Avoid VRP Telematics on Amazon. Sent a heavily scratched, used Fossil watch and now Amazon is illegally retaining my ₹13.1k after return pickup.
Hey everyone, writing this post as both a massive warning to anyone buying watches on Amazon India right now, and to document a bizarre case of corporate gaslighting.
The Order: * Model: Fossil Chronograph (FS4656)
- Price: ₹13,194 (EMI purchase)
- Seller: VRP Telematics (Appario's replacement, widely trusted, but clearly failing basic QA)
The Incident: I unboxed the watch on April 15th, and thank god I had my phone set up on a stand to record a single, continuous, unboxing video. The moment the watch came out of the tin, it was clear this wasn't a factory-new piece, possibly fake. The protective plastic films were entirely missing, the paperwork inside the box was visibly soiled, and the watch's bezel and caseback were covered in hairline scratches and scuff marks. It was a clear customer return repackaged and sold as brand new.
The Support Nightmare: I immediately initiated an escalation loop with Amazon's "Specialist" and "Executive Customer Relations (ECR)" teams. Over three weeks, I dealt with massive internal incompetence—agents abandoning calls after 18-minute holds and breaching their own promised resolution deadlines three separate times.
Finally, on May 5th, a senior leadership agent acknowledged the used condition on a recorded line and manually overrode the system to authorize a return pickup (the regular delivery partners had been refusing to touch it because it was "used").
The Legal Fraud: This is where it gets criminal:
- May 6: Amazon Logistics physically picked up the scratched watch from my house. The return was successful.
- May 9: Amazon officially responded to a National Consumer Helpline (NCH) docket I had opened. To avoid paying out the refund, they shamelessly told the NCH that the item was delivered "intact" and closed the case permanently without a refund.
- The Catch: I checked my Amazon dashboard tracker. The return package was officially logged as "Received" at their processing warehouse on May 10th.
Think about the sheer bad faith here: Amazon told a government regulator on May 9th that my case was rejected, an entire day BEFORE their own warehouse had even physically received the package to inspect it.
Current Status: They have the watch. They have my ₹13,000/-. Because it's an EMI transaction, I am actively being hit with bank interest and processing fees every single day for an asset I do not possess. When I called them back, a front-line agent gave me the standard "Ap nishchint rahiye, May 18 tak refund aa jayega. Specialist team kaam kar rahi hai, hum kuch nahi kar sakte" de-escalation script, without even trying to connect me to the specialist teams despite requesting over 5 times in the last 15 days. Their teams on specialist teams do not revert, social media teams lies on twitter that they have sent a mail, which when I proved that hasn't been received stopped reverting.
I am taking this straight to the Consumer Commission via e-Jagriti next week for Unfair Trade Practices and Deficiency in Service.
Link to my active X (Twitter) thread with the live screenshots of their system contradicting their regulatory lies: https://x.com/sidhartthhh/status/2055578858754314365
TL;DR: VRP Telematics is shipping used/refurbished watches as new. Amazon Logistics will pick it up, take the watch back into their custody, and then lie to the government consumer forums saying the item was "intact" so they can pocket your money. Protect yourselves and stick to authorized offline dealers or verified platforms like Ethos/Tata Cliq Luxury for mid-tier pieces.