Adsense sent me a mail this morning. There will be no more DHL cheques, but all payments will be sent through a local courier Blue Dart. No more additional $25 charge for receiving express payments. The delivery time has not been mentioned by google though, but I guess it should be as fast as DHL, and that we all get the cheques delivered on the 1st and 2nd of every month. Here is the mail: Greetings from Google AdSense! Thank you for having chosen the secured check option to receive your AdSense payments. Today we're happy to inform you that going forward you'll receive your checks securely delivered by a local courier service at no additional cost. We have now removed the secured delivery option from your account. In the future, all publishers located in India who have check as their payment method will automatically begin receiving their checks by local courier service Blue Dart. You will not be charged for this delivery service. We anticipate that the service provided by BlueDart will match that provided by DHL in the past. Tracking numbers may be available for Blue Dart payments. You can check to see if one is available by by clicking any Payment link in your Payment History page. Blue Dart tracking numbers will typically be visible by the 15th of any month and can be tracked on www.bluedart.com. In some cases, Blue Dart may not service your area in India. If you live in a location they don't service, your check will be sent by Registered Post and should reach you within 2-3 weeks of the mailing date. Thanks for your constant support and cooperation. Thanks for your constant support and cooperation. Sincerely, The Google AdSense Team
Just like most others from India here, I too make over 2k USD a month, and I wouldn't trust that kind of money with Western Union. I would prefer a hard negotiable instrument that I can hold and feel in my hands rather than trusting a key and a WU agent. EFT would be a better option though, and I do expect google to introduce that in about a year or so.
Blue Dart sux in courier delivery. As per my knowledge, cheques will be sent from their Hyderabad office instead of Ireland (secure Delivery) and Singapore (standard delivery). Expect a lot of delays in recieving your cheque.
its like theres gonna be no more secure deliveries. Everyone in India would be getting their cheques through BlueDart. Compared to DHL, it sucks, but its the only courier company in the country that the Banks turst their client's credit card with. I didn't know google has its office in Hyd. I thought it was somewhere in the NCR. Edit: Cheques issued on the 26th used to reach us by the 1st or the 2nd. Now I think we will be getting it by the 5th or 6th. Anyways, google has said that it would be posting the shipment numbers only after the 15th, and I dont think there is a way for us to track with the shipper's reference on BlueDart's site. We are saving $25 anyways. We can use that money to buy 20 litres of petrol and take the car for an additional swing.
Thats only possible if we get our cheques on time. With no tracking number it will be more frustrating to wait for each day endlessly to have a glance on our cheque.
but google is saying that we can track our status using tracking number provided by Google on Bluedart website. hope it will work...
yeah thats right, you can wait till the 15th of every month to get the tracking number from google and track it on Bluedart's site. Would be very convenient.
yeah but the tracking number will be displayed only after 15th...which is useless. What are we going to do with that number? Tambola? lottery?
i have lost 2 standard delivery checks sent from singapore few months ago. Just now after paying $25 i am getting checks with DHL without problems. Now, i am afraid. If google didnt post tracking no earlier, i am screwed again. $25 is nothing for me. i am prepared to pay $50 to get checks safely and in time.
I really hope that bluedart is good. And on blue dart's website, there is an option to track with ref no as well, so I guess you certainly can use the payment ref no when payment is issued on their website. Google never offered DHL tracking numbers before the 5th, and we used to track with refno. I guess the same should be possible with blue dart too. We are talking about a world class company here, google. Any choice they make wont be based on a stupid survey or a voting done by their staff. They would have done all research before they chose blue dart.
I mean it always a cause for concern, you're always wondering if your check will arrive this month or not, and what to do if it doesn't come, etc. EFT is much simpler and you don't have to worry about external factors such as the post service, it's electronic transfert, it works.
They can use local NEFT like paypal use to transfer account to bank directly. Cheaper than the Bluedart courier also.
The problem is that you will have to make someone sit before a computer and initiate those transfers as no bank in India yet allows you to upload a csv file with thepayment details and execute that with a click. Chances of human error is high therefore, and automated check printing is prefered by google therefore. Lets hope that it finds out a way soon.