Criticism of flipkart

CriticismEdit

On 13 September 2014, a Flipkart delivery boy allegedly molested a housemaid in Hyderabad.^[106] The house maid's employer has been fighting against Flipkart for justice on this issue, and also for making offline delivery services safe.^[107]

On 6 October 2014 Flipkart launched a promotion called 'Big Billion Day' with the intention to increase the popularity of their website by targeting a billion sales in 1 day. This, even though Flipkart achieved the target, led to public outcry and widespread criticism among consumers, competitors and partners, heavily damaging its reputation. Many users could not place orders because of high server load and errors which led to frustration among customers.^[108] Many users who placed orders received emails stating that their orders were cancelled.^[109] Most of the products were sold for less than their cost, and Flipkart was accused of anti-competitive behaviour. Major competitors filed complaints against Flipkart with the Commerce Ministry, claiming that selling products lower than cost is against the commerce policy of the country.^[110] The Ministry said that they would formulate new trade rules for electronic retail after this incident.^[111][112]

Flipkart was criticised on the subject of net neutrality after their announced partnership with Airtel to use the Airtel Zero platform which would have made the Flipkart app free for Airtel Users. On 14 April 2015 Flipkart retracted its decision to use Airtel Zero platform.^[113]

In 2015, around 400 delivery executives working with eKart, the logistics arm of Flipkart, went on strike to protest poor working conditions. Complaints included seven-day workweeks, extended hours, lack of clean toilets and medical assistance for bike riders involved in accidents.^[114][115] In 2016, delivery executive Nanjunda Swamy was murdered by a customer who did not have money to pay for a product.^[116] In response, Flipkart launched a safety initiative for named 'Project Nanjunda' , after the deceased executive. This included an SOS button in the mobile app (called the Nanjunda button) that could be used by field executives in cases of emergencies.^[117]

Sellers on Flipkart have been facing several challenges while doing their business on its marketplace portal, to the extent that some of them had to quit the portal. Some of these challenges include its unfair policies for sellers, lack of a competent logistics service and customer returns that are purely as a result of consumer fraud.