Pinocchio is a fictional character who is best known for his nose, which grows in length when he tells a lie. And if people’s nose did grow with each lie and if Snapdeal was a living being, its nose would be at least a few feet long. Because, the people managing the company are compulsive liars, according to sellers.
Their latest lie – “We attempted delivery, but no one accepted it.”
A seller ABC (name withheld on request) informs Indian Online Seller (IOS) that Snapdeal often claims that their courier partners came to the seller’s premises to return shipments (product returns) and the seller refused to accept the return. But in fact, no such delivery attempt was ever made! Following this, Snapdeal proceeds to liquidate the seller’s goods by giving only a day’s notice via email, mostly on weekends/holidays.
“Snapdeal sends an email to our registered email ID on Saturday, October 8 2016 at around midnight saying that we have to respond to the email within 24 hours, or else they will liquidate the shipments. They then blocked our email so when we try to respond within 24 hours, we got an email bounce-back on every single email ID CC-ed. We verified with Seller Help the following week and they told us that our emails were being bounced and they would expedite the situation – this was all verbal,” says the seller to IOS.
IOS went through a series of emails exchanged between the seller ABC and Snapdeal’s Seller Help Advisor. In spite of seller’s repeated requests to return their goods and not close the complaint ticket, the seller advisor was pretty adamant about closing the case without understanding and resolving the issue.
Snapdeal refused to accept that (based on the email trail):
Snapdeal’s only response to seller’s concerns is,
“We would not be able to proceed with your dispute because of reason mentioned in our previous e-mail. This is our final resolution based on the findings. We would be unable to consider any more claims against this suborder.”
The seller has been following up the case with Snapdeal and is waiting for its senior supervisor’s call as assured. But the etailer’s senior seller help advisor is yet to call and no one is responding to seller’s last mails/messages.
IOS got in touch with other Snapdeal sellers to find out if ABC’s story is a one-off case. But it isn’t. Online seller Sachin Gala is also a victim of Snapdeal’s compulsive lying habit. The marketplace informed Gala through emails and calls that its courier partner attempted delivery of the returned goods but the same was refused by the seller.
“Last whole month we were open 7 days week from 10 am to 9 pm, and we or our employee never refused any such parcel like SD claims. Our assumption- This is happening because either courier partner fails to deliver product in timeline and to escape penalties they lie that the delivery was refused by us or Snapdeal is doing this deliberately,” Gala states.
Snapdeal isn’t one of the most seller-friendly online marketplaces. While sellers feel that most of the Indian ecommerce leaders have serious flaws, Snapdeal sits at the bottom of the popularity list due to several reasons. From delay in listing, altering listing products process, and rejecting seller claims for no rhyme or reasons, Snapdeal is gradually becoming sellers’ least favourite etailer.
Lying about attempted delivery and liquidating sellers’ stock forcefully might act as the final nail in the coffin. The possible reasons why the marketplace is doing this could be:
Point number 2 and 3 are most likely to be the reasons behind Snapdeal’s behaviour. IOS had published an article last month about how online marketplaces show little regard for sellers’ inventory. This lack of concern could be the actual cause why sellers are being lied to by Snapdeal about the status of their inventory.
Point number 4 is also a possibility but marketplaces’ often protect their courier partners. Whether it is the courier company or Snapdeal that’s lying, the crux of the matter is that sellers’ are losing their inventory due to someone else’s lack of conscience.
Yes, there is if Snapdeal want to help sellers. When the return process for customers is completely automated, why isn’t the return process for sellers not as smooth and transparent? When multiple attempts are made to deliver & pick goods from customers, why sellers only have 24 hours to respond after one failed (false) attempt?
Here’s what marketplaces like Snapdeal should do and sellers should DEMAND:
Sellers, would you like to add a few points to the list of demands? Did Snapdeal played the same trick with you? How did you resolve the issue? Please share your valuable inputs with the Indian online seller’s community.
Editor team is specialized in introducing the marketplace content targeting the Indian online sellers. They plan and coordinate to bring the appealing content for the small businesses on how to partner with the e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart and strategies for improving their online business.
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