That’s right. Trust. Govt. needs to enforce contracts, but cannot do much in scenarios involving private players, at least not without making it a long drawn out affair for the end consumer, especially the redressal part.

In addition the franchisee who is subcontracted the delivery is often the loose link, and the Private Brand/Govt. Agency that subcontracts portion of its operations to private/local players often will not/cannot ensure the quality of service. And the quality of service is in turn dependent upon the quality (and integrity/capability/professionalism) of people employed by the franchisee. Eventually, it’s the people – those who make up the system, and those who monitor it. People. Period.
An example: some years ago, before one could pay electricity dues online, the Govt. had subcontracted ‘collection’ to some citizens who operated it out of their homes, their regular windows functioning as transaction points. Fair enough. Someone got to earn a monthly payment for offering their home as a collection point, and I got a place to pay bills that was nearby, and the Govt. did not have to expend revenue to set up and staff one. Win-Win for all, or so I thought.
Only it didn’t work that way. There were times, many times, I’ve done several rounds of one such ‘collection point’ because the resident couldn’t be bothered being at home during the hours specified. People had no choice but to ‘kato pheri’ if they wanted to avoid long travel to the HQ during office hours, and the even longer queues even if they were to make the trip. Good intention got abused. And if the person who awarded the contract is related in some way to the one who got it, no number of complaints would help. A reality.

Favours are a means to cultivate constituencies so there’s rarely any corrective action taken or enforced. Again, reality. And hence, the power to grant (or refuse) a favour is most coveted in India.
Trust is large part down to work ethic. And work ethic is culture too. I doubt, more so now than anytime before, if work ethic can be totally divorced in all its aspects from the community, immediate and at large, starting with the family and then, the neighbourhood, and later, community affiliations and so on.
Acceptability of an action is often (not always) derived from precedents observed in another. It’s here I feel schools can play such a big role in fostering a common work ethic, starting with those where teachers come on time, are present on working days and do not draw Govt. pay on non-existent staff.
I do read the new Desipundit avataar on and off. Good to see Claude’s photo. He’s tramped around India a fair bit. I remember those days as well. Was good while it lasted. If not for curating the Flickr pool weekly, wouldn’t have had the opportunity to see what’s being photographed and where. And the captions, used to enjoy writing them.
I used to look forward to the weekly virtual tour. Only later, after ‘the end’, I learned that many used follow it only they couldn’t be bothered to say so (in comments) when it was alive. You did a great job for the duration Desipundit was up.

(Essentially I felt – Without a field for an url I wouldn’t know who the person is without querying by mail (discoverability), and might’ve helped if the system could allow ‘a connect via Blogger’ since many don’t have a G+ account they’ve populated with data that profiles them. Otherwise no issues).

In a way, I’m glad then Flipkart and other Indian vendors do offer that choice but would it be better for them to price that option a little higher since it costs them more? It would be an interesting case study to see what would people choose then.

No, that was not the point at all. That whole delivery process I described was dominated by personal contact, by the need for conversation (direct or on the phone), by the notion that a satisfied customer is not someone for whom the job is “done” (on time, in quality, etc) but someone who has been “taken care of personally”. This was the “Indianness” I was referring to, Patrix! The fact that it is inefficient is totally incidental. In fact, this was the whole point about the comment: technology may bring in efficiency, but for people other things may be important. (Viewed this way, between a service that offers a fully automated delivery – via delivery lockers in future: http://www.economist.com/node/21560918 – and a service that allows people to chat with the delivery guy and the lady on the phone, customers may even prefer the latter, who knows!)

Even eBay.in – which keeps the money in sort of an escrow account & pays seller after confirmation – sides with sellers often.

That is very different from how it is in the U.S. where online sites often side with the customers; sometimes to a fault. One of my posts on a dubious buyer on Amazon still gets comments on similar experiences. It has made me wary of selling my wares on Amazon. But buying, it has made me even more comfortable.

It could be more simple, I thought, but it couldn’t be more Indian!

Ha! That line is a killer but somehow disappoints me. It’s almost we are equating inefficiency as being something inherently Indian. But I get your point. As I try to explore, culture is at the root but often culture is influenced by external factors; one of which is policy and trust in infrastructure. Change, at least in the area I describe, will not happen overnight.

Thanks a lot for sharing your anecdote re: Flipkart. I’m sure they struggle with trying to grow their business while trying to keep their customers happy.

I’m glad to see you back; thought of you when I posted a photo yesterday on the ‘new’ DesiPundit :) What about this commenting system you don’t like? I thought it was better coz it was universal.

This lack of trust usually transfers from several bad experiences with other vendors/suppliers. So a new entrant bears the brunt not as a consequence of their service delivery but on account of those experienced with others.

When Govt. outlets (registered post, couriers etc) were the only modes because of wide network, I’ve known of people who were delivered parcels with cakes missing, packets with magazines missing, gift items except the items were pilfered, and purchases replaced with used or non-functioning items. I’ve experienced a few myself.

The supply chain needs to be trustworthy right from – Order placement (portal), Order fulfillment (packing), Order delivery (delivery boys), Order rollback (grievance redressal). Here, trust is generally lacking in each of the above.

To top it are instances where those who come to deliver around festival time have subjected recipients to “Diwali Hai, kuch bakshish do” knowing full well they won’t be refused because they’ll be the same hands that’ll bring home your next delivery.

One or repeated bad experience elsewhere is the barrier that faces other vendors.

(Liked your earlier commenting system better)