How to order from Kniga.ru

[msgohan]

Thanks to McCrutchy for his post about how to order. My own order finally arrived after 3 months! It literally has 28 stamps on the package. The status on their site still lists the order as "Собран на складе" which Google translates as "Assembled in a warehouse". I was quite shocked when I saw the package at the door today; I really thought my order fell into a black hole after my CC was charged.

I thought a step-by-step screenshot guide might help someone else to figure out the forms if you don't mind a potentially long wait for your order.

Internet Explorer is recommended to do the signup and ordering.

Account registration



Checkout

1. Name already filled in - don't check the box; I think it's if you're ordering for a company (maybe someone who knows Russian can explain this one).



2. Shipping options



3. Address



4. Payment method. Unless you happen to have a gift card or WebMoney account, use credit card... I believe the Assist system requires you to use Verified by Visa or MasterCard SecureCode. Hopefully you've signed up and remember your password.



5. Order total and confirmation. You can easily check roughly current exchange rates with Google. Ex: "search" for "1437 RUB = ? USD"



After placing the order, they sent me an email in Russian asking me to confirm my delivery address. I did so with the help of Google Translate. I also had a few other correspondences with them, and while I included my original English message in addition to the translated version, their responses were always in Russian.

[hiro1]

QUOTE 1. Name already filled in - don't check the box; I think it's if you're ordering for a company (maybe someone who knows Russian can explain this one). END QUOTE

If you're a company or a private owned business registered in Russia you have an option to pay from your "business" bank account in which case KNIGA would provide you with the details of their own speacial bank account. Going this way may or quite often may not relieve the buyer from paying hefty Russian VAT. Usually no business purchases from retialers such as KNIGA so in essence this option is for nobody and is quite irrelevant.
Regarding the SURFACE shipping option: Russia is one a few countries whose postal system still offers this option. It takes up to 3 month for overseas delivery but if you're in Europe, you might consider this option as usually it is on pair with airmail delivery but again, only within the continent. For small single shipments the cost difference between surface and airmail is too small to bother. Airmail to North America takes up to 2 weeks -often about 10 days-but may take longer during peak season.

[msgohan]

Thanks for the info. Just to be clear, I paid for airmail... The postmarks appeared to be 23/10/10. Both incoming and outgoing mail around here seems to have slowed more than usual the past 2 months. Wasn't opened by customs either.

[apollo828]

Originally Posted by msgohan

After placing the order, they sent me an email in Russian asking me to confirm my delivery address. I did so with the help of Google Translate. I also had a few other correspondences with them, and while I included my original English message in addition to the translated version, their responses were always in Russian.

Hello. I made a post here that has a letter people can copy, paste and alter as necessary when confirming their address. Hopefully this helps.