[alter.e.go]

My transaction finally went through.

I never use Credit Cards so mine were in some purge bucket hence number was coming up as invalid. ( HDFC / Citi / HSBC )

Used my friends ICICI CC and it went through smoothly!

Made me feel good at the end.

[Samurai]

I have been ordering stuff from Amazon since 1996, continued to do so even after moving to India in 2004. But delivery is always a painful process for it takes forever. The real culprit is the Indian arm of the delivery.

Consider this. I had ordered the Amazon Kindle 2 weeks back. They shipped it early morning IST on 13th. It reached Chennai on 15th early morning, even cleared customs in 20 minutes since the duty was pre-collected. And then it fell in love with Chennai. It kept on getting processed, repeatedly in Chennai. Finally after two days it left Chennai to some unmentioned South Indian regional area, which could be in Chennai or Bangalore.

In two days it traveled from Kentucky to Chennai, and in the next two days it kept stumbling around Chennai. When will we get reliable delivery system in India? In fact, it is one of the biggest stumbling block for online shopping in India.

[NetfreakBombay]

Which courier do they use for shipments?

[JVH]

Originally Posted by Samurai

The real culprit is the Indian arm of the delivery.

+1

Looks like Chennai loves me too. I can recall atleast 2 instances where my items were shipped from the US to Chennai in less than 4 days, and believe it or not I received them after more than a month after landing in Chennai. In one instance, close to 2 months. Both the items were books which should not be that difficult to process, right?

Yes, the lag time could be an issue. If one needs stuff urgently, better try another alternative.

But am not sure, if online shopping in India can be generalized by Amazon alone. For instance, I do buy items from ebay and dealextreme too. They both are pretty quick compared to Amazon. Another thing could be the medium and the carrier of goods. For Amazon, it was always the post office (in India). If they were in a mood, they would deliver at my office or most often, a lazy voice used to call me to come and collect from the post office.

[Samurai]

They use DHL for express deliveries, post office for the rest. Anyway, according to the latest tracking info, it is heading towards my office in the delivery van. I should get it in couple of hours.

[Abeer]

I had checked this site and the price in INR comes to almost double of what is listed in amazon.com

Originally Posted by speedmiester

I just came across this new website called shopyourworld.com through a promotional mail from ICICI credit card.
Apparently you can shop on global online shopping sites including amazon.com, bestbuy.com etc. You can buy and ship the items to India. The applicable custom duties and taxes are also listed in your shopping cart in Indian Rupees.
I think this is pretty convenient as one can get to know the taxes and duties that will be added to the items that we buy.

I have not tried it but will certainly give it a go.


Disclaimer: I am not associated with the website. Just wanted to share the information with all the members.

[Sankar]

DHL is crappy, sold by Amazon ships only DHL/Post. Some vendors do ship with FedEx/UPS and i find these faster and better. Duty pre-collected by Amazon is often higher than what customs would charge you and they don't refund it either. You won't know how much duty was charged if they don't give you the BOE and often in duty precollected case they will not give BOE. Ask for BOE.

Amazon collects duty even for some low value items which can be imported without duty. Alternative is to buy from Amazon and ship using a third party service and pay duty when they deliver it.

Nowadays i'm finding ebay (international) to be a whole lot better than Amazon, i was stuck with Amazon since paypal wasn't working for me since the last few months and its resolved now. A colleague ordered a book from Amazon and he got it after a month, it was by post.

FedEx is fast, bought an item from Europe the previous Monday (11th), they shipped it the same day and i got it last Friday. Package came in via France-Delhi-Cochin-Tvm. Best thing is no duty was charged If it was Amazon they would've charged me atleast $25-$30 as the duty amount for the price i bought the item for.

Even if bought from USofA FedEx/UPS deliver the items in around 10 to 12 days. DHL is slow, its fast (not faster) sometimes, it lags behind these guys once the stuff lands in India.

[Samurai]

The silly chaps didn't really deliver. After waiting till 5PM, I inquired with the local Blue Dart about the delivery status. They had the package since 1PM, but weren't planning to deliver today. Then I sent the office boy to pickup the package.

This is the attitude that spoils the service experience.

[kaushik_s]

Originally Posted by Samurai

The silly chaps didn't really deliver. After waiting till 5PM, I inquired with the local Blue Dart about the delivery status. They had the package since 1PM, but weren't planning to deliver today. Then I sent the office boy to pickup the package.

This is the attitude that spoils the service experience.

Don't know why they do this. I had similar experience with DTDC, the item will be shown as out for delivery for two days and they'll deliver it only after day 2.
Anyway, had good experience with Amazon till now. I've mostly bought books and optical media (DVD/BD etc). I normally purchase from Amazon UK. Shipping usually takes 10-18 days to reach me. Only once it took around a month to reach me and that too was due to customs clearance process. Indian Post have been good with me and they've delivered almost as soon as they've received the items. Sometimes customs will put some duty on low value items leave a much bigger item without any duty. Once they've charged for a trilogy BD pack and released the much bigger package of 12 other BD's without any duty. Both the packages were delivered on the same date. All in all, I've been a loyal customer of Amazon

[Sankar]

Originally Posted by Samurai

The silly chaps didn't really deliver. After waiting till 5PM, I inquired with the local Blue Dart about the delivery status. They had the package since 1PM, but weren't planning to deliver today.

This happens often in my case too, but not just with DHL shipment with BlueDart shipment too. What i gathered is they do their deliveries before 1 or 2 pm and stuff they receive at their facility in the afternoon are usually delivered the next morning.

[meerkat]

Anybody ordered from Amazon.uk to take advantage of their free shipping to India offer? Is it shipped by regular post? If so, is it safe to use? Thanks.

[bullboy]

Guys I came across a site like Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more where the prices are listed in INR. Is this some way associated with amazon.com or is it some fake site.
Mods,Please remove/move the thread if inappropriate.

[999]

Originally Posted by bullboy

Guys I came across a site like Amazon.com: Online Shopping for Electronics, Apparel, Computers, Books, DVDs & more where the prices are listed in INR. Is this some way associated with amazon.com or is it some fake site.
Mods,Please remove/move the thread if inappropriate.

the link is now down and redirecting to amazon. Cached google page showing price in US. Trial web page may be?. Looks more like a fake.

[rk_sans]

If you use shopyourworld and go to amazon, then you get this URL "amazonin.tarazz.com". So should be a cached google page.

[bullboy]

Amazon.com Message
Link is working basically its like 20North.com , we can buy from sites like amazon and the price is listed in INR and the items will be imported and customs duty has to paid at shopyourworld.com