Online Businesses

Inter(net)national Cheats

Today, I write about 2 of such cheats, among many other I have come accross--1. India Today Book Club and 2. India Times Shopping--who have cheated me shamelessly and not regretting it till now.

I am a member of the prestigeous India Today Book Club, since its inception, when they used to publish a monthly catalogue about the books available with them, new releases etc. They offered discounts to the book lovers who are its members. Payments were through regular means, including Credit Cards.

During the last 2 decades, I have purchased books worth between 1 lakh & 2 lakhs--with prices so low in those days.

But, during 2009, they have started sending worthless books by VPP to members, under some scheme members are not aware of. Expecting the books to be worthy, members used to pay the VPP charges--in hundreds of rupees--and get them only to find them worth less later.

Then, they have gone online, stopped publishing the catalogue, sent Login IDs and Pass Words to the members to enable them to book the orders online.

My membership was renewed for 3 years during 2009 and I have duly obtained the free books allowed for members who renew their subscription for 3 years.

When I tried to login to www.indiatodaybookclub.com with the ID and pass word, it dit not allow me, saying the membership has expired!

I have started e-mailing them from 26-02-2009 about the difficulty. The replies were just to placate me by saying they have rectified the mistake and I can login at any time. In a few days, I was vexed with them and stopped corresponding.

Even now, if we try to login into the website, we are directed to http://www.bagittoday.com/itbc/index.jsp? and we have to login with our e-mail address and password. When we try, the message is 'the mail address is not registered with us.'

Is this the way, such a prestigeous organisation should cheat the citizens and be scot free?

........to continue