Paytm customer care on social media is far better

This is classic case where e-commerce sites have lot to do–making sure the vendors registered with them don’t screw their customers, because the reflection of a faulty product delivered goes to Paytm and not to the vendor who actually sent it.

One of very close friends of mine ordered a DSLR Canon camera from Paytm. Paytm was offering heavy cashback discount and it seemed a perfect opportunity for my friend who was waiting to buy a camera for the last five years or so.

He had never been more happy when he learnt that the camera was delivered on 4th of March at another of our friend’s place in Patiala. He traveled to Patiala from Nabha and at 10:00 PM opened the box.

The box was badly packed with transparent tapes and the cardboard was broken. Of course, not a very great start to satiate his excitement.

When he took out the items, he noticed the bag of the camera had marks of whitewash. The box had a branded tape of Snapdeal (Yes, you read it right), which of course no less than shocking. Further, the camera smelled as if had been polished to remove any stain marks, and to top it all, the memory card had photos of the previous user.

You could not expect a more shitty experience for somebody who was so gung-ho about being able to buy a camera.

Obviously, my friends was crestfallen and shocked into silence. He could not believe his dream became a nightmare. He immediately filed a complaint to Paytm but for two days nobody cared to reply.

Due to Holi vacation, I was visiting my home-town and he brought the issue to my notice. He immediately tweeted about it knowing that social media can do wonders. Companies do care what shit flies around on the social media. My tweet was retweeted by 4-5 people and I immediately got a message from Paytm.

Soon, they called me and tried to give me solution. After providing enough proofs and arguments, they agreed to pay 5k INR to my friends as a gesture of customer delight and agreed to refund all the money he paid for the camera.

Without doubt, it was a great example of companies caring for their customer when they had a bad shopping experience. I am sure if it had not been on social media, they would not have cared enough. But social media has empowered the common customer to raise his/her voice whenever there is something wrong.

Full acknowledgement to Paytm people for taking this case in a positive stride and making sure that the customer is compensated for his dream loss.

I am sure startups can also learn a lot from this experience where they would be making sure that the quality check is robust but even then if something goes wrong, they take an extra stride to make sure the customer is happy.

Well done, Paytm!