I found a fake listing on Amazon

This happened with me on 15.04.2018, Sunday. I wanted to read Dan Brown’s Origins so I went to Amazon to buy a copy. Amazon told me the book after discount is available for Rs358. It also said that some other vendor on its platform is ready to sell it for Rs340. I calculated that it meant I could save Rs18. Nowadays for Rs18 one can’t even get a good pavbhaji but one can get a decent scoop of ice-cream. So I decided to save money for ice-cream and ordered from the cheapest seller. 

In evening I got a call from Mr. Cheapest Seller.

“You booked this Origins book from Amazon, right?” the Cheapest Seller asked.

“Yes, I did,” I replied. 

“The book we have is much more expensive than what you have ordered. You won't be able to afford it. Cancel your order.”

I think the original price of Origins’ hardcover copy is Rs799. I don’t know how the online vendor found out my financial position but I want to assure everybody who is reading this blog post that I can afford to spend Rs799 on a single book. However, if the vendor doesn’t want me to sell the book at the ordered price then I think I will take my business somewhere else instead of dealing with unscrupulous people. 

I wanted to tell the seller, “If you don’t want to sell the book at Rs340 then you shouldn’t have listed it on Amazon. Please don’t negotiate price after the order has been placed. I think this is cheating and I can’t trust any Amazon vendor anymore.”

But I didn’t

It was Sunday evening and I like to wait till Monday mornings to start acting grouchy. I told Mr. Cheapest Vendor that I will cancel the order and I did it as soon as the phone call was disconnected.

Thanks to everyone who read this blog post. I hope you have a wonderful day and don’t have to deal with a fraud online vendor ever. 

Revolution 20:20 ... Before you write its review ...

Chetan Bhagat’s new novel, Revolution 20:20, is now available on stands. I guess there are only three types of people who still don’t know about this:

1. People outside India. 
2. People that don’t have access to Twitter or TV. (ie People earning less than Rs 32 per day.) 
3. People for whom internet is equal to Email and Facebook. Email is for work and sending their CVs to friends and friends of friends. Facebook is for pics and chatting. (ie Orkutians on Facebook who click links which will tell you who visited your profile.) 

I purchased my copy of Revolution 20:20 today. I also have a blog. This makes me eligible to write a book review of Revolution 20:20 although last year i watched more movies based upon novels than the number of novels read by me. 

So what makes me eligible to review a best-selling author's book? Did i mention i have a Twitter account? Earlier you had to study hard and do some relevant work to become to an expert. Nowadays all you need is to just join Twitter. You don’t believe me. Check your timeline next time India is playing a cricket match. 

I guess all i want to say here is that if you are gonna trust my book review of Revolution 20:20 then i am sure you are gullible enough to accept that you have inherited your Nigerian Uncle’s fortune or won a lottery worth GBP 100 million or know who has visited your profile on Facebook.

Looking at the sales figure of Revolution 20:20 i am sure there are going to be lots of review of it. I am also sure most of them will be done by the following three kinds of people:

1. People have read CB’s earlier books and CB has not blocked them. A review saying it is a good story. 
2. People who have been blocked by CB on twitter. They will not review the book. They will tweet links telling you the book is now available on Flipkart for Rs 84. I guess these guys also judge people on the basis of the salary he/she earns. 
3. Wannabe writers. Review will be ….. you have guessed it, haven’t you? I wrote a 1,000 word blurb for this guy’s book. I hope in return my publisher is able to get a 20 word blurb for my book. 

The truth is whether you like it or not Revolution 20:20 is going to sell more copies this year than any other English novel in India. If you decide to review the book then please only review the book. After all if you think you are good enough to write a book review then i guess you must be good enough to your keep personal biases outside the review. If you don’t, you might get lots of comments on your blog but judging a book on the basis of its author is not the right way to write a book review.

To sum up

If you have read CB’s earlier books and enjoyed them you are going to love Revolution 20:20. If you have been blocked by CB on twitter there is no need to tell us at how much discount the book is now available. Only those who have been blocked by CB on twitter are interested in it and there are not many of them.