[robbie_KL]

Having spent a majority of my life in Delhi and being well aware of how Karol Bagh operates, I never dared take my car or bike to Karol Bagh for any kind of work, let alone order anything by courier while being thousands of miles away.

In my opinion, these "youtubers" are part of the scam and receive some kick backs from owners of these accessory shops to advertise their products online. Especially this chap called Musafir, who claims to be a car expert, but has zero technical or mechanical knowledge of cars. Watching any of his videos makes that quite evident. He advises people on everything from car seats to stereos to alloys and what not!! I recall him having opened a car accessories shop himself in partnership with this Sooraj chap, i think its called Musafir cars and is somewhere in Dwarka.

[charanreddy]

+ 1 to all the recommendations out here. India has matured so much on the e-commerce front. E-Commerce giants have a lot of policies built in which safe guard a buyer and seller from fraud practices. It's worth paying a little bit more for comfort of mind, rather than trusting people from you tube directly. But having gone through the ordeal, leave a feedback on Google / Facebook so others don't fall prey to these practices also on the guy Musafir's you tube channel. If he promotes a business on youtube, he also needs to take the fall for the deficiencies / fraud of that business.

[AkMar]

Originally Posted by chiranjitp

An YouTube video on this store:

Thanks a lot for sharing your friend's experience. It will serve as a warning for many buyers. This thread seems to have spread quite fast, as the quoted Youtube video has been made private/deleted within hours after this thread went live! Thats the power of Team BHP! This also confirms that the Youtubers are hand in glove with the scamsters.

[harry10]

Originally Posted by robbie_KL

Having spent a majority of my life in Delhi and being well aware of how Karol Bagh operates, I never dared take my car or bike to Karol Bagh for any kind of work, let alone order anything by courier while being thousands of miles away.

Seconded. This Musafir guy must be the dumbest car expert I have ever seen. In fact I have better car stuff knowledge than him when I dont even consider myself any sort of expert.

My office is in Karolbagh so I very well know how the market operates. Personally I like to keep everything stock so don't have any recent experiences with these accessory shops. However, in future if I do need to indulge, getting scammed has low probability considering I am local and can easily come back to them.

Agree with other members. If your stuff is available at Amazon it will be my first priority to buy from them.

[chiranjitp]

Before replying I think it will be better to share my personal experience of buying things from Delhi. I bought speakers + damping sheets from a guy in Delhi, Bhpian Sidindica knew him personally, so went ahead with the purchase. The parts arrived in a short period of time.

Then few months back I bought projector fogs with HIDs from Delhi, the contact information of the seller (Blaze India) was given to me by Bhpian Dr. Naren. Many other BHPians have also bought things from him & everyone (including me) has had positive experience with him.

Of course I haven't seen these 2 guys on any Youtube videos (yet).

Originally Posted by GTO

Thanks for sharing . Your thread will go to our homepage today.

There are many reputable car accessory providers running solid operations on Amazon, AutoFurnish, Elegant Auto, Roger Motors and so on. Better to properly buy online on stores with a good reputation and with your credit card.

Thanks GTO. I personally would never trust anyone by watching YouTube videos. My friend was young & naive then, I hope he has learnt his lesson.

Originally Posted by vigsom

Youtubers earn money by posting their videos on line. Take their reviews with a pinch of salt.

In 2010, I ordered a Toyota Corolla stereo dash kit, a Toyota wiring harness from a very reputed installer in Bangalore after reading through several reviews on this very forum. What I got was a low quality wiring harness and the Soosche (not Scosche) dash kit for an Innova. I didn't pursue the return of goods since it wasn't worth the effort and money and eventually went for the right kit from a distributor in my own city then.

Yes, these Youtubers earn some money as a commission from the accessories store they promote on Youtube. Personally I feel there's nothing wrong in that, but when you are wholeheartedly promoting someone, you should be ready to take responsibility as well.

Sorry to hear about your experience. In my friend's case, there was nothing wrong with the actual product as such. The issue here was not sending any thing at all.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Extremely risky to place orders from such dealers when you have eCommerce giants like Amazon and others who offer better, reliable and a trustworthy service.

The biggest problem I see when you order from such "reputed" stores is the accountability. They care less when it comes to that and there are chances that you may get a damaged, wrong or a counterfeit product and still never be able to sort it out and get what you ordered or even a refund.

Thanks for the informative post. Actually that's the main issue here, you can't properly hold anyone accountable if anything goes wrong. Generally no proper bills are given in such transactions.

Originally Posted by paragsachania

Only recently, I ordered a pair or component speakers from Amazon, that was delivered next day and upon opening the package I found out that it contained just one oval speaker, totally damaged and broken thermocol inside.

Very strange, generally these E-com sites are very reliable. Anyways glad to see that the issue was quickly resolved by the seller.

Originally Posted by sagarpadaki

From my experience on watching these Dilli car modification YouTube channel, most of them are fraud. My colleague had a similar bad experience influenced by a YouTuber who also runs an accessory shop in Kashmiri Gate in Delhi. Paid money for Custom made leather seat covers for his Figo and transferred 20K for pure leather seat covers. He lost the money after a bunch of follow up with the guy over call and whataspp. This was somewhere around the end of last year.

It seems like that only, since I am hearing more & more cases of frauds by these Youtuber recommended accessory stores. Did your friend manage to get his money back?

Originally Posted by swarnava.ch

Thanks a lot for sharing your friend's experience with us.
This is very scary and a lesson to learn for us.
Last point would be the key takeaway. I feel after doing enquiry and negotiations with such a shop, it’s better to request any friend / acquaintance to visit the shop personally to pick up the stuff and courier it so that you we are not paying blindly.

Thanks swarnava.ch. If one must buy things from any unknown guy, it's best that someone (friend/acquaintance) personally go to the store, pick up the things & ship it.

Originally Posted by PrideRed

When the supplier is not reputed for shipping items, avoid or opt only for COD. I remember carplus.in website which used to offer accessories at good discount. Despite the cheap price I did not order purely because of lack of confidence.

Sadly in my friend's case, there was no option of COD. Hence he was left with no option other than to transfer the full amount.

Originally Posted by audioholic

These car accessories video pops up on my YouTube feed too due to obvious reasons, but they are nothing but Chinese c*** being marketed as big time mods.

A major fact as Parag and others have mentioned is that with the presence of e-commerce sites, option of COD for the shady sites, I see no reason such transactions over phone or whatsapp is needed. There is no product that is available in Delhi and not available in J C Road, Bangalore. For the remote places there could be lesser availability, I think it can still be managed by contacting some local shops who could arrange. But this business of doing a money transfer based on some recommendation or connection is definitely without any guarantee.

Thanks for the informative post. E-com sites are the safest option to buy anything online. As for getting things locally, in a smaller place like Guwahati the issue is that most of the things are not available easily, even if they are available, the stores here would charge an unreasonable amount.

You are aware about the projector fogs that I have fitted in the Ecosport, I bought them from a seller based in Delhi (of course I cross checked about the guy before ordering) for 6.9k. The same thing is sold in Guwahati by only one store, that too for 14k.

Originally Posted by Balthazar

One tip I can give you is to use a credit card for online transactions. Any online transaction.

You have the option of charging back the amount. It's an incredible safety net, especially for online transactions. Just dispute the charge, and the bank will handle the rest. If the bank is satisfied, the transaction is reversed. If the bank decides to reverse the amount, there is nothing the seller can do.

Thanks for the information, I am not entire aware about it. I generally use my Credit card only when there's a secured payment Gateway. Can a credit card be used to transfer money directly to someone's account?

My friend is a student & I don't think he has a credit card for his personal use. So credit card option was out in his case.

Originally Posted by Manoj2268

My experience with nearly all accessories shops of Karol bagh is negative to say the least. One can count on fingers the number of shops that are genuine.

Thanks for sharing your experience with the accessories stores of Karol bagh. Fortunately in my friend's case, the product that he bought was a branded one (a Pioneer HU). As for the seat covers, it was locally made. Quality of both the things as per my friend is very good, no complain with the actual product.

[abhi9044]

Sorry to hear about your friend. I remember two years ago when I was in my second year of college I decided to go to Karol Bagh after watching this Musafir's video. But it turned out to be a blunder.
Then was thinking of buying some seat covers from this Suraj guy, again after watching this Musafir's video. But decided to check out the comments. That was enough to ring my bells. Everyone in the comments was saying how bad Suraj is. He's only intrested in selling the products and if you try to contact him for warranty (he claims lifetime warranty on his seat covers) he won't talk to you or if he does, he is very arrogant.
Also as many of them have mentioned, most of these guys from YouTube like Musafir, Rahul,etc don't know a crap about cars( Just watch their servicing videos).
Also my suggestion if you absolutely have to place order with them then before placing order with these vendors try to take a look at the comments on YouTube and also check for Google Ratings as well.

Abhishek

[Balthazar]

Originally Posted by chiranjitp

Yes, these Youtubers earn some money as a commission from the accessories store they promote on Youtube. Personally I feel there's nothing wrong in that, but when you are wholeheartedly promoting someone, you should be ready to take responsibility as well.

This is a red flag. If they earn a commission from these shops, then they have to inform the viewers by placing a "includes paid promotion" banner in the video. All this falls under the category of Paid Product Placements.

Additionally, they have to inform YouTube, otherwise it is considered a violation of the ToS and their videos can be demonetized and their channels suspended.

Now, of course, proving that they are being to paid to swarm YouTube with the low effort bullcrap they call content is another matter.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by Balthazar

This is a red flag. If they earn a commission from these shops, then they have to inform the viewers by placing a "includes paid promotion" banner in the video.
Additionally, they have to inform YouTube, otherwise it is considered a violation of the ToS and their videos can be demonetized and their channels suspended.
.

Actually I didnt think of this angle. These guys should be reported since they are endorsing the business and yet making money. Maybe a mass report will work?

[SuperSuri]

I know through my sources that this Musafir guy charges Rs.60000/video (don't quote me on that, a friend approached him for his shop's promotion) now as his subscriber count has increased in the past one year. This guy doesn't even know the terms used for automobiles. Promoting someone's business is his job for which he gets the money. But these shops from Karol Bagh are usually not trustworthy for online transactions. I'm from Delhi and feel sad that the city also gets defamed somewhere down the line due to such incidents.

Moral: Always request your contact from Delhi to arrange it for you or check the reputed stores mentioned by GTO. Don't take a chance!

[ShivWason17]

Never, I repeat never buy any accessories on the recommendations of this ‘Musafir’ guy. He has little to no knowledge about any car’s or accessories’ mechanical/ technical aspects. He has himself opened up musafir store now for selling cheap accessories.

Not just about this guy, one should rather stay away from these karol bagh stores for ordering stuff online, its just a gamble.

[Kottayamkaran]

I have ordered multiple items from online pages in instagram and facebook and luckily never had any bad experience till now. Had ordered a door light for my car before the lock down from one of the online pages and then lockdown happened. I thought my money was gone. But the guy promptly couriered the item once parcel services started operating and I received the item in June. I am lucky i guess.

[city2491]

I have also personally experienced this. All contacts of Misafir Aka Joshi are dubious characters. Only one to be trusted is Aman from MotorConcept.

I tried to buy a android for my car, and the Hypersonic guy, Prince, was least bothered to even sell me that product, so I didn't feel comfortable sending money to him. Also asked the Musafir fellow on WhatsApp, just see the conversation:



He dares to ask what I will do with 4GB. I can do whatever I want because I'm paying for it.

Even if you watch his videos, you'll see that he has 0 knowledge about cars and does loud and unnecessary things which won't even be a real modification, just an accessory then claims. "Only 1 in India/Delhi"

If any of our members want to purchase audio products, I'll suggest MotoRouge.in . I personally know the owner, and they have a shop in Laminton Road. I have bought many audio products from them. And after all if there is any problem you can PM me to ask the owner himself.

Conclusion: Never ever trust any of these so called YouTubers, they just want your money, nothing else...

[chiranjitp]

Originally Posted by AkMar

Thanks a lot for sharing your friend's experience. It will serve as a warning for many buyers. This thread seems to have spread quite fast, as the quoted Youtube video has been made private/deleted within hours after this thread went live! Thats the power of Team BHP! This also confirms that the Youtubers are hand in glove with the scamsters.

Thanks for noticing, the first video on the thread seems to have been made private by the Youtuber in question. So, I am posting 2 other videos on that store:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8N4HnQbgAQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXvOeoK9Q4o

P.S- When it comes to Rakha car accessories, my friend didn't exactly follow only one Youtuber (unlike in the case of Krishna car shringar where he went ahead on the recommendation of the Musafir guy).

Originally Posted by Balthazar

This is a red flag. If they earn a commission from these shops, then they have to inform the viewers by placing a "includes paid promotion" banner in the video. All this falls under the category of Paid Product Placements.

Originally Posted by audioholic

Actually I didnt think of this angle. These guys should be reported since they are endorsing the business and yet making money. Maybe a mass report will work?

Thanks guys, learnt a new thing. I wasn't aware that for paid promotional videos you are required to put a disclaimer. Of course they don't talk about the paid promotion part in their videos, they like to showcase their videos as educational videos .

Anyways as audioholic has said, maybe we could do a mass report. I am sure there are enough people, who have burnt their hands on recommendation of these Youtubers.

Originally Posted by Kottayamkaran

I have ordered multiple items from online pages in instagram and facebook and luckily never had any bad experience till now. Had ordered a door light for my car before the lock down from one of the online pages and then lockdown happened. I thought my money was gone. But the guy promptly couriered the item once parcel services started operating and I received the item in June.

Thanks for sharing your story, it's nice to see people having positive experience as well. In my friend's case, he has had many positive experiences of ordering parts from Kerala. Even from Delhi, he still frequently orders parts from 2 stores that he trusts & has had only positive experience.

[hkborah]

I almost fell for this.
I wanted an Android head unit for my accord. Since nowhere in Guwahati this was available I looked on YouTube. The same names popped up. Spoke to the same set of people and they offered to courier me the package to Guwahati.
I realized all of their products are generic Chinese stuff. If you want to buy Chinese stuff (even now) better buy from the Chinese Website. The exact same stuff is available there for 50 percent of the price. Infact I also ordered a DVR to go with the Android HU. It didn't arrive and my money got refunded by Aliexpress.
I had used my debit card for the transaction and money was returned in full to my bank.
One thing that differentiates one seller from another is reputation. Bigger players won't worry about a single piece at the expense of their reputation.

[Sherlocked]

Now that I think of it I realize that I have had bad experience every time with these auto accessories shops. I am sure there are good and genuine shops out there but most of the guys operating these stores are like this Sooraj guy only.
They have mastery in this principle called jugaad which I guess works with general public but never with us Team-BHPians.

This Musafir is also a very shady guy. It's sad to see that such a vast public follows him but I am sure he is bringing some very good business to himself and to the guys he promotes.
OK report and ek number is how he describes the stuff he promotes with zero technical information.

But I must say that I have had pretty good experience with Amazon (I always go with Amazon Fulfilled sellers) and with Autotrends.in.