Ritu M.

Quikr used to be useful to sell products. At one time. They used to have packages that made sense and customer care that followed some logic. Not anymore.

I bought a premium package online a few weeks back-I wanted to sell off some household furniture as we might be moving soon. Quikr customer care contacted me as soon as I posted my ad, offering a premium package. But i wanted to take some time to see the response before deciding to spend money. In a couple of weeks, I decided to try out their package.

1. It is weird how on the website the package might say Rs 499, but when you actually go to buy it, it is Rs 599. No explanation on why they can't provide correct information on the page.
2. They show ads about premium packages at up to 80% discount. There isn't even a 40% discount when you actually go in to check it out.
3. The online package, if you buy it, for example, at Rs 599, which I did, advertises your properly by showing it higher in search ONLY in the locality where you are based, and therefore where it was posted earlier. It does not extend visibility to the whole city.
This is something they miss mentioning when you are spending the money.
4. They will not allow you to edit your ad-in case you want to change description of asking price, or any detail, post 5 days of posting the ad. Never mind that you have paid Rs 600 just to make life easier for you. This is also not mentioned on the page when you buy. On asking the customer care why this is so, she just said 'the site clearly mentions that terms and conditions apply'. Really? Don't they have a responsibility to actually clearly specify these things somewhere?
5. Anyway, their response time is also quite sad, I sent in some scathing feedback after I got absolutely no leverage out of my premium posting, and someone called me back.

This is how it went:
They said that they don't have access to online ads, and can't change anything in there. I shouldn't have bought the ad online, even though the facility is provided there (how was I supposed to know that there was a magical obstacle that prevented ppl from providing the same facilities for ads bought online?). Therefore despite being charged in full, my ad was visible only to ppl in my locality. To make it visible to the buyers in the whole city, I needed to pay through an agent. AGAIN. I protested. I had already spent good money. Could they just do a refund since I hadn't really received service?

I was told that for this reason, the customer service calls us right after the ad is posted, to offer a premium package. If I buy it online, they can't help me. (Then why offer the online/ecommerce buying facility? Just take it off? OR you can't resist the chance of making some good money off the earlier brand you have developed, never mind that honest paying customers are not getting services?)

They told me that the only way they could help me was that if I bought 3 more ads from them (I had admitted I had more stuff to sell). Then they could include the premium package for the original ad in that, and justify giving me one ad free with 3 more ads. Again, never mind that I had already paid for the 1st one in good faith and gotten zilch for it. And they would give me a small discount as well. So, I should spend Rs 1350 more to get any benefit out of the first 599 that I had already spent.

I asked to speak to a supervisor, someone higher up, I was denied access, This person was the one in charge of my case, and there could be no more escalation.

I tried in 5 different ways, to tell her to put herself in my shoes, and tell me why I should throw good money after bad, and trust them when I had got zero service and results for the 1st Rs 599. Without a hint of apology, I was repeatedly told that they understood my point, but this was they only way she could help me.

Really? So basically this is what you're saying:
"I know you didn't get service for the 1st Rs 599 you spent, but the only way I can help you now is if you spend Rs 1800 more, I am sweetening the deal by getting you one ad free with 4 more (never mind that I have already paid for that ad) and by giving you some discount. You should be grateful to me for that. "

This is crap. I have been a fairly loyal customer in the past, but you just lost my business. I sold 6 pieces of furniture using my network of friends and whatsapp groups.

I of course wrote to quikr in indignation. They couldn't be bothered to respond. At all. Mail attached.

I am never going to quikr again. They don't even have the grace to empathise/apologize about the scammers/fraudsters that are now frequenting the site these days, offering people QR codes for payment and instead of paying, extracting money from innocent, unsuspecting sellers. Not sure Quikr is being much better than these scammers their site is hosting.