If you’ve ever searched for a product on Google then you’ve most likely come across the website DesertCart. It’s an online store that will ship and deliver items to you from around the world, think of it like if Amazon and Shop&Ship merged together because that’s what DesertCart is. DesertCart’s catalog is composed of items from various other websites but with the added convenience of being able to ship the items directly to you.
I haven’t had a reason to ever use them, I just order my stuff directly from Amazon to Kuwait or have items shipped to my Shop&Ship mailbox. But, a couple of weeks ago, I ordered a Dewalt Cordless Tire Inflator from Amazon. It’s really the best cordless inflator you can buy and my friend has one which we use at the race track. It’s super convenient and runs on batteries which you need to purchase separately since they aren’t included with it. The local Dewalt dealer sells 18V 5000mAh batteries for 35KD but I wanted to get 20V batteries which they don’t get locally. Amazon also doesn’t ship batteries directly to Kuwait nor does Shop&Ship. MyUS do ship batteries but they’re too expensive and so wouldn’t make sense with such a low-value item. So I started googling other options and I ended up finding a Dewalt 20V 4000mAh battery for sale on Desert Cart for 29.600KD plus 3KD to ship to Kuwait. So 32.600KD total and that also included customs. So I placed the order.
The battery turned out to be available in the UAE and within a couple of hours, it got sent to the DHL warehouse and prepared for shipping. I got a notice by email that the item was classified as “dangerous goods” and that it needed more handling and packaging but that they would still ship it. Due to it being classified as dangerous, shipping took a bit longer than usual since I don’t think batteries can’t be mailed on regular flights. A week later, I got the item.
Throughout the whole process, my order tracking was updated constantly, and overall my experience was pretty great and I’d order through them again, but I did run into issues:
- Originally I wanted to purchase two batteries, for me and my friend, but every time I tried to pay for the items I got a weird error regarding payment. I got in touch with their customer support through live chat which was impressive, but after trying a few things and placing the order from different browsers, we couldn’t figure out the issue. I then tried purchasing just 1 battery and the order went through. Turns out that there was only 1 battery in stock which is why my previous orders were confusing their system.
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The second issue I ran into was with my account. I have an account but no password, everytime I try to log in I need to enter a code that gets emailed to me. There doesn’t seem to be a way for me to create a password for my account and I think I have three different accounts with them all using the same email and number? I don’t know, it’s confusing because when I log in from the app on my phone, I can see my previous order. When I log in from the browser on my Macs, I can’t. Also, I verified my phone number on my MacBook but now when I logged in to DeserCart from my iMac I noticed my phone number wasn’t verified so I just verified it again. It’s really buggy.
- All my issues with them seem to be related to random strange bugs, the menu button on the iPhone app for example pulls up an empty list (see above). It’s really odd because they’ve been around for years now so how come no one has run into all these issues before?
But, as I mentioned, my experience was pretty positive since I ended up getting an item which under normal circumstances I wouldn’t be able to get. Even talking to their customer support was a positive experience. I’m still not sure what I’d use DesertCart for again since I don’t need any more batteries, but what’s going to happen from now on is that anytime I want to order anything online, I’m going to check and compare the cost to DesertCart. I just really hope they work out all their kinks. Check them out at desertcart.com.kw
Have you tried them before? Did you face any issues?
31 replies on “My DesertCart Experience”
Did you know the 20 volt batteries from the US are actually 18 volts? My 20 volt tools from the US work with the 18 volt batteries sold in Kuwait.
Yeah, my friend uses 18V batteries with his 20V Dewalt tools, but since the 20V battery was cheaper anyway than the 18V (due to it being 4000mAh) I just went with that. Plus it allowed me to try out Desert Cart.
I ordered from Desertcart a couple of times, and I noticed that the prices for the products change. For example my mother in law wanted a blanket that only ships in the US, so I ordered it off Desertcart. The price of the blanket was around 170KD, and other blankets from the same store was less than 50KD. I contacted them asking why the price was different, and they informed me to check back within the next couple of days. It changed to 40ish KD and I immediately ordered it. After i received it, i wanted to check it the price was the same or not and i noticed that it was over 200KD for some reason. Since then I always wait for prices to change before ordering.
I’ve used desertcart for couple of years now to get car touch-up paint, calligraphy inks and baby eczema creams etc. without any issues (Amazon and Ubuy refused to ship these). Shipping + clearance was also cheaper than Shop & Ship but definitely took longer to deliver. During the lockdowns clearance took almost 2 weeks and all my packages seemed to have been opened up and shoddily taped back but that was probably more to do with the customs here. I’ve also been trying Binge.com.kw recently and while their delivery time is good and prices are even cheaper in many instances, their tracking and updates are terrible.
oh they ship liquids as well? I had ordered a paint sample for my car a couple of months back and shop&ship wouldn’t ship it.
It’s been months and I’m still waiting for a OTP to my number to verify my account at desertcart to check out. I’ve spoken to them before and they still haven’t fixed it so I go on there from time to time to try and see if I can receive a OTP
Only reason I try again is cause I like their shipping prices and my friends who use it love it
When I placed the order a couple of weeks ago I wasn’t getting an SMS to verify my phone, so was able to just verify my email. This morning while prepping for this post I was able to get the OTP to my phone, twice.
It pains when posts like this come up. Because at the moment I don’t need anything, but just because our man Mark like it, I’m going to check it out and impulse buy sh*t I probably will never use.
😂 💸
lol then i recommend u don’t check the blog tomorrow if you don’t want to impulse buy shit 😅
I always tended to avoid them cause they looked to my like a scam or untrustworthy site.. might consider them now
yeah exactly the same with me, I always felt they were dodgy cuz they’d pop up no matter what I searched for
I don’t know if you ever made a post about Binge.com.kw, I found all the amazon products there and after comparing prices with other websites, They are probably the cheapest and they deliver right to your doorstep.
I bought one item from them and it got delivered in 1 week. The only problem is they have only credit card as payment option
Haven’t used them but will compare their prices to Desertcart and see if they’re that much cheaper or not
Cool
Nevermind, The product you mentioned in the post is way more expensive on this website. You got a good deal
Which one the inflator or the battery?
ok just checked, the 20v 4.0Ah battery costs 45KD on Binge with shipping. My battery cost me 32.600 on Desertcart but the battery I found on DesertCart was in the UAE and is now out of stock. The same battery on Binge (US based) is available on DesertCart for 48KD with shipping. So 3KD more expensive than Binge.
Im trying to order 90 lbs dumbbells from amazon. What would be my cheapest option? I heard shop and ship is the best.
With Shop and Ship flex you’ll pay at least 135KD to ship the dumbbells to Kuwait.
I regularly use MyUS and desertcart as the main source of buying stuff from outside kuwait and have found desertcart to be very effective in terms of price ane delivery and customer support. There were different color options available for that product, I selected one and got sent another color. I contacted support and they replied within a few minutes and offered me 2 options, the item can be returned back and they will make full refund, or if I like that color, I can keep the item and they will still refund me back half the amount as a makeover for their mistake. Of course I kept the item and got back half the amount refunded the next day itself !!.
Highly Satisfied customer :).
As for MyUS I am starting to wonder if it is being more expensive than other options.
Any suggestions if there are more cheaper options as compared to MyUS for Shipping US items ? Currently I am on their premium plan which charges me 7$ per month for membership. And they claim their shipment is purely based on actual weight and not volumetric weight.
You can check the blog for previous posts on MyUS, it only makes sense to use them for very expensive items since the lack of tax balances out the expensive shipping costs. For example when you buy a laptop. For everything else, day to day stuff, shop and ship are cheaper.
I wanted a dualit kettle, they wanted 110 kd for it! It costs 70 and is available in the uae, they wanted nearly 50 kd for shipping from the uae. Shipa wanted only less than 10 kd to ship from the uk, these desert guys are a rip off.
Hi, I tried placing an order on desertcart. They asked for a photo of my passport and a credit card. Is it safe to provide them with this information? Thank you!
ummm for sure no, never email people your credit card
Thanks a lot, appreciate the advice!
Worst website ever, they steal exclusive products and offer it on their website. Desertcart thieves
don’t think they steal anything, their website is just an amazon store front so whatever is on amazon.com is on their website.
DO NOT USE DESERTCART if you want to receive what you buy. When your shipment fails to arrive, they will tell YOU that it is YOUR problem and make you spend hours working with DHL to find the shipment. In my case, I was told I was required to have an import license by customs to receive my small order. Desertcart offered NO CUSTOMER SERVICE OR SUPPORT….would NOT credit my account in spite of me NEVER receiving my goods. STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY SINCE THEY JUST WANT YOUR MONEY and won’t support you when they screw up. I wasted 6.5 hours trying to receive a product I never got…spoke to their “customer service” people 4 times with them telling me they could not help me receive my product and would not give me a refund. BAD COMPANY.
Desertcart is the biggest scammer I know of. They charged me 25kd JUST for shipping. So in total I paid 32.5 kd and my product was 7.5kd only.
It weighed about 2 kilos so an average estimate of shipping should have been 8 kd.
SCAMS
Desertcart tells you the shipping cost when u r buying so u could not have bought. If u shipped it directly with Aramex it would have cost you around 14kd. Desertcart comes out more expensive cuz they add their fees on top.
Bad shopping experience with desertcart…. Without permission the give you membership and the use your credit card !!!l it’s like stolen money
Really non safe application