Free shipping or is it?

In 2013 I had been trying to buy a replacement battery for an iPod I wanted to sell. I hardly listened to it anymore so why keep up things you don’t use right? Apparently all apple authorised dealers do not deal with spares for iPods this led me to go and start looking at alternative places to get my battery. Online stores. Several of the online stores with good reputation did not ship it to Kenya, this led me to searching alternative stores then I landed on DX.com which claimed it shipped orders to Kenya within 14 days. After three months of waiting I decided that I had been conned there is the time allowance when you have to decide to call a debt bad yes?
I was expecting something yesterday in my mail box and was pretty excited. I open my mail box and after sifting through a bunch of bills from previous owners of the box I find a brown padded envelope, you know those they mail things going long distances in? Surely what I expected was way bigger. On close scrutiny I notice it was mailed December 2013! It took a complete 1 year and 2 months! As I checked my merchandise inside it hit me, I had opted for free shipping. Well free is darned expensive, because I’m sure my iPod now has lost half of its value with things like PonoPlayer entering the market.
Well I learned my lesson, next time I’m clicking that free shipping radio button before checking out my cart I will be ready for a harrowing wait, and with patience not being one of my virtues I hardly see that happening… Don’t start preaching to me about the “we want it here and now” of the gen Y. That is just the way things are…

Free shipping? Beware!

Via WordPress android app

 

Shopping online part two

Sometimes this year I had some bad experience with dx.com where I bought a replacement battery for my iPod but never got to see it. After numerous complaints and automated responses I finally gave up. I was bummed, but I was willing still to try out other sites and see how it would go. I am not a gambler, but I think my archetype would be that of a connector. If I discover something good I am that one person who will refer their friends, I am not mean with information. So sometimes this leads me to try risky stuff at times, the things you start by saying “I’ll try this one time and one time only”. Case in point would be last week when I went to my barber and I was convinced to exfoliate, the experience was more of someone sandpapering my face, no way I’m recommending that hehe. Okay let me stop digressing. I recently tried shopping online again, I found myself on eBay since all the other stores do not ship to Kenya.

Enter eBay

I got myself an affordable phone and I wanted a screen protector for it. Those are cheap phone problems, you have to find a way to protect your screen from scratches. After many trips around town looking for the right fit I could not find any shop which had screen protectors for Lenovo. This made me go online to look for a solution.  I found this tempered glass I really loved, tempered glass is better than the plastic film screen protectors they sell, plus the price was basically the same. First I went to my good old amazon.com, I add it to my cart but on checking out I find that it cannot be shipped. That sends me to square one again. I go to eBay and find several merchants in China selling the tempered glass I wanted. I look for the one with the most stars for delivering and order my screen protector glass. They said it would take two to three weeks I would pass by the post office to check if my consignment has arrived. Finally after four weeks I found it tucked in my box. I was so excited I nearly jumped… I guess not all the merchants in China are shady after all 🙂

Ps. Did I mention that even the phone was bought online? Maybe I am a gambler after all, a tiny weeny little bit. Which means I have warranty from India not Kenya, but that comes with risk ey?

My colleague bought a phone on Jumia and got it delivered in a day! Maybe that is my next stop… watch this space.

 

Shopping Online

Slowly we are becoming a virtual world, things are slowly moving from the age-old brick and mortar to digitized versions. Being as curious as I am with trying out new things I have some experience buying stuff online. Some of it good and some bad;

Rupu

My first online purchase was through rupu, they had this amazing offer for some therapy by body contour. I decided to try it out and see what it is they had to offer. I bought the offer via Mpesa and I got an e receipt which I was to redeem at Body Contour. On the D date I went to Body Contour and surprisingly I got into the therapy (don’t ask me what therapy it was, I enjoyed myself though except for the steam bath, I hear such heat is bad for men who are still planning on having kids…)session straight away.

Rupu I must say really increase my confidence in purchasing stuff online, it set a good precedence.

Amazon

This must be the biggest online store for books, you now know where I am going with this. There was this time I was commuting long distances to work and I decided what better way to utilize those 3 hours daily than through reading. I read reviews about e readers and settled on the kindle e ink display reader. The day of purchase I ensured I had some funds in my account (living hand to mouth means the account sometimes has 0 balance, so quit looking surprised), When put my Coop Bank visa card number, they charged 89 shillings instead of dollars! Several trials later and failed attempts to link it with my PayPal account I called it quit. I ask a friend if they may have dollars in their PayPal account (people are making money online, I think am the only one who never learned the ropes!) and they say they had just withdrawn everything.  My cousin tells me they have a prepaid KCB visa card which I can use if I want, and I load it and voila the transaction is successful, you should have seen the relief on my face. After I purchased my Kindle I think it took three weeks to ship using USPS (these guys are very reliable from my subsequent purchases). USPS provide a tracking number which helps know the movement of your package and reduce the time you spent going to check your post office box. What I had overlooked is that it had to go through customs, it came at a time when I was away and a friend was to pick it up for me. They were told they had to pay custom duty which was quite exorbitant (almost half the damn thing!). Anyway I got my kindle in one piece and I was quite excited that I forgot about all that. My commute was really made interesting, I was doing 500 pages a week, that is four books a months, let me brag, okay am done!

NationHela

When Nation and DTB launched this card they mentioned that it could be linked with PayPal, that basically sold it to me. After the hustle I had gone through making payment with Visa, NationHela was Godsend. In my subsequent purchases I usually load the card and purchase via PayPal and has served me well. Their customer care is superb, there is always a guy on the other end when I call to have my password reset (yes I forget it quite often) or have him tell me my balance, however of late they cannot do that. I find it odd they never tell you your balance amount once you top up the card, you know like the way Mpesa does it, telling you your new balance.

Xfountainpens

I was just browsing stuff, when I came across this cigar barrel fountain pen. I loved it and two weeks later I had it in my mailbox.

Deal extreme

I bought a replacement battery for my iPod last year from these guys, they had a sweet deal with free shipping to Kenya. Well to date I am yet to see any package in my mailbox. They customer service is automated and a bit crappy. After reading reviews on the internet it seems several people have lost packages after buying products from DX.com. I was to expect my package on 28^th December 2013 from my inquiry with one of the online robots but that has kept on changing. They also don’t provide tracking for goods below a certain value ($12 I think), also it being based in China they do not have strict laws to protect consumers therefore you can get screwed, which I think I did.

Olx

After I moved into my new house last year, I did not have much in terms of furniture and having a laptop sit on my laps for long hours was burning my thighs, I also hear that the heat is bad for sperm production. This set me out to find a nice laptop table, after window shopping everywhere(read supermarkets) without finding anything to suit my needs I went online and started searching. I came across this portable and foldable laptop table which I instantly liked, I could then work from the bed comfortably. I called the guy who was selling the item and we agreed to meet in a public place, just incase, this is Nairobi you know, sure enough the laptop table was as he had described and I bought it. It has been quite handy since then especially due to its portability.

N-soko deals

These guys had these amazing offers on blu-ray home theaters with tall boy speakers that really got me interested. I decided to test they efficiency before getting myself screwed again (refer to deals extreme above). I booked something on offer too but of a lesser value. I bought the item later only to realize they do not have the items with them and their prices are not always updated. Now Nsoko deals works this way:

• You place an order;
• Nsoko deals receives the order and they send you a booking fee;
• You pay the booking fee;
• Nsoko deals contact a merchant who delivers the product to their offices;
• You are given an option to have it delivered or go to pick it from their offices; and
• You pay the balance when you get your item.

It took them one week to liaise with the vendor to get what I had ordered and at some point the guys at Nsoko deals confused me with the vendor and called me, that is how I got to know they had some loopholes in their Just In Time(JIT) system (I can’t explain what JIT at the moment but you can Google if it is jargon to you). When I got my product the balance I was told to pay was more than the price indicated on the website, after complaining about it and the IT guys going through their system they admit they hadn’t updated their pricing, another loophole. And with that I quit any thought of buying a home theater from Nsoko deals

And that is how my experience has been shopping online, both good and bad. How about you?

 

Shopping Online in Kenya

Slowly we are becoming a virtual world, things are slowly moving from the age-old brick and mortar to digitized versions. Being as curious as I am with trying out new things I have some experience buying stuff online. Some of it good and some bad;

Rupu

My first online purchase was through rupu, they had this amazing offer for some therapy by body contour. I decided to try it out and see what it is they had to offer. I bought the offer via Mpesa and I got an e receipt which I was to redeem at Body Contour. On the D date I went to Body Contour and surprisingly I got into the therapy (don’t ask me what therapy it was, I enjoyed myself though except for the steam bath, I hear such heat is bad for men who are still planning on having kids…)session straight away.

Rupu I must say really increase my confidence in purchasing stuff online, it set a good precedence.

Amazon

This must be the biggest online store for books, you now know where I am going with this. There was this time I was commuting long distances to work and I decided what better way to utilize those 3 hours daily than through reading. I read reviews about e readers and settled on the kindle e ink display reader. The day of purchase I ensured I had some funds in my account (living hand to mouth means the account sometimes has 0 balance, so quit looking surprised), When put my Coop Bank visa card number, they charged 89 shillings instead of dollars! Several trials later and failed attempts to link it with my PayPal account I called it quit. I ask a friend if they may have dollars in their PayPal account (people are making money online, I think am the only one who never learned the ropes!) and they say they had just withdrawn everything.  My cousin tells me they have a prepaid KCB visa card which I can use if I want, and I load it and voila the transaction is successful, you should have seen the relief on my face. After I purchased my Kindle I think it took three weeks to ship using USPS (these guys are very reliable from my subsequent purchases). USPS provide a tracking number which helps know the movement of your package and reduce the time you spent going to check your post office box. What I had overlooked is that it had to go through customs, it came at a time when I was away and a friend was to pick it up for me. They were told they had to pay custom duty which was quite exorbitant (almost half the damn thing!). Anyway I got my kindle in one piece and I was quite excited that I forgot about all that. My commute was really made interesting, I was doing 500 pages a week, that is four books a months, let me brag, okay am done!

NationHela

When Nation and DTB launched this card they mentioned that it could be linked with PayPal, that basically sold it to me. After the hustle I had gone through making payment with Visa, NationHela was Godsend. In my subsequent purchases I usually load the card and purchase via PayPal and has served me well. Their customer care is superb, there is always a guy on the other end when I call to have my password reset (yes I forget it quite often) or have him tell me my balance, however of late they cannot do that. I find it odd they never tell you your balance amount once you top up the card, you know like the way Mpesa does it, telling you your new balance.

Xfountainpens

I was just browsing stuff, when I came across this cigar barrel fountain pen. I loved it and two weeks later I had it in my mailbox.

Deal extreme

I bought a replacement battery for my iPod last year from these guys, they had a sweet deal with free shipping to Kenya. Well to date I am yet to see any package in my mailbox. They customer service is automated and a bit crappy. After reading reviews on the internet it seems several people have lost packages after buying products from DX.com. I was to expect my package on 28^th December 2013 from my inquiry with one of the online robots but that has kept on changing. They also don’t provide tracking for goods below a certain value ($12 I think), also it being based in China they do not have strict laws to protect consumers therefore you can get screwed, which I think I did.

Olx

After I moved into my new house last year, I did not have much in terms of furniture and having a laptop sit on my laps for long hours was burning my thighs, I also hear that the heat is bad for sperm production. This set me out to find a nice laptop table, after window shopping everywhere(read supermarkets) without finding anything to suit my needs I went online and started searching. I came across this portable and foldable laptop table which I instantly liked, I could then work from the bed comfortably. I called the guy who was selling the item and we agreed to meet in a public place, just incase, this is Nairobi you know, sure enough the laptop table was as he had described and I bought it. It has been quite handy since then especially due to its portability.

N-soko deals

These guys had these amazing offers on blu-ray home theaters with tall boy speakers that really got me interested. I decided to test they efficiency before getting myself screwed again (refer to deals extreme above). I booked something on offer too but of a lesser value. I bought the item later only to realize they do not have the items with them and their prices are not always updated. Now Nsoko deals works this way:

• You place an order;
• Nsoko deals receives the order and they send you a booking fee;
• You pay the booking fee;
• Nsoko deals contact a merchant who delivers the product to their offices;
• You are given an option to have it delivered or go to pick it from their offices; and
• You pay the balance when you get your item.

It took them one week to liaise with the vendor to get what I had ordered and at some point the guys at Nsoko deals confused me with the vendor and called me, that is how I got to know they had some loopholes in their Just In Time(JIT) system (I can’t explain what JIT at the moment but you can Google if it is jargon to you). When I got my product the balance I was told to pay was more than the price indicated on the website, after complaining about it and the IT guys going through their system they admit they hadn’t updated their pricing, another loophole. And with that I quit any thought of buying a home theater from Nsoko deals

And that is how my experience has been shopping online in Kenya, both good and bad. How about you?