It is no secret that the market in the USA is filled with better and rather often cheap things. We are talking about those brands that are local there. Of course, in the domestic market you can only get them with a big cheat. Thanks to the capabilities of the Internet, only one solution can be called reasonable: order the product you like directly in American online stores. But on your way you can meet a number of problems.
Difficulties
Making an order from a country located on the other side of the ocean is not so simple. First of all, the problem of the language barrier may arise - the Russian simply will not understand the details of the goods offered to him. Again, you need to be able to negotiate with an American counterparty, find out some nuances from the seller. There are several options here, but in general the problem is solved: you can find a translator, ask an English-speaking friend, or in a pinch, search on Google what is required of you. And in general, to overcome the language barrier is not so difficult.
Another problem is the payment. Americans do not work with payment systems such as Webmoney, Qiwi or Yandex.Money - they simply do not know about their existence. In the West, PayPal is most common. Fortunately, it is also in Russia - and if you want to order a parcel, say, from Amazon or eBay, you will need to create an account in this system. In the future, paying with the same Webmoney, for example, you will have to transfer funds to PayPal. That is, albeit with less convenience, but the problem remains solvable.
Third, the greatest difficulty among those described above is delivery. This is especially true for stores that do not ship across the ocean. Such a dilemma without options makes contact with intermediaries.
Delivery services
A whole segment has appeared in the Internet business, aimed at the delivery of goods from abroad. It conducts activities of companies that are intermediaries between the customer (physically located in the country where delivery is not carried out) and the seller working in America.
Such services have been around for quite some time, and thanks to them, they manage to establish a relationship between a store located in the United States and a buyer living in the Russian Federation. Of course, such intermediary functions are performed for a reason - the buyer must pay a certain commission for the work done. This is the basis for the business model in question.
There are actually a large number of such services. In this article we will talk about one thing - this is the site of the "Parcel Post". The reviews left about him indicate that the project helps many people from the Russian Federation to get what they want. Today we will consider how this service functions, what features of its activities can be distinguished, what services it provides. In the end, appropriate conclusions will be made on how the "Parcel" (from Qwintry) works. Testimonials indicate that this is a portal on which information about services and company data is posted. We’ll talk about him.
Services
To begin with, we will more accurately describe what the company we are describing is engaged in. Already by its name alone, we can confidently say that we are talking about a transport and logistics company. Since her description contains information about orders from the United States, we can conclude that the company operates, which is based on the delivery of parcels from the United States to Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan.
However, this is not the whole list of how this service can be useful. We are expanding the circle of information about what reviews the Parcel Post has and what else its employees are doing.
Dispatch
First of all, perhaps the most valuable service is the ability to send goods that arrived at their warehouse. It looks something like this: when buying on Amazon, you can indicate the mail contacts that the “Parcel” has: the customer reviews also confirm that it all starts with this - indicating where the goods will be sent. For this, information on the post office, street and city where their warehouse is located in your personal account will be placed.
At the time of writing the article on the Parcel website (reviews can also confirm this), it was indicated that their warehouse is located in Delaware. This means that when placing an order, you just need to clarify this address - and the thing you bought will arrive where it will be received and carefully executed.
Reception
If the goods arrived at the address of the service warehouse, it must be accepted. This function is performed by the employees of "Parcel Post". Reviews note that this service is free and does not require any special permissions or other papers. Everything is extremely simple - employees do free reception of goods.
In addition to physical placement in specially selected premises, those who work in the service also make parcels in the database. This allows you to control the procedure for each of them.
Storage
The next stage of product delivery from Amazon, eBay and other trading floors is the conservation of goods, their storage in a warehouse. It is carried out free of charge (if the period the goods are in stock does not exceed 45 days) or for a fee - for $ 0.5 per day.
During the specified period, the buyer must decide what he wants to do with the goods. This implies mainly that the person will indicate: the thing needs to be sent to some address. Its location in its native country - Russia, Belarus, Ukraine or Kazakhstan, where the "Parcel" operates, will be implied. Customer reviews show that after indicating the address to the one who made the order, it remains only to wait for the parcel, which will, depending on the delivery service, go from 10 to 40 days.
Other
Since a person who places an order from the USA and is physically located in, say, Russia, cannot independently control the quality of the parcel, the reliability of its packaging - all this also falls into the category of additional services from intermediary companies. For example, this is unpacking / packaging of goods, weighing, a combination of different parcels. Thus, the intermediary "Parcel", reviews of which we are primarily interested, is a kind of integrated solution for the delivery of goods. With its help (and by the hands of its specialists), you can perform all the same actions that you would like to perform on your own, having received the goods at home.
Conditions
Of course, there are a number of restrictions to be reckoned with if you want to make a purchase in the USA and safely accept it. First of all, they relate to prohibited categories of goods (for which there is a whole list). This, for example, weapons or flammable objects.
In addition, there are also restrictions on the size and weight of the products. In particular, for each of the delivery services with which the Parcel Service works (reviews are mentioned by two companies - USPS Express and Priority), there are conditions. For example, this is a limit on the cost of the goods being shipped - $ 2,500. In more detail about them you will see the data on the product order page, listing them here does not make sense, since such rules can easily change.
And of course, there are some nuances in working with the service for sending goods from the United States. Here, for example, there is a rule according to which a parcel can be stored in a warehouse for no more than 100 days. Obviously, after this period, the service will utilize the thing.
Prices
How much does the service charge for its intermediary services? You can find out about this by studying the special page “Tariffs”. Here, various paid options are indicated in more detail, for example: packaging ($ 3-8), special actions with the product ($ 0-15), insurance ($ 3-100). In this case, as noted by the reviews, "Parcel" is the recipient of these funds.
Another question is how much the delivery will cost (from the warehouse “Parcels” to the country of the recipient of the parcel). You can calculate it using the online calculator posted on the company's website. We can say this: a small cargo of up to 1 kg can be delivered for 50-60 dollars. Most often, this category includes the most ordered products: headphones, players, smartphones, and more.
Discounts
In order for the price of the company’s services not to hit the client’s wallet so much, as noted by the reviews, “Parcel” offers to use a discount system. It is organized by American companies that cooperate with online stores, attracting customers for them. One of these is the resource mr.Rebates, which is recommended to interact with in the instructions on the “Parcels” portal.
Here are details about where to go, where to register and what to click in order to get your discount. This is not only convenient, but also very beneficial - in fact, using free checks received by mail (again, to the address of the service we are describing), you can save 10, 20, 30 and more percent of the value of the thing.
In addition, there is also the opportunity to participate in closed sales and various discount clubs, which will give the opportunity to save even more. The main thing is not to be shy, to learn something new and try to use it for the benefit of yourself.
Help
By the way, information support, as noted by the reviews, “Parcel” provides with a bang. Here, a huge number of articles, training materials and interesting stories about how you can pay less and get more in certain stores are collected. In addition, tips are given here on how to choose the thing you are interested in, how to place an order, and what to expect after making a payment. All this information really enlightens and makes the client more aware of the procedure for making online purchases on foreign portals.
In addition, of course, do not forget about the support service! She can ask questions and wait for specific answers that will help you solve the problem that interests you in the shortest possible time.
Service Reviews
Of course, in the process of writing the article, we turned to the recommendations left by those who already have experience with the intermediary service. In them, of course, you can find the most useful information about how this site works, how to order products with its help, which should be noted.
Most of the submitted reviews can be attributed to positive - people write that they are satisfied with the speed of order processing, the quality of its delivery, service, and the level of support service. Some also note the service from a positive point of view due to the low service prices and the mass of useful materials that can be found on the company's website.
Nevertheless, there are negative reviews about the site "Parcel". Their authors claim that, for example, the service forces you to take photos with the received goods and an inscription with the address of their portal (for placement for advertising purposes on your website). Other users, who remained dissatisfied with the site’s maintenance, noted that they really didn’t like the delivery speed (which took more than a month) or how the support staff had ignored their requests for a long time.
Thus, we can say that most of the comments are nevertheless laudatory, and only a few reviews, on the contrary, recommend not contacting the service.
Employee Reviews
For a more objective picture of how this company works, we also wanted to find feedback from employees about the “Parcel” service. They would let us know how the service works from the inside.
However, after a series of attempts to find out something from the former or current employees of the company failed. This indicates, firstly, that the staff turnover there is not so large that comments from former employees are noticeable on the network; and secondly, it showed that no high-profile scandals related to working conditions or non-payment of wages in the service did not happen. What a good sign for those who decide whether to start working with this company or not.