Well as you know, the Rs. 500 and its bigger sibling, the Rs. 1000 note is currently banned by the Modi govt in a totally and boldly surprising move since midnight on Tuesday this week. This is the latest chess move in what seems to be an increasingly desperate fight against counterfeiting, black money and corruption and disparate reactions has since been rolling in. Various e-commerce websites have temporarily disabled their cash on delivery options in pecuniary sympathy to avoid being unwittingly paid with the notes. With the mighty Amazon brand leading the panting pack.
According to Amazon, which has completely disabled its COD, it says that
We have disabled COD for you to save cash for essential payments.
Which is mightily disingenuous because what is worrying it is not your not having money for your “essential payments” whatever that might be, but their delivery people inadvertently accepting the banned Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes.
Its playmates like Flipkart and Snapdeal, on the other hand, have only limited the COD option for certain items below Rs. 2000 in value. And Flipkart will also not accept the notes in payment for its varied services. Snapdeal is additionally displaying a reminder message for its customers on its website who might be unaware of the reasons for the COD suspension after just coming back from a vacation to Mars. Uber though allows cash payments with a proviso: its drivers are forbidden on pain of death of accepting the Rs. 500 or Rs. 1000 notes. Paytm irritatingly offers contradicting information. Grofers and Ola though currently accept all cash, though probably not the banned ones. Table booking apps such as Swiggy and Zomato have similarly disabled their COD options and don’t accept the notes.
Currently, acceptance of cash is really spotty across India, and it would really be a wise move to deposit your Rs. 500 and Rs. 1000 notes in the bank today and save yourself some really big stress and some crafty explanation to the authorities.