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Any success stories of buying Aqua Fish from ebay?

asked 2016-07-30 15:58:21 +0200

Magog gravatar image

updated 2016-07-31 12:00:23 +0200

Stefanix gravatar image

Does anybody have one? Please share your experience about this.

Please add if you ordered from India or any other country, if your profile does not tell your location.

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Comments

2

Everybody is waiting for the first one to have it delivered. I guess you will first see on twitter!

mosen ( 2016-07-30 16:39:23 +0200 )edit
2

@Magog - I don't understand - could you clarify if this question is for Europeans / Americans who have tried to purchase from ebay.in? Else these brief customer reviews - ebay seller 1, ebay seller 2 and amazon.in seller - gives a good idea of the online buyers' experience, so far.

sifartech ( 2016-07-30 18:37:51 +0200 )edit

i purchased 2 phones from ebay.in, got the delivery on next day :)

amitpatel ( 2016-07-30 18:58:20 +0200 )edit

@MJolla - I think you should convert your comment to an answer. The credit card copy and credit card summary is additional verification by ebay to ensure that you are not using somebody else's stolen card. Tip: If you sent it by email to ebay, delete that sent mail. If somebody hacks your email account, that info would be like a gold mine for them.

sifartech ( 2016-07-30 22:51:51 +0200 )edit
1

I hope you don't mind I edited the title a bit, I clicked in hopes to read your success story about getting the aqua fish to europe / america, since it was not in question form.

Acce ( 2016-07-31 00:21:05 +0200 )edit

53 Answers

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15

answered 2016-08-01 11:38:56 +0200

Raymaen gravatar image

updated 2016-09-07 10:14:49 +0200

Conclusion of the whole story

If you are a german customer, i can only give you the advice to wait for an other smarphone with Sailfish OS awailable for Europe-market, or try to get it from an other Country (shipping that to a friend in Finnland or the Swiss, it seems to get through the customs there). The german customs give you no chance to keep the phone if they are working correct (most of the time they do!).

Reasons:

  • missing CE certificate
  • missing german manual
  • missing declaration of conformity

The whole story

I bought it on 25.07 from Germany on ebay.in. My first payment was recejted by PaisaPay due to missing documents after 3 Days. I just sent a Copy of the creditcard. They requested scanned copy front of the creditcard AND the latest credit card statement through Email sent by Ebay! But on Ebay itself it was written: copy front of the card OR latest card statement.

I tried it another time with the credit card and sent BOTH (AND) like stated in the email, via PaisaPay Emailadress. It took almost 3 days to confirm my payment. on 31.07 i received an email with the payment confirmation. The item will be sent between 10.08 and 16.08 it says in the email. so long wait ahead... :-( hopefully it will be delivered.

Update 1: today i got an email, that the seller has shipped the phone! (02.08.2016) it says on ebay: "You can expect to receive the item latest by 23-Aug-16" ?? long shipment ahead...

Update 2: actual tracking of the package

image description

Update 3:

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Update 4: The package arrived at the importcenter of the german customs. Let's see what hapens next. Hopefully there will be no problems with the "CE" certificates, as the Law says the importeur is responsible that the item he orders has all the needed certificates for the import into european countries.

image description

Update 5: The package left the importcenter.

image description

Update 6: The Package has reached the near City. It is now being delivered through the courier. (hopefully directly to my house) but it looks more like it is on the Way to a customscenter...

image description

Update 7: on 09.08.2016, 10:23 it was delivered to the customsoffice. Still no information about it from the office. Maybe in the next few days. if I don't hear from them till monday I will contact them myself. I hope this will go well in the next 4 days as i am on holidays for 3 weeks! AAAAHHH!!! I want it so bad!

Update 8: got my long awaited letter from DHL today (12.08.2016). The package is at the customsoffice for the next 14 days waiting for me to pick it up. As the office was already closed when i opened the letter, i will have to wait until monday morning to try my luck at the customs. They want to see a copy of the approved payment ammount and a creditcard summary to see the transfered amount of money. (Papers prepared... lets wait till Monday morning and see what hapens...) Yeah i nkow... Waiting again... :-(

Update 9: 15.08.2016 bad news so far... i was at the customsoffice this morning, and i had the phone in my hands, but i had to let it there for further investigations. CE certificate was missing and also a german user manual. They had to keep it and send it to the "Bundesnetzagentur" where it will be checked if it is conform with the european standards (antenna radiation, user security etc.). After this check they will decide if i am allowed to keep it or not. :-( it will take about 2 weeks to check that out! I will see whats next when i return from Holidays in 3 weeks... :-((((( could not be more unhappy about this situation.

Dear INTEX why do you ship stuff abroad with missing certificates, that causes trouble for your customers?

last Update: 07.09.2016 After i returned from my holidays the letter from Bundesnetzagentur was is my mailbox. It says 3 things why i am not allowed to keep the phone:

Missing CE certificate, missing german manual, missing declaration of conformity.

I had to decide between 2 things: decline acceptance of the Package and send it back to the seller or destroy the package for a price of additional 22,50€

so this morning i declined acceptance with a bleeding heart, in the hope i will get my money back from ebay. Sometimes importrules SUCK BIG TIME!! As in this case! So now i will have to wait for preorders of the Turingphone (maybe next month or maybe never...) or for the Fairphone2 (maybe someday or maybe never...) Bad options for german Jolla fans!

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Comments

3

So they are really expecting you to send credit card data using unencrypted emails over the public Internet?

Pim ( 2016-08-01 13:00:53 +0200 )edit

the creditcard photo of the front should hide the expireing date. so without it its useless. also the infos of the summary is useless when someone wants to get some infos out of it.

Raymaen ( 2016-08-01 13:07:03 +0200 )edit

@Raymaen: 3 weeks shipping from India seems reasonable to me (there are definitely faster, but more expensive options). My question: Did the seller provide a tracking number? Thank you !

LameDuck ( 2016-08-02 17:12:14 +0200 )edit

what carrier did seller use to ship?

remote ( 2016-08-02 17:15:39 +0200 )edit
5

@LameDuck: yes he did. Airway Bill Details: XXXX(my ordernumber)... but i did not try to track that yet as I am still at work and its not wirking here.

@remote: Courier name: India Post (Registered / Ordinary Post)

Raymaen ( 2016-08-02 18:22:58 +0200 )edit
11

answered 2016-08-08 19:32:26 +0200

Eische gravatar image

Hi There.

I also ordered one AquaFish using ebay India to send it to GERMANY:

  • ordered on July 25
  • PaisaPay payment approved on July 28
  • no additional email since then
  • Letter from DHL on August 06 that the package is stored at the custom office
  • August 08: I went there to pick it up

The employee at the custom office was VERY kind. She asked me to open the package to see what is inside. She then directly checked for the CE mark. The Intes AquaFish does not have one. I explained that this is my first order from another country and I did not know that electronic devices need this CE mark. After a short moment of thinking through the next steps, she just handed it over to me. For this time it is ok, next time she wont be that forgiving, she mentioned. She also checked the user manual for the language. Looks like an English version is sufficient.

I paid the tax and walked away with my new AquaFish in my hands!

Mission accomplished!

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Comments

Nice, I hope I've the same luck with a kind employee.

Maba ( 2016-08-09 23:37:58 +0200 )edit
1

Nice! How much taxes did you pay?

urlauber ( 2016-08-10 08:26:40 +0200 )edit

I paid nearly 19Euros tax. AquaFish 75Euro + 20Euro for shipping. Customs office used total of 95Euros to calculate tax (19%).

Eische ( 2016-08-11 21:07:06 +0200 )edit

lucky you! that is not how it normally works in Germany... :-(

Raymaen ( 2016-08-17 16:04:48 +0200 )edit
10

answered 2016-08-05 11:43:24 +0200

Maba gravatar image

updated 2016-09-01 09:47:07 +0200

After story comment

Meanwhile I'm really pissed because of the arbitrariness of the germany customs people. I'm happy with everybody getting the device, but then everybody should deserve it. Why only most of the german officers are so nitpicking?! The CE marking is required for most EU countries and all countries give a shit on the requirement (till now), but not the germans.

It's a phone build on worldwide high quaility standards and no 3 € china crap or an illegal copy of another brand. It's some single devices ordered by some techn. experienced individuals and no commercial import of thousands of risky items.

So Germany is really in danger now, when people from other european countries visit Germany with an Aqua Fish. The mobile radio network will break down immediately and the rechargeable battery will explode when they will cross the border....


The story

  • 25.07. ordered
  • 28.07. payment approved
  • 30.07. shipping started
  • 01.08. arrived in germany
  • 04.08. arrived at the DHL hub next to my city
  • 04.08. delivered, but not to me :-(

Never heard the name of Mr. Nu... so it seems the tax and customs administration have it. Now I'm waiting for an information from them.

To have any chance because of the missing CE I started a question requesting the Declaration of Conformity Jolla C and confirmation Aqua Fish = Jolla C

Here is the detailed tracking:

image description


EDIT

You can also use the tracking number from India Post in the DHL Track & Trace. Here I have the verification that it is at German Zoll now.

image description


EDIT 2

Normally you get a letter from DHL with a special number to get it from the custom office. I got mine by phone now, so next step is to pick it up.


EDIT 3

(12.08.16)

Back from the customs office. No chance for: "ok,here, go, before I will change my mind". Was a very correct guy.

Will be checked by "Bundesnetzagentur" now, if I can get it or if I have to refuse delivery. It will go back to India then.

(Edit: The parcel was marked as gift and had a sticker from customs in FF Airport: must not be delivered directly to the recipient)


EDIT 4

(17.08.16)

The customs office got answer from the "Bundesnetzagentur" and send me a letter, that the following facts prohibit an import:

  • missing CE label
  • missing CE Declaration of Conformity
  • missing german manual

I can choose to refuse the delivery - it will go back to India then - or to request the destruction. I have also the right to object, but I see no chance here. If I object, the device will be send to the "Bundesnetzagentur" for a detailed evaluation, but the above fact will be still the same.

So I will refuse the delivery and try to get my money back from PaisaPay.

For the germans here a photo of the original letter:

image description


Conclusion

Because of the price of the Aqua Fish it was worth to try an import. But seems I have to still live with my 1 GB Jolla for a while.

Hopefully the official Sailfish support for Fairphone 2 (incl. Exchange and Android Support) will get some speed! Or we will see some new Germany compatible hardware comming up, please!


Bye bye

Have a safe trip back to india! *snif

image description

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Comments

Any news from the customs office?

urlauber ( 2016-08-09 09:36:34 +0200 )edit
1

Nope, got no letter or postcard till now. Seems I have to call them tomorrow.

Maba ( 2016-08-09 23:30:43 +0200 )edit
1

Sorry to hear that. My phone currently is at the DHL/Zoll, too. I think next week it's my turn. Do you have any answers from Intex regarding the CE mark / declaration of conformity yet?

Frank Ullmann ( 2016-08-12 13:51:48 +0200 )edit

Nope, and from the employees view at the office, it would not help anyway. The "Bundesnetzagentur" will decide on its own. Seems you have the right to give objections after a deny, but I don't know if you get a direct contact.

Maba ( 2016-08-12 14:16:54 +0200 )edit

crap :( and best wishes

NuklearFart ( 2016-08-12 14:50:17 +0200 )edit
9

answered 2016-08-17 17:55:57 +0200

LameDuck gravatar image

Maybe an overview of successful and unsucessful attempts to get the aqua fish outside of India helps. I started a spreadsheet with the information I gathered from this thread, you can find it here. If useful please feel free to check, edit and add information. Thank you!

PS: Until now it seems that only German customers are out of luck due to strict customs...

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Comments

1

Great idea, thx.

Maba ( 2016-08-17 22:39:38 +0200 )edit
7

answered 2016-07-30 22:42:07 +0200

MJolla gravatar image

updated 2016-08-16 10:09:23 +0200

Edit: timeline again edit one week after payment approved and nothing. I sent mail last week and asked when they are sending packet and haven't got answer. waiting... 12.8. still waiting info about order. 16.8. This project got happy ending :D so packet has arrived to me

Process timeline:

  • Order made: friday 29.7. 09:20.
  • PaisaPay verification material sent friday 29.7. 23:55.
  • PaisaPay payment was approved monday 1.8. 12:15.
  • 12.8. I got letter from post that I have to make customs declaration. So my phone is in Finland at the moment.
  • 12.8. I made customs declaration and start waiting next week :) tax costs 22,80 Euro. So full price approx. 120 euro
  • 16.8. Now I have a new toy.

I made order yesterday from that ebay seller 1. Now I'm waiting that PaisaPay accepts my credit card (needed to sen photo from card and last credit card summary). After that we will see. I order this one http://www.ebay.in/itm/Intex-Aqua-Fish-4G-LTE-with-Qualcomm-Snapdragon-5-2GB-RAM-16-GB-8MP-/282098603976 Shipped to Finland. Price was ~100 Euros.
Now have to wait what will happen :D

Boxed Out of box First run

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Comments

Just reformatted a bit to make Your answer more readable.

JoHe ( 2016-08-12 15:53:53 +0200 )edit
1

Happy guy that you are in Finland and not in Germany! Great!

Maba ( 2016-08-17 13:25:46 +0200 )edit
5

answered 2016-08-01 14:55:07 +0200

tom.i gravatar image

updated 2016-08-23 20:54:17 +0200

Same here, I bought it on 31.07 and I sent photo of my credit card (and the last statement), but I hide middle numbers in my credit card also. I'm little bit paranoid to sending my whole number of credit card elsewhere via unencrypted channel. So I'll see if they cancel my order.

EDIT 1: After 3 days my payment has been rejected :-/

EDIT 2: Rejected again with another card.

Looks that they reject all transactions, which has hidden more numbers on credit card as I had. Ok, last try with another CC.

Just thinking, how it should be, if I had PayPal account. Do the verification in same way? I mean they wanted photo of credit card, which I have assigned to my PP account?

Sumarry:

31.07. - 1st purchase (documents have been sent)

03.08. - 1st has been rejected

03.08. - 2nd turn with another creadit card (documents have been sent too)

06.08. - 2nd has been rejected too

06.08 - last try

07.08 - rejected again. I've sent email to custommer service of eBay, where was the main problem. I hope, that they answered me.

Anyway I screw it, PaisaPay kills my dream to have Jolla phone :(


EDIT 3: Story continues: I've found, that same guy from India is selling Aqua Fish via normal eBay.com. So I've bought Intex Aqua Fish from there and pay over normal PayPal :)

Summary:

09.08. - Ordered and paid via PayPal

10.08. - Shipped (I have tracking number, but there is no information from India post about package)

So I hope that he'll send it. There are some negative feedbacks about this seller on eBay :(

EDIT 4:

12.08. - YES, finally shipped (after some messagging with lowpriceshopee via eBay)

EDIT 5:

17.08. - Finally some movement to another office after 4 days from "normal post office", but as @urlauber wrote his comment it looks that in this "exchange" office will be my phone another week or more :(

image description

EDIT 6:

20.08. - Wow, my phone is in my country.... yupiii.. image description I'm expecting some letter from customs office in few days :P (I hope) :D

EDIT 7:

23.08. - GOTCHA.. I have it in my hands :P

Nice package and such a weird AC adaptor which I can't plug into elektric plug :D

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1

Tip: You do not have to send the scanned copies by email. There is another safer way (for paranoid people like you or me ;) - You can login to ebay, go to "Messages", and then reply to the message asking you for the copies. There is an option to attach any file with your reply and you can add the scanned image files there.

sifartech ( 2016-08-04 23:42:00 +0200 )edit

Thx for your tip sifartech, but I don't think that it's right thing to sending scan of your credit card to anyone. It can be used via MO-TO(mail order telephone order) transaction where is needed just card number !! So no, I won't sending whole my card number to anyone. I've tried that again, but I've screenshot them unprocessed transaction page from my bank account where is mentioned my credit card, but as you know, in this format: 5475 67 XX XXXX 8786 and then I took a picture of my credit card, but I've hide numbers of my card like in bank account.

So my situation now is, that I have 2 blocking transactions (the 1st of them has been rejected), the 2nd one I'll see if it'll be ok for them.

tom.i ( 2016-08-04 23:58:49 +0200 )edit

@tom.i - But they already have your credit card number, expiry date and cvv number. So sending them a copy of your card (with the dates hidden) and credit card copy summary is just for verification purpose - to ensure that you indeed are the card holder. Agreed that email is not safe. But ebay messaging system should be relatively safer.

sifartech ( 2016-08-05 00:13:15 +0200 )edit
1

@sifartech - I think no. We paid by credit / debit card via secure gateway of card holders. So this transaction is safe for us. So our money are blocked in our accounts, but India PaisaPay wants to check each transaction before they take the money from us, for "verification" purposes (like we know, by checking credit cards from our pictures), but they do it with weird way. I don't like it, and it's my 1st time, I've ever have, that someone wanted whole number of my credit card. I think that it's forbidden from card holders rules or so. Just my opinion to this situation.

tom.i ( 2016-08-05 00:35:54 +0200 )edit

I'm thinking that getting a free/cheap card from Fio/MBank/AirBank, etc. might be a way to go - send a scan of that card and only have the exact amount on that account & card limits set accordingly.

Still quite a bother though. :)

MartinK ( 2016-08-05 17:08:12 +0200 )edit
5

answered 2016-08-12 14:47:14 +0200

Fedorka gravatar image

updated 2016-08-29 10:19:07 +0200

I've bought Intex Aqua Fish on ebay.in (proposal is taken from intex.in "Buy now") on 29 July 2016 and it was shipped to Moscow on 10 August 2016 and delivered to me on 12 August 2016. Mobile is ok, but the charger was strange, nothing to do - it can be bought everywhere! The seller was this http://www.ebay.in/itm/282128959911 Because seller from intex.in now does not deliver to any country except India.

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@Fedorka I am writing here, because I do not know how to notify you. I would like to ask regarding spare Jolla C battery. In the thread https://together.jolla.com/question/145744/spare-battery-for-jolla-c-intex-aqua-fish/ you mentioned you can buy spare Jolla C battery and resell in EU. I live in Lithuania. Could you buy spare Jolla C battery for me? I live in Lithuania.

Ta_das ( 2019-09-13 19:32:37 +0200 )edit
5

answered 2016-08-13 07:23:06 +0200

hanz gravatar image

updated 2016-10-04 05:32:33 +0200

Just for those who had their payments rejected for silly reasons and possibly gave up... @Artemys @tom.i

I noticed today that our preferred seller on eBay now allows payments through PayPal instead of forcing the use of PaisaPay, and presumably sending docs etc.

I'm still waiting on mine to arrive in New Zealand, though I used PaisaPay earlier in the week (it's shipped).

update

paypal no longer available...

Also my first attempt never arrived, I was refunded after taking action via paisapay within the expected delivery date + 5 days, my second attempt was delivered quickly.

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5

answered 2016-08-13 12:07:07 +0200

Dimi gravatar image

Just ordered and bought one here and payed with paypal. Hopefully everything will go smoothly.

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Comments

2

+2 I'm curious. PayPal makes it a bit more trustful.

SagaciousT ( 2016-08-15 16:10:17 +0200 )edit

Letter from the Belgian customs arrived today. Had to fill in some form, add a copy of my Paypal payment and a description of the object. Fingers still crossed .......

Dimi ( 2016-08-30 23:53:52 +0200 )edit
1

@Dimi and? and?

accumulator ( 2016-09-05 20:13:47 +0200 )edit

Still nothing, they have 8 days before I can ask what about. Belgian customs ............. not the first time I have to deal with them (once they had a bass guitar coming from the US kept by them for 2 months!). Still hoping, thx.

Dimi ( 2016-09-05 20:28:59 +0200 )edit

YES, it arrived today, happy me. I had to pay 39,20€ for customs and VAT. Struggled a bit to get my contacts from my old Nokia 6700 slide to the Aqua Fish (Nokia blue-tooth did not support my new device). Had to import all contacts one by one with vcf files. Up next is to get a new sim (micro) card to replace the mini of my old Nokia.

Dimi ( 2016-09-08 21:25:28 +0200 )edit
4

answered 2016-08-25 07:45:29 +0200

andyr0ck gravatar image

updated 2016-08-25 07:47:20 +0200

Yeah I bought one from "lowpriceshoppee" dude in India. What with Paisapay delay of 2-3 days, I had it delivered in Hong Kong in under 2 weeks. Hilariously, some of the negative feedback for this item are comments like "this is fake android!" which one can only assume is blind ignorance and/or stupidity. I mean, who does NO research??

Anyway, I'm loving mine. UI can be ever-so-slightly laggy compared to running SFOS on my nexus4 but not a biggie. And dual SIM, yum!

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Asked: 2016-07-30 15:58:21 +0200

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Last updated: Feb 20 '17