Amazing deal from MakeMyTrip

MakeMyTrip has an amazing offer ongoing on Air ticket bookings - http://www.makemytrip.com/promotion/includes/FestiveMMT_Intflights_19092014.php?intid=iflp_hero_IF-festive_19092014

You can save a whopping amount of Rs 5000 on your ticket booking with this deal. Too good right?

Here's the catch, you get 5000 back if you book tickets worth Rs 300,000. Yep, that's right Rs 300,000. I am going to guess a first class ticket to US would cost that much, but then you wouldn't bother about the Rs 5000 if you had the money to throw around for first class, would you?

For mere mortals like us, if we book up to Rs 20,000, we get a grand sum of Rs 150 back. Yay!

Highest bail amount ever?

Apparently reports are out that Sahara group chief Subrata Roy has been set a bail amount of Rs 10,000 crore (http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/sc-asks-sahara-group-to-deposit-rs-10000-crore-to-grant-bail-to-subrata-roy/articleshow/32720775.cms).

That's more than $1.5 Billion!

Google search reveals that highest ever bail amount set in US was $100 Million for Raj Rajaratnam after being arrested for insider trading.

So this must be record.

Selling a laptop on-line and Nigerian scams

Recently I changed to a new laptop and put up the old one for sale on-line. I listed it on a couple of popular sites Quikr (http://bangalore.quikr.com/) and Olx (http://www.olx.in/). Within a day I had a two responses, one from a doctor and another someone with a random id.

Well the doctor, having a proper south Indian name and Gmail id with a family picture to go with his profile, claimed he was in Scotland and wanted more details on the laptop, which I replied and sent. The next day I got reply stating that the doctor wanted me to ship the laptop to his son in Nigeria!

A quick search on Google reveals that this is an another popular Nigerian scam. The buyer asks you accept payment via Paypal and dispatch the item using DHL to an address in Nigeria, making a story like although he himself is in Scotland/UK, his son is in Nigeria and its a gift for him. On agreement you get a mail, fake of course, from Paypal that the payment has been made and you have to provide a DHL tracking id for Paypal to release funds to your account. You can guess the rest, you send the laptop and never hear of it again or the money.

Similar story with the random id guy.

A few of points to keep in mind when selling on-line, and I got lucky here:

1. Create a a new random email id to list the item
2. Do not put your mobile/name on the listing. Add mobile only if required for listing
3. When responding to buyers, again do not give out your mobile/name at first. Have them send their mobile number and you call them

Flipkart "In-a-day guarantee"

Flipkart recently started "In-a-day guarantee" service http://www.flipkart.com/in-a-day. So you place an order by 6 pm and get it delivered by next day. So how may day's should it take to deliver  "In-a-day guarantee" order?

One? Two? Three?

I recently place an order and it was un-delivered for three days until I cancelled it. Customer Service only offered that they had sent it wring pin code but still could not tell when it would actually be delivered.

I did get a consolation amount Rs 180 as store credit, but so much for  "In-a-day guarantee"...