[Miyata]

Originally Posted by Thad E Ginathom

First was the ordinary price, then came the special sale price, then came the after-sale price.
The number remained the same, just it's name changed.

How true!

Found a chrome extension "Keepa" that appears to be among others keeping tabs on the price history of a product on Amazon(for instance, one shown below) -



Not yet sure who owns or finances Keepa (may as well be Amazon itself for all one knows), but will try and find out and will be on lookout for independent, unbiased, and more thorough sources for the same.

This does provide some decent history and good statistics though.

[rrsteer]

Hi, is anyone looking to shop during the 11.11 sale on Aliexpress (AE)? Since all my purchases from AE have been inspired by T-Bhp, would be good to learn what are other members planning to buy.

[ontheroad]

Yes. Planning to buy replacement speakers for by Dell XPS L502X. Iam also trying to buy first time from Aliexpress.

https://s.click.aliexpress.com/e/S37bm12

[Fillmore]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

The WORST ever experience with Amazon Global in terms of delivery...

Originally Posted by audioholic

Saw this late but I had two recent orders from Amazon Global shipped through Aramex..

Originally Posted by binand

Customs is as customs does.

...

Query w.r.t. Amazon Global. Besides the KYC annoyance listed above does Amazon compute and display the Net amount ( inclusive of Customs duty + GST ) upfront when you place the order ?

In my case I am planning to buy a NAS box specifically QNAP TS-251+ 2-Bay NAS. This one is listed for $319 in the US , and Amazon India charges around INR 47k+ for a lower spec model.
Wonder if it is worth the effort to try the international shipping ?

[binand]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Query w.r.t. Amazon Global. Besides the KYC annoyance listed above does Amazon compute and display the Net amount ( inclusive of Customs duty + GST ) upfront when you place the order ?

1. The KYC is a government requirement. No point blaming Amazon for it.

2. The net amount is an upper limit, but I don't recall if they refund if the actual expense is less than that.

3. If you know or can accurately describe the product you can get an estimate of the duty here: http://www.cybex.in/indian-custom-duty/

4. In general - it takes time (sometimes weeks/months) but it will eventually reach you. You won't have many tracking or escalating options while it is in transit though.

[arindambasu13]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Query w.r.t. Amazon Global. Besides the KYC annoyance listed above does Amazon compute and display the Net amount ( inclusive of Customs duty + GST ) upfront when you place the order ?

Yes, Amazon will compute the total amount that you need to pay, inclusive of customs / import duties and present the final price to you as the price of the product that you are looking to buy on the Gobal Store. The process is fairly transparent and consequently, you need not worry about separately paying the duty to customs authorities etc.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by Fillmore

Query w.r.t. Amazon Global. Besides the KYC annoyance listed above does Amazon compute and display the Net amount ( inclusive of Customs duty + GST ) upfront when you place the order ?

Amazon Global covers all the costs - product, shipping, upper estimate of customs duty, so what you pay at the time of order is all that you ever need to pay.

In some of my orders, I've got a partial refund on the customs duty, because what Amazon assumed turned out to be higher than what customs charged.

I prefer Amazon Global than alternatives like AE, simply because Amazon-fulfilled items on Amazon Global do things by the book and squeaky clean - they don't mislabel items to circumvent customs rules, etc.

They also ship it through established partners like DHL, Fedex, etc. so speed of delivery is very reasonable (lightning fast compared to China Post), and offers good tracking and customer support options. I remember one instance where my item was held in customs for inspection for ~2 days. A quick email to the courier's customer care, and they got things moving again. Moreover, I'd trust these people with my KYC documents more than other options.

The flipside is that it is more expensive But in my case, I'd prefer not breaking the law, no matter how much I disagree with it.

Originally Posted by Fillmore

In my case I am planning to buy a NAS box specifically QNAP TS-251+ 2-Bay NAS. This one is listed for $319 in the US , and Amazon India charges around INR 47k+ for a lower spec model.
Wonder if it is worth the effort to try the international shipping ?

I would wholeheartedly recommend going for Amazon Global if it is cheaper, and warranty needs are met.

The reason is, if you see such a high price for a lower specification model, it is often being sold by a reshipper - these are guys who take orders in India from multiple customers, buy the various products in bulk in the US, ship it via a single package to their Indian office and ship it to each customer, with a hefty markup. The usual giveaway is that the fulfilment time for this will be 2-3 weeks or something similar. I find this a rip-off, particularly when a cheaper and direct option is available.

[binand]

Originally Posted by arunphilip

Amazon Global [...] what you pay at the time of order is all that you ever need to pay.

they don't mislabel items to circumvent customs rules, etc.

They also ship it through established partners like DHL, Fedex, etc. so speed of delivery is very reasonable

The flipside is that it is more expensive

Nicely summarized. I use Shop and Ship, a subsidiary of Aramex for pretty much the same reasons.

1. What I pay SNS and what Amazon tells me if I were to use Amazon Global are usually quite similar.

2. They too do things by the book.

3. Somewhat better tracking via Aramex's website or mobile app.

4. Direct line to people in SNS via email and mobile number.

5. Pay as you go, via online payments. When the shipment is picked they charge you shipping costs on actuals. When it clears customs they charge you duties. You can pay all together as COD too.

6. When ordering from amazon.co.uk (from where I get DVDs, due to region locking and PAL/NTSC differences) Global ships through Royal Mail > India Post with no tracking.

7. Not restricted to Amazon orders - you can buy from any small e-commerce site since SNS gives you local delivery addresses in many countries in the world.

[arunphilip]

Originally Posted by binand

I use Shop and Ship, a subsidiary of Aramex for pretty much the same reasons.

Not restricted to Amazon orders - you can buy from any small e-commerce site since SNS gives you local delivery addresses in many countries in the world.

Very nice - I've never tried reshippers, but if S&S is an Aramex subsidiary, I'd definitely give them a shot.

[sj_koova]

I bought an Amazon Fire TV stick from Amazon at Rs.5999. Item never got delivered but the status got updated to delivered after being out for delivery for three consecutive days.
Called up Amazon support and they asked me to follow up with the courier service. I refused to do so and they kept me on hold for several min until the phone got disconnected.
Called back again and I was told that the specialist team is investigating and I have to wait for 5 days.



This was prime and Amazon fulfilled.


Any of you have experience dealing with missed deliveries from Amazon.

[Zappo]

Originally Posted by sj_koova

This was prime and Amazon fulfilled.


Any of you have experience dealing with missed deliveries from Amazon.

I never had such an experience, touchwood. However, if it is a Prime delivery on an Amazon Fulfilled product then there is every chance that it was being carried by ATS. Do not worry. It won't go anywhere. It could simply be a matter of the ATS team not having delivered or either returned it to the warehouse as undeliverable and thus the system having automatically changed the status to default (delivered) after 3 days of no update.

By the way, since it is your own fully paid product that was getting delayed for last 3 days why did you not call them even once? I find this very strange!
They update you everyday through SMS on the product to be delivered as well as a delivery supervisor phone number. Normally, one would expect that if the product does not get delivered on day-1 then on the second day one will call up the number to confirm on the delivery happening for sure on that day.

[sj_koova]

Originally Posted by Zappo

They update you everyday through SMS on the product to be delivered as well as a delivery supervisor phone number. Normally, one would expect that if the product does not get delivered on day-1 then on the second day one will call up the number to confirm on the delivery happening for sure on that day.

This was a strange case!



After the first day's missed delivery, Amazon sent me a mail stating the product will be delivered between 17th and 21st and contact Amazon on 22nd Nov if not delivered. Since the 17th of Nov, I get SMS each day stating "out for delivery", but no details added about the delivery agent in the SMS.
Each day by 9PM, Amazon status will be updated as "We regret to have missed the delivery. Delivery will be attempted again tomorrow". This continued till today and all of a sudden the status was updated as "Delivered" at 4:47PM.


Since this was a pre-order of Fire TV stick and I had to wait for nearly 45 days, couple of days delay did not matter much. But I was surprised when the status changed to delivered and Amazon has no clue.


Item was shipped through Aramex by seller Cloud connect_SLP.

[Zappo]

Oh! Aramex, eh! Why don't you give a call to Aramex CC with the consignment number and ask them what is going on? They might be able to expedite it faster for you than going via Amazon.

[self_driven]

Originally Posted by sj_koova

But I was surprised when the status changed to delivered and Amazon has no clue.

Amazon chat support is very helpful in such cases. Try connecting to them and ask for a refund.

One of my orders (Amazon fulfilled but not Prime) didn't arrive by est. date. The status would show out for delivery in the morning and change to "unable to contact customer" by night. None of the delivery agents would pick my phone. I contacted Amazon through chat and was asked to wait for 3 days post which my refund was processed. I also gave them the names and nos. of all delivery agents involved.

After two months, the same delivery guy (as per details on SMS) came with the package. Although he had tried to open the package, the contents were safe. I accepted delivery as my money was already returned and effectively got the 1500 rupee item for free. And the order status now says delivered

[dailydriver]

How low can online sellers get and how dare they?

I had placed an order for a pack of Yonex shuttlecocks from amazon.in. The prepaid order was delivered today. Placed inside the amazon wrap was a barrel with its seal opened and two out of the six shuttles missing.

Wrote a mail to amazon customer support and as usual was offered either refund or replacement option. I wanted neither. Hence, have asked for partial refund. My questions:

1. Which genius came up with the idea of pilfering just two shuttles?
2. Giving them the benefit of doubt and assuming that an incomplete pack was inadvertently sent for shipping, was QC taking a short nap when it was packed?

The best for the last: This was an amazon fulfilled order and the seller was cloudtail .