Price USA News

I am pleased to announce that I have a new USA agent based in Oregon. The major advantage of this is Oregon does not have state sales tax so all order will now be USA tax free. Also because Oregon is closer to Australia the shipping is slightly faster (around a day). This change in agent will allow me to make other changes to continue to improve my service, but for now these two changes should be the only changes that anyone should see.

My old agent who was based in Colorado has said that he will continue to support all my old customers if they have warranty issues or need repairs in the USA.

Carolina

A bit of a milestone as the 10,000th order was placed today. I have had over 5550 customers order from more than 1600 different stores in the USA using my service. I think I might have a glass of champagne tonight to celebrate

If you want to buy from the USA iTunes store it is pretty easy. These are the steps you need to follow.

Step 1 – Purchase an USA iTunes card from me (see here $100 Instant USA iTune Card and here $100 USA Apple iTunes Card). You will need the code from the card to open the account (this is emailed to you), otherwise iTunes will ask you to put in your credit card or banking details. You can’t use your Australian credit card as the billing address is not in the USA.

Step 2 – Go into the US store, which you can access by changing the country at the very bottom of the iTunes page.

Step 3 – Select the “Redeem Voucher” at the bottom of the page. iTunes will then ask you to register or log in, so you will need to register as a new user.

Step 4 – Register as a new user. To do this you need to use a physical address in the USA. You can just use any real address at random, try www.yellowpages.com for example. The address is not verified by Apple since you are only redeeming a gift code.

Step 5 – Redeem your card and go shopping!

An order was placed for a customised LongChamp bag. There are a number of bag designs to choose from and with all the different colours and options a very unique personal range can be designed. The bags are good quality and the price is affordable. Another cool find. Here is the link if you want to check it out.

http://www.longchamp.com/en/home-e-shopping/home-sur-mesure-usa-560.html

Update: My new agent has 3 of these in stock available for immediate shipment. He is having increasing difficulty getting hold of these phones so has increased the price he is charging to US$599.

This phone has become very popular all of a sudden. Because Google blocks access to this phone based on your geography I have been getting lots of requests for this phone. So here is the Q & A list for the most common questions I have received. I will update this post as news comes in rather than create a hundred new posts.

1. Can you order the Nexus One phone?

Yes. Because of the difficulties in ordering this phone I will only be processing orders once my agent is in possession of the phone.

Update 1. Six phones have been shipped to my agent so it looks like he has got over the 5 phone limit.

Update 2. No longer valid.

Update 3. There have been 16 phones shipped to Australia as of the 15th Jan. I will keep this updated as the phones come in and are shipped.

Update 4. There have been 19 phones shipped to Australia as of the 21st Jan.

Update 5. 28 phones have been shipped.

Update 6. 36 phones have shipped.

2. What does the phone cost?

The phone costs US$599. The price is higher because they are so difficult to get hold of.

3. How much does the phone cost to ship to Australia?

The phone weights 2lbs and costs $37.75 to ship.

3. When will I get the phone?

My agent has stock so within 6 days of receiving your payment.

4. What is the fastest shipping method?

Express mail at 6 days (US37.75), and priority (US$31.25) is around 8 to 12 days.

Carolina

I am going into hospital later today to have my wisdom teeth removed (yes I know lots of fun). My husband is looking after me and the kids while I recover. He will be processing orders and answering emails on my behalf, but he may be a little slower than me in dealing with everything. Try not to send him too many emails asking how your order is going or asking questions that are answered in the FAQ.

Carolina

My agent and I have decided to stop taking order for refurbished computers (laptops in particular) from Dell and HP. This is because of three major reasons:

1. It is really difficult to actually place orders for refurbished laptops or other computers. The stock tend to only last minutes to hours and so by the time your payment clears the computer has gone.
2. They take for ever to ship and the tracking details provided by HP in particular are useless.
3. 60% of the computers actually ordered and shipped have turned out to be the wrong model. We think HP and Dell aren’t able to identify what refurbished laptops they actually have in stock, or their shipping staff can’t tell one laptop from another, but the end result is the wrong model ends up getting delivered. This is then a nightmare to sort out.

I know that some people will be disappointed by this, but we can’t keep dealing with these orders and until such time as HP and Dell sort out their problems we won’t be taking any more orders for refurbished laptops or other computers from these two companies. I would not turn down your business unless I knew I was saving you from a terrible fate.

Carolina

I have updated the order form to make it a little easier to use. The major changes are:

• You can choose the country. This should make it easier for people from New Zealand or other countries to access my service.
• The mail-in rebate fields have been removed since very few people use it. You can still get mail-in rebates, you just need to put the details in the order description box.
• The form now warns you if you are likely to be charged GST or duty (ie the total is over A$1000).
• I have changed some of the name of the fields on the form and updated the help function.

I would welcome any feedback anyone might have on the changes.

Carolina

Edit. Thanks for the feedback some of you have provided so far. There was an issue with the USA shipping field which I think have been corrected. If anyone else is having problems with the form please let me know.

I have made a couple of changes to my fee structure to improve the service I offer.

1. All laptops will now be opened, checked, and have a hardware profile run on them before they are shipped to make sure that they match what you ordered. I have had to introduce this policy because some suppliers have been shipping laptops where the internal specifications don’t match what is on the box or what was actually ordered. While this change will mean that no more wrong or DOA laptops will be shipped, it does take up quite a bit more of my agent’s time. Because of this he is charging me an extra US$8.00 to do this testing and which I will be passing on to you.

2. I have also had quite a spike in orders that are paid for and later cancelled. Until now I have been happy to provide a full refund, but these orders are now taking up to much time. To try to cut down on these cancelled ordered, I have introduced a new processing fee of A$5.00 for cancelled and refunded orders. I will wave this fee if you place a new order within a week. This fee only applied to orders that have been paid for – quotes are still free.

Carolina

My agent had an out-of-town emergency family issue and had to leave with no notice. He told me that he will only have sporadic internet access (he will try and place as many orders as he can when he gets the chance), but he won’t be able to ship any orders until he gets back. He is trying to get a friend to ship orders for him, but he is not sure if they will be able to. These situations can happen and I will keep everyone updated.

Edit. My agent is back and all is back to normal.