AliBaba and the 40 days

25^th July, 2016

With great freedom come great challenges. Recently, my wife started working again after her maternity break. The only difference being, she is now working from home, with a 2PM - 11PM shift. Blame Murphy’s Law, but this arrangement, which should have actually left me with oodles of uninterrupted, free time at hand with my high speed home Wi-Fi at my disposal, wasn’t working out since our personal laptop was invariably being used for my wife’s office work and my 3-year old had already smashed open a couple of my older devices.

I felt the need for a state-of-the-art, portable, powerful, sleek, bang-for-the-buck Wi-Fi device ~ and hence zeroed in on the Xiaomi Mi Pad 2 - the only hitch being, it isn’t sold in India yet! As someone who considers himself a veteran online shopper, I promptly went to AliExpress (the B2C avatar of AliBaba, AliExpress lets you buy even a single unit) and bought this Powerful Tablet at an unbelievable steal-of-a-deal of INR 10,800 (and kept smiling all evening). After all, I had bought Mobile and Tablet accessories from AliExpress before! Whatever could go wrong this time?

This was on the evening of 19^th June. On the 20^th, I was informed my Tablet was ready to ship, and that it would be coming in to India from Singapore, and not from Beijing or Shanghai (Sure, everything is made in China but we Indians are smart enough to take Chinese quality standards with a pinch of salt). By 27^th June, it had reached Mumbai already. Great news indeed! Alas, there ended the joy and began L’affaire Indian Customs & Postal Department!

The ordeal that started post this message, to quote Lewis Carrol, grew curiouser and curiouser! Once at Mumbai, neither would the tracking status ever change, nor were there updates from any corner. After two weeks of consuming AliExpress and Customs department horror stories on the internet, on 8^th July I learnt my packet was detained for inspection by the Customs Commissioner. Great, as if I’m importing illegal WMD from PyongYang (oh wait, they themselves import from Terroristan).

Frustrated, I started making calls. Many calls, but all to the Google sourced Mumbai Foreign Post Office (MFPO) landline numbers. After 10 days of non-stop efforts (for which one deserves at least a Nobel Prize for Patience), on 19^th July a kind soul picked up the MFPO Number +91 (22) 2261 1791. I was so relieved I practically spoke to him in the softest way humanely possible - and he obliged, saying, his workload is too high, but my packet is in line for checking by 20^th July. Please call back in 3 days, he said! Realizing they’re blessed with only a 5-day work week, and in 3 days it would be 23^rd (Saturday), I called back on 22^nd itself, only to be informed that I need to pay a duty of INR 4179 on the tablet!

Suddenly, the Bang for my buck had gone much inaudible :)

ITEM No. RB071988826SG		http://ipsweb.ptcmysore.gov.in/ipswebtracking/IPSWeb_item_events.asp?itemid=RB071988826SG&Submit=Submit
Local Date and Time	Country	Location	Event Type	Mail Category	Next Office	Extra Information
6/23/2016 19:48	Singapore	SINGAPORE S05	Insert item into bag (Otb)	Air	MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE
6/24/2016 10:45	Singapore	SINGAPORE S05	Send item abroad (EDI-received)	Air	MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE
6/27/2016 12:08	India	MUMBAI AIR	Receive item at office of exchange (Inb)	Air	MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE
6/27/2016 15:32	India	MUMBAI AIR	Send item to customs (Inb)	Air	MUMBAI FOREIGN POST OFFICE
7/8/2016 16:24	India	MUMBAI FOREIGN POST OFFICE	Record item customs information (Inb)	Air	MUMBAI FOREIGN POST OFFICE	Retention reason : Awaiting presentation to customs commissioner
7/22/2016 13:41	India	MUMBAI FOREIGN POST OFFICE	Record item customs information (Inb)	Air	MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE	Retention reason : Articles importation subject to restrictions import- license
7/23/2016 11:52	India	MUMBAI FOREIGN POST OFFICE	Send item to domestic location (Inb)	Air	CRC PUNE RMS
7/24/2016 09:30	India	PUNE RMS	Receive item at sorting centre (Inb)	Air	MUMBAI AIRPORT SORTING OFFICE

Today, on 25^th July 2016 – it has been a good 37 days - I still await delivery of the tablet. Going by Google sourced intelligence, I expect to receive the packet within the next 3 days to finally end my 40-day ordeal with AliExpress. Indeed, I expect this to be my last dealing with them for a long, long time – maybe until I migrate to China or AliBaba formally enters India!

Moral of the story:

• Avoid buying major items from AliExpress / AliBaba if you are in India unless you have more guts than brains. Sure the prices make you smile but the import duties will make you cry equally bad!
• If you must buy, go only for verified sellers who have worked for a number of years with AliBaba. Be prepared for an overall 2-month delivery period.
• Avoid “free shipping” items. Go for professional shippers like DHL etc. or shipping by Registered Post (Less chances of your packet getting stuck that way).
• If your items are reaching Mumbai, contact them at 022-22611791. The other number on Google, 022-22613780, is never attended. Be prepared to keep calling off-and-on for > 1 week, keep your tracking number handy
• If you are at Pune, the packet will be sent to CRC Pune RMS (Contact Number 020-26123790). Relax, they too rarely receive your phone calls.
• Typically you should get the packet within 3 days of it reaching CRC Pune RMS.
• Amazon Zindabad! Viva La Flipkart! Snapdeal ki jai! Henceforth I would rather choose a 3-day delivery from a local e-tailer (backed by discounts, coupons and cash backs of course) anytime over such a 40-day ordeal. The Indian e-commerce websites have spoiled us silly, and in an age when even the Great AliBaba is investing in some of them, we’d be crazy to ignore the convenience and peace of mind they offer us already.

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