Grievances galore! Snapdeal, Flipkart on list of firms with most complaints

Data from the National Consumer Helpline show 2,494 complaints received in 3-year period

Two of India’s largest e-commerce players, Snapdeal and Flipkart, have made it to the list of top-five companies with the maximum registered complaints in the past three years.
 

According to data from the National Consumer Helpline, 2,494 complaints were received against direct selling and e-commerce companies during 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17. Complaints were filed against 15-plus e-commerce companies.

The list was given out in response to a question asked in the Lok Sabha. The government said in its reply the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, has been enacted to better protect the interests of consumers.

Bookmyoffer.com topped the list with 449 complaints. Snapdeal stood at number two with 209 complaints, eBay came third with 175 and Flipkart came fourth with 157 complaints. Whaaky.com came fifth with 150 complaints.

“The provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, 1986, cover all goods and services and all modes of transactions, including e-commerce,” said C R Chaudhary, Minister of State Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, in his reply. “A consumer can file a complaint relating to e-commerce transactions in the appropriate consumer forum established under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act. There is no proposal to bring in a separate legislation for e-commerce platforms.”

According to the National Consumer Helpline, most of the complaints against e-commerce companies range from orders not reaching them, getting broken or damaged products and problems with payments. A chunk of the complaints were against people receiving counterfeit products.

“Many of the complaints are very serious as they deal with counterfeiting. The government is extra careful about dealing with such complaints. Also, the helpline tells people to go to the consumer court as well,” said a senior official at the consumer ministry.  

E-commerce companies, however, said they get on a daily basis way more complaints that the numbers recorded by the helpline.

A senior executive at Snapdeal said: “We receive a lot more complaints daily and solve these as soon as possible. Around 95 per cent of the complaints gets sorted within our system. The number recorded by the government bodies are just a few complaints, where customers might have gone to them. I am sure we solved these problems as well.”

The government said while there was no proposal to set up a National Consumer Safety Authority, the Consumer Protection Bill introduced in Parliament sought to provide for establishment of a central consumer protection authority to look into unfair trade practices.

Under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act, a consumer can file a complaint in the appropriate consumer forum. However, before approaching a consumer forum, there is a mechanism for dispute resolution through the National Consumer Helpline at New Delhi and Online Consumer Mediation Centre in the National Law School India University, Bengaluru.