Shopping online still sucks

E-Commerce in India is almost a decade old setup. Yet, the shopping experience online is scary at best. It is not because of lack of shopping destinations, that are sprouting up like mushrooms but because not all are edible.

Recently, I became more adventurous. No, I did not trek to the Himalayas but instead, bought a furniture online. My wife was craving to beautify the kitchen. The stars were aligned and I found the perfect piece of "Chest of Drawers" at an amazing price on Pepperfry.com. The delivery was 20 days away, and very child like, we waited for the drawer. In the meanwhile, I checked with my colleagues, hoping they were as daring. Few were, and the experience was good.

Then it came. Nicely packed, it was delivered to my door step. After cutting through 5 layers of tough packing material, I finally got to see the wood. Then something hit my hand. Upon digging, a triangular piece of wood came out.  I surely did order only 1 piece of furniture, and now I had 2! And then I found another one. The first piece had come out from the top corner but I struggled to find the origin of the second piece.

Some outstanding features of the drawer can only be described in pictures.

Broken piece

Wood sticking out

Crack on the left wall

An attempt to give an antique look.

In built lock!

The drawer had an automatic inbuilt locking mechanism. Unfortunately, I could not unlock it.

The drawer was cleary a discarded piece of furniture that could never sell. Most probably it was gathering dust in some remote corner in Pepperfry's warehouse for the last decade. The drawer was promtly picked the next day and a refund was due. After a month, it is still due because the furniture did not reach Pepperfry warehouse.

We were left with a broken heart and a credit card bill to pay.