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And today they arrived. Eventually. With a Rs.700 customs bill, and the necessity to remove the sticky residue where Customs had taped the wooden box. Never mind, I have stuff that will do that.

Starting with DHL in USA, and proceding via
Germany, the parcel was passed to ordinary post and delivered by the postman. snail mail international, and as-long-as-it-takes for customs clearance.

To be honest, I do not remember the shipping options. I probably got what I paid for. I only remember that the cheapest was too expensive.

Have given appropriate feedback to Massdrop, but bottom line is that buying from Amazon (USA) is a much better experience where they can match the price.

Any idea where can i buy the suction cups online ? I have Polco sun blinds and the suction cups sold at the red lights / roadside will not fit it, since it uses special side cut suction cups. Without these the sun blinds are of no use. :(

I expect on-line trade to get a fillip, once GST comes in. Many states have artificial restrictions of stuff from other states. So these will have to go away. UP restricts stuff above 10k (now 50k on Amazon). Bengal has also got some restrictions, as used to be the case with MP.

Is it UP government restricting, or Amazon restricting? I believe it is the latter due to pilferage, theft, fraud and sundry other reasons.

Ordered a Luminous inverter from Amazon (Cloudtail, Amazon-fulfilled. Is Cloudtail part of Amazon?) and was not convinced that it was new/unused. There was grease on the cabinet and the manual, and the warranty had been cut and was missing.

Just a couple of clicks to get the return/reorder (I selected missing parts and ex[plained in text) and I chose to take it to a drop point to avoid the vagaries of the couriers. Actually, a friendly auto driver took it for me as it would have been an impossible place to park.

But I forgot to make a note of the serial number :Frustrati

Correct. It was restricted by amazon some 2 odd years back when people would do COD on high value items & thrash poor courier guys for no faults of their. They would not even deliver to noida which is part of NCR at a distance of just 5 km;s or less at many places.

Flipkart still has similar restrictions if my memory serves me correctly.

Is it Amazon or the logistic partner? I am unable to decide. I ordered Surf excelmatic washing powder and deodorant on 3rd April. The items after jumping through so many intermediate points, reaches Trivandrum hub on 8th April. But till date it is not delivered. Now I get a message on my a/c that if i do not receive it before 16th April , approach for alternate options! What to do?

India is not a full tax compliant Country. We have producers who procur, produce & sell and reinvest in Cash while it does not touching any formal banking or govt tracking. This was win win for buyers and producers/sellers.

With Online business some State wanted touch point in this Ship from Gurugram online Business where they had no say, so they created barrier like WB/TN/UP. Many a times product will route via WB or imports from HK etc to provide a better price. Like Grey etc.

So not all goods will become cheaper as anything grey offline or online will vanish.

Heard of a new rule in GST where anything worth 50k or above if transportation by vendor will need prior permission. Imagine 50K worth is like 1/2 Tata Ace or 1 Tata Ace.

Transfer of wall street wealth to Indian Consumers via online shopping is almost over. Producer Companies managed offline and online channel by tweeking product line thus maintaining harmony in offline and online channel.

Competition in mobile and white goods industry between Online and Offline bought price difference to max Rs1000 in offline and online. And Mi launches itself via flash sale was a turning point.

Now it is competition for survival and Amazon is ready to sell & Ship Rs 70 worth Filter coffee which vends at the corner store as well, and trying to better them. Like Coke thinks of Lime water vend as competition, Hyper competition between Online vs Offline will intensify. Plus GST will add in more compliance for offline retailers as compared to online retailers.

Intresting times as easy profit days for companies are over and if big fishes find food difficult then there is only one way, end time of small unorganised not efficient fishes.

Cloudtail is Amazon. You can definitely trust a product sold and shipped via cloudtail. Can't explain the used look though!

Thad,

Cloudtail is a 51:49 JV between NRN (Infy founder) & Amazon IPL and Amazon's biggest 'third-party' seller.

http://www.livemint.com/Companies/Rj...-in-India.html

I have had excellent experience with them so hopefully no worries. Keep us in the loop.

Thanks both.

My inverter has been taken to the drop point and accepted. Almost immediately Amazon tells me that a new one has been despatched, but from a different seller. Due in two days.

I didn't get as far as plugging it in. I've been stung in past when not returning an item that didn't look untouched. The Luminous inverter certainly gave the impression of heavyweight build, though. Very solid-looking and feeling.

This is all because I shelved my dream of solar power for another year!

A colleague has recently put in a request for a Paytm wallet upgrade. She got the following response as a Whatsapp message:

She asked the guy if a passport photo is sufficient but he insists she send multiple selfie photos.

Why is a selfie preferred over a passport pic? She doesnt feel comfortable sending a random guy selfie pics. Calling the customer care felt like talking to a wall.

Is this a usual practice? Or is the guy being sneaky?

Did she receive the message on WhatsApp from Paytm ?

If so, Paytm data is not secured. And second thing, the message seems to be a fake one. Let her not contact the same no. but only through Call Centre.

Or better, switch the wallet to a safer one. As per the prevailing KYC norms, only Passport size photo is required. This is the first time, I'm hearing about a Selfie for KYC.

And that too to be shared to a random Gmail address and even to WhatsApp. I'd pass if I were her. The fact that the ID docs list does not include PAN card is another red flag (written on the fly and not a canned response).

Many red flags:
1. "Submit" spelling wrong
2. "Today itself". Why this urgency?
3. "Selfie photo". Hearing this for the first time
4. "My email" spelling wrong
5. "Submit", again spelling wrong
6. Gmail address, really???
7. Feel free to contact to the same number.. Why? Why not the call center?

Too many red flags. She should pass. From what I know, Paytm insists on sending the executive physically for KYC, or you need to go personally to their verification centers for this. The message may well have been sent by any of the verification centers, but why take a chance with potential harassment?