Decathlon delivery charge scam

 

Hello, let's talk delivery charges,

Today I wanted to buy a squash racquet, so I went on decathlon.in and browsed my choices. I finally found one I really liked. 

it was a carbon fibre racquet with a nice wide area costing around 2400 INR, so I decided to buy it. 

Product link

Imagine my surprise when I added it to the cart and I was still charged for delivery,199 INR, which was shocking cuz decathlon offers free delivery for orders greater than 1499 INR. 

Anyway, I thought I was mistaken so I decided to check the delivery terms and conditions :P ( Yes, we exist).

It stated that objects weighing less than 2 KGs will be free. 

now the racquet I was interested in weighted 165 gram as per the description page on the decathlon website, so well that dint cross the 2KG limit. 

Now, it could have however crossed the volumetric limit of 2 KGs, but let's calculate that below

As per the description, the face of the racquet covers 499cm2, now if we consider the head to be a circle that is as wide as it can be.

the diameter of the racquet comes to 25.20 cm, the length of squash racquets are around 68.6 cm on average and the height is at a maximum of 5 cm. 

So if we calculate volumetric weight = length* breadth* height/5000 , we get 1.734. this number is the maximum it could be because we have assumed higher limits of every quantity.

thus even the volumetric weight is less than 2 Kg.

Again this proves my product qualifies for free delivery.

The tale doesn't end here. 

I decided to try out the cheaper racquets. For example, I checked out this 

racquet costing 799 INR, added one of those to the cart  and sure enough, I still had 

to pay delivery because the cart value was less than 1500, But when I increased the 

quantity to 2, it crossed the 1500 limit and GAVE ME FREE delivery(as one would expect).

Now let's talk about specs 

the link of the product I'm referring to is this 

This is a low range racquet with a weight of 185 gram, yes higher than the previous racquet discussed, but let's calculate its volumetric weight as well,

So the head area mentioned in its description is 467 cm2, making it's maximum possible width to 24.3 cm, not significantly higher than the previous product, taking its length and width as same as the previous racquet as both racquets are made for adults and there isn't a size difference indicated.

The volumetric weight we arrive at is 1.6524 kg, also clearing the sub 2kg limit. 

BUT

remember, I have added 2 of these in the cart, which means, I have an order of twice the weight, thus easily making the total weight to 3.3kg but I'm still getting FREE delivery. weird right.

So I tried another experiment. Since one of these racquets weighs 185gms. I decided to add 12 of these to my cart. So that I intentionally exceed the 2KG limit by mass. 

Bringing the total weight of my order to 2.22kgs. And behold, the cart is STILL not 
charging me for delivery.

This contradicts decathlons delivery terms and conditions directly and completely, totally feeling cheated, and I never thought my first experience with such a well-known brand will be like this.

Naturally, this totally put me off from ordering anything nor will I in the foreseeable future. 

However I do understand that this may be a software bug, and amateur developers are bound to make such errors, however, this is totally unacceptable and if it is happening on a large scale, it's even larceny.  

I mean there are hundreds of people who have bought that racquet I was interested in and have paid in surplus. Hopefully, decathlon corrects this bug so that it doesn't lose future customers :)

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