:

    Here is the status update:

    Hats off FLIPKART !!

    Mistakes do happen. From an Individual, SME to Big corporates, mistakes are bound to happen. However what Flipkart did different was to accept it so blatantly with no hesitation or omission of words or even subtle blaming of circumstances. .. but instead took all on to them. It’s tough to do and they did it so well that I am sure they have not only won customer loyalty back but also strengthened it further! !

    Talk about investor pressure or being left with no choice, but I still think they really lived up to what they stand for in the Indian e-commerce sector : a trustworthy player!!

    Must say, accepting mistakes in corporate world is not so easy. Appreciate your acceptance and will continue as your customer.

  4. Well, talk about Indians being the toughest customers ! We expect so much for just being the “Customer”.

    I consider this as a semi-success , semi-failed attempt at something for the very first time.

    Flipkart had also crashed during the initial Flash sales of Xiomi mobiles, but they learned and now the issues have vanished. Lets give them another chance and it certainly would be much better. 

    Just look at the dissection of the apology mail ! Buddy, its an “Apology”; you can’t do anything about it !!!

    They are humble, accepting their mistakes and willing to learn. We as Indians can certainly be at least this much largehearted !

  5. Thanks Asha! That was a good read.

  6. No sir, I am a simple person and a random shopper. Didn’t know there’s an eligibility criteria for being here. Though I thought that being a Flipkart First member I can expect a little extra (my bad). And yes, I was ready for shopping before 8 and couldn’t steal any deal. 

  7. Can’t agree more with your brother. I appreciate their courage (mentioned in my screenshots). But my frustration stayed and yes, I feel when I am bombarded with a billion messages, I have a right to expect some care. Anyways, that’s what I feel and wanted to share. 

  8. I think you are right, I might have reacted more. But in the end I will also remember that they at least cared. We all have our learning curves. 

  9. So true Buddy.

    I also faced issues, but all was forgotten after such a profound apology and sheer guts to accept that their biggest risk has backfired. 

    I am more loyal to Flipkart now 🙂

  10. How did you create that 3D effect on the callout with black tint and blue border ? or is it just me who’s seeing that !!?????

  11. Shit Happens !!!! But remember trust and continued patronage depends on the steps taken to address the issues !! I think acknowledging the issues, reaching out to customers through an apology email and making promises to correct them is a reassuring step.

    Coming from sales background, I truly find the achievement of making sales worth INR 600 Crores in 10 hours as extraordinary. Just awesome !!! How many can dream about it?

    As far as various issues during the sale, I expected Flipkart to be better prepared as their standards definitely have to much much better than shop offering discount/sale on F C Road. Even the apology email was probably not worded properly!!!  But as dust settles down and we all grab breath, I think it will eventually emerge that this episode hasn’t made any major dent to Flipkart’s reputation because of the reassuring steps taken to win back the trust. 

    Just my 2 cents !!

  12. I believe and have met several people who buy lot of things online and many are loyal flipkart customers as well, but they dont know who are the flipkart founders or other popular website founders. 

  13. It’s a simple fill option for the call out in MS Paint. Right click > Fill > Marker

  14. Agree! 600 crores is something. Hoping that they continue their customer centric focus beyond the apology. In the end, we just want some good deals and a great buying experience. 

  15. Awesome !! Thanks 🙂

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