Experience with borderlinx

[murali]

I finally managed to get registered with borderlinx and am planning to use their services to get a pair of heavy floorstanders from USA all the way to India direct. To those who have used their services for similar things,

(1) do they transport and deliver from the "suite address" given to you in USA to your destination address (home) in India without us being summoned for Customs clearance etc?
(2) their shipping estimator (category: electronics, audio, visual) shows separate duty and taxes as well as shipping costs. The duty seems low (just over 2%?) and taxes high (about 15%). Are these real, or do they come up with different numbers later?
(3) how long they do normally take for delivery?

Any real life experiences, especially shipping "heavy" and "electronic" goods, shall be most helpful.

Thanks in advance and cheers.
murali

P.S. If the deal comes through and everything goes well, my Vandersteen 2Ce will be out for disposal in August when I come home.

 

[teky]

There are two threads already within HFV which talk in detail.

http://www.hifivision.com/general-chit-chat/8743-borderlinx-ebay-paypal-world-smaller-place.html

http://www.hifivision.com/general-chit-chat/7437-citibank-cards-new-facility.html

 

[odyssey]

Which speakers are you getting?

I finally managed to get registered with borderlinx and am planning to use their services to get a pair of heavy floorstanders from USA all the way to India direct. To those who have used their services for similar things,

(1) do they transport and deliver from the "suite address" given to you in USA to your destination address (home) in India without us being summoned for Customs clearance etc?
(2) their shipping estimator (category: electronics, audio, visual) shows separate duty and taxes as well as shipping costs. The duty seems low (just over 2%?) and taxes high (about 15%). Are these real, or do they come up with different numbers later?
(3) how long they do normally take for delivery?

Any real life experiences, especially shipping "heavy" and "electronic" goods, shall be most helpful.

Thanks in advance and cheers.
murali

P.S. If the deal comes through and everything goes well, my Vandersteen 2Ce will be out for disposal in August when I come home.

 

[arj]

Hi Murali,
In the end, Borderlinx is using DHL.. is the deal better than using DHL directly ?

 

[santhosh]

Hi Murali,
In the end, Borderlinx is using DHL.. is the deal better than using DHL directly ?

It definitely is better than using DHL directly because in Borderlinx, you pay a fee (includes shipping, customs and taxes) even before the package leaves US of A. The parcel arrives at your doorstep, within a weeks time and you are not hassled by customs or courier folks.

When you ship directly through DHL, it is a gamble as you can't be entirely sure how much customs will be charged.

At the risk of repeating myself, let me share my recent experience with Borderlinx:
I shipped an Emotiva UMC-1 (HD Surround Sound processor) that weighs 22 lbs and costs 700$. Fedex was charging 120$ for just shipping and I could have been rightfully charged another 175$ (25% customs on product cost), plus there is an unknown clearing fee (bribe?). By now, we are in the 300$ range for shipping the processor to India. Then, I shipped through Borderlinx and paid only 200$ and that included shipping, customs and taxes + no tension as Borderlinx paperwork is near perfect.

There is a lot of useful information on the two threads that teky has posted above ^.

 

[mgdelhi]

I bought a product from Woot.com on 16th June, 2010 @ US$ 205.

The product reached my Borderlinx address through Fedex on 26th but got the message "Customer not available or business closed".

I thought it was because of Saturday. Fedex attempted to deliver again on Monday but got the same message again.

Any suggestion guys what should I do or my US$ 205 (Rs.9,895/-) are gone.

http://www.fedex.com/Tracking?language=english&cntry_code=us&tracknumbers=069537855990901

 

[santhosh]

Hi mgdelhi,
Contact borderlinx customer care via live chat on their website. They should help.

 

[mgdelhi]

Just now I contacted them via Live Chat and the executive said that the merchant might have given wrong address.

Then I requested him to call Fedex and solve this and he assured that his team will and update me via call or email.

Lets see.

 

[santhosh]

Thats good to hear. All the Best!!

 

[murali]

There is one problem with borderlinx, though. They will not ship anything > 65kg. This poses difficulties if one needs to buy heavier stuffs like speakers. I checked with them and for the reason mentioned, dropped the idea of buying speakers through them.

cheers.
murali

 

[cmsajith]

There is one problem with borderlinx, though. They will not ship anything > 65kg. This poses difficulties if one needs to buy heavier stuffs like speakers. I checked with them and for the reason mentioned, dropped the idea of buying speakers through them.

cheers.
murali

Why cant you split the order \ consignment so that it comes within the limit

 

[audiodelic]

There is one problem with borderlinx, though. They will not ship anything > 65kg. This poses difficulties if one needs to buy heavier stuffs like speakers. I checked with them and for the reason mentioned, dropped the idea of buying speakers through them.

cheers.
murali

Thats a big constraint, i was planning on ordering these if i dont find any suitable speaker with good bass in my budget from the international boutique brands in India.

 

[audiodelic]

@santhol2: when you made the order for the umc-1 at emotiva did you have to pay emotiva website directly and just specify shipping address given by broderlinx or does borderlinx itself make the product payment also and charge you on your citibank card ?

 

[santhosh]

@santhol2: when you made the order for the umc-1 at emotiva did you have to pay emotiva website directly and just specify shipping address given by broderlinx or does borderlinx itself make the product payment also and charge you on your citibank card ?

Emotiva accepts only US credit cards, so I had to get my cousin to make the payment on my behalf. I then gave Emotiva my Borderlinx address to ship to. The charge for the shipping, customs and taxes is charged to your Citibank Card by Borderlinx.

@Murali: Thanks for the information about 65Kgs being maximum limit by Borderlinx. Subhash is gonna need this info as he is getting two monoblocks from Emotiva and each weigh around 40 kilos IIRC.

 

[esanthosh]

@Murali: Thanks for the information about 65Kgs being maximum limit by Borderlinx. Subhash is gonna need this info as he is getting two monoblocks from Emotiva and each weigh around 40 kilos IIRC.

He can keep them in Borderlinx suite for 30 days, right? May they can be shipped one by one a few days apart. It would however, increase the cost of shipping and of course, two custom clearances - a major headache.

In that case, using Emotiva-FedEx at a higher cost would be better?

 

[subhash]

There is one problem with borderlinx, though. They will not ship anything > 65kg. This poses difficulties if one needs to buy heavier stuffs like speakers. I checked with them and for the reason mentioned, dropped the idea of buying speakers through them.

cheers.
murali

thanks for the info Murali

am planning on the Emotiva XPA-1 Mono blocks , weight of each is 89lbs boxed, thats about 40 kgs each , so better to split into 2 /get one block at a time ?

 

[subhash]

Thats a big constraint, i was planning on ordering these if i dont find any suitable speaker with good bass in my budget from the international boutique brands in India.

these speakers seem to be well within the specified weight

 

[subhash]

what are the modes of making payment to emotiva directly from here?

any suggestions appreciated and thanks in advance

 

[esanthosh]

@subash,

I think PayPal / Wire Transfer are the only two options given for International customers. From their document attached with my quote request...

Payment: We currently accept PayPal and bank transfers for payment on international orders. If you prefer using a bank transfer, we will send you the necessary instructions to initiate the process.

 

[subhash]

@subash,

I think PayPal / Wire Transfer are the only two options given for International customers. From their document attached with my quote request...

thanks esantosh

even i did get this msg from them
will go to my bank and confirm on the wire transfer tommorow and update