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Online Shopping : deals and discussion thread


Bird Bird Bird

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I hope this is a worthwhile thread.
Many of us shop online, so why not make a list of sites where you had an excellent shopping experience ! Bound to help everybody..

Off with a small start !

Books:

  • Flipkart - Undoubtedly the Amazon for India. Excellent prices, superb customer care & super fast shipping. Haven't really looked anywhere else since I've started ordering from them.
  • HomeShop18 - A stiff competitor to Flipkart. Much cheaper, decent delivery times and good communication via CC if the shipment gets late. Personally recommended over FK for books.
  • URead - Excellent pricing. Good CS. Ships via Fedex. Timely deliveries.
  • BookAdda - Good pricing. Ships via Aramex. Nice packaging.
  • IndiaBookStore - Possibly the best site for checking prices on books from various Indian online retailers. Bookmark it !

Photos/Calenders/Flipbooks/Canvas/Mugs/Tees/Anything related to photo printing:

  • Zoomin - Got a set of photos printed on Luminous Kodak paper from them. The most classiest paper I've ever seen. Got a couple of other things like personalized Flipbooks & Calenders from them too. All in all, superb prices, wide variety of items/options, responsive customer care & choice of express shipping make it more than a winner.
  • Itasveer - Another big player in the photo printing segment. Have a lot of variety to print on. Personally tried with their calenders & mug prints which turned out to be awesome. The biggest draw they have is the Doodlepad. You can create a masterpiece on that thing. Prices are good, Customer care turn-around time is a wee bit more than Zoomin. No idea about express delivery.

Personally I feel both of them are head to head in competition, though Zoomin has a slight edge. (Biased opinion is biased :fear:)

Had an awful experience with Snapfish (HP's own). Pathetic prints & terrible service. Refrain ordering from them.


Games:

  • Intencity - Who else than apna Prashaant ! Prompt delivery, lovely packaging (to the level of being frustratingly awesome) & good prices.
  • Gamezen - TonyMontana aka Hemendra. Very nice guy & a good friend. Again amazing prices, nice packing & timely deliveries ! Loves his son the most in this world & has a thing for beer ! tongue.gif
  • GameGears - Trusted homie to The Legend. Swears by it !

International Shopping:

  • ShopYourWorld - Makes our Killzone bhai orgasmic. Nice CC, Superb packing, take care of the customs but expensive !
  • ICCWorld - Same guy(s) who operate under the handle i2cworld on Global Ebay but the direct rates are lesser when compared with GEB or Shopyourworld. There has been 1 case I've read gone horribly wrong. Crossbow has used it & finds it really good. The payment can be done via their site or through Ebay as well (on request).
  • ShopandShip - One time registration needed (with lifetime validity). Get the registration for cheap (5$) using USD5983402 during checkout (If this doesn't work, ask them for a discount code on Twitter or email). Best for light items as they charge via weight (10$ for 1st 500 gms & 8$ henceforth every 500 gms. Add to this 10.3% tax) Check out the SnS thread here.

Air tickets:

  • Travelocity - Suggested by Maddy. Cheap, as he is. :fear:
  • GoIbibo - Cheaper than Travelocity if you have coupons. Again suggested by Maddy, because you know he's as awesome as he's cheap !

Posters & Merchandise:

  • Buzzingaa - Awesome awesome site for all kinda posters & merchandise related to DC/Marvel/Simpsons/South Park/Gaming/Music etc. From mini posters to 3D posters to Fabric posters to Art prints to Badges and more stuff. Superb packing !

Jack of all trades:

  • Ebay - India
    Berrynxt4u | Delhimall | Mark-infotech | Navkar-collection

 

Some rules guidelines/points to follow/consider before/when shopping on Flipkart / Amazon IN

(credits : KJD)

 

1) Search for exact item that you are looking to buy.

2) Search at multiple places to get an idea on price.

3) Found product ? Congratulasions. Check (double check) who is selling the product.

4) Check whether the same product is available with other sellers.

4.1) On Flipkart -

- Is it sold by "WS retail" ? Yes. Well, good thing. +1 to move forward.

- Will product be delivered in 2-3 days ? Yes. Well good thing again. +1 to move forward.

- Will product be delivered in 2-3 days ? No. See delivery time mentioned. It's tentative. So don't be cry-baby if it gets delayed by 2-3 days. If something is "imported". delay can be significant.

 

- Is it sold by "WS retail" ? No. *Alert*. Which seller is selling it ? Is the seller new ? Yes. It's up to you what you wanna do. I would avoid unless I am buying something cheaper.

- Is it sold by "WS retail" ? No. *Alert*. Which seller is selling it ? Is the seller new ? No. How much rating seller has (you really want to trust the rating system for sellers which flipkart has implemented) ? > 4.0 ? I would only make purchase if and only if the same item is not available anywhere else, and I absolutely need the item. And price is not a big concern. (it's much much better to spend 500-1000-2000 bucks more on 20-30-40K item, when buying it from a trusted source)

(Why this much a$$like attitude towards third party sellers ? because there are many examples to concur it. Dole...wid...et )

- "Flipkart Advantage" is similar to "Fulfilled by Amazon". So make purchase from such sellers only if

a) you have bought item from the same seller in past, and you are happy with the seller product and FK fulfillment. And you trust the seller.

b ) you have heard nice things about the seller. (Many are active on multiple platforms) And there are many, many good sellers active on both flipkart and amazon.

c) Again, seller rating is top notch everywhere.

 

4.2) Same set of rules for Amazon India as well.

Only difference is, when product "fulfilled by Amazon" is in question, there are few (probably very few) cases of transaction going not-as-intended , compared to "flipkart advantage".

Amazon is, for now, better place to shop online "in general" and "in India". Such customer service, much wows.

 

5) Warranty

It's wise to check authorized re-sellers list for an item on product website, before making a purchase. This gives much better idea when warranty related queries arise.

So when shopping from third party sellers, please o please ask (to seller, not FK or amazon) who will fulfill RMA / warranty? Mera pappa? or authorized service center ?

 

Almost always, "searching properly (smartly)" can give you a good deal with peace of mind.

 

Post your experiences and will keep adding them to the OP.

:cheers:

Edited by piper
Added useful guidelines by KJD
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yesterday i ordered 2 books from flipkart....i have ordered once before too and last time they called to confirm the order...this time they haven't....is it just for the first time they do that or everytime ??

They normally call if it's CoD. Also if the value is off a certain limit. If you have paid by any other method then they don't need to call. Write to them if you have any doubts, replies are pretty fast.

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They normally call if it's CoD. Also if the value is off a certain limit. If you have paid by any other method then they don't need to call. Write to them if you have any doubts, replies are pretty fast.

thats bro....will do so ..my previous experience with them has been really nice... :thumbsup:

 

 

Edit: saw order status itsd showing

Cash on delivery Order Status : Approved

so i guess it is coming soon....

Edited by playstation
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thats bro....will do so ..my previous experience with them has been really nice... :thumbsup:

Yeah. They are really really good. One of my friends was posted in a remote location with no courier services available. They shipped his books via Speed post and one of the shipments ended up in Rajasthan :blink: .. Emailed them, they took 1 day to verify & then shipped a replacement the very next day. Lovely service there.

Edited by F@tm@n
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Dr. Fatty. +1 to you! Never would have found Zoomin or Itsaveer if not for this thread.

 

Hmmm... new gift ideas :naughty:

:arigato: .. Awesome sites those. Plus Zoomin has amazing offers every year for all of its products. Something like 90% off n all. Normally takes place near Christmas or New year. Site gets bombarded left & right as they offer limited quantities (thousands or hundreds).

Plus do try the Luminous print from Zoomin. It's really in a different class of it's own !

And yeah, you can literally never run out of ideas for gifting on these sites !

Edited by F@tm@n
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Gamer Gears for Gaming product,Have never had a dull moment. :majesty:

 

and Ebay for nothing :majesty:

fixed

ebay is good as long the going is good...but once they screw up then you have no scope of getting justice...and yea dont tell me that you bought so many things etc...i had 204 postives (not any neutral or negative feedback ever) feedbacks in ebay..when i had problems with them and they suspended my account without even bothering or having the decency to inform me reasons..nor trying to answer any of my queries

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you can add

http://www.shopyourworld.com/shop/home.aspx

shopyourworld to the list above..for getting things from abroad...they are expensive...but very reliable...customer support is very helpful,packing of stuff is excellent and yea once you pay,no headache of customs etc also

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fixed

ebay is good as long the going is good...but once they screw up then you have no scope of getting justice...and yea dont tell me that you bought so many things etc...i had 204 postives (not any neutral or negative feedback ever) feedbacks in ebay..when i had problems with them and they suspended my account without even bothering or having the decency to inform me reasons..nor trying to answer any of my queries

hey bro, kya hua uska...u got full money??

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