Punishing senior citizens? Flipkart, Shopsy stop Cash on Delivery in Ahmedabad!

By Rajiv Shah

The other day, someone close to me attempted to order some goodies on Flipkart and its subsidiary Shopsy. After preparing a long list of items, this person, as usual, opted for the Cash on Delivery (popularly known as COD) option, as this senior citizen isn't very familiar with online prepaid payment methods like UPI, credit or debit cards, or online bank transfers through websites.

In fact, she is hesitant to make online payments, fearing, "I may make a mistake," she explained, adding, "I read a lot about online frauds, so I always choose COD as it's safe. I have no knowledge of how to prepay online."

She has a valid concern. Many senior citizens in Ahmedabad, where I live, wish to shop online but refrain due to the fear of fraud, which seems imaginary to me but very real to them. "What if the item I purchased online with an advance payment is delivered to someone else?" one of them questioned. I observed this individual struggling with online shopping apps to order necessities, as age limits his and his wife's ability to venture out.

Upon discovering that Flipkart and Shopsy were refusing COD for online shopping, I attempted to use this option myself on the Flipkart and Shopsy apps—but to my surprise, I was also refused COD! Thinking it might be a locality-specific issue, I contacted their helpline, where I was informed the restriction was indeed area-related.

However, the helpline could not confirm whether this was temporary. I decided to try a different address in Ahmedabad—a posh locality in the Ellisbridge area where a relative resides. I thought that since my locality is a lower-middle class and middle-class area, COD might have been discontinued there, but surely it would be available in Ellisbridge. However, I was mistaken—COD was refused even in Ellisbridge!

Curious about the situation, I did some research to understand the change. We’ve frequently used COD on Flipkart and Shopsy before, so why the sudden restriction? I discovered that Flipkart hasn’t entirely discontinued COD; rather, it's unavailable in certain areas due to logistical challenges, security concerns, or courier partner policies. For high-value orders, Flipkart has restricted COD to prepaid options for quite some time.

Further investigation revealed that Flipkart and Shopsy are not exceptions in this matter. ShopClues has entirely stopped COD due to security and delivery efficiency concerns, as have Fynd, Paytm Mall, and Shopify India (which is "ending support for advanced COD apps for merchants"). Even Amazon India, the most popular online store, "sometimes disables COD for select areas or high-value orders." Similarly, Snapdeal "imposes caps or disables COD during certain periods."

This raises the question: Isn’t stopping COD compelling senior citizens to use prepaid options, which they are reluctant to adopt? And doesn’t this limit the business potential of online shops? I don't know the answer.

Meanwhile, I recall speaking to a senior citizen couple who have been living in the US for several decades. During my visit to their residence in New Jersey last year, the husband, in his late 60s, shared an experience about renewing his driving license. "I went to the office and told the person there that I am not familiar with computers, so I can’t book an appointment online. What options do I have?" he recounted. "The reply was prompt: No worries. We will handle it right away. My license was renewed after the official filled in all my details on the computer, while I provided the necessary documents and doctor's certificate."

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Search This Blog