I recently noticed that for most of the items I’ve been ordering from Amazon I’ve been shipping them directly to Kuwait whenever possible instead of shipping to my US forwarding mailbox. I wasn’t sure if it was cheaper or more expensive but then I realized I could actually do a comparison with an item I recently sent to my Shop&Ship mailbox.
I ordered a USB adapter (so its very light) and shipped it to my Shop&Ship mailbox. I paid KD3.96 for shipping because I have a Flex account. Based on the price breakdown, I was able to calculate how much regular Shop&Ship would have cost and with the Amazon shipping price, I just added the item to my cart now and put my Kuwait address to get that cost. Here is what I found:
Shipping Costs
Sho&Ship: KD6.82
Shop&Ship Flex: KD3.96
Amazon: KD4.71
So in my case, I saved a tiny bit of money shipping it to Shop&Ship first, but only because I have Flex. I tried to find another price comparison example, but since the last time I had an item from Amazon shipped to my US forwarding mailbox was back in March, I no longer have the ability to view how much I paid for shipping.
But basically, with the new Shop&Ship price increases, it’s no longer that feasible to ship through them when you have the option to ship directly to Kuwait.
21 replies on “Shipping Direct with Amazon vs Shipping through Shop&Ship”
What about the regional Amazons. I don’t know anyone using them. I would have thought it would be quicker and cheaper to ship from Amazon SA AE or EG to KW. Also I think there is a customs union in the GCC so there won’t be any customs if you order from SA or AE.
I’ve ordered from .as before but just once, they barely have anything I want there that isn’t cheaper to buy directly in Kuwait
I just ordered from Amazon AE and paid import customs fees. Shipped by Aramex and waiting delivery.
it’s illegal to pay for customs fees twice since all items imported from UAE already got custom Which is GCC Customs fees.
If I don’t have to interact with the post office I might start doing that.
Shipping also gets cheaper when ordering multiple items on Amazon. It’s similar prices to shop n ship, but I prefer paying everything shipping related in advance than having Aramex charge me whatever they feel like for customs.
Amazon has also refunded part of the customs deposit on multiple occasions.
It depends if the items can be grouped or not, if they can be grouped in one shipment then yes.
It’ll show in the final payment page.
Alright let’s forget about the price. What about speed, who is faster?
Both use aramex but because Amazon doesn’t have to ship to to your mailbox first they’re gonna be faster
Not all Amazon dot ae items ship to Kuwait but they deliver to your address, driver has called every time, no problem with them
The due have customs but I don’t mind paying
Doesn’t Shop&Ship provide only a NY address that incurs sales tax though? Won’t that make it more expensive? I tried it on Amazon once and there was sales tax added in the total. Is there a way to avoid it?
Shop&Ship Flex has been quite expensive for me lately. I had a t shirt shipped through them weighing .5lb and they charged me 6.36kwd. Doubled the Customs charge (3kd instead of 1.5kd) and they charged a hidden fee for insurance protection even though it’s supposed to get free up to $100. The tshirt only cost $25 w shipping in US from EBay.
610fils is for insurance, 1.5kd is for customs clearance. if you paid 3kd then its 1.5 clearance + customs. But since t-shirt is only $25 I would ask them what extra 1.5kd is for.
I ordered a Fire TV cube and shipped to Shop&Ship because the item is not shipped outside US. I went to collect it and spent 30 minutes while a few employees barely handled 4 customers during this time. Left in frustration without the package as I had another appointment.
Shop&Ship is not just worth it. The worst customer service in Kuwait.
why not have them just deliver to you? its too much of a hassle to go pick something up
Ordered an item from Japan. After it was delivered to the mailbox, it took 8 days for them to update and reflect the item in my inbox (after several queries). Yet to ship.
https://shopandship.com/en/servicesupdates
S&S JAPAN ADDRESS UPDATE: SHIPMENT PROCESSING DELAY
Dear Customers,
Please note that we are experiencing some delays in processing your shipments in our Japan facility.
We will be doing our best to deliver your shipments as soon as possible and will keep you posted on the latest updates.
Thank you,
The S&S Team
Mark have you ever encountered issues with Shop&Ship in terms of customs delay. I mean other well known courier services (e.g. DHL) tend to clear shipments within 2 days of entering. For Shop&Ship it has taken them literally 18 days and on top of that with all the discomfort they send you a payment link to settle the charges. Have you in anyway faced this issue and if you have how to overcome it as I took a decision not to go with Shop&Ship any longer as they don’t take customer satisfaction seriously. For all the cases open, communication back and forth the only thing they should have done is honer their mistake and waive the fee, but no they decide to send a link and with all this I spoke to someone from customer service via Instagram and he bluntly said ‘you are responsible for all fees’ so really they don’t care about their customers!
Shop&Ship usually take a day or two to clear customs, sometimes maybe a day or two longer but generally it’s a very fast process. I’ve never had to wait 18 days that’s for sure. When you sent them an email about it what was the reason they gave you?
Since the shipment entered customs they have been giving me the same daily excuse ‘we have raise a request for our department in customs to follow up’ and that was it. I also spoke to their Shop&Ship manager and had the same response that the delay is from customs. On top of that the item is worth less than KWD 100, but they added customs charges and it’s personal used cellphone.
Mark regarding to your post, I think you forget something regarding to shipping using Aramex US Address which is flex price + customs + insurance
if you chose amazon you don’t have to deal with those prices.
Now days i start searching in Kuwait physicals market/digital market before i order anything from amazon 80% i found what i am looking for in Kuwait.