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Here is a CS based on something I bought 10 minutes ago.

Item: Kindle Ebook
Listed Price ($): 5.48
Listed Price: (Rs): 350.00
Conversion Rate for above: 63.86

Bank charge when paid in $$: Rs. 331.48
Conversion Rate for above: 60.48

The amount here is very low so factor that in. While the percentage may not change, when you are spending 20000 INR from Amazon global, the savings add up to a decent amount.

Overall, I would stick with having my bank charge me the conversion charges et al since I've found to be cheaper overall. This is based on about five 20000+ purchases I've made this year from Amazon US.

Had my worst online shopping experience so far. Ordered couple of dress for my brother's son through Firstcry.com on 25th Aug.
Product was shipped from Pune warehouse on the same day and reached Mumbai on 27th Aug.
Delivery is by their own logistics called Xpressbees.
Tracking shows out for delivery till 30th Aug. After that there is no update. Called up customer care four times so far and each time they say it will be delivered soon.
Finally today I cancelled the order and asked for refund.
For that also I have to wait till product is returned back to their warehouse in Pune.
Customer care is not giving me Xpressbees contact no. in Mumbai so that I can directly deal with them.
All in all a very unprofessional attitude from them. I have been shopping from them since 2012 and this is first time this has happened.
Pathetic.

Thanks a ton Chief.
usually all banks do the same flat 3.5%.
Also I will prefer Amazon post sales support more than any Indian 1 year product warranty.
thanks.


Yes !!!! Amazon please bring back free shipping on more than 125$ which you are doing it for Singapore.

I bought a mini-PC from Ali Express, very smooth service. Since I couldn't wait till their own shipping timelines I opted for Shop and Ship. Placed order on 26/8 and received the package yesterday (4/9) - 9 days. The total cost of the unit including shipping is below 15K - comparable units in India, I couldn't find at prices less than 60K and that too from HP etc. Overall, very satisfied with the experience.

Well, the story is also about good customer service, but I am blown away by the fact that someone doing customer support at Amazon can also talk intelligently about Norse mythology and knows Loki and Valhalla. Here in India (I'm looking at you, Airtel) you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't barf when required to write one line beyond the canned text.

I just get someone to pay in USD and then reimburse them in INR here (usually if the ticket size is substantial).

If the item is returnable then:

If the item is fulfilled by Amazon, you need not worry - they will pick it up.

If not fulfilled by Amazon, you would need to send it back to the return address - Amazon will pay back the incurred amount.

Some people have PM'ed me asking for details; here is the one:

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Intel...408195831.html

I got it at $145, some sort of August promo. I just completed installing CentOS 7 on it and it works like a charm. I doubt it is worth the price at current price though.

I am planning to buy LG G Pro 2 from Flipkart. Out of the sellers with whom it is available, MobilesEra and Einspire seem to have the best prices (WS Retail is most expensive). Let me know if you have had any negative / positive buying experience with MobilesEra and Einspire.

Is there any risk on buying from vendors other that WS Retail?

I would never buy from seller other than WS Retail and that too an expensive item.

Other sellers have different terms and conditions and there may not be 30 day replacement warranty.

Bought a bunch of CDs from Flipkart. One big irritant I noticed is that you cannot put more than 10 items in your shopping cart. Wonder why. Does FK really expect me to check out after every 10 items?!!

Second annoying thing was that they sent it in 2 lots: one had 9 CDs and the other had one! They could do the aggregation at their end and delivered a single order. Now one lot has arrived and the other hasn't.

Finally they sent me one CD with the right band but wrong album. I checked and the bar code sticker has the wrong album. Human error then, cannot really blame FK for that. I called up their customer service and they initiated a return with a refund since the actual CD I ordered is not in stock. Was a bit disappointed they didn't let me keep the wrong CD. When Amazon makes a mistake like this they tell you to keep the wring CD as well ship across the correct one (at least they do in the US, not sure the policy extends to India).

I have experienced this from Flipkart too. I ordered about 6 vinyl records. 4 or 5 were delivered as a single package while the other arrived the day after. In fact, I did not expect this and had told my wife to pay the entire amount to collect the package. She did just that which meant that she also paid for records which were not in the package. Somehow the delivery guy accepted the entire amount too.
However, the good thing is that he called up in the evening and assured that he will return the extra money paid next day. He did. And the other package arrived with him too; so all in all, it ended in a funny situation, when we had to give him back the money he refunded to uslol:

Thanks for the quick reply. Will it be better to buy from Amazon.in? There also, none of them are a-Fulfilled.

True better to avoid Future group as even there are posts from Ezoneonline on the bad service

EBay has turned horrible. Continuing my story with them, I couldn't believe that these were the same people who offered a refund on a non working mobile part that they didn't even pick back.

So yesterday was the ship-before date for the joystick I ordered. As obvious, the item wasn't shipped. I expected a mail from Ebay regarding the same but got nothing. Hence I called up customer care and asked what's up. They bluntly reply saying that the product has been marked ready for shipping, and will be shipped today. However this is the status from day one of the transaction. The AWB is already uploaded, but product hasn't left the seller, because he has no stock. EBay isn't ready to listen to this so they tell we cant do anything, wait for seven days and file a refund case. :Frustrati

The seller doesn't pick up calls either. Hence I decided to wait for the product to arrive and later take care of the seller. As of now even if the transaction is cancelled, the seller escapes. Hence once the product is in my hand, I will do the needful to him.

Please do not buy from "smart-planet" on Ebay. They have a good reputation but from the past month they got a bad score which points to something.

Amazon - I would only buy if the item is fulfilled by Amazon.

The item is non returnable and non Amazon fulfilled that is why i sent them a email to cancel order before they dispatched . However 24hrs after sending the email they decided to dispatch the order and never bothered to reply to my cancellation email .So in my case i can say the seller is not ethical and Amazon service does not help as seller decided not to respond to my email timely.