LetsBuy - great deals, great value for money, not so great delivery speed

I recently got a pen drive ordered from Letsbuy.com (courtesy one of my friend). He had ordered a 6Gb pen drive from LetsBuy considering that it gave a great deal. Letsbuy gives this 6Gb Zipmem pen drive(yes, to my amaze too, a 6Gb pen drive exists) for Rs 270 including shipping which is actually a brilliant deal(or in one of my classmates's words - a loot). This order was done on the 7th of November.

But i didn't receive the product for 10days. Getting irritated, i called up the LetsBuy helpline at +91-124-4901234. For two days, the Letsbuy automated call attending system kept on disconnecting calls after making me wait for 3 minutes in the false hope of talking to a customer care executive. I had also mailed them, but till yet i have not yet received a response or an acknowledgement. After two days i.e on 18th November, when i was finally able to talk to them, on hearing the issue, they registered a complaint. Later i received a call on 21st from +91-124-6737562 regarding the same. The executive told me that the product will be shipped immediately. Later on the 23rd, i received a mail confirming that they had shipped the product from Blue Dart shipping, enclosing the shipping docket which could be checked on Blue Dart's site. And funny thing, at the footer of the mail, they had written the following

"We believe in offering genuine products with manufacturer's warranty at the best price and FASTEST DELIVERY"

Seems like a Joke. I may be wrong, but that's what i found. The product was prepaid,so processing shouldn't have taken much time. Anyways, i received the product on the 24th. They charged me immediately, and took 15days just to ship the product(in spite of the 4-7 day delivery claim on the website). And they were shipping from Delhi only, so shipping shouldn't have been an issue. And it took just two days for Bluedart to deliver the product. Had there been any delay beyond LetsBuy's control, they should have intimated me. Had i not called up and complained, i might have still been waiting for the product.

I had already been sceptica about purchasing things online, and this just strengthened my belief that the consumer has the lower hand in e-commerce, and cheating is quite possible(along with the regular phishing and confidential detail privacy issues). I had never heard of anyone's experience,but the news of internet forgery over the years has made me a bit overcautious. Fortunately(for me), i wasn't paying, as my friend had gifted me this drive(what a great pal, thanks dude). Otherwise, i would have surely gone haywire, considering i'm quite sceptic about my money. Would i think of buying anything from the internet in future - not likely with that kind of experience. But the deals at sites like Letsbuy are over the internet are just over the top, just like this one(4Gig HP v220 @ wholesale market costs INR290 + traveling, and here's 6Gig Zipmem @INR270). LetsBuy's deals would surely be hard to ignore.

What will i do, i cannot say. Something's are better left upon time.

What do you think, to buy, or not to buy from the internet? Feel free to pour in your comments

Rediffmail NG on MTNL 3G

Rediff had a pavilion this year at the India International Trade Fair 2011. A funny thing was that, they had set up a stall just next to the exit. Finding Rediff there, i just went and checked out what was going on. And here's the funny thing they were promoting - rediffmail NG for MTNL .

MTNL - already known for bad quality of service(QoS), has been a partner with rediffmail for providing pushmail services. Rediffmail, which i find one of the slowest mail providers, tied up with one of the worst quality networks out there. If rediff had provided this service on all other operators, it would have been a hit. But on MTNL, it seems like a distant dream.

Product Review - Tzinga Tropical Fruit

I recently came across this new flavour of Tzinga - Tropical Trip. In my previous review of the Lemon mint flavour, i had mixed reviews. When i saw this new flavour out there in the freezer, i decided to give it a try.

Tropical Trip, as the name hints, contains a mixed Tropical Fruit flavour consisting of Pear, Pineapple, Mandarin, Apple, Passionfruit and lemon. Here i must mention, all the flavours are well mixed, and so it takes time to identify the different components. Plus we have the regular caffeine, taurine, and sugar.

I bought it chilled, and the flavour was pleasant. It is nothing like the regular Red Bull'ish flavoured drinks, but it tastes good. A little on the fruity flavoured side, the drink seems pleasant to drink, and i would recommend it to the ones who're trying an energy drink for the first time, or to those who hate the typical strong flavour of Red Bull.

As for the packaging thing, personally speaking, i do dislike the plastic packaging. A tetrapack would have been better, but then, companies do things which are sometime confusing. Maybe its because Tetrapack increases costs, or the brand owners wanted to give their product a completely different identity for a product that comes in competition with the very dominating Red Bull.

Anyways, the drink did have mild effect on me. I was quite sleepy at the time when i had the drink. For the next two hours, i didn't feel sleepy, and neither too energetic(which Red Bull makes). I probably find Tzinga better than Red Bull. Reason being that it doesn't give an extreme kick.

And another notable thing. Its written very clearly that "not recomended for people who want to go early to bed" - a warning Red Bull should have written. When i first had Red Bull, it took me three days to get my regular sleeping routine back.

My review for Tzinga Tropical Fruit - 4 out of 5. Not an extreme kick, great flavour, great price just makes me find it the prefered choice.

What do you think? Do you share the same opinion, or think differently, feel free to pour in.

What times

Hey everyone
Sorry for not posting in ages. Have been terribly occupied with work lately. Job interviews, projects to name a few. I has a few drafts for for the blog, but got lost when my pen drive stopped working.

I shall be back to posting more tech stuff.

Signing off till then

Adobe stops Flash production

Adobe systems, in a recent chain of events, has decided to put an end to the hugely used Flash player. Adobe will not be developing its flash player for web browsers furthermore. This decision was taken at a recent meeting of the company. This move is taken as a long term well thought strategic move from Adobe systems Flash player was developed by Macromedia Inc which took it to its peak. But later Macromedia Inc was sold off to Adobe. Flash player has been well recieved by developers and web users for enriching the web experience, and adding a sense of creativity and ease to it.

This is being taken by the industry analysts as a move by Adobe to wipe out all the traces of Macromedia in its operations, and strengthen its brand identity. Some are even sceptical over the fact that this might reduce the business for Adobe, hence destabilising in the long run.

Google shuts down support for Gmail on Blackberry

In the recent turn of events, the search engine giant Microsoft turned off its support for users accessing their Gmail service from their Blackberry handsets. After this, Blackberry users will be able to check their Gmail only using the web interface, or the Gmail app downloadable from the gmail mobile website. This is considered as a move which Google has taken to aggressively market its enormously popular Gmail against Google's mobile OS Android competitior RIM which has given noteworthy competition to Google's Android with its new Blackberry 7 OS.


My personal view - love the move as a hardcore Google fan, dislike it for the Blackberry users, since multiple apps means no more single view multiple mailbox.