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LUCKNOW: If you live in Noida or Ghaziabad, forget ordering your favourite gizmo from Amazon this festive season, because the e-commerce major won’t deliver anything worth more than Rs 5,000 to any address with a UP postal code.In a move that speaks volumes about the trustworthiness of the UP market, Amazon has gone the way of rival Flipkart in putting a low price threshold to UP-based postal codes. When TOI quizzed Amazon on the reason for this decision, the spokesperson declined to comment. However, insiders associated with Amazon’s delivery chain said the decision was taken due to buyer-end malpractices the company has faced. TOI confirmed that delivery has been disabled for all UP postal codes on the e-commerce site for orders over Rs 5,000.“We’ve had many instances of items ordered from fake addresses. It affects everyone in the supply chain, because a lot of money and time is invested in catering to such orders. Just-for-fun orders are hurting e-commerce,” said a courier operator which handles orders from various e-commerce portals, including Amazon, Flipkart and Snapdeal.Insiders at Flipkart, which delivers around 1,000 orders a day in Lucknow itself, said Amazon’s decision appears similar to Flipkart’s own rule regarding UP postal codes. The company had recently started delivering select products “with cash on delivery (COD) option” to these postal codes, but revised its policy soon after to restrict delivery of consignments of value above Rs 10,000. A Flipkart spokesperson called this a business decision and said they keep reviewing the threshold limit from time to time. “Here we’re facing this problem for quite some time. COD orders are often abused. The situation is changing and the market is maturing, but we do face such situations at least once every week,” said a local courier office that caters to customers of various e-commerce portals.Amazon doesn’t have its own delivery network in UP and depends on regular couriers. A local courier said it delivers around 300 orders a day and “90% of them are honoured” . It added, “This is their business decision and they will be best able to tell why they are doing this.”Interestingly, e-commerce companies are banking on a bonanza this festive season. For most of them, Navaratra and Diwali are big occasions, and they time promotional offers for this period. For instance, Amazon on Sunday announced a 30-day online “shopping dhamaka” for its customers. Flipkart, too, had lined up many discount offers, many of which are available across top postal codes in the state.Offers aside, if the big players bypass the most populated state in the country and more so the twin cities of Noida and Ghaziabad in NCR, it is a challenge and void for the country’s e-commerce story.