Then?
Super, I just hauled back four giant books from Amazon, shipped to the US, for a priest to save 30 dollars on shipping...sigh.
This is great news for me...
Note that not everything tagged as free shipping to HK is as such. Look carefully when you get to the check out page. It's working out 50-50 for me so far. Some charge shipping, other items won't ship at all (tried shoes, sports equipment, toiletries, health supplements)
Also - seeking insights from more experienced Amazon shoppers! Does anyone have experience with the import fees deposit?
Technically pretty much most things for personal use are import tax free in HK. Occasionally stuff gets tagged as for commercial use coming through customs and you have to jump through hoops to try and get that cleared up and tax refunded. Has anyone bought items with the Amazon import fee deposit and did it get refunded in full reasonably quickly and painlessly?
Last edited by z754103; 03-11-2019 at 03:32 AM.
Amazon is not that great to deal with the headache. It's an overpriced version of Alibaba.
Alibaba is wholesale and Amazon is retail. You buy shoes on Alibaba? Not in my wildest dreams would I have considered getting my last notebook from Alibaba.
BTW, the free shipping looks like working out 10% of the times for me. Many stuff I look for (shoes right now) has nobody that ships it to HK.
Where do you see this? Been using Amazon for well over 20 years, here in HK and never been asked for a deposit.
Also - seeking insights from more experienced Amazon shoppers! Does anyone have experience with the import fees deposit?
I filled baskets of various types of non-luxury items I'm likely to buy - about 75% of the time Amazon automatically put on an import fee deposit, ranging from USD30-500.
Those items included - sports equipment, a sports watch, make up, sneakers, clothing (cheap, not designer stuff!), and certain toiletries.
What didn't get that fee - vitamins, OTC drugs, books.
Separately, in case others are interested, about 90% of the time, there was a shipping charge, ranging from USD8 to USD300. I tried only loading items where the product page specified the item qualified for free shipping to HK, and found that half the time there was a shipping fee, typically USD 8-12.
ymmv!