LebGeeks

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#1 November 29 2012

ironman
Member

Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

I know that several threads concerning shipping have been discussed,
i just would like to get a mailbox in the US in order to ship to lebanon, so i would like to ask about your experience with
Shop and Ship VS Borderlinx.
and by the way, is amazon accepting non US Credit cards?

Thank you.

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#2 November 29 2012

AvoK95
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

I can confirm Amazon accepting non US cards.

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#3 November 29 2012

MohammedSF
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

I'm using a special Credit Card from Fransa Bank / PIC-GTS for eShopping, regular PIC cards will work but it won't be accepted by many eStores that asks for a scan of your card cuz it should have your name engraved on it, so i asked for a special re-loadable PIC with my name engraved on it,,

More info here:

http://www.pic-gts.com

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#4 November 29 2012

Red7
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

I used Shop and Ship to buy on Amazon US, here is some useful information:

You first pay a one time fee of 45$ to register. Someone from the staff will contact you, give you your mailing adresses (US, UK & China)  and ask you to fill a registration form that someone will collect from you.

For every shipment you will have to pay shipment fees of 11$ for the first half kg, 8.6$ for every aditional half (0.5) kg and 7$ for shipment handling fees.
You also have to pay VAT and customs duties which can be surprising. I warn you, in the dictionnary you can see "Lebanese Customs" near the word "shit".

You will be able to track the package and pay for the shipment fees on the website. You will have to pay the rest to the person who will deliver the package. When I received my shipment the package wrapping was torn up but the merchandise was in perfect condition.

You can find more information on http://www.shopandship.com/ or by calling 1288.

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#5 November 30 2012

ironman
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Thank you guys for the clarification, will go for the Shop n Ship service :)

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#6 November 30 2012

Mr. Anderson
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Borderlinx is better, you don't pay any start up fee, i used it many times, their online cost calculator is pretty accurate
The down side is that you only get a shipping address in the US

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#7 November 30 2012

Red7
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

How much do you pay for shipping fees and customs ?

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#8 November 30 2012

Mr. Anderson
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

check the total cost calculator here:
http://www.borderlinx.com/tcc

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#9 November 30 2012

ironman
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

@Red7 the customs fee is around 10% of the value THEY ESTIMATE (the V.A.T), and if your item is more than 800$, there is a clearance thing which i didnt really understand

Last edited by ironman (November 30 2012)

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#10 November 30 2012

Red7
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Customs and VAT are two different things. In a developped country you either pay customs or VAT wether in Lebanon you pay both.

Last edited by Red7 (November 30 2012)

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#11 November 30 2012

ironman
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

no they say customs on electronics is 0, so you have the 10% vat, and the weird issue here is the clearance when the item is above 800$

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#12 November 30 2012

Red7
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Mr. Anderson, with borderlinx have you ever bought many items and asked that they all be shipped as one shipment?
It would help anyone who reads this topic if you could explain how it works the way I did for ShopandShip.

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#13 November 30 2012

Trauma
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Does anyone know their email in Lebanon? I tried customersupport@aramex.com but I got an automated email.

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#14 November 30 2012

AVOlio
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Mr. Anderson wrote:

check the total cost calculator here:
http://www.borderlinx.com/tcc

So i signed up in their site using my Facebook.
How will the process work. How will i be able to purchase from amazon now ?!
Can you explain with details and all..

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#15 November 30 2012

Red7
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Trauma wrote:

Does anyone know their email in Lebanon? I tried customersupport@aramex.com but I got an automated email.

BEYSnSTeam@aramex.com

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#16 December 7 2012

ironman
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

AVOlio wrote:
Mr. Anderson wrote:

check the total cost calculator here:
http://www.borderlinx.com/tcc

So i signed up in their site using my Facebook.
How will the process work. How will i be able to purchase from amazon now ?!
Can you explain with details and all..

@AVOlio when you register, you receive an email containing the address of your mailbox in the states, and then you can buy from Amazon using your CC, and ship it to this address, you can also track your shipment on their website, when the shipment arrives to Lebanon they will give you a call and send the shipment to your house, i will order next week from there and will give you a feedback soon.

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#17 December 13 2012

Red7
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

ironman wrote:

I will order next week from there and will give you a feedback soon.

That would be great, thanks.

Last edited by Red7 (December 13 2012)

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#18 October 8 2013

Liox5
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

For those who praise borderlinx,  i found a deceiving article showing how does the company trick their customer and makes them pay a lot more than the estimated shipping fees!
http://hunboon.wordpress.com/2011/11/01 … alculator/

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#19 October 9 2013

amkahal
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

amkahal wrote:

For those who praise borderlinx,  i found a deceiving article showing how does the company trick their customer and makes them pay a lot more than the estimated shipping fees!
http://hunboon.wordpress.com/2011/11/01 … alculator/

any feedback from you guys in Lebanon, anybody has faced such problems?

Last edited by amkahal (October 9 2013)

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#20 October 9 2013

NofaceNoshape
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

I'm shipping few items with Borderlinx atm for the first time, so far so good.
I'll let you guys know when my package arrives.

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#21 October 9 2013

MrClass
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Hey guys. I am thinking of purchasing from Amazon as well and use Borderlinx to ship the items. The issue is, I need to determine the amount of customs to be paid. I called DHL, and even they are not sure about how to calculate it. Their online calculator does not calculate customs, so what good is it?

I want to purchase a PC RAM kit. if the kit costs 300$ (online price) and weighs 0.5KG, any idea what is the final total to be paid?

Also when purchasing from Amazon, is the price subject to taxes or not?

Are the following formulas correct?
Amount to be paid to Amazon = online cost of item + US shipping expenses (zero if free shipping) + 8% US Tax

Amount to be paid to DHL Borderlinx courier = Shipping Charge based on actual weight or volumetric weight + 18% fuel surcharge (18% out of the shipping charge) + 5$ (Insurance) + Clearance (check below) + Customs (???? % out of item cost)+ VAT (10% out of item cost)

Now regarding Clearance, default amount is 11,000LL if the item costs less than 800$. But if you shipped many items where each is less than 800$ but the total cost for all is above 800$, do I still need a formal clearance? Tasfieh is needed if the item cost ranges between 0$ and 1666$; Tasfieh costs 190000LL. Bayan is needed if the item cost is above 1666$; Bayan costs 405000L.L.

Do computer electronics need formal clearance or does the default clearance applies? (for example shipping computer RAM kits; which clearance applies?)

Regarding customs, the DHL support told me to refer back to customs.gov.lb, but the website is not clear. There is no clear place that mentions customs charges for computer parts. The support told me usually the % for customs is between 5% and 10%. Does the % apply to all kinds of merchandise? Some said that electronics have 0% customs, does it apply to computer parts as well?

If someone can help out, then perhaps we can end up the confusion. By the way, Borderlink might be more expensive, but heck still cheaper than asking a retailer to get it for you. I can't believe a RAM kit that costs 300$ becomes 500$ in lebanon. So F it, I want to ship it myself.

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#22 October 9 2013

Liox5
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Mr class is right.  we need a clarification once and for all.

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#23 October 10 2013

NofaceNoshape
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Things I learned so far:

Using DHL, their US shipping address is in Ohio, therefore when purchasing from amazon there's no additional taxes/state taxes (other than shipping of course).
Most Amazon listed weights are inaccurate.
Borderlinx does indeed calculate taxes (should send them the invoices of every item you're shipping) anyway overall shipping cost is still "approximate" an not the real deal.

My package should arrive this Saturday or next week as I said I'll share my experience.

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#24 October 10 2013

MrClass
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

thanks bro, so now we know that items order from Amazon and shipped to Ohio are not taxable

we still need to know about:

clearance: are computer parts subject to regular clearance or require a formal one? with the 800$ limit, is it the total amount of items to be calculated or is it about the item cost limit (example: 10 items, each cost 100$ which is less than 800$, but total is 1000$ greater than 800$, are these 10 items subject to regular or formal clearance)

customs: are computer parts subject to customs or is it a zero charge? if there is customs to be paid, what % is it?

Thanks again

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#25 October 11 2013

rtwo2008
Member

Re: Shop and Ship or Borderlinx

Liox5 wrote:

For those who praise borderlinx,  i found a deceiving article showing how does the company trick their customer and makes them pay a lot more than the estimated shipping fees!
http://hunboon.wordpress.com/2011/11/01 … alculator/


Nothing new here. Shop & Ship for Aramex was giving me their own internal paper estimating my items at double their value, therefore the customs was also double what it should be. They blamed the customs, while we know that the large containers with 10000000 items each are not going to counted and estimated 1 by 1 by customs... Needless to say I stopped dealing with them, and I stopped using any of those US address bozos.

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