I have been buying online sine the 80's. It was never a problem with a credit card and shipping insurance although never have something been damaged while shipping in the US. Even those heavy monitors and disk drives.
But in India forget it! Service here dont match what is in the US 40 years ago. Not only is it not close, it is more like jungle shipping. The shop keepers dont pack the product properly and I will guarantee you that your product will be damaged somehow. Also if you are not careful, they will rip you off, Yea even on EBAY India! Now I have got some good products but over all, it just is not worth it. In damaged goods, ripped off and service, you will save money buying locally. There you know who to go to even if they do all those things...
Just as an example, the UPS I ordered, Well 1 would shut down when I turned off the monitor due to the auto shutoff after 1 min since there was some software bug that said the computer was not enough load to prevent auto shut off. After 10 or so emails and a few phoen calls with them I gave up how to convince stupid people it was real easy to check this by turning off the monitor and leaving the computer on and then turn off the AC power.
The 2nd I got because I could not use a UPS that shut off a min after when ever the power went off, they had dropped like on a ledge because it was bent in half, the battery hit the circuit board making the battery charger chip hit the case and breaking it off. If I was stupid I would have plugged it in and if by chance I had touched it while the AC power was off, it would have electrocuted me due to the inverter circuit being in contact with the metal case! Forget trying to get a replacemenet circuit board!
I got a car stereo, thinking hey if I pay rs7000 for something they would at least pack it with foam and stuff and I have already bought 6 or 7 car stereos and they were all well packed even if I got em at the store. Heck no! One of the biggest sellers on Ebay ships such delicate and expensive stuff in a plain carboard box! Of course it was dropped! Which would of course hit the unit itself sicne there was no foam or anything between the casing and the unit itself! Forget that the unit itself was a piece of crap!
While there has been some who have gone to a great deal of trouble for packing, But lets get real here, this is 3rd world backward country with no such things as extra boxes or the use of foam and plastic!
Even with all that trouble to sew using cloths and paper to cover the box to prevent damage and stuff.. Well, it still looked like it was run through the wringer even if the unit inside was still protected by the original foam covering. I got 3 of em and all 3 reached me in the same sorry state.
I could go on and on. But some stuff is packed very well by the manufacturer using foam molding and will not even bend or crack and the unit can even be thrown and stepped on without getting damaged. but I dont think too many companies have any idea their products are sold in countries like India.
So buyer beware! See if the price is that different! I have found that the prices locally even in the boondocks are only -10 to +10% different. So now I only go for the items I just cant find locally at all. I just got an AMD system locally and every component was 10% cheaper locally. I bet it would be much cheaper in places like bombay.
