While I was looking for a USB wall charger (i.e. travel adapter) a couple of days ago, I discovered an online retail website named GreenDust.com.
I found a great bargain on this website – a Nextech USB wall-charger (aka travel adapter) for INR 349.
I quickly hit the “Buy Now” button, created an account on the website, provided my e-mail ID, billing and shipping details, credit card information and completed the transaction.
I received two e-mails from the website immediately:
- Confirmation for registration. This e-mail displayed the e-mail ID and password (in plain text) that I had used for registration.
- Confirmation of order. This e-mail displayed the confirmation of placing the order and had an order number assigned to me.
Satisfied with the job done, I logged out. However, my troubles had just begun.
Next day, I navigated to the website to check my order status. I tried logging in with my e-mail ID and password (the same ones that I had used to register and had an e-mail confirmation for).
This is what I saw: Error: No match for E-Mail Address and/or Password.
This must be some mistake. Maybe I had mistyped the e-mail ID or the password. I tried again. Same message. And again. Same. And yet again. Same message.
What the shit! I hunted on their website and pulled up their Customer Support e-mail ID. Wrote an e-mail to them with the issue and patiently waited for a response.
Nothing. I did some more experimentation using Charles Web Proxy. Looks like they hire idiots as programmers, because I discovered a 21 second delay in loading some web pages due to a CSS page being referenced on a 192.168.x.x IP address. What sort of foolish programmer could make that mistake?
I wrote another e-mail to Customer Support explaining the issue. No response. Finally, I called their Customer Support on phone.
A human answered. Good.
Here’s my order number. Can you please check its status?
Yes, we see your order. However, your order cannot be shipped because it contains neither your shipping address, nor your billing address.
But I provided them on the website. Don’t you see these are mandatory fields and your website cannot accept an order without this information.
Sorry sir, let me check it out.
3 minutes on hold.
Sorry sir, looks like there is some problem. Let me enter the details for you.
I repeated the billing address and shipping address on phone.
Oh, one more thing. Can you please check my account? I am unable to login. Let me give you my account details.
Sir, can I put you on hold again?
Another 3 minutes passed.
Sir, sorry for putting you on hold. But you will not be able to login unless we ship your order.
What!!? Are you sure about that?
Positively sure, sir.
I have shopped online from hundreds of websites, but never encountered this issue. Can you please verify if this indeed is the issue and my account isn’t wiped out from your database?
Yes sir. I am confident.
Whatever. But I hope my inability to login on your website won’t impact my order shipment.
No sire. Have a nice day.
Now I am positively sure that some kind of database rollback happened on their side and my account details are wiped out. That explains my inability to login, and my missing shipping and billing address in the order. But they are not going to admit it, will they?
After this experience, 2 more days elapsed. I am still waiting to hear back from their customer support. I tried logging in their website today, but to no avail. The same CSS problem exists. My account is still not recognized. And I am not sure if my order will ever ship.
Weird website, this GreenDust.com. Avoid if possible.
2 comments:
Doesnt the page say that shipping will take 10 - 12 working days. Being able to track the shipment by logging in was never committed.
I agree that shipment was expected to take 10 days. But being able to login to the website and check your order status is 100% committed. But all this is beyond the point. The point here is that their IT infrastructure is buggy and unreliable.
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