AmazonGlobal's Free Shipping

First post about Amazon's international shipping

I can't figure out why shipping is charged for some products, even though they seem to be eligible for free shipping. The conditions seem to be:

• Larger than 18" × 14" × 8"
• Heavier than 20 lbs
• If the item says it has to be shipped separately (see the right side of the picture below)

I was trying to buy the product above. It wasn't too big or heavy, so I'm guessing it's the "ship separately" clause that disqualifies it.

If an item meets these conditions, shipping will be charged on THE WHOLE ORDER, which isn't very good programming. i.e. if I have an eligible USD125 order with free shipping and then add an ineligible product, I now have to pay shipping for the original order AND the new product, instead of only the new product as I'd expect. The solution is to break it into 2 orders.

More questions:

• Are products sold by other sellers (fulfilled by Amazon) also eligible for free global shipping? Can they at least use Amazon's international shipping prices? So far the answers seem to be no.
• You know how some sites earn money by having a link to Amazon, and Amazon pays them a commission when you buy things from that link? Amazon also has a charity, Smile, that works in a similar way. When you start shopping from the Amazon Smile page, Amazon donates some money you spend to charity. How does this work? Does Amazon keep track of when you add every item to your cart and who to donate to? Or is the donation for the entire cart?
• Is there any way to tell which seller you're buying from when looking at your cart? Sellers make a huge difference in delivery, shipping, reliability and Amazon is either nonchalant about telling or deliberately obscuring this information. I'm leaning towards the latter.

end

vPOST vs HopShopGo

HopShopGo, 27 Nov 13
Hop Shop Go, 27 Feb 13

I just used vPOST, so I did my best to compare it with HSG. I estimated HSG's charges based on my measurements, and got a surprising result.

So I had 3 packages, with weights 3.2, 0.5 and 0.6 kg (actual or volumetric doesn't matter, whichever is higher). Firstly, HSG would have rounded them up to 3.5, 0.5 and 1 kg.

I tried to describe the charges, but here's another explanation. HSG would have charged for 5 kg. That's a first 500g + 9 more 500g. So that's 11 + 9x2.85 (all in USD), which is 36.65. Subtract 10% PayPal discount and add 10% fuel surcharge (they cancel out), and 0.65% of the value + shipping for insurance, which is roughly USD1.46. The total is USD38.11, or SGD48.40.

vPOST charges a base charge of SGD13.40, which doesn't include any weight. So I have 4.3 kg, which is 43x100g. For each 100g, weight is $0.72 and fuel is $0.19, so the weight and fuel charges are $30.96 and $8.17 respectively. The total is SGD52.53.

WHAT? vPOST costs MORE than HSG?! I used vPOST because I had a $20 discount (not reflected above), so I only paid $32.53, but, if not for the discount, vPOST is MORE EXPENSIVE? What's the point of using vPOST then?

Here are some additional considerations:
INSURANCE
HSG includes insurance in the price. For vPOST you have to buy insurance, at about $9.90 per package. That's ridiculously high.

TRACKING

I do not consider vPOST to have tracking. This is all they tell you.

Now, THIS is tracking. vPOST's shipping is so bad, they don't even give an expected delivery date!

NOTIFICATIONS/INVOICING
I will hand it to vPOST for good notifications. You can log in and see a detailed, itemised invoice. For HSG, you can only see the cost breakdown just before you pay. Once you pay, you can only see the total costs like this:

vPOST also sends you an email when your package arrives in the destination country.

DELIVERY
I think this is the only area that vPOST really wins, and that is the POPStation. They deliver your packages into a self-service locker and email/SMS you the password. This is great if you don't have anyone to receive the packages at home, and cannot deliver them to your workplace. However, it's only useful if you have a station nearby.

HSG, on the other hand, uses DHL/FedEx, which means they're more likely to deliver it to you personally. There are many stories of SingPost's "ninja" postmen that manage to deliver a failed delivery notice without being seen or heard.

SECURITY
I have to add this section because comGateway, HSG's parent company, recently leaked credit card info, affecting almost 100,000 cards from several countries (see 27 Nov post above). So minus a point for HSG.

ADDITIONAL SERVICE
A strong point for HSG. I don't know how vPOST will fare in this, but I suspect not as well. My last order included some dried food, which apparently doesn't clear customs easily. Tracking was saying it was delayed and to call them, so I did. They said customs wanted a list of ingredients for the food, and they were handling it (I can't remember if it was HSG or FedEx). Final outcome was, I didn't have to do anything, just wait a few days, and they handled everything.

Verdict

I can only recommend vPOST on these conditions:

• You have a discount, at least 20%
• You can make use of POPStation. I WOULD NOT use vPOST if not for POPStation
• Your item is cheap and does not require insurance

Amazon Prime Air

Amazon wants to use its own drones to deliver packages (2.2 kg). Here are my questions:

• Do they fly among preprogrammed routes or can they find their own way?
• How do they avoid obstacles?
• Won't people steal the drones?
• How do the drones know where to leave the package?

HopShopGo

I've used HSG enough to get a feel of their service. I've ordered at least 6 times, and their service has been generally fast and reliable. One thing to pay attention to is the tax limits for your country. If you exceed the limit, your shipment is taxable, so it may be cheaper to split shipments. I've had 2 issues:

The first time, my package was taking very long to arrive at HSG. Tracking said it had been delivered. So I chatted with HSG (no waiting time), and, with my tracking number, they could immediately trace that my package had been delivered but wasn't addressed properly so they didn't know where to assign it. This was the sender's fault and HSG was able to fix it quickly.

The second problem was I had a package that was 17 kg, which they said could be repacked to 12 kg. So I paid for 12 kg, but when I got it, it only measured to 8 kg. I sent an email to them but got no reply. So I opened a chat, told them my problem, emailed them photos of my measurements, and in 2 days they said they'd refund me some money. I'm not sure how much weight they finally charged me for.

I hope the second problem was an honest mistake, not them intentionally overcharging. At least they resolved it with no fuss. Anyone buying things should measure them themselves to be sure. On the whole - quite happy with their service.

Added 3 Dec 13
Argh I knew I wrote about this before, but I couldn't find it when I wrote the above.
Hop Shop Go, 27 Februrary 2013

17 Feb 14
A few more issues with HSG:
1. Many people's credit cards have been hacked. They're still not sure what the source of the leak is, as there's no common factor in all the cards. However, ComGateway is a strong suspect. CGW is the parent company behind HSG, i.e. HSG is a PayPal "front" for CGW. http://forums.hardwarezone.com.sg/eat-drink-man-woman-16/anyone-received-unauthorized-transactions-neweb-technologies-taipei-citibank-cc-4570379.html CGW has denied any problems on their end. So far, no complaints about HSG.

2. Similar to my second problem above, I'm beginning to suspect HSG overcalculates volumetric weight regularly.
If you search for hopshopgo overcharging, you'll find some invalid complaints like: they charge more than the actual weight (because they're charging by volumetric weight), they round up to the nearest 0.5 kg per package, and they're not willing to combine smaller packages (NO shipping company I've found is willing to send you less packages than they receive. If they get 3 packages, they'll send you 3, no more no less, no matter what. I suspect the risk of complaints of missing things is way too high.)
But among these results are a few valid complaints, like http://forums.vogue.com.au/showthread.php?t=364991&page=2 and http://forum.purseblog.com/general-shopping/hopshopgo-comgateway-overcharging-customers-839909.html. It looks like this is more likely to happen if you use the repack function.

3. I'm trying Vpost, because they had a promotion. One good thing so far is they round up to the nearest 0.1 kg, instead of 0.5 like HSG. However, people say Vpost's service is terrible. I like their Popstations (a self-service locker, like Amazon has), though. At least I don't need to bother with deliveries. One odd thing is their insurance is VERY expensive - $10 per package; HSG's is less than 1% of the price.

Amazon And International Shipping

Just some of my recent experiences with Amazon, focusing on their International Shipping.

The first thing you need to know is that there are 3 types of things on Amazon:
1. Things sold by Amazon

2. Things sold by others but fulfilled by Amazon

3. Things sold by others

This is important if you're using a forwarding service like HopShopGo, because the first 2 types of things might arrive together, but things sold by others will always arrive separately. This means they'll be packaged separately (extra packaging) and their weights will probably be rounded up separately (i.e. if you buy 2 0.2kg packages and they're rounded up to 0.5kg each, you'll be charged 2x0.5kg = 1kg, instead of 2x0.2kg = 0.5kg rounded up). It's usually much cheaper to buy from Amazon or fulfilled by Amazon.

International Shipping

I found out it's MUCH cheaper to ask Amazon to ship, than to use a forwarding service. I calculated the shipping for my recent purchase to be less than 1/3 of what a shipping company would have charged. There are 2 reasons:

1. Amazon's "shipping weight" is usually lower than the volumetric weight of things.
2. The "shipping weight" is rounded up per order, not per shipment.

Forwarding companies better think of something if they want to stay in business.

Not everything can be shipped internationally. To search for things that can, there are 2 ways:
1. Search, then filter, on the left.

2. Use the Amazonglobal website. Search for "global" on Amazon and there will be a banner to it. Warning: this website isn't very good, if you click around, you'll go back to the normal Amazon.

Sometimes even if you follow these steps, you'll still get a message saying your product can't be shipped globally. What's wrong? The confusing thing about Amazon is an item can have several sellers, and it's not obvious. In the picture for things sold by others above, the red circle on the right is one of the places where you can see all the sellers for an item. One of the sellers might offer international shipping while Amazon doesn't. Warning: sellers have their own international shipping rates, and I haven't seen any reasonable ones yet.

Which delivery companies does Amazon use for international shipping? It seems to be a mix. My Amazonbasics item was delivered by UPS, while my other shipments were delivered by i-parcel. Once in the destination country. i-parcel seems to send things out by normal parcel post.

Things I would like to know:

• How to search for things Fulfilled by Amazon
• How to find out what category an item is in

Holder text

Hop Shop Go

Earlier post
Hop Shop Go is a parcel forwarding/shopping service. You buy stuff online, have it delivered to their address (with your unique line so they know who it belongs to), and they send it to whichever country you're in. This lets you buy from shops that don't ship overseas, and it's cheaper than most shops that DO ship overseas. Also, things are about half the price on Amazon!

This is the second time I'm using them. There are reviews out there saying good and bad things about them, and I'm not sure if the reviews are reliable. I just want to say they're ok so far. I haven't needed to contact them, so I don't know how prompt their service is. If things go well, I don't think I'll ever contact them.

I just wish they could do something about the volumetric weight (they can repack, but that costs USD$7, which is more than 1 kg of shipping cost, they only offer it if it reduces the volumetric weight by > 2 kg. How do they know how much they can reduce by? Hmm). Most of my items' cost comes from the volumetric weight. Maybe only round up to the nearest 0.5 kg for the whole shipment, or round up to less than 0.5 kg. I saw that another site doesn't physically consolidate your packages (i.e. combine packages). HSG says they repack, so I don't think they physically consolidate either. Maybe it's a liability.

The good thing is HSG DOES seem to be the cheapest. Searching for "us forwarding service" and having a look around, I found that other companies are all more expensive, some so much more that I wonder if I'm looking at the wrong service. e.g. bongous charges $21.75 for the first lb (0.45 kg) and at most $8 for each lb after (it diminishes), HSG only charges $11 for the first 0.5 kg and $2.85 for subsequent 0.5 kg! And a lot of those sites require registration and monthly fees!

Update 28 Aug 13
Ok I had a problem, and at the same time an opportunity to test HSG's service. I think a true test of a company's service is how they handle problems.

What happened was a merchant said a package was delivered, but it wasn't showing up on my HSG account. So I had a live chat with HSG.

• Chat times are same as local working hours
• No wait to chat

With the package's tracking number, they were able to locate it within a few minutes. What happened was the merchant failed to put the C/O line on the package, so HSG didn't know whose it was. Looks like the merchant's fault. Within a few minutes, I got an email saying I had a new package, like the emails I always get.

So, I'm very happy with HSG's service. It was fast and effective.