I owe this article to all my readers who supported me on the BeeLabz issue. Like them, my own patience has now run out. It is two months since the company promised us our ‘fully paid-for’ tablets yet, till date there is no delivery. What’s even more disturbing is that the company has now gone silent and give false assurances and even delaying the refund process! What must we do now?
First, I shall briefly recap communication between buyers and the company since May 2012: We had ordered tablets from BeeLabz after making full payment starting early May. Some had ordered in June. The competitively priced tablets named GeekT, GeekT+, Dhruv and Ashni were all China-made and imported by BeeTabz, a Bangalore-based company. The products’ price and promised set of features prompted us to order. Since then, over the past 2 months, customers have inquired or complained about non-delivery. The company responded on a few occasions.
On behalf of my readers, I took up the matter with Anand Sankaran, the founder of the company and other senior execs. During our meeting on May 27, Sankaran explained to me in much detail about the business and the reasons for the delay. His explanations sounded genuine so I decided I ought to wait some more time. I even asked him to put up the details on BeeLabz site and provide a refund option, but that never happened. The same week some of us had received scanned copies of the courier receipt, which were as fake as the Tracking Code given on another occasion. Their Facebook page has also started removing all negative comments which is an alarming sign.
Like educated and decent folks we accepted all of BeeLabz’s excuses and explanations (even the pathetic fake Tracking Codes, and surprisingly he plays the same trick again and again) and waited. We can hardly even assess the company’s presence, leave alone its financial ability from the fact that company has an office in Bangalore. I’m told it’s just a ramshackle place with a single individual (probably the owner Sankaran himself) sitting there! I never once assumed that BeeLabz would be a fly-by-night operator. But now, even I wonder if I have made a mistake in paying for a product I will never ever see. (I had booked the Prashi+).
There is one more interesting thing I found. The BeeLabz website mentions – MyAshni concern. Out of curiosity I did a search for MyAshni on the net and on 3rd page on google search found the link. You can try “MyAshni ebay.in” to get the result on the first page. I got this site http://myworld.ebay.in/myashni which is no longer registered with ebay.in but the page still exists.
Now probably this link may have nothing to do with BeeLabz and could be a different company. But once you open it you will see a negative feedback score with 4 comments and one of the comments saying that item not shipped and fake AWB now, this is similar to what we are experiencing. I am now confident that there is no hope left in this company and its better for the customers to demand a refund ASAP. If they can’t deliver what kind of after-support can you expect?
I have removed links from my site to Beetabz website and have also mentioned a note warning people to stay away from BeeLabz at the end of each article. Finally, I think it is time now to choose between going to the police, moving court or filing our complaint with consumer grievances cell: http://www.consumergrievance.com/ or http://www.akosha.com/ (Akosha seems a good option).
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