Gift card

I participate in a lot of market research activities. As a result of these activities I received a lot of gift cards. These gift cards are use to purchase groceries as well as for shopping. I never had any problem with the gift cards that I had received and I was able to redeem them without any hassle. Until yesterday.

Last morning I received a gift card for Flipkart for rupees 300. I proced date to redeem that gift card. I visited the site of Flipkart and ended the details of the gift card there. It showed me the error that the gift card is invalid. I tried entering the details again but received the same error. I did what ideally should have been done. Iot hell with the virtual chatbot that has been made available on Flipkart.

I explain the issue to the chatbot in very simple language (because I know that the chatbots and AI agents do not understand any complicated instructions). After reporting the issue to chatbot it was not able to provide me the solution and again and again asking me the same question how can I help you further without providing any resolution. The chatbot also was not transferring me to the help desk executive which was as per the protocol. After this frustrating encounter the only option that was left with me was to connect with their grievance office.

I dropped an email to their grievance officer explaining the issue in detail. The grievance office had immediately raised and incident for this issue.

Side by side eye decided that I should also raise a complaint with the market research provider who had gifted me the Flipkart gift card. I went ahead and I reached a complaint with the market research provider about the gift card. There help desk staff was prompt. They had reverted within 2 hours that the gift card that they have provided is valid and the complaint is to be raised with Flipkart. So I have a confirmation from the market research team saying that the gift card is valid. I had one evidence to be considered as a concrete evidence towards the gift card.

I am yet to hear from Flipkart about the gift card. Nothing much has happened from the end of Flipkart and now it is a weekend so I am not expecting much action from them. Habib for I do expect that this issue gets resolved by Monday day end.

Here I would like to highlight something. It is not only about 300 rupees. It is all about the transparency and customer service. I expect that Flipkart to be transparent because after all the tired between them and the market research provider it's something they should value. The market research provider does not have the authority to issue a gift card which is not approved by the retailer. According to me Flipkart is the one who is at fault here and they should take all actions to ensure that the gift card is successfully added to my account.

I would not take no for an answer. I am ready to take further action against them if they deny adding gift card to my account. It is all about consumer rights and I would fight for it.