E-commerce is rapidly growing in India and companies are wooing customers with several offers such as EMI options, cash on delivery, cashbacks and so on. While customers are certainly benefiting from these schemes, there are a few customers who are outsmarting these companies by finding loopholes in the system.
A few months ago LiveMint had uncovered how people had easily tricked online food ordering service Foodpanda. It cited an example of Gurgaon-based La Pizza Mill, which claimed to have delivered 250 cupcakes each day, and asked Foodpanda to reimburse in the tune of Rs 125,000 for cupcakes and other deliveries.
Here’s another incident where a user tricked online classifieds service Quikr and mobile wallet service Paytm. The user elaborates how he succeeded in scamming Quikr and Paytm of Rs 2,000, and how common it is for users to trick these e-commerce companies to save on money.
So here’s the story: Quikr had been running a promotion under which it was offering free deliveries for items exchanged by users. The exchange offer covered free deliveries of big items such as desktop computers and beds. Quikr had tied up with Paytm to give cashback worth Rs 1,000 on Paytm to both the parties.
“…I had no bed to transport, so I hastily put up an ad for a clunky old Moto phone on Quikr. “Sparingly used Moto XXX phone for sale,” my ad ingenuously announced. I also demanded an ambitious asking price of Rs 14,000 for a phone that I’d bought for Rs 8,000. The Paytm cashback was valid for purchases above Rs 12,500 after all,” the user elaborated on OfficeChai.
“My brother then logged into his account and quickly bought the phone. Quikr sent us both congratulatory messages, and we went to sleep happy.”
A Quikr executive reached out to him the next morning, suggesting he should add a photo of the phone, which would ensure more interest from prospective buyers. He told them that his ad had been ‘attractive enough’ to get a buyer shortly after putting up the post on the site.
Quikr picked and delivered the smartphone on the same day. The user notes he had take the precaution of posting different collection and dropping addresses. Next day he and his brother had received Rs 1,000 each as Paytm cashback.
The user notes this has been a fairly common practice by some people. He points out people had been using Quikr to transport bulky goods across cities and save money on traditional logistics services for transportation.
BGR India contacted Quikr for a response on this incident and in general users trying illicit procedures for benefits.
“While we are ethical in the way we deal with our consumers, a few people trying to game the system is not a verdict on us or the larger industry. As a company, we would go by our instincts and trust our consumers to do the right thing and in the process make a difference in people’s lives,” Pranay Chulet, Founder & CEO, Quikr told BGR India.
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