Not replacing the defective product despite company’s approval

Location/place: New Delhi

Name of company/service: Flipkart

On 7th June 2013, I placed an order consisting of 3 items (HTC One phone, Fujicell Battery charger and Godrej rechargeable batteries) on Flipkart. The date of delivery was given as 11th June 2013, and consequently I asked for the delivery in Bilaspur (C.G.) as my wife was there from 3rd June till 14th June and I was in Bilaspur from 12th June to 14th June.

Out of 3 items ordered, battery charger and rechargeable batteries were delivered fine and instead of HTC One phone, Flipkart had delivered a Nikon Coolpix Camera on 11th June. Nikon camera was supposed to go to Mr. Baldevbhai Patel in Gujrat. When my wife received these items, I immediately brought it to Flipkart’s attention, and there was lot of communication with Flipkart on phone and mail.

As I moved back to Delhi on 15th June, I requested for change of delivery address to New Delhi instead of Bilaspur. This request was communicated over phone in the morning and email in the afternoon of 17th June. However, Flipkart delivered the phone at Bilaspur address on 20th June (BlueDart tracking number clearly shows that the shipment was initiate on 17th June), and hence I was not able to receive the package personally and my relative had to collect it. I asked my relatives to check the package for phone and it was not damaged in anyway externally.

When I went to Bilaspur to collect the phone on 29th June, I found that a crack is internally present and it can be observed only when the phone is switched on. So, I immediately brought it to Flipkart’s notice on 30th June. After few conversations with Flipkart’s executives, I got the final response on 4th July that the phone shall not be replaced. I was also told to contact HTC support for the issue.

When I talked to HTC Support on 4th July, they asked for snapshots of the product. Next day on 5th July, I got a mail from HTC stating that my case is approved for DOA certification and I need to give this certificate to my retailer and he will immediately replace it with a new phone. However, even after sending Flipkart a copy of the DOA certificate, they haven’t accepted it and they say that the case is forwarded to fraudulent department. Though HTC will be replacing the phone if Flipkart sends the damaged phone and the DOA certificate to them, they are not willing to replace the damaged phone with me.