Rechargeitnow.com and Indiatimes shopping have tied up to provide recharge of prepaid mobiles and DTH through a co-branded site. Indiatimes has taken tie-up route instead of directly jumping into the market, may be because of the low risk appetite. This is the first ever offering from Indiatimes shopping where the user is directed to a partner site.
There has been no official announcement as of now from any of the sides. The terms of the tie-up is unknown but a pure advertisement contract cannot be denied. Undoubtedly this will certainly give a boost to Rechargeitnow’s SERP ranking.
Rechargeitnow is the most justified choice as they are the only third party site offering 0% convenience charge. Though the UI of Rechrgeitnow is not very convenient, yet in terms of traffic it is clearly leading.
Not a lot has changed from our last coverage of Online recharge services but the sites are trying hard to bring down the convenience charge as that is the only real differentiator here.
Do you think with the falling tariff the recharge business is good to be in, specially given the negligible margins? What do you think of the recent feature addition of Indiatimes, are they waking up now?
Disclosure: One of my clients is venturing in this business.
[Naman is a startup enthusiast and has worked with couple of Indian startups as Product Manager. He writes at The Inspire Blog]
“This is the first ever offering from Indiatimes shopping where the user is directed to a partner site.”
HP Snapfish is already there…and TIL busy partnering with many ppl with redirect.
http://shopping.indiatimes.com/media/misc/Snapfish/Snapfish_photoCentre.html
@K: Thanks for pointing that out.
But in the case of Snapfish the user is on Indiatimes’ domain all the time. Whereas in this case, the user leaves the Indiatimes’ domain.
Effectively the traffic is counted for rechargeitnow.com
Also, unlike the usual tie-ups where the service provider’s site hosts the service on a co-branded sub-domain this one is on the main domain. Hence adding up for Rechargeitnow.com’s SEO.
All pre paid mobile recharge from mobile
Pre paid mobile reacharge throw online
Hi Naman, Have you read any reviews about Rechargeitnow.com? For the benefit of larger community, take a look at some of these links. If Rechargeitnow does not charge tx fee, does it make money through these means?
1.
http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/wwwrechargeitnowcom-c154169.html
2.
http://www.consumercourt.in/internet-services/1697-online-mobile-phone-recharge-service.html
3.
http://www.consumercourt.in/online-shopping/6438-recharge-now.html
You can see a consistent pattern of complaints, plus they don’t have any open contact information on their website.
After reading these reviews, I wonder how anyone would use this site. What does this say about indiatimes?
Bipin,
They make money without charging anything extra because they have a very good deal with the operators.
The complaints that you see are genuine and i agree that their customer service is almost nil.
The truth of the industry is, what gets you deal is not good product or service but its your contacts within the industry. But in this case where you are selling a standard product the price does matter. If they have the right price and still have footfalls, it wont be long until they improve UI and UX on the whole
They are also the official recharge partners of Dishtv. Check this Dishtv.in
In complaints forum, anyone can complain on anything regardless of the truth behind it.
Most of the complaints listed below(including mine), are basically says that
ECommerce in India is not matured enough. Hence the problem can be anywhere like Bank server deducted money but not responded to payment gateway.
In this case, you cannot complain against rechargeitnow. You can also find the response of Rechargeitnow support team for all those complaints.
This problem doesnot exist only in rechargeitnow. I faced the similar problem with fastrecharge.com,ezrecharge.in and mCheck.
All the time, my money got refunded back promptly when the service was not provided.
So overall, I had mixed experience with these recharging sites.
But unfortunate thing is, Mr.Bipin(CEO of mobikwik) is taking advantage of the situation and boasting his own site here.
But he is not aware there are some complaints on his portal too. So, this is not the proper way to face the competitors.
http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/wwwmobikwikcom-c351436.html
http://www.consumercomplaints.in/complaints/idea-prepaid-c362415.html
Let me repeat ur words, “After reading these reviews, I wonder how anyone would use this site.”. Because Mobikwik
looks like more of blogging site than recharging portal.
i put two orders for them. one i looked and see the status as out of stock, although amount was deducted immediately, the other first mentioned as shipped now shown as canceled. who they think they are. thugs at the street corner. what sort of ready made messages is affixed below. they piece of shits, how come i get to expect to enjoy a wonderful shopping experience when they cannot even meet smallest commitments from their part. they piece of shits, as for ideas, they get that from people running their newspaper and jain group, the enterprises behind this bullshit if thats the case. when did they started running the country, the republic of india. there may be people who may be thinking they people are great. they do nonsense, and send in english ready made messages to make up for that. shameless a**holes. they keep the money. they shameless a**holes. i committed to get something. not to bear nonsense from they for nothing. they make me come to their website, and offer a product, take money, make me wait for five to ten days, only to say, what? india is the only country where any nonsense can be accommodated. still they will send they the reply and ask for comments (because their IQ as per international survey is well below that of a counterpart who may be doing this sort things on smaller scale but still on a better way in diff. part of the world) . they piece of shits, take care. they a** holes. dont tell after 5 to 10 days what they are up to. take this to court. make a complain for use of obscene words and send me to jail. my proper name and address can be faxed to them, just send a court order, something seen common in india where one get to arrest a petty thief involved with Rs.10, but may be giving protection to matters involving higher amounts (rights of all, privileges of few). God forbid them big times a**holes still in business fooling countless number of people of their hard earned for nothing. their website is a mess, their attitude even more messier than the website. still too proud. a** holes. take a mirror. and see what this means to biggest a**hole running the operation, the guy at top, the stupid, who cannot even see, what his company is doing. they will do same thing to him also ( take money from him, and tell him ten days after that his order is canceled- they piece of shit, they owe more to a customer than to the guy at top). then for what the they maintain this website.
as a showpiece, like a taj mahal, the old indian tradition, as monument for their bigness in their great country or abroad. (may be after six hundred years, someone may remember ( could be an australian considering earth is moving in diff. directions nowadays due to heavy changes in many of its aspects) ( they may argue against that also. because they and their company invented everything on the earth since the earth was born) them as the people who revolutionized internet shopping in great india six hundred years ago in 19** ( i dont know which years exactly they started operation) instead of mugal india as said of taj mahal in 1660s) my only worry if i only knew if i could happen to meet the direct descendants of mugal india to ask what was the experience like of building taj mahal now enjoyed by millions of people world over and how they see it now. they a**holes, they are running the wrong road, at least be reasonable if not responsible when some total stranger approaches yelling at them, or they have plan for that also. gurus of india. adjustments work when i am their cousin but not with strangers.
i am a muslim and realized some of the biggest a**holes on earth are muslims i met on many occasions including some of my relatives (no offence or nothing to do with real islam or with true believers (real islam is still a great religion for a true believer) those are not real muslims i am talking about, they practice or pretend to be muslim so others talk greatly of them-they spend a lifetime pretending only to realize at the deathbed, they were pretending only themselves because others did not even bother to know what they were upto) now i see they people also.
i am a muslim in the sense that preach what they practice, and practice only what they preach. and am a great follower of their newspaper. TOI. but still crosses all the limit.
sometime its better for they to learn from their own histories. than to dig up other peoples history.
they do not show attitude when someone is at their mercy, and their site is a perfect example how they do that. and cool words do not translate a** holism in to an acceptable way of conducting business.
thank they. first experience, and probably my last experience too.
may god bless they and their online shopping enterprises and others enterprises in case they have any and take it to higher places and may last for another 2000 years like an empire spreading from one stretch of the earth to another if only earth stood that long years for they to exist. i intent to live a simple life leaving not much behind materially or spiritually for others to pick. so take care for a long journey.
above all, i thank they once again for one thing, for proving, each experience the kind happened, india is a great country after all people like they still to get to exist. they may not know what i mean. (because of IQ problem). they people are lucky to be alive. there are two reasons for one get to physically attack another (here i mean only normal people). one reason is purely money, usually seen in cinemas like ransom and so on, second for doing nonsense to them. they fall in second. take care my boys. kids learning to do business. but in wrong in places. i am a kid considering the age of their enterprise. but they make me call they a kid.
if they have not got an idea what i am talking, just take look below. just explain why they cancel. and who are they to cancel after they take order and money. there must be no product on their website for they to cancel in the first place. for that they need to employee people with some sense of what business means or with some portion of brain in the head.. money and commitment. both go hand in hand.especially when they have nothing to loose. again i need to clarify that “adjustments work when i am their cousin but not with strangers”.
the above is for ruining my mental health even if its for a day or two (browsing is a hard experience. false promises by websites involved with providing excellence award and so on, even harder). not just for taking money and keeping it for 10 days in their kitty and yelling at me cancel cancel.
NB. there are now int’l emergency delivery within 14 days in some sites. i need the books, even if it means they make the writer write it an extra copy. they take orders, then they meet things that come along. we are not buying vegetables.
Seems like Indiatimes has stopped this partnership since I can’t find rechargeitnow on indiatimes now. Too many complaints,eh?
the partnership is still on. the link is also there.
Oops, my bad. Looks like one of those slow internet thingies again since I couldn’t get the link.
Btw, Naman, how are your ‘clients” faring in this business?
I tried recharging once through http://www.rechargeitnow.com to test waters.It failed!!!I was left in lurch as there is no proper contact details.I was guided to fill a form and the clause said i would get a revert in 2 days.it’s been a week since, and no replies yet!!