I found out to my dismay yesterday that Amazon do not deliver to Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. Indeed, it appears that they do not deliver to Russia at all. I had not been aware of this previously, and in fact I was told by somebody (who unfortunately I cannot remember, hence their knackers will remain attached to their person until such time my memory regains its fidelity) that Amazon had recently started delivering here. I was about to place a large order of books, and found that I could not. I’ll have a look at some other online book retailers to see if they deliver to Russia, but I’m not holding out much hope. Had there been a decent blogger on Sakhalin before my arrival I could have found this out in advance.
Very disappointed.
You may have heard it from me – I know I used Amazon a couple of times when I was in Irkutsk in 2002/3. They delivered by DHL – and very promptly too.
I think I may have used the US Amazon, though, rather than the UK version. I just checked the US site, and they have it listed as one of the European countries they deliver to.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html/102-5672461-8959326?ie=UTF8&nodeId=596194
hey mate
a collegue of mine recieved a parcel from amazon last week (amazon uk) so they must do. i was amazed myself but he said it arrived only 5 days after being ordered
Can you try to find a service like Aramex Shop & Ship? It gives you a mailing locker in the US and the UK, Amazon posts to there, and then the courier company forwards on to you.
Quite a few online retailers won’t deliver to Russia but one way round this is to fill in your correct Russian address but put the country as UK/Canada/wherever. The parcel will be sent to that country where the posties will see that the country’s wrong and forward it on to Russia. Sounds odd but it does work most of the time.
Yeah, I’ve heard of that getaround, too. The problem, I suppose, is that if the package doesn’t arrive, you can’t complain to Amazon. They’ll just say – “Well, you filled out the form incorrectly. What did you expect?”
Thanks for all you comments, folks.
Andy, I was actually using the US version. I have not yet tried the UK one. The message I got was “We’re sorry. This item can’t be shipped to the country you selected. I’m guessing they deliver to certain parts of Russia, but put this message up when they get a zip code they don’t like. I might try with a Moscow address and see what happens. You did well to get it delivered to Irkutsk.
SD, if all else fails I will look into that. Thanks.
Alex, I’ve heard of this method but I’m a bit cynical. I’m not sure how many individuals working for a post office would simply forward a wrongly addressed parcel to the correct country, especially if it was going to be hitting their pocket. And I’m looking to place an order of about $200, so I want to be able to moan and complain to Amazon if something goes wrong.