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-   -   Amazon.com - Anyone ordered anything? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifting-gears/7313-amazon-com-anyone-ordered-anything.html)

Just wondering if anyone here has any experience with ordering things from Amazon. I'm looking at ordering a couple of hard to find books and DVD's, but not sure about the shipping.

Would there be any problems once it lands on Indian shores or would it get delivered direct to my door?

I remember trying to order some books from amazon once, but they did not deliver to india. Apparantly those books were for sale only over there or something like that. Have ordered a lot from e-bay though and everything gets delivered without any problems.

Amazon do have shipping to India now.

And when you say you ordered from ebay, do you mean on of their international sites or are we talking ebay.in??

Frankly i don't think there should be a problem for books/dvd's, but then again, who knows what can happen here!!

Well.. actually it isnt a problem with shipping to india. Some of the books available here have a "for sale only in india,....." label on them. I think similarly a few of the books available on amazon are for sale only in north america etc , and so will not be shipped here. I might be wrong, but that seemed to be the case when i tried ordering something from there.

And about ebay it was the international sites, not ebay.in. Ordered games, watches etc from there. Everything reached on time without any problem. :D

Amazon ships to India eh ?
I didnt know that ....have to check it as its a great way of buying stuff you dont find in shops

Wow, i didnt know that you could order from ebay us! If you dont mind my asking what did you order and how much shipping did you pay? What about customs and all?

Well the shipping varied quite a bit. Ordered a few games which cost less than 10$ to ship if i remember right. Watches - Some of them didnt cost much to ship, but one watch came in a big fat box, and i think they charged 30-40 euros shipping for that since it was being shipped from germany. That was the only item that got stuck at the customs also. The cds and dvds reached without a problem.

Also my friends keep ordering cds online, and it never seems to be a problem with the customs even though they order 10-15 cds each time.

Yup, do it all the time. One of things I really missed after leaving USA was the ability to shop online. The Indian online shops suck bigtime, and Amazon.com is my all time favourite.

Many of the books I need for my office library I don't get it locally. So I end up ordering from Amazon.com. The movie DVD Lord of Rings: Return of the King has been released in US for 10 months and but not released in India. Therefore I got it delivered from Amazon.com.

I have been ordering books/CD/DVD from Amazon.com since last year using my HDFC Visa card, delivered right to my office in Bangalore.

Books, CD, DVD don't attract customs duty. Don't try ordering electronics or other consumer items, they'll get stuck in customs.

I have been ordering from Amazon for almost a decade now : The sheer choice available makes it (and Ebay.com not co.in) a one stop shop.

Butttttttttttttttttttttttttttt

? I have been paying duty each and every one of the times that I have received books / DVDs from Amazon. I dont know about Bangalore, but the bombay boys sure as hell charge you custom each and every time.

GTO

Well, I've gone ahead and placed a small order. Lets see what happens before I do anything else.

GTO, how much duty do you end up paying?

Oh boy! My sympathies... :D I have never paid anything more than what Amazon.com charged me at their website. Looks like your Mumbai customs boys work overtime.

In fact I have ordered similar stuff from other online websites in USA and had it delivered without any hassle or customs.

Hmm. I have ordered from Amazon too and have not been charged. :| Maybe it was because I did it from someplace other than Mumbai.

GTO, have you tried ordering items other than Books/CD/DVD, like say some electonics items. What kind of rate did they apply as duty in each case?

Amazon will not ship anything except books/posters/CDs/DVDs to India. So no chance of any electronic items or apparel.

Dont remember the exact rates but I think it was anywhere between 30 - 50% of the invoice amount.

Next time - I am going to have it shipped to Bangalore, and have someone courier it to me local

GTO