# Ordering laptops online through Aramex Shop and Ship



## nit123 (Aug 9, 2015)

I referred to an older thread here on the same subject, unfortunately its closed so i had to create a new one. 

After alot of thought, i decided to buy a nice gaming laptop - MSI GS70 2QE. Unfortunately the model available in Duabi is an older one retailing at 9,999 AED. So i decided to take the leap and order through Aramex shop and ship. 

My experience was relatively painless, unless you count the number of days i had to wait, which felt like forever. I made a few rookie mistakes, so just posting here in case it helps anyone else. 

First, i had to take a membership for Aramex shop and ship - that cost 40USD. 

I got the New York address and ordered my items to be delivered there. I used B&H photo to order the items, backpack - 35.1 USD, Laptop 1699 USD, Mouse 21.95 USD. 

This was rookie mistake one - never ever order a backpack online, _what was i thinking??_ Its more volume than weight, so shipping is expensive. 

Then items were delivered to Aramex New York, i paid for the shipping and the items were promptly put on a flight the same day they were received. 

Here i realized rookie mistake two - Aramex does not consolidate your shipment, and the online store also did not consolidate my order, even though i paid and ordered everything at once. This means three separate charges for freight and customs!  

I had taken the leap, so what the heck could i do. I received my first of three shipments within 4 days or ordering the items - the backpack. This cost me 207 AED for shipping....and guess what...150 AED for customs!!! It cost 35 USD to buy and 100 USD extra to get it to me. So thats 135 USD for the back pack.

Strangely, the mouse and the laptop took two extra days to reach me. Apparently there was a "delay in offloading the plane" Aramex customer service was useless and could not provide any further information or an ETA. Those two days were agonizing, and i was especially worried about the customs charge for the laptop. So one fine day, i get a message that both shipments are out for delivery. 

For laptop - shipment charges were 495 AED (135 USD) which i had expected because the shipping cost is clearly outlined on aramex website. The customs charge is collected by the delivery agent and you dont find out the cost until he is at your doorstep. For God knows what reason, there was no customs charge on the laptop!!!! Phew!!!! i dont know why, but there wasnt. So the laptop came to about 1835 USD. 

The mouse shipment cost around 26 AED (7 usd) bringing the total to 29 USD. 

In summary - goods worth - 35.1+1699+21.95 = 1756 USD (6450 AED)
Landed cost (till my door step) - 40+135+1835+29 = 2039 USD (7500 AED)

That means just over a 1000 AED in shipping and customs. The laptop specs that i got would cost me at least 11,000 AED in Dubai, so that's a saving of almost 3500 AED (1000 USD) which is definitely worth the one week wait. 

Dont make the rookie mistakes i made and you could save 100-150 USD more. Hope this helps anyone else who is thinking of using the shop and ship service.


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

another point - I don't use shop and ship so do not know what shipping addresses they provide in the US, but most likely you had to pay a c. 10% sales tax on your purchase on Amazon as the delivery address was in NY.


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## nit123 (Aug 9, 2015)

Yes you are right. I checked the invoice - $155 tax, about 8.8% of the invoice value. That's only because of NY address? Shop and Ship only gives NY address for US deliveries.


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## A.Abbass (Jun 28, 2014)

I once had thoughts about building my desktop through amazon, but since so many parts were involved I feared I might fall into the trap of multiple shipments. Ended buying the parts from Dubai and assembling it myself, total cost of about 12,000 AED.

What games do you play ? and if you game online, what's your internet provider and ping in Dubai ?


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## ReefPony (Jun 22, 2015)

nit123 said:


> Yes you are right. I checked the invoice - $155 tax, about 8.8% of the invoice value. That's only because of NY address? Shop and Ship only gives NY address for US deliveries.


Ah... fun with US sales tax. 

Yes, the tax was like that because of the New York address... but, it's hard to tell when you'll be charged a sales tax on online orders in the US. As a rule, most companies only charge the sales tax if they are shipping the item from a warehouse in the state the items will be delivered to... but, companies like Amazon will sometimes charge it other times, as well.

It's complicated because there is no national sales tax in the US... sales tax is a state and sometimes city level tax. To make it even more complicated, many online retailers don't charge sales tax at all if an order is being shipped to another state.


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## jgw99 (May 26, 2014)

ReefPony said:


> Ah... fun with US sales tax.
> 
> Yes, the tax was like that because of the New York address... but, it's hard to tell when you'll be charged a sales tax on online orders in the US. As a rule, most companies only charge the sales tax if they are shipping the item from a warehouse in the state the items will be delivered to... but, companies like Amazon will sometimes charge it other times, as well.
> 
> It's complicated because there is no national sales tax in the US... sales tax is a state and sometimes city level tax. To make it even more complicated, many online retailers don't charge sales tax at all if an order is being shipped to another state.



Due to individual states looking for ways to increase revenue, some states have legislated that sales tax need to be charged to recipients even if there is no physical presence of the merchant in said state. 

Only way to find out really is when purchasing online from the merchant ( Amazon, individual EBAY merchant, newegg, etc) choose state of delivery, and merchant should show state tax amount.


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## A.Abbass (Jun 28, 2014)

Isn't there anyway to tell them these items are being shipped/routed outside USA and ask for the taxes to be waived ?


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## jgw99 (May 26, 2014)

A.Abbass said:


> Isn't there anyway to tell them these items are being shipped/routed outside USA and ask for the taxes to be waived ?



Can certainly ask but I doubt unless shipping is direct from merchant/merchant supplier to Dubai and not via any intermediary tax imposing state.


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

jgw99 said:


> Only way to find out really is when purchasing online from the merchant ( Amazon, individual EBAY merchant, newegg, etc) choose state of delivery, and merchant should show state tax amount.


In Amazon, they show you the sales tax in fine print, and generally not on the main item screen - but yes, it is there at some point of time during the purchase, and not too difficult to miss.


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## nit123 (Aug 9, 2015)

A.Abbass said:


> I once had thoughts about building my desktop through amazon, but since so many parts were involved I feared I might fall into the trap of multiple shipments. Ended buying the parts from Dubai and assembling it myself, total cost of about 12,000 AED.
> 
> What games do you play ? and if you game online, what's your internet provider and ping in Dubai ?


12,000 AED for a desktop? The specs must be out of this world!! 

I prefer more of simulation games, currently playing through simcity and F1 2015. 
For times when im bored, games like GTA V. I was pretty restricted in my choices coz i did not habe a good system, however i will be exploring much more now. 

I use Du, 24mbps connection.


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## Edino (Sep 22, 2013)

nit123 said:


> 150 AED for customs!!! It cost 35 USD to buy and 100 USD extra to get it to me. So thats 135 USD for the back pack.
> 
> Strangely, the mouse and the laptop took two extra days to reach me. Apparently there was a "delay in offloading the plane" Aramex customer service was useless and could not provide any further information or an ETA. Those two days were agonizing, and i was especially worried about the customs charge for the laptop. So one fine day, i get a message that both shipments are out for delivery.
> 
> For laptop - shipment charges were 495 AED (135 USD) which i had expected because the shipping cost is clearly outlined on aramex website. The customs charge is collected by the delivery agent and you dont find out the cost until he is at your doorstep. For God knows what reason, there was no customs charge on the laptop!!!! Phew!!!! i dont know why, but there wasnt. So the laptop came to about 1835 USD.


The duty for the laptop was most likely pre-charged by ARAMEX to you via Backpack bill. I have had the same type of thing happening a while ago. 

I think the delay in receiving the laptop is because it was going trough the customer payment process.


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## Malbec (Jan 2, 2014)

But why the hassle with S&S if B&H ships directly to UAE?


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## imac (Oct 14, 2012)

Malbec said:


> But why the hassle with S&S if B&H ships directly to UAE?


ignorance showing, but... what is b&h? s&s i am assuming means shop & ship...


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## rsinner (Feb 3, 2009)

imac said:


> ignorance showing, but... what is b&h? s&s i am assuming means shop & ship...


I assume B&H is this. B&H Photo Video Digital Cameras, Photography, Camcorders

I thought they were more focussed on cameras etc., but I may be wrong.

Certain sellers on Amazon also deliver to UAE. You need to filter the results by "eligible for global shipping" or something along those lines, but the choices are generally limited.


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## Zenettii (May 26, 2013)

Brought my laptop from the US to and got it shipped to Dubai via S&S.
First mistake I made was ordering it from a company and using the cheapest delivery option to get it to the S&S New York address. Turns out the company was based on the West cost, and transported the laptop by land, which took something like 5 days.

Once it reached New York and dropped off at S&S. I then had to have some stupid customs paper work sorted out because the product was over a $3000 limit for exporting. This took ages to sort out as it mean trying to communicate between S&S and the retailer to get it sorted.

All in all, the experience was a complete mess. but I got my gaming laptop (desktop replace) and still in Dubai they are only selling the predecessor 9 months later (typical low quality of this region).

So happy to be returning to UK next month.


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## Fat Bhoy Tim (Feb 28, 2013)

I always keep my SnS order under $250 to avoid import duties. Still saves me a bundle doing it compared to prices here.


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## Fat Bhoy Tim (Feb 28, 2013)

rsinner said:


> In Amazon, they show you the sales tax in fine print, and generally not on the main item screen - but yes, it is there at some point of time during the purchase, and not too difficult to miss.


That's standard in the US. All things are listed excluding tax, because it varies based on state, county and city.


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## chestnut (Apr 1, 2013)

Regarding the 3 shipment costs, there are competitors to S&S who will combine shipments. 
D.


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## Malbec (Jan 2, 2014)

chestnut said:


> Regarding the 3 shipment costs, there are competitors to S&S who will combine shipments.
> D.


Most if not all beside S&S are using volumetric weight which is a lottery and you can end up paying a lot, unless they offer repacking service too. But after my experience with volumetric weight providers, I somehow prefer S&S, at least I know roughly how much am I going to be charged.

I am just surprised that OP didn't ship from B&H directly to avoid the hassle of using forwarders.


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## nit123 (Aug 9, 2015)

Malbec said:


> Most if not all beside S&S are using volumetric weight which is a lottery and you can end up paying a lot, unless they offer repacking service too. But after my experience with volumetric weight providers, I somehow prefer S&S, at least I know roughly how much am I going to be charged.
> 
> I am just surprised that OP didn't ship from B&H directly to avoid the hassle of using forwarders.


B&H uses DHL and i thought it would be more expensive than Aramex. In my experience its been in the order of Fedex - DHL - Aramex - Empost, in order of decreasing cost. And also having the S&S account, i can now explore shopping from other countries as well. 

But the primary reason is that i knew Aramex would get the items to me in any case. Some time back i had ordered Rubix Cubes from - the fancy speedy ones as i couldnt get them here, from a company in the US coming to a value of just about 100 USD. The cubes arrived in Dubai, for reasons unknown to me, it was rejected at Dubai customs and sent back to the States. I only found out a month later when the company informed me. So this time i opted for S&S as i could not have my dearly laptop returned back and they would handle all the custom's headache.


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## Malbec (Jan 2, 2014)

In my experience B&H use UPS and they do all customs paperwork for you. Also if you order internationally, in case you need to return, B&H will refund you the shipping fees. You may have problems claiming shipping fees back if they see that you ordered it to US address but claiming shipment fees from UAE.

I try to avoid forwarders whenever it's possible. I already had to ship something back to B&H. They covered the shipping fees back and sent me a replacement for free. It is a great company and adding 3rd party forwarder doesn't really make sense here. It only puts you in a risk of having the item damaged and more parties to be involved in case of potential claims.


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