# buying stuff from amazon



## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I need a printer, and the same model my Mom has, the canon mx922, is still available, both on amazon.com.mx and amazon.com. Having the same model will provide the benefit of me being able to help her over the phone with hers, so that's a plus that outweighs most other considerations for me.

It's MXN$2,026.06 on amazon.com.mx "Vendido por Amazon EE.UU y enviado por Amazon EE.UU sujeto a las leyes de los Estados Unidos y enviado desde ese país."

It's US$89 on amazon.com.

Which way to buy it is going to end up cheaper in the end after shipping & taxes, and is either option more likely to run into import issues than the other? How does the import duty tax work?

The ink cartridges for it are available on amazon.com.mx, mostly without the "importacion" tag.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

You can't buy your printer from the US site...

"This item does not ship to Mexico."


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Gatos said:


> You can't buy your printer from the US site...
> 
> "This item does not ship to Mexico."


It seems to me that the same item will sometimes "not ship to Mexico" and other times be available for shipping to Mexico. Has anyone else noticed that?


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

TundraGreen said:


> It seems to me that the same item will sometimes "not ship to Mexico" and other times be available for shipping to Mexico. Has anyone else noticed that?


Actually I have - that was the case with the MagicJack I purchased recently, which shipped today.

Sometimes things seem to cost more (on weekends) as well...


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

Now THAT is interesting - that same printer now (what 1/2 hour later) ships to Mexico !

But - "Price:	$89.02 + $95.42 Shipping & Import Fees Deposit to Mexico"

That might not work...

Amazon must be doing some pretty sophisticated tracking. Perhaps you could form a 'group' and really influence stuff at Amazon's site ?


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

That things cost more on weekends is a very interesting and useful insight! 

When I saw gatos' first reply, I thought it was simple, that if they were offering something on amazon.com.mx they marked it as not shippable to mexico on amazon.com, but I guess it's more complicated than that.

So I went through to the page on amazon.com.mx where I could get the shipping price, and wow...

Productos: $1,703.91
Envío: $1,256.59
Depósito de tasas de importación $281.15
Total (IVA Incluído) $3,241.65

Looks like they get me big time on shipping either way. I've looked locally only in Chedraui and Walmart, maybe I'll look around locally some more for an acceptable alternative.

(That's standard 6-9 day shipping)


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

eastwind said:


> That things cost more on weekends is a very interesting and useful insight!
> 
> When I saw gatos' first reply, I thought it was simple, that if they were offering something on amazon.com.mx they marked it as not shippable to mexico on amazon.com, but I guess it's more complicated than that.
> 
> ...


Try Best Buy as well. I got a scanner there. (I have more use for converting paper into digital than the other way around. The rare times I need to print something, mostly for a Mexican office, I go to local copy shop.)


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

TundraGreen said:


> Try Best Buy as well. I got a scanner there. (I have more use for converting paper into digital than the other way around. The rare times I need to print something, mostly for a Mexican office, I go to local copy shop.)


Same here. When I realized that ink cartridges for my aging printer cost 300 pesos, I ditched the printer and hoofed it three blocks to a internet cafe and printed the few pages that I needed on their color printer for a few pesos. 

Some items on the internet I simply print to Google Drive as a pdf and if I really need a paper copy, I go down the the same internet cafe and print it there.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

We don't have a BestBuy nearby but we do have Office Depots, Staples, Costco, Sam's, Walmart, LiverPool and a Technology Plaza. While $90 is not the end of the world - a lot of retailers periodically have one day sales where the savings can be substantial. There is a term for this but it is escaping me at the moment.

From time to time I have purchased Dewalt power tools direct (from Monterrey I think). Not only do they have more of a selection than say HomeDepot they are a lot cheaper (even with the Estafeta shipping fee). I checked - there is a Canon Mexico...


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Gatos said:


> We don't have a BestBuy nearby but we do have Office Depots, Staples, Costco, Sam's, Walmart, LiverPool and a Technology Plaza. While $90 is not the end of the world - a lot of retailers periodically have one day sales where the savings can be substantial. There is a term for this but it is escaping me at the moment.
> 
> From time to time I have purchased Dewalt power tools direct (from Monterrey I think). Not only do they have more of a selection than say HomeDepot they are a lot cheaper (even with the Estafeta shipping fee). I checked - there is a Canon Mexico...


There is a Buen Fin (de Semana) sale in November every year, driven at least partly as a parallel to the Black Friday sales in the US. As with most sales, it is a good idea to be aware of the regular price. Not every discount is real.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

joaquinx said:


> Same here. When I realized that ink cartridges for my aging printer cost 300 pesos, I ditched the printer and hoofed it three blocks to a internet cafe and printed the few pages that I needed on their color printer for a few pesos.
> 
> Some items on the internet I simply print to Google Drive as a pdf and if I really need a paper copy, I go down the the same internet cafe and print it there.


I do almost the same. I print to a PDF then put it on a thumb drive. Almost every place with a copier can print from a USB drive.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

I'm pretty happy with my cheap'ish (< $200 USD) Epson L355 wireless, color printer /scanner / fax which has reservoirs for the ink (which is really cheap).

My wife has a more high-end HP printer with a cartridge (I'm guessing perhaps $30 USD per) - but there are many places in town which recharge the cartridges,


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

Yes, I called it a printer but the canon mx922 is a multifunction printer/scanner/copier.

One of the very best things we ever got for my aging Mom was a scanner. She uses it all the time to scan things she gets in the mail which she doesn't understand (which is most everything these days) then we (my brother or I) can see what she's talking about and help her deal with it. Neither of us live close to her, he because of his wife's job and me because I couldn't retire and still afford to live where she does.

The mx922 is her second multifunction printer. One of the things I like about it most is it has a page feeder, so you can scan (or copy) multipage documents just by loading them and letting letting it go. You can even scan a multipage document to a single pdf if you know how.

These days, if you are going to buy a scanner or printer, getting a multifunction is the way to go as it's no more expensive in general.

I don't print much, and yes their pricing model is to basically give you the printer for the cost of the ink included in the box, and then make all their profits on replacement ink tanks. The plus side of that model is if you don't print a lot, it's cheaper for you to have a printer.

I think I'll take your advice though and look around more, both locally and online. I did see an office depot somewhere in my riding around on the buses here. If I can find a local source for the mx922 that would be ideal.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Of those paper documents that I wish to save, I photograph them with my cell phone and upload them to Google Drive to either share them with others or have them automatically downloaded to my laptop.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

joaquinx said:


> Of those paper documents that I wish to save, I photograph them with my cell phone and upload them to Google Drive to either share them with others or have them automatically downloaded to my laptop.


Call me chicken but I keep my 'internet' footprint as small as possible. And I had a long career working with computers. I have no google drive anything, no microsoft drive anything, no facebook, twitter, linkedin, instagram ... I worked for years in a job where I saw what was possible. I go out of my way to tell companies - such as credit card companies, credit rating agencies, banks etc that I want to opt-out of their data sharing. Unfortunately the default often is everyone shares everything.

I backup my docs to a local thumb drive which I have stuck into my network router USB (available from all my networked devices).


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Gatos said:


> Call me chicken but I keep my 'internet' footprint as small as possible. And I had a long career working with computers. I have no google drive anything, no microsoft drive anything, no facebook, twitter, linkedin, instagram ... I worked for years in a job where I saw what was possible. I go out of my way to tell companies - such as credit card companies, credit rating agencies, banks etc that I want to opt-out of their data sharing. Unfortunately the default often is everyone shares everything.
> 
> I backup my docs to a local thumb drive which I have stuck into my network router USB (available from all my networked devices).


Thirty years of pushing a pile of bits around. I have nothing worth stealing.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

Gatos said:


> Call me chicken but I keep my 'internet' footprint as small as possible. And I had a long career working with computers. I have no google drive anything, no microsoft drive anything, no facebook, twitter, linkedin, instagram ... I worked for years in a job where I saw what was possible. I go out of my way to tell companies - such as credit card companies, credit rating agencies, banks etc that I want to opt-out of their data sharing. Unfortunately the default often is everyone shares everything.
> 
> I backup my docs to a local thumb drive which I have stuck into my network router USB (available from all my networked devices).


I proceed somewhat similarly, except that I do have a cloud backup service. I have seen too many disk failures or mistakes to rely solely on a local backup. I have a local backup that runs once an hour, and a cloud backup that runs once every 15 minutes. Also, once every few weeks I clone my working disk to another disk. Each backup serves a different purpose, local failure, theft, access to files when traveling, etc.

But I also try to minimize my participation in the so-called social medium. I don't use google for email. They read all of your mail and build profiles to sell to advertisers. Similarly with FaceBook. I have an account that I only use to look at pages on rare occasions when it is necessary. I don't put anything on FaceBook and lied when I filled out the profile. I also use different passwords for every web site, and they are all random 20 character strings generated by a random password generator.


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## Meritorious-MasoMenos (Apr 17, 2014)

Gatos said:


> Call me chicken but I keep my 'internet' footprint as small as possible. And I had a long career working with computers. I have no google drive anything, no microsoft drive anything, no facebook, twitter, linkedin, instagram ... I worked for years in a job where I saw what was possible. I go out of my way to tell companies - such as credit card companies, credit rating agencies, banks etc that I want to opt-out of their data sharing. Unfortunately the default often is everyone shares everything.
> 
> I backup my docs to a local thumb drive which I have stuck into my network router USB (available from all my networked devices).


The CIA, NSA, Russian Secret Service, ISIS, North Korea's Dear Leader, three high school kids down the block and Anonymous have all unanimously declared my computer contents and web history as "totally useless without a scintilla of interest" though "humorous on slow nights if you want insights into a pathetic life."


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I'm not sure how secure those router-mounted thumb drives are. I followed some online guides and did a lot of settings changes to secure my router as best I could, but the guide didn't address router-mounted-USB. Given the number of things I had to change, it seems likely there are some security holes with that too.

I'm using it because something I bought (maybe it was the router) came bundled with a free 1TB USB drive so the router seemed like the place to use it. But I don't put any data there I care about having exposed. 

Now if you unplug it from the router when you're done backing up to it, that's a little more secure


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

Anything is possible I suppose but I have two routers wired Lan-to-Lan. The first router is from Telmex. I changed the SSID and set it to not broadcast. The second router is running Tomato and connects to a VPN. All my devices get a VPN supplied ip. That router also does not broadcast its SSID. Both routers have a firewall. My USB drive is off this second router.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

Meritorious-MasoMenos said:


> The CIA, NSA, Russian Secret Service, ISIS, North Korea's Dear Leader, three high school kids down the block and Anonymous have all unanimously declared my computer contents and web history as "totally useless without a scintilla of interest" though "humorous on slow nights if you want insights into a pathetic life."


Your local hard drive is one thing - but your identity is another. This is a site which apparently was hacked and probably had all their user's data stolen - not too long ago - as evidenced by the banner suggesting changing your password. 

Have you read the privacy statement for THIS site ? It might be an eye-opener for you ...


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

> Anything is possible I suppose but I have two routers wired Lan-to-Lan. The first router is from Telmex. I changed the SSID and set it to not broadcast. The second router is running Tomato and connects to a VPN. All my devices get a VPN supplied ip. That router also does not broadcast its SSID. Both routers have a firewall. My USB drive is off this second router.


I think besides all that you're supposed to block some ports, make the routers discard icmp packets, and completely disable UPNP, management of the device from the wan, and wifi protected setup (WPS).

Why don't you turn off wifi on your telmex router completely rather than just changing the SSID?

I have the same setup, sans the vpn. Cablemas supplied a cisco router without much of a manual, but I already had a netgear nighthawk that I brought with me and had already configured, so I just plugged it into the lan port on the cisco router and turned off wifi on the cisco router, for which there was a hardware button. A vpn is on my todo list somewhere below getting health insurance and selling my old house.

When I hooked it up, the netgear router was smart enough to know its 192.168.x.y default lan addresses conflicted with the addresses being given out to it (as wan addresses) by the cisco dhcp and automatically reconfigured itself to use the 10.100 space and told me so. Pretty slick.


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## davcor (Oct 6, 2016)

*Alternative Purchases*

Why not try Mercado Libre? Better service, better attitude, better prices, and more products in Mexico without import fees. Oh, and they guarantee delivery, or the provider doesn´t get paid.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

This really is a very useful conversation and it is a shame it will be lost buried in an 'Amazon' thread...

I was actually thinking of simply setting the Telmex VDSL router into Bridge mode. But - there are times when the quality of our connection drops so low that I access that router to get out.

We need the VPN for the internet content (ESPN, CBS All Access etc).

As a result of this conversation I am actually considering setting up MAC address filtering on both routers. If only our local devices can access our network that will at least make it very hard (a lot of work) for someone to get in...

I was hesitant to 'burn' the Telmex router because when they come by the house for service I didn't want to have to explain what they were seeing


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

davcor said:


> Why not try Mercado Libre? Better service, better attitude, better prices, and more products in Mexico without import fees. Oh, and they guarantee delivery, or the provider doesn´t get paid.


I agree - I have only used Mercado Libre once but it was a perfect experience. When I need something - especially a computer component I Include it in my search - but you have to be very lucky to find someone selling what you are looking for.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

davcor said:


> Why not try Mercado Libre? Better service, better attitude, better prices, and more products in Mexico without import fees. Oh, and they guarantee delivery, or the provider doesn´t get paid.


i've bought from them a number of times all, except one, with good results.

The one exception was a computer parts dealer who when I bought the first time didn't have the part they advertised. I forgot this instance and bought from them at a later date and once again no part. I fired off emails to ML and the dealer requesting my money and they fumbled that . It took a week to get my 300 pesos back. Needless to say, that vendor is off my buy list.


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## DiverSailor123 (Sep 17, 2016)

Very Interesting thread.... Just one of the issues that seldom comes up when discussing , why someone should or shouldn't move to Mexico.. I spent YEARS hauling "stuff" for Friends who lived in Mexico and couldn't find it or it cost an arm and a leg.. Some of the issues have been resolved.. some haven't. Quality Clothing can still TTBOMK be difficult to find in Mexico..


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

DiverSailor123 said:


> Quality Clothing can still TTBOMK be difficult to find in Mexico..


I believe that if you go to the shopping malls, you will find "quality clothing." Supermarkets just don't carry that quality.


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

I understand the reluctance to mess with the config on the telemex router. But if you can mess with it, and they come out on a call to fix a problem, I bet the first thing they'll try is a factory reset anyway. If you do mess with it, I'd go through all the settings and write them down before I change anything, then I'd do a factory reset, then compare. If they're settings are identical to the factory defaults (a very good chance), I'd say you're good to mess around to your heart's content because you can always just do the factory reset for them.

If you're going to keep the wifi running on both routers, at least try to make sure they're using different (sub) channels. My netgear router has a config pulldown for the 2.4GHz wifi that lets you choose "auto" or any channel from 1 to 11. For the 5 GHz band it has channels 36, 40, 44, 48, 149, 153, 157 and 161. I have my 5.0 band set to 153, but I don't remember why, I may just have picked a channel at random that wasn't the default. I was only using 5.0 GHz in my old house, but here in the apartment in mexico it doesn't penetrate to the bedroom, so I turned on 2.4. That's still on "auto", just by default. 

Supposedly you can get tools to tell you which channels have the most contention and pick your channel accordingly. That's a lot of trouble, but if you have two routers right next to each other with wifi turned on for both at least you can try to make sure they're not fighting over the same channel. One could hope "auto" is smart enough to do that for you if they both have an "auto" selection, but I dunno. 

(I dont' know if I have the terminology quite right, I'm calling the 2.4 vs 5.0 GHz things "bands" rather than "channels" and the 149, 153 etc things channels rather than sub channels, but I have no religious convictions w.r.t naming here)


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## eastwind (Jun 18, 2016)

davcor said:


> Why not try Mercado Libre? Better service, better attitude, better prices, and more products in Mexico without import fees. Oh, and they guarantee delivery, or the provider doesn´t get paid.


I did find that model on mercado libre, but I didn't know anything about them. I'll try to find some place with info to read so I understand how they work.


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

This is interesting. In trying to buy an album on Amazon USA with my BofA card that has been used before to purchase items on their site, I get this message.

"We were unable to process your purchase with your current payment information. Your payment method must be issued by a bank local to the Amazon.com marketplace"

I sent a complaint and received a message saying that I should use a local card. This is interesting because after receiving this message I tried my Mexican debit card and got the same message.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

joaquinx said:


> This is interesting. In trying to buy an album on Amazon USA with my BofA card that has been used before to purchase items on their site, I get this message.
> 
> "We were unable to process your purchase with your current payment information. Your payment method must be issued by a bank local to the Amazon.com marketplace"
> 
> I sent a complaint and received a message saying that I should use a local card. This is interesting because after receiving this message I tried my Mexican debit card and got the same message.


Just last week I purchased something on Amazon US, paid with my BofA Visa card and had it shipped to my Mexican address. No issues at all. I also pay for my Kindle Unlimted account with a US credit card every month. But - I am almost always using my VPN (which puts me in the US). A lot of VPN providers will give you a free week trial period. Maybe that would be worth a shot...

Edit : Looks like it is an issue with the distributor of the media.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/forums/ref=cs_hc_g_tv?ie=UTF8&forumID=Fx1SKFFP8U1B6N5&cdThread=Tx39X7XUUWB1WA0


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

I have bought items from Amazon just last week with the same card and had it delivered to my Mexican address. In fact, many items over the past few years.

That's what is confusing since the card is an US bank card and not Mexican.


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## Gatos (Aug 16, 2016)

joaquinx said:


> I have bought items from Amazon just last week with the same card and had it delivered to my Mexican address. In fact, many items over the past few years.
> 
> That's what is confusing since the card is an US bank card and not Mexican.


I think it has to do with the fact that it is music content. I have never tried purchasing music on Amazon. Another interesting tidbit is that for me, the address on my BofA credit card is my Mexican street address.

Perhaps Amazon is verifying your location (ip address) - like Netflix - just a guess...


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## joaquinx (Jul 3, 2010)

Gatos said:


> I think it has to do with the fact that it is music content. I have never tried purchasing music on Amazon. Another interesting tidbit is that for me, the address on my BofA credit card is my Mexican street address.


Mine also. The link you provided mention the 1-click option to purchase. I checked my and my Mexican address is on it and my US credit card.

As a side note, I went to Google and downloaded the album without any problems. There i paid 100 pesos on my Mexican debit card while Amazon wanted 9.99 usd for the same album. Pi**ed at Amazon, but happy with my purchase.


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