Anyone used concierge services before?

Monsieur Plastique · Post by **Monsieur Plastique** » Sun Aug 04, 2013 2:47 am

Hi,

I am sure many here have run into the issue of buying chess computer stuff from a country that does not deliver to their own country. I guess in many cases other members have generously offered to help as a middle-man so to speak in these types of situations.

I want to buy the Battle versus Chess cartridge for Nintendo DS when it comes out on 20th August, however the English version is only going to be available in the UK and can only be bought from Amazon. This makes it impossible for me to obtain a copy, living as I do in Australia.

I note that there are several companies that offer concierge services whereby they appear to provide some sort of "virtual" UK address for a fee, thereby enabling an overseas purchaser to buy a product, whereupon it is shipped to the nominated address overseas. Obviously these services are not just a UK thing, they are supposed to work in any situation where a country is not valid for delivery.

So I was wanting to know if anyone has used these services before, particularly if they have bought something from either eBay or Amazon? I am trying to understand how they can even work, since I would have thought you still have to have a user id to either bid or buy and that user id is linked to your (invalid) address.

I am thus a little confused as to how these services actually work. I would be grateful if anyone who has used them can provide me with feedback as to how it worked and how succesful it was.

Thanks

Larry · Post by **Larry** » Sun Aug 04, 2013 7:37 am

Hi Jonathon, I know of one of these things in the US where they will
provide an address for you. But as you say, it does'nt help much if an
ebay seller will not let you bid. As far as I can tell, an ebay seller can
give an individual exemption, and this may happen if you ask. Their
concern, quite often, is that they will be marked down as an expensive
shipper.
About all you can do is tell them that you have a forwarding address
in their country, and hope they will let you bid or buy.
hope this helps,
Larry

Post by **Harvey Williamson** » Sun Aug 04, 2013 11:04 am

some of the alternate amazon sellers look like the offer international delivery on this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/offer-listin ... =8-1-fkmr0

Monsieur Plastique · Post by **Monsieur Plastique** » Mon Aug 05, 2013 1:09 am

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately that is the XBox 360 version. It looks, however, like I might have found a business seller on eBay (UK based game retailer) who can get it into stock for me. They tell me they have just ordered a copy. Hopefully it will work that way as it will be as cheap as buying directly - and obviously far simpler.

Monsieur Plastique · Post by **Monsieur Plastique** » Mon Aug 05, 2013 1:13 am

Larry wrote:Their
concern, quite often, is that they will be marked down as an expensive
shipper.

Ha! I get marked down as an expensive shipper even though I only charge the actual postage the post office charges me, whilst paying out of my own pocket for the boxes, bubble-wrap and insurance! Maybe I should just become a registered charity instead.