🖥️ CTC or Amazon for RAM and SSDs, the price gap isn't the whole story

Chenoy Trade Centre in Secunderabad is where most of Hyderabad goes for PC parts, and for RAM and SSDs it's often cheaper than Amazon or Flipkart. Sometimes by a few hundred, sometimes by more, and during the big online sales it flips the other way round. The shops will also fit it for you, check your laptop takes that type of RAM, and you walk out with it working. If you've never opened a laptop before, that alone is worth the trip and the parking hunt on a Saturday. Ask two or three shops on the same floor and the price moves, nobody expects you to take the first number. Cash gets you a little more off than UPI at some of them, which tells you something about the next part. The catch is the bill and the warranty. Online, the invoice lands in your email and the warranty is the brand's, register it and you're done. At CTC some shops give a proper GST bill, some write it on a slip of paper, and a few ask if you even want a bill because it's cheaper without one. Without a bill, an SSD that dies in month eight is your problem, and the brand's service centre will ask for that invoice first. Check the box is sealed and the serial number on the drive matches the one on the box, because used and refurbished stock does get sold as new. The price gap on most parts is small enough now that the bill matters more than the few hundred you save. Take the bill, even if it costs a bit extra.

Same goes double for laptops there. Some of the cheaper ones are imported stock, and the brand's India warranty doesn't cover them, so the only warranty you have is the shop itself. Ask straight out if it's Indian warranty and check the serial number on the brand's website before paying, takes two minutes. For RAM and SSDs though, CTC is still where I'd go, mostly because they test it in front of you.