Everything you need to know about StrawberryNET orders- Shipping,Delivery,Customs Tax,Refund info

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 : Rs.1375

- 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 ?