Tuesday, May 03, 2016

Given up on Lazada.com

I have given up on Lazada.com. Today, I unsubscribed from their daily marketing email.

During the past few months, I bought several products from that website. I like the design of their website. They made it easy for customers to buy online. They do not require troublesome verification processes.

My problem with Lazada came when they sold me a product that was badly described  and was defective. They described the product as "Electric Cordless Drill" but it was actually battery operated. The compartment holding the drill bits cannot be opened.

The return process was a big hassle. They asked me to fill in a lot of details. The first transaction got lost. They did not pick up the item from my house.

I had to submit the lengthy details again. This time, they replied that the product was correctly described and refused to take it back. Although I gave them a telephone number, they did not call me back. (They claimed that they did, but it did not show on my mobile phone).  They do not provide a number for me to call them.

Finally, they agree to take back the product. It was another big hassle to arrange a date and time for the pickup. They asked me to state the date and time and then told me that it was not available. They sent a long email to apologize and assure me that they want to give good customer service.

They also told me that they will take 5 days to check if the product is really defective, before they refund the money to me.  The purchase amount was $15. They must have spend more than $15 on their processing.

In total, I sent back about 10 emails over this simple matter. I finally decided to unsubscribe to this website and not to place any more order with them.

Why am I telling this story? This website is built by Singaporeans. Recently, they sold the website to Alibaba for $1 billion dollar. They are successful.

But when it come to the refund process, they follow the typical Singaporean mindset - how to avoid responsibility, not able to tell what is big and small, wasting a lot of time on unimportant matters.

I hope that the entrepreneurs who set up this website pay attention to this refund process. They can destroy their business if they continue to irrigate their customers.


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just curious. Isn't a battery operated drill an electric drill? For example, an electric toothbrush mostly works on batteries too.

Yujuan said...

Readers take note of this lesson. Online purchases depend on product kind and online reliable suppliers - supplements and beauty products from iherb, clothes and "dead equipments" from China's side, books, anything that is light and consumable, okay. But electronic and electric products, no matter how cheap, better to buy from physical stores. Applies also to "pseudo" medical products like weight loss and meds. Even online grocers have to be discerning, local supermarkets okay, but how organic your online food products can be, be own judge.
Meds are expensive in Singapore, go to Watsons or Guardian stores with Pharmacy services to get your suppiles across the Causeway. Never buy online.

Anonymous said...

Cordless = battery operated, whatever the product might be. Despite you being correct most of the time, I think you owe Lazada an apology this time.

Tan Kin Lian said...

@7:18 PM

It is described as an "electric drill". If is it battery operated, they should provide a charger and rechargeable battery - but they did not.

I am annoyed at Lazada because they make the refund process very difficult for their customers. So, I will not be buying any more product from this website.

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