20North - Customer Satisfaction - Kindly Discuss.

[deba]

Dear All,

Recently I am having a very interesting "sweet & sour" experience with 20North, I would discuss it in full detail but before that lets hear about our other member experiences while dealing with 20North.

Thanks.

 

[srinisundar]

Nope-RULES in front us, further continuing with members post, let it be yours shall be first case, why cant you send the same for mod approval and post it immediately.

We are eagerly waiting for your "Sweet & Sour" experience.

Dear All,

Recently I am having a very interesting "sweet & sour" experience with 20North, I would discuss it in full detail but before that lets hear about our other member experiences while dealing with 20North.

Thanks.

 

[dyna]

I have ordered only once during free shipping time. When I dint receive my product even 1 day after the prescribed time, I called them and got a reply that it was delivered already on time the day before. I complained to them that neither me nor any one in my family received it and asked for delivery details. They apologized for wrong info and delivered promptly on the next day.

 

[komandur]

I am planning to buy a wd hd media player and they seem to be the cheapest even though it is being shipped from overseas - what is the catch? can I go ahead and buy it from them? it costs less than 6K including shipping if I buy from them whereas the minimum on ebay in India is about 7K and if I try out in chennai it is around 8K. suggestions?

 

[dyna]

I am planning to buy a wd hd media player and they seem to be the cheapest even though it is being shipped from overseas - what is the catch? can I go ahead and buy it from them? it costs less than 6K including shipping if I buy from them whereas the minimum on ebay in India is about 7K and if I try out in chennai it is around 8K. suggestions?

currently it costs Rs7175 in 20North

 

[idlebrain]

My Experience with 20north is very positive. I made 5 different purchases all arrived on dot or a day before.

 

[jai1611]

My experience was also fine - ordered a pair of headphones which arrived on time (as far as I can remember - this was a few months ago)

 

[deba]

Finally my sweet and sour story:

I have ordered a set of Planet Earth Blu Ray from 20 North on 22 March 2010 for Rs 3564/-only.After about 10 days I contacted them and they assured that I will get the discs within a weeks time. The discs did not arrive and I again contacted them via email and got the same reply.

After few days a person from Blue Dart telephoned me and said that he wants to meet. I gave him a time and the person came with a set of papers and said that the product sent by 20north has been kept in custody by the sales tax department and I need to give them a Form 50 Declaration as a non registered dealer.

Upon receiving the papers I contacted Blu Dart and they said that they will take no responsibility for the clearance of the product from the sales tax department at Calcutta Airport. Finding no other avenues I contacted 20North by phone, a person named Mr Sam said that he will look into the matter and call back.

I received no call from Mr Sam and I called him again and he said that he will take return of the product from Blu Dart to Bangalore Office, two days went by he did not do anything. I was helpless and again called him he said that I will have to give Form 50 and he resisted from taking back the product to Bangalore office and sent it by normal Speed Post or Courier Service.

Upon investigation I found that the product has been shipped not by 20North but by some one named Everest and it was not Blu Dart Courier but Blu Dart Aviation Limited and it arrived Calcutta not as a courier item but as Air Cargo which is liable for scrutiny and Sales Tax Payment and clearance from the State Govt.Department.

Till today I am unable to clear my papers and get the Blu Ray Discs though I have handed over the matter to my legal consultant who will try his best to get the product for me.

Be very careful while dealing with 20North , the customer service is awful and terrible and they take no care to see whether the product has reached the customer or not. They receive 100% Payment in advance so there job is done. Their transaction is also questionable as no papers related to customs duty payment are shown or provided to the end consumer though they claim to pay taxes on my behalf.The name of the Consignor is different and not 20North which will create more problem for the end Consumer if the product needs to be cleared from the Sales Tax Department.

I failed to understand why 20North shipped the product by Air Cargo which is liable for Sales Tax in West Bengal and even after the wrong shipment they did not care to see that the product reaches the customer..

I will update this thread if I ever receive my Blu ray Discs from them.

Thanks....

 

[sanjub22]

Deba... thats why I guess service providers like Borderlinx are much safer to deal with. One of my friends has bought the same Planet Earth and some other Blue Rays from Amazon.uk and shipped it through them. It was a smooth delivery done by DHL on behalf of them. The only small problem is by default Borderlinx will charge you a Duty and Tax even if you buy a single BR or DVD. But at the same time the entire transaction is very safe and truely official. For total 6 Blue Rays he had to spend around 7k out of which around Rs 850 was for duty and tax.So can consider this option from the next time if you have a citi card. I am just waiting for the evil "Ash" over Europe. Planning to do some R&D on BRs after that. Will share my own experience after that.

 

[KonfuSed]

If you guys want to order only Blu-rays/DVD's then it's a much better option to order it directly from the Amazon (and Amazon UK is much better for blu-ray price). I've mentioned this many many times in the forum. Planet Earth is now available for only 17.99GBP and for International orders they reduce the VAT amount and so with shipping(max 2.98GBP per item and reduces if you order more than one) you may end up paying less than the featured price of 17.99GBP. It normally takes around 10 days but if customs decides to poke their nose then it may be around 2 weeks or lil' bit more. And you don't need to go to customs office also, postman will deliver at your place and he'll only collect the customs duty (it's not much, e.g. for an order of 60GBP I paid 600Rs customs today). And most of the times customs duty won't even be levied. I've ordered many blu-rays from them and till now things are working fine.

 

[deba]

If you guys want to order only Blu-rays/DVD's then it's a much better option to order it directly from the Amazon (and Amazon UK is much better for blu-ray price). I've mentioned this many many times in the forum. Planet Earth is now available for only 17.99GBP and for International orders they reduce the VAT amount and so with shipping(max 2.98GBP per item and reduces if you order more than one) you may end up paying less than the featured price of 17.99GBP. It normally takes around 10 days but if customs decides to poke their nose then it may be around 2 weeks or lil' bit more. And you don't need to go to customs office also, postman will deliver at your place and he'll only collect the customs duty (it's not much, e.g. for an order of 60GBP I paid 600Rs customs today). And most of the times customs duty won't even be levied. I've ordered many blu-rays from them and till now things are working fine.

I have started ordering from Amazon USA directly and cannot import from Amazon UK since my player is locked to Region 1 only.
I contacted Amazon UK and they said that they can only provide Region 2 Blu rays.
Thanks.

 

[KonfuSed]

I have started ordering from Amazon USA directly and cannot import from Amazon UK since my player is locked to Region 1 only.
I contacted Amazon UK and they said that they can only provide Region 2 Blu rays.
Thanks.

Actually many (almost 60-70% if I dare to say) of the Blu-ray releases will be region free. First check the region code in some of the sites like Blu-Ray Region Code Info or Blu-ray.com - Blu-ray, Blu-ray Movies, Blu-ray Players, Blu-ray News and Reviews, 3D Blu-ray, 3D Movies and if they are marked to be region free then you can buy them. Till now I bought many blu-rays from Amazon UK and most of them are region free(except Ratatouille and POTC-AWE). So if they are region locked then order from Amazon US and sometimes it turned out to be cheaper in US for single movies. But for Box sets it's Amazon UK which is cheaper most of the time.
My players are region C(PS3) and region A (Oppo) btw. So you can see what I'm talking about. Although I'm planning to mod the Oppo to make it play all regions.

 

[alcy]

There are mixed reviews for 20north really, and the negative ones seem quite dreadful at times. And the positive ones, really positive.

Anyway, my experience with Amazon US hasn't been great. Took them close to two months to deliver an audio CD. But that being said, the customer support was really responsive & helpful.

Even I am looking at Borderlinx as an option, no harm in trying I guess.

 

[aneelr]

Dear All,

Recently I am having a very interesting "sweet & sour" experience with 20North, I would discuss it in full detail but before that lets hear about our other member experiences while dealing with 20North.

Thanks.

Hi,

I've been constantly dealing with 20north for my Bluray collection's, and no problem for me till date (touch wood) both wrt customs and delivery dates. Couple of week's back got 3 sets of 10 each pack of blurays from them without any issues.

But I guess landmark has got some descent collection, I saw around 500-750 titles with them recently, pricing around 999-1200, some at 1800........ so if pricing is not a problem, this would be a good/riskfree option.

cheers.

 

[deba]

......but dont think Landmark has any blu ray documentary in its catalog.......its all movies.......

 

[deba]

Update:

Just received my Planet Earth Blu Ray from Blu Dart after providing them a Sales Tax Way Bill.Unfortunetly I have to pay Rs 730/- as Tax and additional Rs1000/- to entertain the sales tax people at the Commercial Tax Office to get my way bill....

courtesy .......20North.........will never buy anything from them.......

 

[idlebrain]

Update:

Just received my Planet Earth Blu Ray from Blu Dart after providing them a Sales Tax Way Bill.Unfortunetly I have to pay Rs 730/- as Tax and additional Rs1000/- to entertain the sales tax people at the Commercial Tax Office to get my way bill....

courtesy .......20North.........will never buy anything from them.......

Deba...I am glad you finally got it.Its very unfortunate the way things turned up for you.

@20north : Guys you should have took the responsibility and helped him with the customs after all its your mistake.That could have definitely improved your credibility and earned some loyal customers like me from this forum.We all know things with importing goods are bit tough but what we want is good customer service and take the responsibility until goods reached customer some thing like Amazon sort of.

hope 20north is still a member and care to know about members feedback.

 

[cmsajith]

Deba, I had a different experience in the same kind of situation. When I bought the Sub and Plate amp thru' 20 north under gift (adjusted), I got a call from the Parcel service to produce the required documents, I didnt want to involve in that. I told 20North that I dont want to involve in any paper works and they have to take care of that and I dont want to get any further calls from anybody other than 20North for the delivery info and they agreed. They did the rest and delivered it to my address by Adil himself and later from the documents I came to know that they had to pay the customs duty. Anyways i had a positive experience with them. I would say you should not have inviolved in the paper works which they were supposed to handle.

 

[deba]

Deba, I had a different experience in the same kind of situation. When I bought the Sub and Plate amp thru' 20 north under gift (adjusted), I got a call from the Parcel service to produce the required documents, I didnt want to involve in that. I told 20North that I dont want to involve in any paper works and they have to take care of that and I dont want to get any further calls from anybody other than 20North for the delivery info and they agreed. They did the rest and delivered it to my address by Adil himself and later from the documents I came to know that they had to pay the customs duty. Anyways i had a positive experience with them. I would say you should not have inviolved in the paper works which they were supposed to handle.

It seems that you have not gone through my original post , I have requested them to process the matter on my behalf or take return of the goods and sent it by proper channel but they refused to do so and insisted me to get the way bill from the sales tax department.

There is no doubt that their customer service sucks like anything, till date they did not even care to contact me and check out whether I have received the product.

You may have a very good experience with them but it doesnt apply for me.....I have to pay almost double for their callousness............

Thanks......

 

[particleman]

I ordered a Google HTC Nexus One mobile phone from 20north a couple of months back. I placed the order on Saturday evening and had the phone in my hands the following Friday. So it would be fair to say I am satisfied with their service. If I use their services again, I will be sure to report the results here.