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Around
December 2017, I wanted to sell my mobile phone, a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 that
was two years old at the time. It was in excellent condition and I had the
original box, invoice and accesories. Being sure that selling this wouldn't be
tough, I thought of selling it online. I had never sold anything online before
and wanted to give it a try.
I signed
up on OLX as well as Quikr and made listings for the product on both sites
with good pics and descriptions. Within a few minutes of making the listing
live on Quikr, I got a call from one of their call centre sales people telling
me that I could make my listing premium. This person gave me the impression
they would actively help me sell my phone and convinced me by saying that he
has sold the same model for ₹9,500 previously. Paying ₹1,200 to have my phone
sold for ₹9,500 sounded like a great deal.
I was asked to keep the call active while he sent me an email asking for payment. I
should mention at this point that I didn't suspect the person to be a fraud
because of how quickly he called me after my listing was live; no normal person
would have seen the listing so quickly. I was sure he was a legit Quikr
employee and sure enough, he was. While still on the call, I got an official email from Quikr
requesting confirmation for a payment of ₹1,200.
What I
expected by making this payment was that Quickr would do all the work of selling
the phone and I would just have to sit back and collect my profit of ₹8,300.
Instead, all I got were 10 Adcredits which would make my listing be placed on the top for a certain period
of time (I think it was a month for each credit). That's it, that's all I got
after paying ₹1,200. I got sold 10 months worth of top listing by one of their employees on a false pretext. I didn't get a single good offer from Quikr in the two weeks
that the listing was live, even though my listing was premium. Even after dropping the price by ₹2,000 I did not get any offers.
Meanwhile,
I paid ₹150 on OLX to make the ad top-listed. I got many good offers and sold the phone for ₹7,500. I didn't fuss about the money because this
whole thing was an experiment. I had thought of complaining to Quikr, but I
realised that I had no ammo. They had used one of their own employees to legally
dupe me by selling worthless credits. They were in on this scheme, so I doubted they
would take any action. Their website clearly states a 'no refund' policy.
Conclusion:
Don't list your product on Quikr and if you do, definitely do not pay to
make it premium.
I hope my
₹1,200 helps you save your money and not give it into the greedy hands of
Quikr.