Amazon.com vs. Amazon.co.uk

[raj29shenoy]

I have a Region B Blu-Ray player. So ordering from UK I can do blind fold. Anyway, except for Quantum of Solace, all the BDs I ordered were region free. I have not ordered anything from US so far.
Just look behind your PS3 and PS4. It would have been clearly mentioned if your player is Region C or all region.

 

[kestrel5915]

One other thing that I would like to ask is that is there a difference in AV quality between the blu ray discs available locally in India (like Flipkart, Amazon India, etc) and those from Amazon UK/US?

 

[urindian]

I just ordered two bluray titles, and the order details are below,but my credit card was charged for 9.53 GBP (they ahve mentioned final fx rates and charges applicatble),i dont understand how much they are going to charge.

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Will they charge each titles seperately ?

 

[manniraj]

One other thing that I would like to ask is that is there a difference in AV quality between the blu ray discs available locally in India (like Flipkart, Amazon India, etc) and those from Amazon UK/US?

Ideally speaking there should not be any except that in India it has to adhere to the CBFC board rules and may be the US/UK sets might have some extra content pertaining to the movie extras etc.,

 

[raj29shenoy]

I just ordered two bluray titles, and the order details are below,but my credit card was charged for 9.53 GBP (they ahve mentioned final fx rates and charges applicatble),i dont understand how much they are going to charge.

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Will they charge each titles seperately ?

Check your CC statement after 4-5 days. It would get updated with proper amount plus conversion fee plus taxes.

 

[kestrel5915]

Ideally speaking there should not be any except that in India it has to adhere to the CBFC board rules and may be the US/UK sets might have some extra content pertaining to the movie extras etc.,

Actually I have seen these poor indian release complaints many times, like on Flipkart, Amazon India user reviews, etc.

One such thread is here as well: http://www.hifivision.com/showthread.php?t=43590

 

[htfan17]

One other thing that I would like to ask is that is there a difference in AV quality between the blu ray discs available locally in India (like Flipkart, Amazon India, etc) and those from Amazon UK/US?

The difference is not visible but trust me it is significant and pretty much exitsts on all BDs. I have practically bought several UK/US titles after experiencing drawbacks in indian versions.

Simplest Thumbrule: Buy only Indian films from indian websites and foreign from foreign.

 

[kestrel5915]

The difference is not visible but trust me it is significant and pretty much exitsts on all BDs. I have practically bought several UK/US titles after experiencing drawbacks in indian versions.

Simplest Thumbrule: Buy only Indian films from indian websites and foreign from foreign.

So does it usually turn out to be cheaper (or at least close to Indian pricing) while ordering from amazon UK/US?
I ask this because people are having different opinions/experiences with the custom charges.

 

[htfan17]

^When ordering from abroad, if price is a major concern, then it makes sense to order in bulk (atleast 10+ titles) then the final price you end up paying is equivalent to indian prices. Otherwise, for fewer titles the shipping + customs makes it a little higher than indian prices. At Amazon uk there is a chance u dont have to pay customs because they dont take it in advance and the postal/courier may or may not charge as there have been practical cases. In US amazon you always have to pay advance customs at the time of ordering.

Personally I find that premium to be worth it. I am one of those collectors who pays for the evergreen/repeat value in the titles and not for simply increasing my collection. So it varies how much money vs. quality vs. sentiments matters for the individual.

 

[kestrel5915]

^When ordering from abroad, if price is a major concern, then it makes sense to order in bulk (atleast 10+ titles) then the final price you end up paying is equivalent to indian prices. Otherwise, for fewer titles the shipping + customs makes it a little higher than indian prices. At Amazon uk there is a chance u dont have to pay customs because they dont take it in advance and the postal/courier may or may not charge as there have been practical cases. In US amazon you always have to pay advance customs at the time of ordering.

Personally I find that premium to be worth it. I am one of those collectors who pays for the evergreen/repeat value in the titles and not for simply increasing my collection. So it varies how much money vs. quality vs. sentiments matters for the individual.

And I read somewhere on this thread that if the order is more than 5000 INR then there is more chance of custom duties.
Is that true?

 

[htfan17]

And I read somewhere on this thread that if the order is more than 5000 INR then there is more chance of custom duties.
Is that true?

No Not necessary. We wud never know if Such rules may or may not exist in customs policies. But What we do know for sure is for instance there has been a case in which i had to pay INR 300 for an imported disc costing INR 650 and there has also been case of Nil duty in one of my orders worth INR 1600. You simply have to be lucky. nothing else.

The ultimate solution is if u have a friend ever in future coming from US/UK, get as many titles as possible to his US/UK address. I have never experienced myself or ever heard of cases where (only on movie discs) that custom ever got charged if they are part of your luggage. That way you get them at US prices (which is most of the time half of indian prices) without shipping or customs.

 

[just4kix]

One other thing that I would like to ask is that is there a difference in AV quality between the blu ray discs available locally in India (like Flipkart, Amazon India, etc) and those from Amazon UK/US?

I have just a few of India made BDs like Inception, the Hobbit 1 (3D), and maybe a couple more. Frankly speaking, I have not observed any perceived or prominent difference in quality. Perhaps there is our maybe for the titles I purchased, they were pressed outside India and just labeled here. The Hobbit 1, as far as I can say was as good as the disc of The Hobbit 2 (3D) that I ordered from Amazon.com.

But I won't suggest buying from India unless in dire.

p/s. I shall post a detailed answer from my laptop. Tapatalk and mobile kb is a tad painful to use

 

[just4kix]

Got a message from bank. 2288 has been charged

Does this amount include currency charges?

Its a good motivation to keep on ordering from UK!

I have a Region B Blu-Ray player. So ordering from UK I can do blind fold. Anyway, except for Quantum of Solace, all the BDs I ordered were region free. I have not ordered anything from US so far.
Just look behind your PS3 and PS4. It would have been clearly mentioned if your player is Region C or all region.

And I read somewhere on this thread that if the order is more than 5000 INR then there is more chance of custom duties.
Is that true?

Hi friends,

I logged in today after a long time and I can see that there are some queries on this subject. Happily enough, many others have already provided answers. Perhaps my own comments may reaffirm the beliefs or debunk them. Anyway, I do not claim any expertise in the area. So here goes:

1. Is is better to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk?
   My personal experience is that Amazon.com offers better deals. Custom duty (coming up next) is always a surprise and makes the deal sour at UK site.
   .
2. How is customs duty claculated and charged?
   Customs duty is charged on (base price + shipping cost). At Amazon.com, the customs duty is precalculated at about 31% and charged upfront. At Amazon.co.uk, the CD is not charged upfront. The parcel is sent by Royal Mail and then arrives at India FPO (within 2 days). The FPOs are located in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata (not aware of other ciities; perhaps Bangalore has one). The FPO determines the customs duty and it is usually charged at 40-44%. Although gifts up to INR 10000 are exempt from duty, merchandise from Amazon and other such websites usually attract duty.
   .
3. So back to Q1: Is is better to buy from Amazon.com or Amazon.co.uk?
   Basically, it is YOUR LUCK when importing from UK and EU. You should always mark the BDs as gifts and then you may be exempted from duty but there is no guarantee. Amazon.com will charge 31% duty but ALL THIS TIME, I have always received a refund of about 15% on the duty charged. Hence actually, I have always ended up paying around 19-20% duty. There have been cases when full duty was also refunded back automatically by Amazon.com. Hence Amazon.com is my preferred choice.
   .
4. What is the delivery time?
   I am happy that some of you have received parcels from UK in 4 days and that too without duty. My expereience has not been that great. On an average, my average delivery period from amazon.co.uk has been 4 weeks. Initially, I too received parcels without duty but afterwards, it has always been "duty charged". On Amazon.com, the delivery period has always been 7-8 days. Delivery from UK is not trackable, while US deliveries have been sent by Aramex and trackable.
   .
5. INR or USD/GBP?
   Always use forex. Amazon exchange rates are higher - quite high in fact. Basically, higher the amount, the higher the loss.
   .
6. How is CC charged exactly?
   The forex amount is converted to USD and then USD to INR. On the final conversion (USD to INR), banks charge 3.5% surcharge and on the surcharge, a service tax of 12.36% is charged.
   .
7. What other factors make Amazon.com better?
   This is strictly my opinion. One fact, I have already mentioned - all charges including duty are known upfront. Secondly, parcel is major cities is guaranteed delivery in 7-8 days (maybe longer in fringe towns), and thirdly parcels are trackable. Fourth, the US version of the movie usually contains more extra stuff - if that is of any interest to you. In case of UK, a couple of times, my delivery was lost and Amazon sent a second delivery.
   
   But shipping charges from US are much higher. (TIP: You may write to US Customer Support, asking whether they will waive off shipping charges if the order is over US$ 125, as is the case with Singapore and Mexico. Previously they had free shipping to India for order value of $125 or more. I asked twice, and they waived off shipping charges.)
   .
8. What about refunds, cancellations, etc.
   I am quite happy to say that when in comes to money, Amazon (UK and US) places highest regard to customer. They always refund your money in case of any issue, placing complete trust on the customer's word.

 

[htfan17]

[*]What about refunds, cancellations, etc.
I am quite happy to say that when in comes to money, Amazon (UK and US) places highest regard to customer. They always refund your money in case of any issue, placing complete trust on the customer's word.
[/LIST]

+1 to that. The most customer friendly company in the world this is.

case in point -
1) once long ago on raising the issue, they were happily willing to resend the same title to me again as i had not received it on time and it wasnt trackable. I however received the initial item the next day else i cud have easily had 2 for price of 1.

2) On all guaranteed shipping, if it does not arrive on the guaranteed delivery date (which rarely happens as it has sufficient margin from usual delivery times) , you can raise the issue and they are very friendly to refund you the shipping cost as compensation.

3) Also, most customer reps on Amazon US's chat window help now a days are indians as they have outsourced that part to india- very easy to communicate about your conerns in 'Indian english' if that is an issue with anyone than struggling to make an american understand your issues.

 

[raj29shenoy]

At Amazon.co.uk, the CD is not charged upfront. The parcel is sent by Royal Mail and then arrives at India FPO (within 2 days). The FPOs are located in Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata (not aware of other ciities; perhaps Bangalore has one). The FPO determines the customs duty and it is usually charged at 40-44%. Although gifts up to INR 10000 are exempt from duty, merchandise from Amazon and other such websites usually attract duty.

When I ordered from amazon.co.uk, they shipped through UPS i-parcel (and not through Royal Mail) and some private courier company (i guess its aramex, i forgot) (and not Indian Post) delivered it to my home within 6 days.

The box was not even opened. So not sure if customs even bothered to open it up or not.

 

[just4kix]

When I ordered from amazon.co.uk, they shipped through UPS i-parcel (and not through Royal Mail) and some private courier company (i guess its aramex, i forgot) (and not Indian Post) delivered it to my home within 6 days.

The box was not even opened. So not sure if customs even bothered to open it up or not.

Yes. I know about that. That is not the usual practice but it's done in case of either expedited shipping (at higher rates) or in case of emergency. The usual shipping method is via royal mail.

 

[raj29shenoy]

Yes. I know about that. That is not the usual practice but it's done in case of either expedited shipping (at higher rates) or in case of emergency. The usual shipping method is via royal mail.

That's strange, because I did not opt for expedite shipping, I chose the normal one (one with least cost). I was charged 5.07 GBP for postage and shipping. And the Amazon uk site says expedite shipping costs 7.16 GBP and only available to UK addresses.

You mean to say I was just plain lucky?! And it may not happen again if I order from Amazon UK?

 

[just4kix]

That's strange, because I did not opt for expedite shipping, I chose the normal one (one with least cost). I was charged 5.07 GBP for postage and shipping. And the Amazon uk site says expedite shipping costs 7.16 GBP and only available to UK addresses.

You mean to say I was just plain lucky?! And it may not happen again if I order from Amazon UK?

I did not say "only for expedited shipping". In rare cases, they send via other courier services. But that is, as said, rare. Yes, you were lucky.

 

[plasmoid]

That's strange, because I did not opt for expedite shipping, I chose the normal one (one with least cost). I was charged 5.07 GBP for postage and shipping. And the Amazon uk site says expedite shipping costs 7.16 GBP and only available to UK addresses.

You mean to say I was just plain lucky?! And it may not happen again if I order from Amazon UK?

This did happen to me with one seller on discogs. Instead of Registered Royal Post he sent by EMS and it got detained by customs. Weirdly I did not have to pay charges :yahoo: Unpredictable fellows these customs are. From past experience I have noticed that expedited shipping is always checked by customs where as registered post is not detained (as per IPS webtracking details). So yes you were extremely lucky.

 

[raj29shenoy]

Hmm..so this time luck was on my side. Should see if it still remains with me for my future purchases.

@Muralidher: What was your experience? No updates from you so far!

BTW, I received a ultraviolet code along with the movies. Tried to use them online, but says it can be used only in UK. Any tips on how to use them here in India?