Many people land onto my blog while looking for information about doing their purchase on Ebay. Why? Most probably because the blog contains valuable data (found nowhere else on the Mauritian web) and on top of that, very active participation and numerous helpful contributions on the behalf of my blog readers.

If you have missed that blog article, I highly recommend you to go through it first and all the comments there (Over 200!)

• http://www.yashvinblogs.com/ebay-mauritius/ and
• http://www.yashvinblogs.com/ebay-info-for-mauritius/
• also, the blog post about Amazon : http://www.yashvinblogs.com/amazon-now-ships-to-mauritius/

Updated info about eBay/Amazon purchases and Custom clearance

About a week ago, I was informed about some changes at the Central Parcel Office and that’s the reason why I had to write an updated post to share these precious bits of information I gathered at the Central Parcel office while politely questioning a customs officer.

What has changed?

1. A permit issued by the ICTA is necessary to clear all transmitter/receivers/routers from the customs. In short, everything which uses wireless transmission/frequencies to operate.
2. An Import Permit issued by the Ministry of Commerce is needed to clear any USED/REFURBISHED items from the customs.

The custom officers are only applying the existing laws. These permits have long been in our constitution but they were not applied, until now. From what I have learnt, these measures are now strictly taken into consideration to control the entry of purchases into the island and also, to ensure that items are not forbidden by law.

How to get the permit(s)?

You should know that YOU cannot directly apply for an import permit. Only registered Custom Brokers can complete the procedures by acting as some sort of intermediary between the you and the ministry of commerce. It takes 1-2 days for the permit to get issued.
Now, the permit delivered by the ICTA is a bit more PITA.
Don’t know what it means? You should probably learn by yourself if you go through the steps, but anyways, I will help you.
PITA = Pain In The Ass.
Why? It can take up to 2-3 weeks for the ICTA to process your request.

New to items clearance from the customs?

I will briefly go through some main points that were discussed on the previous post dedicated to Ebay/Mauritius :

• Any purchases above Rs10,000 need to be cleared out of the customs by a Custom Broker
• Any purchases above Rs1,000 are taxable, 15% VAT.
• Items like bags/cigarettes etc have additional duty. For example, 30% on bags + the 15% VAT.
• A post office storage fee of Rs50-Rs100 is claimed for any item delivered at the Central Postal Office.
• Small and cheaper items usually get delivered by your postman or you may need to fetch it at the nearest post office (no charges to pay for)

What you need at the customs?

• Your National Identity card
• Your Paypal receipt or any other receipt/bank statement which shows the value of the purchase (very important)

Some prohibited goods.

1. Guns (Including stunt guns/Pain ball guns) or any other kind of weapons or you may find yourself behind the bars and your house searched immediately after the parcel is opened for verification purposes.
2. Sex toys. Not all of them but because I do not hold enough knowledge into the topic, I forgot those specific things which cannot be imported.
3. Laser pointers > 1mW

Whenever you are ensure, do give a call to the customs office to inquire. The phone numbers are available on this page itself.

Note that you may need medical certificates to prove that you need some medicines(drugs) and all drugs are verified and approved by a pharmacian at the customs. (I think that was what I was told).

Where is the Central Parcels Office located?

That’s a question which I regularly need to answer (just like tons others on this topic.)
The Central Parcels Office is located at the back of the Post Office headquarters of Port Louis. The Postal Museum (that old famous stone-made building) is just 50metres away.
If you are travelling by car, you can use the Caudan Parking or the one found at the Granuary (just at the back of the post office). Rs25 for the first 2hours.

Some useful phone numbers

• Mauritius parcel office : 213-4813
• Customs (Post office): 216-3506
• Bureau d’exchange :212-0150
• EMS : 213-4813
• MRA Tariff Unit : 202-0500 (Call there to get details about duties applicable on products)

I know that many among you will probably be looking for the contact number of a Customs Broker to get your item cleared. In that case, you can drop me a message and I will contact you asap.

Do you have any questions?

Just as I mentioned above, I receive lots of questions either through the blog or by mail. However, lots of people contact me without reading the article and related comments. (btw, many thanks to all those people who contribute to the posts.)

I would politely ask you to go through my first article first, and if you still can’t find the answers to your questions on that page or on this new blog post, do not hesitate to post it here. This said, I have closed the comments section on the previous post, and all questions will now be replied here. If you really want to get an answer fast, the best thing to do is to comment on the blog.

Have a nice time shopping online!

Related Posts:

• Buying on eBay from Mauritius
• Prix des caméras à Maurice, un monde de différence.
• The greed for photography equipment
• 1st ebay purchase = My Camera Nikon D5000!
• Price of Petrol (March 2011 – II)

UPDATE : 29th June 2011

I have an updated post about some measures being strictly taken into consideration at the Customs office. Please make sure that you also read the new article as well as this one.  Comments section on this article is closed. Please ask any questions on the new post.

You can read it here : http://www.yashvinblogs.com/ebay-mauritius-2/

Now, here goes the article :
I finally came up with this post since I have been asked practically the same questions for the last few days! Most of the people landed on my D5000 blog post in which I describe my first experience with eBay. So, this post will go mainly to Mauritians wishing to purchase something on ebay, some sort of eBay purchasing guide

Secure Payment

That’s the main concern of most…

• Be re-assured, payment on ebay is totally secure!
• You need to have a paypal account, linked with your credit card *yeah, u need one*.
  When you create your paypal account, you need to “connect” your credit card to that paypal account. Once set up, paypal will carry out a tiny transaction to check if you are actually authorized to use that card. Once this transaction has been done, you need to check your credit card statement (either through an ATM or internet banking) and type the transaction code on paypal so as to get your credit card and paypal linked together.
• Whenever you buy something on ebay using paypal, you will be required to enter your paypal login and confirm before the transaction is carried out. All of these go over a secure SSL line, no need to worry…

Note : Paypal accounts in Mauritius CANNOT receive money, not yet, neither from other persons nor through “donations” done on web sites.

What if my item never reaches me?

eBay even thought of this possibility… That’s why the site is one of the most reliable places to do your online shopping.

eBay Buyer Protection, everything is in the name…

In case you don’t receive the advertised item or the item does not reach you, the first thing you should to is : Contact the seller.
The item may have been delayed somewhere. Most sellers with whom I dealt were great, helping as much as possible. Some may even propose to send another item meanwhile or reimburse you. If ever the seller does not revert back to you, eBay advises you to open a case on the Resolution Center. This will enable you to recover your full purchase, including the shipping cost.

However, always be sure that the item provides eBay Buyer Protection, displayed on the item’s page. Also, it may be advisable to insure your costly item for a few dollars, usually offered by Seller during the purchase.

Finding the right item

eBay contains thousands of items on sale through bidding or “buy now”. So, it might be a bit difficult for you to browse the virtual stores without having the slightest idea about what you wanna buy. For your first purchase, let’s simplify things, we will be talking about “Buy now” items only, no bidding…

Do you really have a $2000 budget? So, as we say in creole : “Pas faire gros liziers!”

Set the minimum/maximum amount you are ready to spend!

IMHO, one of the best features of ebay remains the search engine driving the site. It is free, do try it out!

It is useless spending time browsing items which cannot be shipped to Mauritius. Make sure that the results listed are available to Mauritius by selecting “Mauritius” in the advanced search options.

Finding the right seller…

Sellers on ebay rely a lot on feedback, positive ones. No one wants to deal with a seller with loads of negative feedback. On the other hand, top rated sellers are the ones usually offering a better service, fast shipping etc… And everyone wants to deal with those “top rated” eBay sellers, marked as below :

If you wanna find out negative feedback from a particular seller, you can use third party web sites to check this out. Head over to http://toolhaus.org/ and type in the seller name :

This is one of the best tools to check out more info about a seller. As you can see, there was only 34 negative feedback and 5898 positive ones registered over the last month. Now up to you to read the negative ones to see if they are really bad or the buyers were simply ‘stupid’. btw, I highly recommend CameraAuctions for your purchases. My D5000 and SB 600 flash both come from that shop
Hi to the great people out there!

Shipping and tracking

I have been using ebay for less than 1year, purchasing items starting as low as $1 up to the most expensive one at $700…. The items have been shipped from different countries, including US, UK, Hong Kong and China.

Most of the US sellers out there use USPS (United States Postal Service) to ship the items. The commonly shipping methods available are :

• USPS Express Mail - See details in above screenshot
  ULTRA FAST and Costly but takes only 3-5 days to travel to Mauritius
• USPS First Class Mail
• USPS Priority Mail

You can get more info about the 2 last shipping here. The items usually take 2-3 weeks to reach the island.

USPS Tracking page : http://www.usps.com/shipping/trackandconfirm.htm

Hong Kong post.

While purchasing my Tamron 70-300mm, I paid nearly $50 dollars for shipping. pff. Nevertheless, the parcel took over 3 weeks to reach Mauritius. At that price, it was much worthy to purchase the item from the US and pay for an USPS Express Mail for the same price!

Hong Kong post tracking page : http://app3.hongkongpost.com/CGI/mt/enquiry.jsp

And China?

lol, I don’t even worry about items shipped from there… It usually takes 4-6 weeks, no need to hurry

Free Shipping

It is sometimes tempting to look for items marked with “Free Shipping”… However, the item might take 3-5 weeks to reach you and no tracking is available for these “free shipping” items. So, be patient!

Collecting your parcel

Yay! You finally got a card from your postman, asking you to come over to the post office… Take your ID card and run to the nearest post office asap!

Depending on the type of item/price/size, it may be collected from the post office directly. In that case, just sign the necessary papers before going away with your parcel.

Now, if your parcel/item is quite bulky/expensive/important, the postmaster will handle you a card, which needs to be shown at the Parcel Office of Port Louis. All (if not most) personal purchases collected there will be charged a vat amount of 15%.

VAT Calculation :

Given that you have purchased the item for personal use and below Rs10,000, you will be charged a vat amount of 15% on (The value of your purchase – Rs1000). Example : Your item costs Rs8000, you will be charged 15% vat on Rs7000 only.

Hence, do not forget to add the VAT amount in your estimations before buying an item.

Post office delivery charges

I do not know the exact amount, but you may be charged around Rs50-100. Unfortunately, I have no additional info on this part. I just paid it quietly

Purchases over Rs10,000 – Critical!

All items valued above Rs10,000 cannot be cleared out of the customs without hiring the service of a “Customs Broker”, a.k.a “Courtier Maritime”. These persons will thus be representing you and carrying out the necessary paper works so that you can get your item out of the customs. They will need some of your personal details to register you at the Mauritius Revenue Authority as an “importer”. Their fees might vary. I paid Rs1, 400 to the one I hired for my camera.

So, before confirming your purchase of over Rs10000, make sure that you add the custom’s broker fee to the purchase’ total amount.

Duty on certain items

No duty is applicable to camera equipment. However, items such as Bags have a duty of 30%!

So, if you bag costs Rs3000 on ebay, duties would be calculated on (3000-1000) = Rs2000. Make sure you add (30% + 15%) = 45%, which roughly comes around Rs3900… A few weeks ago, the MRA officer advised me to check the MRA web site for further details about the duty on applicable items. Need to find that list!

Some last words…

We are no more living in a remote island and the advances in technology are bridging the little gap which still exists. Online payments are becoming part of our everyday life, unlike some years ago. The price difference is indeed huge, I had the opportunity to compare prices of DSLR cameras a few months ago.

Shopping online through eBay might be the only solution to Mauritians if they need to access items either not available to Mauritius yet or simply, items at a more reasonable price. From what I learnt, transactions on Amazon and Google Checkout are not possible for us yet, but I am confident that in a few years time, we won’t really feel that we are thousand of kms away from the biggest stores of the world…

I end this long post with these words and hope that the content here really helped you to understand some basic things about eBay, especially if you are looking forward to your first purchase from within the paradise island of Mark Twain…

Feel free to share and like this article on Facebook!

Related Posts:

• Buying on eBay/Amazon from Mauritius (June 2011)
• The greed for photography equipment
• 1st ebay purchase = My Camera Nikon D5000!
• Prix des caméras à Maurice, un monde de différence.
• Postal / ZIP code of Mauritius

The adventure started more than 15years ago, with a film camera which I obtained after purchasing some amount of a certain product (if am not mistaken, it was Nestle).

Shooting during university days

Later on during university days, I had a Vivitar 2MP point and shoot model which I always carried with me, either in my bag or on my belt. It was of great use to me, but unfortunately, it ate up the battery too quick. A few months later, I purchased a mobile with a VGA camera, and the mobile was replaced with my current one, a Nokia N73, 3MP…

In fact, loads of pictures on this blog have been shot using the N73. Being handy and of pretty good quality, this mobile helps me a lot for blogging…

Moving to the next step

Then came the Fujifilm S5600… It really changed things around because it was a very much different experience… However, I was tempted to step into the real photography world and acquired a D5000 a few months ago…

As an amateur, it really cost me “la peau des fesses” and I told myself “Buy something good, so that you can stick to it for years without any need to spend more…”. This was the decision.

However, living in a world, now considered as a global village, can really be a bad thing for your pocket, especially if you become addicted to photography blogs and Ebay… However, a few things are worth to be bought from Mauritius only, it all depends on the

• price difference ( Things are really costly here!!!)
• willingness to carry out online transactions ( some people do not trust the security yet)
• finally, I would say that sometimes, you feel the need to see the item and touch it/try it before buying it…

Taking the above into consideration, I bought a UV filter (see on the photoblog), followed by a lens hood (on photoblog too) and a LCD plastic cover…

A few weeks ago, I finally went for a tripod in a specialized local photography equipment shop (Rs2000)… Then came the day on which I decided to buy a wireless remote controller, which reached home 3 weeks ago!

Wait….

I just received a parcel yesterday and you know what?

My Tamron 70-300mm F4-5.6 Di LD for Nikon (with built in Motor)…. A blog post will come soon in the coming days .

UPDATED : Here is the blog article for those who want more details about this purchase, once again from ebay.

For now : It is sooooooo wow!

Looking for something to offer me?

So, friends, the wish list for my forthcoming birthdays (22nd March) are :

1. a 35mm or 50mm 1.8G/1.4G AF-S (around $230)
2. an external flash (most probably SB-600; around $230-250)
   Update : PURCHASED!
3. a 18-105mm lens for daily use.
   Update : PURCHASED!

Start saving your money, perhaps you can buy one of the above for me by next year

Most photographers (Amateurs or Pros) might agree, the quest for more photography equipment will never stop.

A few things I learnt since the last months ; Photography as a hobby can turn to be very costly and Ebay, a real addiction.

Related Posts:

• 1st ebay purchase = My Camera Nikon D5000!
• Prix des caméras à Maurice, un monde de différence.
• Bothering about megapixels?
• Buying on eBay/Amazon from Mauritius (June 2011)
• Buying on eBay from Mauritius