Team-BHP (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/)

-   Shifting gears (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/)

-   -   The Online Shopping Thread (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/22122-online-shopping-thread-439.html)

Sorry sir, its not the way you think, but the opposite. India had lately become a big market for Aliexpress or any other Chinese B2C website. However firstly due to the COVID lockdown in India, the postal department in India stopped accepting registered parcels, which were the main channels of cheap shipping offered by these companies. This includes China post, SG post, Hong Kong Post and so on. Once China opened up from lockdown and wanted to ship, they were no longer able to. Many customs offices in India were partially closed or working on different high priority things like import of essential items, ventilators etc. Now that there is the standoff with China, it has hit them even hard since the customs are now sitting on close to two months worth of imports from China and are not clearing them without physical inspection or with any discrepancy in documentation. Hence, due to this restriction on cheap shipping, Aliexpress sellers are not able to use the earlier channels. Also, EMS is the method which is listed by the sellers but in reality, EMS is nothing but government agencies and hence even you end up paying them the higher cost, the shipping will be done through private agencies.

Having been a regular in getting foreign consignments, I am closely tracking the changes and I am also in touch with a few sellers personally. Around five of my orders in May were shipped but then cancelled since the Indian postal side declined to take these consignments. The sellers had no choice but to refund the money and after this, the shipping options were disabled. On another note, I have a higher value consignment(Rs. 20k) which was shipped through Fedex and now stuck at customs since a month and not being released. This was the second time I ordered the same product and was offered a good discount without even haggling since they were desperate to do business. The first time I got the same product, it was delivered within five days flat from China to my doortstep with customs pre clearance. This time, Fedex is helpless since they have Chinese consignments stuck from two months in customs pending examination.

China can never say they dont want to do business. Not only us, since the Covid crisis, a lot of other countries have stopped buying their products and lot of issues with logistics have made them desperate for business. That is especially since they operate on volumes and not fat margins. It is just that the various channels they had have been cut very badly and hence, we no longer can avail dirt cheap shipping rates.

You are absolutely right, I re-read my post and realized that I had formulated that response in my mind well before the border crisis - it was to do with the Covid19 related logistics. I was looking for something on Aliexpress at the time, saw the shipping rates and rationalized that it was the simplest thing to do technically without complicated website changes. :)

Mod note: Please use search for similar threads, before opening a new thread. Thanks.


I've been reading a lot of the ownership threads on Team-BHP. I see that a lot of members are ardent "modders" and like to have some work done on their cars to make them more personalized. Some of them also carry out DIY jobs using parts ordered online. The most common source for such parts is AliExpress, which is based in China.
With the current geopolitical situation between Indian and China, and Chinese goods and services being banned here, is it still okay to order parts from AliExpress, or any Chinese vendor for that matter? Has anyone found or looked for an alternative source?

Shipping from Ali express has become prohibitively expensive. Some sellers are even not shipping to India owing to the fact that thousands of Chinese consignments are still waiting to be cleared and even unloaded at ports due to the situation. So, at least for now, this option is as good as non existent.

Regards.

Had ordered a silicone case and tempered glass for my Lenovo tablet on 21st June from AliExpress. Got an email on July 19th that the tempered glass had reached India. But the silicone case still shows as in-transit. If it reaches to my home within a couple of months of order date, I will be fine.

I had tried to order these from the Indian online sites. But the selection was shockingly bare. While Amazon.com (US site) had a good collection, but the price with shipping and duty included, made it prohibitively costly. I have paid a total of $7.69 as shipping for both these items at AliExpress.

As a continuation to this story, after Fedex QA guys noticed that my shipment is delayed beyond standards, they reached out to me and assured that they would get this cleared ASAP. I even bashed them up since they have a warehousing charge levied for delayed parcels, but was given the assurance that the warehousing charges will not be applicable to me since it was not delayed due to my fault and so. I received the invoice of Rs 5900 to be paid to fedex and when I took a look at the description, it was as follows:
Customs Duty = 400(Seller has declared a lesser price)
Duty advancement charges = 500
Clearance charges = 1200
Warehousing fee = 3500

Add tax to this. I was fuming when I saw the warehousing fee being added and refused delivery. The customer care was not reachable and no one picked up calls. The phone numbers of people who had contacted me earlier were all switched off. Got very annoyed and shot a mail to the Fedex India contact page and their top management. These charges are just absurd and though I have paid clearance charges earlier, they were worth it since you get pre-clearance of customs and the product reaches you in no time. But in this case, the process has been slower than even India Post and hence, no way they deserve all the extra money. :Frustrati

Even if you have a shipping option through Fedex/DHL, be careful about this when ordering from Aliexpress or any other Chinese site. Its not going to be as easy as before and neither is it a cheap affair.

My parcel from Chennai was stuck in India Post. After a lot of asking and checking with the Local PO, they finally revealed that their main RMS is sealed down with 4 covid cases. Parcels are stuck. I have asked them to return the package to sender

Strange. Two speed post parcels from Mumbai reached me in BANGALORE in record time...about 2 days.

Generally Speed Post services have been excellent (in my experience) throughout the lockdowns.

ONLY issue is that if a sorting centre has +ve cases or falls right within a high risk containment, then all hell can break loose for those mail/parcel items inside. They have to be carefully and professionally fumigated and sanitized, and hence the delays.

Yes, same case here. I sent a parcel to Ranchi and it went pretty fast. But the issue seems to be with foreign parcels and them entering the domestic distribution network. This seems to be the biggest bottleneck currently. But if local distribution is affected, that will be because of a few branches being sealed down.

I know Amazon has Amazon Business for business purchases and am not able to reliably google if Flipkart has the same for business purchases? Anyone has a definite answer?

They do not. No GST invoices are possible with Flipkart purchases.

Are Flipkart services still suspended in Mumbai? I am able to order everything from mobiles to tyres on Amazon but nothing on Flipkart yet. My home and work addresses are pretty much in the heart of the city - Sion and Parel.

How's the feedback after few more weeks of extended usage? Is it holding up? Also, whats the situation with battery capacity?
Also, how much did you pay for? I can see its available for 1899 on Amazon now.

I have used it for a max of 9-10 hrs without charging it again. Not sure what is the max battery life as I never felt the need to go without charging for more than 10 hrs.
Headphones are extremely comfortable. On an average, I use it for 4-5 hours a day. I did use it once for 7 hours continuously and did not have any ear pain or other issues. No problem with bluetooth connectivity either as the connection did not drop once during those 7 hours. I purchased this for 15XX, after some discounts on card.