The two stars are for the whole experience. Here is a summary:
I paid bajaao.com for my Epiphone Les Paul Modern on August 26, 2021 and it was delivered within a few days. So far, so good. But within five minutes, the neck pickup completely stopped working. The bridge pickup worked fine, and it looked like a great guitar, but - neck pickup just had no output. I called them and they asked me to send a video, which I did. Then I got a call-back from someone who said "it must be a loose contact, can you take it to a luthier in your town and get it fixed". I said no, it's a brand new item with a warranty which will be voided if anyone opens it up. Eventually they agreed to take it back and arranged for it to be picked up. Many days later they mailed me saying the guitar is fixed, and it came back. But when I tried to play it, I was shocked. They had re-wired it so that the bridge pickup was now playing in all switch positions! This was obvious, as neck and bridge pickups have separate volume controls. After their re-wiring, only the bridge pickup volume led to sound output, which was present in all three switch positions! At this point I called them and described the problem in detail. But they never acknowledged anything wrong had been done. I said please take it back and refund my money. To this, they agreed. They picked it up again and after a long delay I got my money back. Here is the timeline:
August 26: I paid by credit card.
August 30: Guitar arrived. The same day I informed them that neck pickup was not working.
September 4: Collected back by them.
September 19: They mailed me saying it is fixed.
September 21: I received it back, but incorrectly re-wired and neck pickup still not working. I informed them immediately.
September 22: Collected back by them, second time.
October 1: They mailed me saying refund will be given in 8-10 working days.
October 20: Still no refund received, so I reminded them.
October 24: Refund credited to my card.
Altogether two months start to finish! And ended with me not having the new guitar. I agree that products can be defective sometimes, but their method of dealing with the issue was not correct. They should have sent me a replacement and then got the defective guitar fixed (by a reliable person!). Still I have got my money back so at least the conclusion is satisfactory - though not at all pleasant.