Online Shopping
Hi looking to hearing of anyone’s experience with Online Shopping please ie:- Amazon, EBay etc?
Hi looking to hearing of anyone’s experience with Online Shopping please ie:- Amazon, EBay etc?
Posted: Wed Oct 10, 2018 6:11pm
Legendary helpful member
I use Amazon.es and eBay a lot, and have never (touch wood!) had a problem.
Where possible, I order items that Amazon themselves deliver. On occasion I order items they advertise for third parties, but when I do so I always first check the rating for the supplier.
I use eBay more now than I used to in the UK, because Amazon.es has a more restricted listing - although I'll follow Ray's tip and also look at Amazon.de. Irrespective of where items come from, and this has recently included Bulgaria and China, they've always been delivered within the anticipated dates.
I used to use Amazon.co.uk until they started charging for delivery and, even though delivery would be from one of their depots in Europe, they told me they couldn't deliver things like aerosols and flammable items. In the main, the only time I look at Amazon.co.uk is to get a price to compare with that from Amazon.es, or to have things delivered to Margaret's daughter for Margaret to bring back when she vists her daughter and grand-kids.
I'd also point out that if you buy from Amazon.es you get a two year guarantee, whereas buying from Amazon.co.uk only gives you one year.
I use Amazon UK, Germany and Spain regularly and have never had any problems.
Generally I order goods supplied by or fulfilled by Amazon but once or twice I have ordered direct from the suppliers with good ratings and it has always been fine.
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While I'm very happy for Jim that he has had no problems there are a great many who's experiences have been far less satisfactory.
Much hinges on where you live and and in which sort of property.
e.g. if you do not have a proper address which the postie can actually deliver to or a physical door which a courier can knock on or, say in the case of an apartment block, at least a buzzer/intercom to call you directly from.
Clearly gated communities can be problematic and of course properties out in the campo which can not only be very hard to find but also a potentially large detour to visit.
A tip from my local PO (but which may not work for you):
If you have a PO box then preface the address with 'Oficine de Correos', firstly because that should tell a supplier to dispatch your item by post and not by courier but even if it does get couriered the addition of 'Oficine de Correos' as the first line of the address allows PO staff to sign for a package which normally they will not do.
In some areas specialist English shops offer a drop off service so their address is where you direct your delivery.
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 1:41pm
Legendary helpful member
Some suppliers simply do not use post and some couriers are not permitted to deliver to Apartado de Correos. We recently had a huge hassle over this as there is no postal delivery to our house as we are in the depths of the campo, and we finally ended up with the helpful DHL driver ringing us and saying he would leave it at their local office in our nearest small town!
However, this kind of glitch apart, I have had no problem with delivery of goods either from Amazon.es or EBay.es or other online Spanish firms from whom we have bought items,everything has always arrived promptly with good online comms and info.
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2018 6:06pm
Legendary helpful member
Our address isn't on any of the usual maps, although I did get it added to Google Maps. I include our phone number in our 'deliver to' address, and if a courier doesn't know where we are, he just rings us and I go and meet him. If I get the tracking information after placing an order, and find out it's MRW or Seur, I just arrange for it to be delivered to their local depot or agent. Once it's delivered, I just go there, show my driving license and order details, and pick it up.
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