Last year I placed an order with StrawberryNET,
it was the first order I placed with them. I have heard about StrawberryNET
since years but I always found the UI of the site very primitive and that made
me think its some fake site. But last year I saw that they have really upgraded
their site. So when there was a 10% off on makeup promotional offer, I decided to take the
leap of faith and place an order for 2 makeup items that I had been coveting
for a while. The good thing about StrawberryNET is that they have a couple of
offers for newbies.
I ordered :
- theBalm INSTAIN Long-Wearing Powder Staining
Blush in the shade Argyle :
- NARS Blush in shade Amour : Rs.2315
Here are all the offers I got on one order
: 10% Off makeup + Extra 5% Off (new
customer) + 1% off for ordering 2 items + Free gift (new customer)
StrawberryNET lets you choose your free gift
from a lot of options. However, all of the options are unboxed stuff. The free
gift I chose is the Calvin Klein
Delicious Luxury Creme Lipstick - #143 Ruby Red.
So my total order which was Rs.3690 for 2 blushes came to Rs.3100
after all the discounts. I gotta say looking back now I can’t believe I was
ready to spend Rs.3690 on just two blushes, my expenditures are just so insane sometimes!
Payment
: The payment method for StrawberryNET is PayPal. If
you don’t have an account you need to make one, especially if you want a custom
duty refund. Make sure that you have a working PayPal account.
Shipping
: StrawberryNET offers free shipping on all orders to India. I had my order
shipped to Mumbai. A day after I placed my order I got an email that my order
has been shipped. I felt that was quite quick, especially quicker than many
Indian eCommerce sites.
Delivery
to India, Customs in India & StrawberryNET customer service : A
month & 10 days after my order was shipped by StrawberryNET, I inquired to
them about the status of my order and they informed me that it had just been
released by customs. Every time I had a
doubt about my order, I’d email StrawberryNET
& they would contact the Indian postal service & inquire about my order.
Their customer service is really top
notch. The box in which the products arrived looked quite beat up, but they
products were individually wrapped in bubble wrap so there was no damage to
them.
Customs
tax/duty : I was charged a whopping Rs.1606 in customs tax for this order. Shocked,
I used a custom duty calculator (that I googled & found) & I saw that
for my order (value Rs.3100) the tax should be ~Rs.980 and not Rs.1600. Greedy, greedy govt. officials. Anyways,
I contacted StrawberryNET customer service again because I was ready to send my
order right back to them because I didn't want to pay that much tax. But to my
surprise, StrawberryNET said that they will refund the customs tax amount. The
only thing I have to do is to mail them the picture of the customs receipt and
the CN22 green sticker on the parcel showing the declared value of your order.
These are the receipts’ pictures I mailed to StrawberryNET.
Customs tax/duty refund & PayPal : The customs tax amount was
initiated via PayPal to the same account from which I placed the order, however
it was initiated as a payment and not a refund(due to a mistake that I made).
In order to receive payments through PayPal, you need to register your PAN info
with them and also make sure the name on your PayPal account is exactly the
same as that on your PAN card. But for me the trial didn’t end here. PayPal has
really strict rules about receiving payments & when you receive a payment,
you are treated as a merchant/seller. And then PayPal has this rule that you
can’t receive the payment upto 21 days unless you are an established seller. So
I contacted PayPal India & their customer support told me to contact the
party paying me (i.e StrawberryNET) & request him/her to leave positive
comments/feedback about me. So I contacted StrawberryNET & their customer
support was helpful as always and that sped up the process & I was able to
access the amount within the same day. Btw, PayPal took $2 as a fee, so the
amount I finally received was Rs.1400.
PayPal transfers this amount to the bank account you have registered with them.
So all
in all, it was quite a pleasant experience with StrawberryNET. Right
from placing the order to getting it & my refund, I have no complaints. The
only thing I’m iffy about is that I
scanned the barcode of the NARS blush on two different apps & nothing
turned up. Its barcode wasn’t recognized. I did contact StrawberryNET
regarding this and I got a long mail about how StrawberryNET is in this service
since years and have 100% authentic products from many brands..blah, blah. If
you’re wondering, the NARS blush is wonderful, the texture, pigmentation &
blendability is superb.
Hope this helped you out ! Do you be plan on placing an order on StrawberryNET ?
