Complaint Review: Tandoormart.com - Long Island New York

Either Tandoormart.com / Shir Shiva Foods Inc. is running a scam or they are just selling bad products and not owning up to their responsibilities. In either case, I advise shoppers to stay away from this company / Store. You will waste more time in chasing them with follow up calls than receiving a single worthwhile response back. Here is what happened to me and will very well happen to you if you buy anything from here - 

I placed an order for a large size Home Tandoor (http://www.tandoormart.com/ProductDetails.asp?ProductCode=HM2). The website said no sales tax outside NY but their system still kept charging me sales tax. So I decided not to place an order online and call the store.

I Spoke with Vijay Behal who said the website may not be functioning properly and he can take on order on the phone. It was a Tuesday and he said the Tandoor will be shipped on Fri. I asked him to email me a receipt and shipping details which he said he would. Come Fri, no email, no phone call, no intimation. I called Vijay and inquired. He told me that the Tondoor will go out on Mon, they had too many orders because of free delivery and were not able to cope up.

I called on Mon and checked again. It had been now a week since I paid the money. Surprisingly Vijay told me that they do not have a Tandoor in stock and that I would have to wait. I said in that case I would like to cancel. Somehow, with a needy tone, he pushed and requested me to keep the order and he would make arrangements to have it shipped by Wed. He also promised to add a cover and 2 extra skewers. Wed came I called again, he said he is preparing the shipment and it should go out. Come Fri I called again. Vijay said the shipment is going out today and gave me a tracking no. of Direct coast to Coast service. Not surprising that the carrier website could not track the shipment with my no.

On Mon I get a call from the carrier that there is a shipment from Shiva Foods and they would deliver it on Tue, which was exactly 2 weeks from when I ordered. I waited whole day but there was no delivery. I called the carrier and they asked me to call their partner in Dallas who was delivering this. The partner company could not locate the shipment. They finally called on Wed afternoon and corrected my address. Yes Tandoor Mart gave the wrong address to the shipper. The carrier finally delivered the Tandoor on Thu. It was packed in plastic and encased with woode slats. Of course I could not open it right away and inspect it as it would take time to rip apart the wood slats and the carrier was not gonna wait on me.

When I was finally able to break open the wood slats and take the Tandoor out, I was shocked by the quality. This was not what you would get for $600. Even a Grill made in USA is of a much better quality at this price. The top of the Tandoor which was a metal rim was dented in 3 places, was not completely round and stained and rusted. Not to mention the scratches all over the tandoor. The stainless steel is so thin, cheap and bad quality that this tandoor would rust in a couple of weeks. The website shows the top of the tandoor having a brass handle. What i really got was a cheap aluminium handle, not even steel. 

I took out the cover and tried to put it on the Tandoor. Guess what, it would not fit. 2 of the skewers were rusted and not usable, one skewer had a handle come out. By far, the worse quality I have seen while buying a product in the US. This was turning out to be a complete scam.

I called Vijay Behal and told him about this. He asked to text him the pictures which I did and as usual no response from him. I called again, this time he gave me another cell no. to text the pictures to. I sent again, no response. Today is Wed, 3 weeks from the time I placed the order. Vijay Behal tells me that the Tandoor is manufactured in India and he has no control or responsibility and he cannot guarantee the quality. This is the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard from a retailer, blame the manufacturer.

I told him I don’t care about where it is made, I have paid money to Tandoormart for a quality product and they need to either replace it or take it back and refund my money. Vijay said he would take it back but I have to pay for the return shipping. Very different from the customer service experience that they proudly display on their website. To send a 200 pound item by a carrier, I would have to spend another $200 and not know whether this fraud company would even return my money. 

Do not buy any product from Tandoor Mart / Shir Shiva Foods. They are incompetent in doing business, lie to you and not care even if it is their fault. Even people in India do business more professionally than these goons. Stay away from them.