Shopping online with Amazon

One of the irritants about living here is the fact that not everyone will deliver goods to Cyprus, and Amazon is one of the companies that are increasingly saying that they will not deliver here. I, for years, used to buy a Nivea moisturiser for my electric shaver. Every three months they would dispatch my order until - only a few months ago - my order did not arrive. When I queried this, I eventually found out that this was because my moisturiser was considered "hazardous material". I could not really believe this but it turned out to be true.

Time and time again, when we are considering buying something - or just checking the price with them online - the indication is that this item cannot be delivered to Cyprus. This applies to Amazon itself, and an increasingly large number of their resellers. In the end I got my Nivea moisturiser on eBay (in Germany) where the reseller was quite happy to send this hazardous material to Cyprus.

I am now in the market to buy a new electric shaver and find that my preferred brand, Braun, is available on Amazon and at a good price. But some models are not available to send to Cyprus and some are, and these are all from Amazon itself. Mystifying. Do they think that some electric shavers might double up as ground-to-air missile launchers?

Other sellers charge the most outrageous P & P to deliver here. It is almost as if they would not prefer to send their stuff to Cyprus. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many packages never arrive and replacements need to be sent. I once bought some printer cartridges from Amazon, which did not arrive, and so I contacted them. They immediately sent out a replacement, which arrived just shortly after the original item had - weeks and weeks late - been delivered. Being the honest chap that I am, I contacted them and they asked me to return it - AT MY OWN EXPENSE. I told them to go forth and multiply and they, very indignantly, sent me an email telling me that I could keep the originals as well.

So we shall wait, with bated breath, to see whether they deliver my electric shaver ...