Hello people!

I have written a blog post sumarizing everything you need to know about ebay and Mauritius. This should answer to most of your questions if you are new to online purchases.

Read it here : http://www.yashvinblogs.com/ebay-mauritius/

Thanks for reading
Yashvin

My sellers usually include a receipt in the package itself and when the customs check the parcel, they take out the receipt with which they calculate the costs. As a precautionary measure to avoid over-estimating, bring your receipt with you and reproduce it when asked. I don’t think they will believe in the $200 dollar gift Well, it’s worth trying

They do update the tracking almost immediately. For example, 2 hours after I collected my parcel, the tracking was updated but it might depend on the shipping service, perhaps they have different service levels.

You are right about the ebay dispute. In fact, you don’t have to worry about that because even if the seller does not refund you back, ebay will take care of that. In any case, you won’t be at lost, be re-assured.
Ebay says :
“We’ll contact the seller and ask them to resolve the issue. After 7 days (or 10 days, in case of international transactions), we’ll ask you how it’s going with the seller. If you tell us that the problem cannot be resolved between you and the seller, and your case qualifies for and is covered by eBay Buyer Protection, eBay will refund your full purchase price plus original shipping into your PayPal account. ”

Link : http://pages.ebay.com/coverage/index.html

My pleasure to advise and help you.
Keep tuned to yashvinblogs.com

Hahaha and yeah since thursday Ive been basically been up till 4.A.M just googling information about shipping to mauritius from abroad, EMS reliability and feedbacks from people who used it, tracking update frequency, lost shipmentm, refunds etc… which turned me into a paranoid insomniac till now :/

However I found some really interesting info like, if you paid through paypal and you have a tracking number. In case your item never arrives, you have 25 days[approx] to file a dispute through paypal and you can refunded easily. [shipping with tracking info + paypal = more safety] 90 percent of people who filed a dispute and show proof of tracking info won their dispute within a week.

The worst is that, its absolutely impossible to find fellow mauritians in the same boat on the net. Your post is very helpful as this is something I can relate to and there are actually a lot of people commenting and giving feedbacks of their previous experiences. Good job with the blog again!

For the tracking with EMS Express, it actually said they shipped it out of japan the next day, god knows if the tracking will update once it reaches mauritius [lazy people here] or how many transits in between.

By the way you said they checked your receipt, was it a receipt the seller included in the package or something marked outside on the package label?

Thanks
J.P

Unfortunately, I am not aware of any way of escaping the vat and other duties. I would be glad to know if “gift” really works, but one thing for sure, you will need to pay for a “custom broker – courtier maritime” to clear your item out of customs. The few items I purchased came with their receipt along, so they calculated the charges based on that amount, but if they find the declared price too low, they might challenge that by imposing the real price. Someone told me that he tried that trick but the customs overestimated the item and at the end of the day, he paid much more he had too.

Do keep me informed about your item, as soon as your tracking says something new
Good luck!

btw, can you really sleep at night these days? haha!

I had my first ebay experience this thursday, bought an electric guitar costing me USD 1500 , the lucky part is that the seller understimated the shipping to mauritius by 200 dollars but still sent it with no extra charges. Shipping is through EMS Express with tracking number online, item is coming from Japan, reliable seller.

| asked the seller to label the package as ‘gift’ and include a fake receipt of USD 200 inside the package. But i totally forgot about the declared value of the package. I dunno if he declared a hight price or if you can skip that I dunno.

I wanted to know if I have a possibility of evading the VAT? With the gift label? And did they check the declared value of your item or they simply asked you how much you paid for it?

Thanks to anyone who can help me clarify some stuff. Going crazy here, watching tracking all day long.
J.P