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Hello!


Customs duty is tata the moment you pay up!

Bloody brilliant i say!

Khan,

This country needs more citizens like you- who contribute to the country's coffers unconditionally :D

Khan,
You must be the second one in their hit-list.:D

I suggest you create a dispute on the credit card transaction. In the form tell that 20north did not send you GPS.

I extensively went through 20North's website and their clauses, also exchanged couple of emails with them. I didn't feel very comfortable in dealing with them and neither did i like their policies. So decided give it a pass. I registered with them, but i'm never going to buy from them. And the prices they list items are higher than Amazon's rate, their shipping & handling rates are also inflated, customs duty is not lower than what you'd pay if imported by self.

GEB is a better place, risk with GEB is that you pay for an item and after few days your order may be cancelled, probably due to the intermediate seller (i2cworld) not being able to bring down the product at the price we have bought. So your money is blocked for a week or so, till the refund comes through. But its definitely a much better place than 20North.

I also registered with 20North but dare not venture into it.

I just placed an order on Global Easy Buy on 31 July night and ic2world has by this morning confirmed that he has already purchased it on ebay (U.S.A) and shipping details will be furnished soon.

I feel more comfortable and assured with GEB even though 20North is situated within a few kilometers from where I live and I can always hop out for a direct high decibel shout at them.:)

Khan why dint you opt' for a seller from ebay who ships to India directly ? There are sellers who ship to India at a cost(not the global buy process) . I got my Tokina 12-24mm shipped thru fedex and paid the duty for it.This was the most expensive transaction I did over ebay phew !!Apparently the product reached me as promised by the seller.

In the US going to Malls is like a time waste, people prefer to sit at home browse for deals and shop on-line. Online shopping tends to be cheaper than stores, it convenient and saves lot of time.
I hope this trend will pick up in India also.

^ I still enjoyed visiting various big store names like Sears, Best Buy, Circuit City, Home Depot, Target etc., in U.S.A and literally spent hours on window-shopping or is it window-hopping! I miss that in India.

Once at Fry's Electronics in Sunnyvale, I wanted to buy a compact DVD player but the sales person advised me to place an on-line order instead and that it would be cheaper . I did so. Buying on-line is always cheaper there. But you can always get the feel of the goods in the malls and then go and place an on-line order at the cheapest price after checking on price-grabber.

But if given a choice, and if there is no huge savings to be made, i'd still prefer brick and mortar shops rather than online shopping. Its a better experience imho.

But online shopping portals are a boon to lots of people who can't go shopping due to certain limitations.

Let's see what they reply back with.

Now, after reading their fine-print I must agree with you. Hence I posted my experience here. I am for sure not buying anything from them again.

Arre yaar, I have done countless online transactions from abroad -- and that to much much higher value than this one, and NEVER had any problem. Never imagined that this would happen.

My grouse is not so much about the mistake/wrong shipment by 20North but in the way 20North is suggesting to deal with such mistakes. Why should the customer pay for mistakes that they are making.
It should be: Your mistake, you pay/pick the tab. My mistake, I pay..

Let's see what happens but a good lesson nevertheless. Hopefully other will benefit my horrible experience with this 20North

There is a lot of fraud happening over the net on credit/debit cards. One of my friends had a big sum flicked online from his savings account. Once such things happen, Banks will never support in any way (from many exps) There is always risk with cards /online and I have seen many people staying away from online /card transactions these days.

I would not buy online, rather i would get the product knowledge , check out options etc on the site and hen do reviews , once i decide i would buy it via cheque/cash.

Cards are required if one needs the additional credit which is at a better value point with risk of carrying the card, but online IMO is risky. Little bit of planning & time should give more peace of mind

^ I keep the credit value of my card to a paltry Rs.27000/-. If I want to make any purchases exeeding the amount as it happened last month, I replenish my card account by such sum as may be required for the transaction by a net transfer. The addition of Verified by Visa is another layer of safety and now applies to on-line purchases from a foreign vendor too. If you take adequate precautions, the card is still a convenient payment mechanism.

I do not use my debit card for any on-line purchases since a clean swipe of the entire bank balance is a dreadful possibility. For netbanking Kotak Mahindra Bank sends an access code each time, as I try to log-in with my user id and PW. Only with that access code I can have access to the account. This effectively prevents third parties gaining access to my account.

Amazon.com has international shipping for 10-15$ on many products. For low value items(<200$) you do not even pay customs duty.
For high value items, all you need to do is go to your cities custom warehouse, and pay duty(20%) + VAT(12.5%) and bring the item to yourself.
It works out cheaper than 20north any day.

^ thats some precise and concise info. Thanks.

But still a query.:) Is the 20% duty applicable on the item cost or cost+shipping? What if the customs warehouse/Post Office disputes the cost indicated by the vendor or me? Have I to haggle with them or the whole process smooth?