[Turbanator]

As per Indian law, MRP can be absolutely anything

I believe unlike western countries, there can be only One MRP that too fixed by Manufacturer or Principal Importer. Normally Amazon is fair and mentions correct MRP, now there can be different discounts on that MRP which are certain time referred as MOP - Minimum operating prices or Best Buy Prices. If we see MRP of both screenshots, its same Rs6480, however, subsequent discounting is different which is fair. Others like Snapdeal will simply do not mention MRP or even use wrong prices say the price of higher end model and show more discounts.

have a look at imac, amazon has mentioned correct MRP and Discounts whereas Snapdeal inflated ( higher model )

[heydj]

In ecommerce marketplace vendors have their own panel through which they upload the product catalog with prices, details, and images.

Amazon/Flipkart etc. has already decided well in advance for which category they will charge how much commission and given the dimensions if its free delivery for customer then how much to charge vendor for logistics.

Keeping this in mind vendors have a base price reserved for their items and then add commission+logistics+discount that marketplace will show to customer and then list retail price.

Problem here is that these big marketplaces have upwards of 100K SKU on their portal, it is not physically possible to check all vendor listings to ensure MRP on box matches MRP listed on website. Maximum they can do is have guidelines for dimensions category wise and suggested retail prices. This breaks down as sellers take advantage of it (e.g. head to automotive category to see undersized dimensions listed on products), by doing this vendors get away with less logistics charges to be borne.

Warehousing solves some of these issues but not all. Anyways listing price as MRP is incorrect on marketplace part and runs foul with regulations. Moreover incorrect also because lot of these items such as mobile holders etc. come in bulk without any box and then vendor just puts it in packaging and depending on commission agreed add a pricing sticker.

Over a period of time lot of these websites will instead show it as Listing price etc.

[Thad E Ginathom]

Refreshingly free of excrement

I had ordered a PC sound card from Amazon.UK. It was quite a long delivery period, and I was patient, but four days after the promised delivery day, and nine days after seeing any movement on i-parcel tracking, I emailed Amazon to complain about non-delivery. Reply, within 24 hours, you did not receive your order; sorry, we'll send another one.

This is David from Amazon, I have received your enquiry relating to order _____

I'm sorry to hear that your ESI Sound Card didn’t arrive, despite placing the order on September 26th.

I've placed a new order for the same item and it'll be dispatched as soon as possible to the same address. There'll be no additional charge for your replacement order.

I've upgraded your replacement delivery method to make sure you receive it as soon as possible, at no extra charge to you, due to the inconvenience caused.

If the original parcel arrives afterwards and you don't want to keep it, please refuse the delivery and the carrier will return it to us. Or, if the original parcel arrives afterwards and you do want to keep it, let us know and we’ll recharge your payment card.

The estimated delivery date for your replacement order is between Friday, 21 October 2016 and Monday, 24 October 2016.

Corporate script writers please note. Amazon gets it right here!

And... well, we'll see if I get it this time!

[naveenroy]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

Refreshingly free of excrement

I had ordered a PC sound card from Amazon.UK. It was quite a long delivery period, and I was patient, but four days after the promised delivery day, and nine days after seeing any movement on i-parcel tracking, I emailed Amazon to complain about non-delivery. Reply, within 24 hours, you did not receive your order; sorry, we'll send another one.


Corporate script writers please note. Amazon gets it right here!

And... well, we'll see if I get it this time!

Contrast that to the scum that Amazon India has become. All my last orders have been hell to chase up on! Some middle level manager must have decided to make a higher profit margin for the company.

[gsurya]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

I believe unlike western countries, there can be only One MRP that too fixed by Manufacturer or Principal Importer.

I dont know of any country who has the MRP concept anymore, its an archaic law, but we kept it because of our complex excise rules & pervasive tax evasion. Maybe some day after GST is settled in...

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by naveenroy

Contrast that to the scum that Amazon India has become. All my last orders have been hell to chase up on! Some middle level manager must have decided to make a higher profit margin for the company.

Shame. It would be points for them if they managed to standardise, err... standards across the globe. As long as they chose the good ones, of course!

[gsurya]

Originally Posted by naveenroy

Contrast that to the scum that Amazon India has become. All my last orders have been hell to chase up on! Some middle level manager must have decided to make a higher profit margin for the company.

Surprised at this feedback, my delivery, returns & refund experiences with Amazon have been the best in India. Have had unpleasant issues with Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong & the worst, eBay. In my opinion, Amazon India has set the gold standard for eCommerce experience in India.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by gsurya

Surprised at this feedback, my delivery, returns & refund experiences with Amazon have been the best in India. Have had unpleasant issues with Flipkart, Snapdeal, Jabong & the worst, eBay. In my opinion, Amazon India has set the gold standard for eCommerce experience in India.

Your experience just adds to the overall point. E-commerce customer service in India isn't uniformly good or bad. It's INCONSISTENT, and that can be a deal-breaker to many.

If experience with a service provider tends to swing between 'great' and 'lousy' at the sole discretion of the service provider in question, how long can their customers' trust and patience last before they move on to something else?

P.S. I'm not much of an online shopper, and I'm definitely not part of the 'want it now' bunch so I usually don't grumble about minor delays, but in the few instances that I did have to complain about something, I realized that most service providers in India across the board barely go beyond lip service, almost nobody bothers to fix the root cause. The best you can expect is a one-time resolution and some cheap freebies (coupons or credit) to retain one as a customer, if at all. The onus is on getting rid of the complaint ASAP by whatever means necessary, not fix issues.

[Turbanator]

In my opinion, Amazon India has set the gold standard for eCommerce experience in India

I will agree, returns are so easy and most of the time they will credit within few hours of return pickup. But this may vary from place to place, I always get parcels on time in Chandigarh whereas in Gurgaon even when shipped with ATS, my experience has been bad. Of all the e-commerce players they are definitely best.

[condor]

Originally Posted by Obi-Wan

I have recently purchased an Infinity Reference 1200S shallow mount Subwoofer from Paytm

Hi Obi-Wan.. how is this sub ? Still good, I hope .. I am seeing some offers for this, so wanted to check.

[diyguy]

Slightly OT but there is a lot of press about debit card (and/or credit card) information being hacked, why has no bank come out with specific dos and donts?
I have reduced the atm and transaction limit of my debit card and changed pins and passwords. However I was unable to do it from the web or app for international transactions and have emailed my relationship manager at the bank.
Has anyone else done anything different? Anything else needs to be taken care of?

[BenjiRoss]

I'm considering getting Amazon Prime mainly to see if the videos and movies offered will be worth the Rs. 499. At even one movie watched a month, this is worth it.
My concern is my internet speed which is usually 1-2 MBPS at best. Will this be enough to stream SD content. I'm not interested in HD content.

[KD007]

Ordered a Redmi note 3 at 11:30 pm with Rs.150 as delivery charges for quick delivery. Got it the next day at 10:20 am. Well done amazon and this is during their diwali sale.

In an another instant, wife ordered a heat pad for 725 and separate orders for several other things, the agent asked for 799 and the warranty/bill on top of box was missing. I asked about the bill and he said it's inside, looked fishy so I said the price is not 799 and then he checked on his device and it showed 725 which I paid. An attempt by the courier guy to make some money. Sad since it doesn't look right on them even though it is the individual to be blamed. Others please beware.

So I have the heat pad with no bill (it was not inside the box also). What to do?

[binand]

Originally Posted by BenjiRoss

My concern is my internet speed which is usually 1-2 MBPS at best. Will this be enough to stream SD content.

Let us do the arithmetic. Assuming 40 MB/minute of video, you need to be able to stream at about 700 KB/second (5.5 Mbps) with near-zero latency and consistent performance. In my view the experience will be poor at anything less than 8 Mbps. Your 1-2 Mbps is not going to cut it.

Amazon Prime allows offline caching, if I recall correctly.

[BenjiRoss]

Originally Posted by binand

Let us do the arithmetic. Assuming 40 MB/minute of video, you need to be able to stream at about 700 KB/second (5.5 Mbps) with near-zero latency and consistent performance. In my view the experience will be poor at anything less than 8 Mbps. Your 1-2 Mbps is not going to cut it.

Amazon Prime allows offline caching, if I recall correctly.

I googled around and found the Amazon US Prime FAQs which states:
Standard Definition (SD) videos: 900 Kbits/sec
High Definition (HD) videos: 3.5 Mbits/sec

Your calculations are spot on.
Now at the risk of getting beaten up by the tech experts, could you do the bits versus bytes and the kilo vs mega calculations and let me me know if I can still splurge the 499 Rs?
To be honest, I may still splurge it as I may end up watching some TV serials too.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/custo...deId=201422810