oxygen Shipping from US expereince (FB)

[siru]

From FB SOS Global indians group 

MY EXPERIENCE WITH BUYING & SHIPPING AN OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR TO INDIA

What is an Oxygen concentrator?
It is a device that converts the air into an enriched output of oxygen gas. It is an alternative to oxygen cylinders. Oxygen cylinders empty out quickly and need to be refilled. An OC relies on electricity or battery to run and utilizes the air around us.

Which model should you buy?
OCs can be of two types - pulse/portable (uses battery) or continuous/standing (uses electricity). The kind you want to buy for covid patients would be the continuous/standing one. 
From here onwards, when I refer to OC, please assume I am speaking of a continuous/stable OC.
There are usually 5LPM, 8LPM and 10LPM OCs available in the market. LPM means Liters Per Minute. This indicates how many liters of oxygen can the OC provide per minute.
A 5LPM OC would help if the patient's oxygen level drops to 90-92%. If the oxygen level drops below this level, an 8LPM or 10LPM OC would be useful.
Either follow what the doctor has advised or try to send a 10LPM OC. It is difficult to find a 10LPM OC in the states right now since everyone is trying to ship them to India, so please take a call regarding this. I have provided some information on where you may be able to find some in my post.
I would also advise buying a model that is from an American based company. I have heard that products of Chinese make available in India are not functioning well. All models mentioned below are good as per my research, but 
PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AS WELL.
PLEASE VERIFY ALL WEBSITES/BUSINESSES MENTIONED IN THIS POST BEFORE MAKING USE OF ANY.

From where can you buy a 10LPM OC?
1. http://www.deltaoxygensolutions.com/id83.html - I purchased this one.
2. https://www.ewot.com/collections/oxygen-concentrators/products/invacare-10-lpm-platinum-oxygen-concentrator - This would have been my second choice
3. https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/newlife-intensity-10-lpm-oxygen-concentrator-single-flowmeter-120v-60hz

From where can you buy a 5 LPM OC?
1. https://newleafhomemedical.com/oxygen-concentrator-systems/ - I believe they have 5LPM OC from Dynarex available, but you can check if they got any 10LPM in stock as well.
2. https://www.justmedicalstore.com/airsep-newlife-intensity-oxygen-concentrator.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvr6EBhDOARIsAPpqUPGlavVIKG_YeWUe4OvGPa9Yfa0SgnFKcANCCp3nIITgCNWTOWuXhioaAuB_EALw_wcB

Where are other places you can search?
1. Try looking for a medical supply shop near you and call them up to ask for availability.
2. Google was a good resource for me. Search for continuous oxygen concentrator and it provides a list of suppliers.
3. You can also look for a used one on craigslist, offerup, facebook marketplace or other places that sell second hand goods. Personally, I did not try this one, but it is a good option to explore.

How to ship the OC?
In my case, the OC I purchased was a 10LPM and weighed 30Kgs. (5LPMs would weigh about half of that) I got the OC shipped to my house (east coast to west coast) which cost me $400 for 2 day shipping.
Once I received it, I plugged it in to verify it was working. Then I shipped it using a benefit provided to Amazon employees for shipping packages which was very cheap, $135 for shipping to India.
I would highly recommend trying to find an Amazon employee to help with the shipping to India since it will bring the cost down considerably. I have heard people paid till $700 for getting a 5LPM OC shipped to India. One thing to note here is that you do have to waive insurance when shipping through this method. This is a risk I took, but the OC arrived safely in a good condition for me. Also you will have to use DHL as the underlying provider.
There are other ways of shipping as well and you can go through some of the other posts in this group for that information.

Things to keep in mind while shipping
1. Make sure that the package is well sealed.
2. Provide a copy of the invoice of the machine to enclose with the shipping label.
3. While filling the form, please do mark it as a GIFT or DONATION. This will ensure that you will not have to pay the full GST (28%) on it and only 12% when it arrives in India. You can also write NO COMMERCIAL VALUE on the box/invoice to make this clear.
4. Mark the package as fragile.
5. I provided the receiver's email id and phone number for shipping. Please ensure this is a working number and a working email id since DHL called/sent updates through this.

What happens after the package is shipped?
My package took 9 days to get delivered. It took 3 days to reach India, but took time to get cleared at customs.
Once you have the tracking number, you can sign up to get email and sms notifications.
DHL sent a link to the receiver's email id to pay for the 12% GST online after they got it cleared from customs. Right after that, it got delivered.
Custom duty on an oxygen concentrator is waived off.

Some learnings I had
For the domestic shipping, please ensure that you provide any access codes if you live in an apartment building so that they can get access to deliver the OC to your doorway. Delivery drivers do not have cell phones to call you (I did not know this) and they turn back when they are unable to reach your door because 2 day shipping needs a signature. Because of this, I had to wait till end of day and collect the package myself from the UPS store.

One request
I have provided all the information I could think of in this writeup. Please ask any questions you may have on the post itself so that other people can also gain from it and I will try to answer to the best of my abilities. All the best. Hope you and your family is keeping safe.

[kalaa_pipaasi]

good writeup. will be helpful for many ppl

2 minutes ago, siru said:

From FB SOS Global indians group 

MY EXPERIENCE WITH BUYING & SHIPPING AN OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR TO INDIA

What is an Oxygen concentrator?
It is a device that converts the air into an enriched output of oxygen gas. It is an alternative to oxygen cylinders. Oxygen cylinders empty out quickly and need to be refilled. An OC relies on electricity or battery to run and utilizes the air around us.

Which model should you buy?
OCs can be of two types - pulse/portable (uses battery) or continuous/standing (uses electricity). The kind you want to buy for covid patients would be the continuous/standing one. 
From here onwards, when I refer to OC, please assume I am speaking of a continuous/stable OC.
There are usually 5LPM, 8LPM and 10LPM OCs available in the market. LPM means Liters Per Minute. This indicates how many liters of oxygen can the OC provide per minute.
A 5LPM OC would help if the patient's oxygen level drops to 90-92%. If the oxygen level drops below this level, an 8LPM or 10LPM OC would be useful.
Either follow what the doctor has advised or try to send a 10LPM OC. It is difficult to find a 10LPM OC in the states right now since everyone is trying to ship them to India, so please take a call regarding this. I have provided some information on where you may be able to find some in my post.
I would also advise buying a model that is from an American based company. I have heard that products of Chinese make available in India are not functioning well. All models mentioned below are good as per my research, but 
PLEASE DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH AS WELL.
PLEASE VERIFY ALL WEBSITES/BUSINESSES MENTIONED IN THIS POST BEFORE MAKING USE OF ANY.

From where can you buy a 10LPM OC?
1. http://www.deltaoxygensolutions.com/id83.html - I purchased this one.
2. https://www.ewot.com/collections/oxygen-concentrators/products/invacare-10-lpm-platinum-oxygen-concentrator - This would have been my second choice
3. https://www.globalindustrial.com/p/newlife-intensity-10-lpm-oxygen-concentrator-single-flowmeter-120v-60hz

From where can you buy a 5 LPM OC?
1. https://newleafhomemedical.com/oxygen-concentrator-systems/ - I believe they have 5LPM OC from Dynarex available, but you can check if they got any 10LPM in stock as well.
2. https://www.justmedicalstore.com/airsep-newlife-intensity-oxygen-concentrator.html?gclid=Cj0KCQjwvr6EBhDOARIsAPpqUPGlavVIKG_YeWUe4OvGPa9Yfa0SgnFKcANCCp3nIITgCNWTOWuXhioaAuB_EALw_wcB

Where are other places you can search?
1. Try looking for a medical supply shop near you and call them up to ask for availability.
2. Google was a good resource for me. Search for continuous oxygen concentrator and it provides a list of suppliers.
3. You can also look for a used one on craigslist, offerup, facebook marketplace or other places that sell second hand goods. Personally, I did not try this one, but it is a good option to explore.

How to ship the OC?
In my case, the OC I purchased was a 10LPM and weighed 30Kgs. (5LPMs would weigh about half of that) I got the OC shipped to my house (east coast to west coast) which cost me $400 for 2 day shipping.
Once I received it, I plugged it in to verify it was working. Then I shipped it using a benefit provided to Amazon employees for shipping packages which was very cheap, $135 for shipping to India.
I would highly recommend trying to find an Amazon employee to help with the shipping to India since it will bring the cost down considerably. I have heard people paid till $700 for getting a 5LPM OC shipped to India. One thing to note here is that you do have to waive insurance when shipping through this method. This is a risk I took, but the OC arrived safely in a good condition for me. Also you will have to use DHL as the underlying provider.
There are other ways of shipping as well and you can go through some of the other posts in this group for that information.

Things to keep in mind while shipping
1. Make sure that the package is well sealed.
2. Provide a copy of the invoice of the machine to enclose with the shipping label.
3. While filling the form, please do mark it as a GIFT or DONATION. This will ensure that you will not have to pay the full GST (28%) on it and only 12% when it arrives in India. You can also write NO COMMERCIAL VALUE on the box/invoice to make this clear.
4. Mark the package as fragile.
5. I provided the receiver's email id and phone number for shipping. Please ensure this is a working number and a working email id since DHL called/sent updates through this.

What happens after the package is shipped?
My package took 9 days to get delivered. It took 3 days to reach India, but took time to get cleared at customs.
Once you have the tracking number, you can sign up to get email and sms notifications.
DHL sent a link to the receiver's email id to pay for the 12% GST online after they got it cleared from customs. Right after that, it got delivered.
Custom duty on an oxygen concentrator is waived off.

Some learnings I had
For the domestic shipping, please ensure that you provide any access codes if you live in an apartment building so that they can get access to deliver the OC to your doorway. Delivery drivers do not have cell phones to call you (I did not know this) and they turn back when they are unable to reach your door because 2 day shipping needs a signature. Because of this, I had to wait till end of day and collect the package myself from the UPS store.

One request
I have provided all the information I could think of in this writeup. Please ask any questions you may have on the post itself so that other people can also gain from it and I will try to answer to the best of my abilities. All the best. Hope you and your family is keeping safe.

 

[siru]

17 minutes ago, kalaa_pipaasi said:

good writeup. will be helpful for many ppl

 

yaa..copy pasted from fb