Category: Experiment

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Ordering from Aquantuo, my experience (June 2025)

(Click here for my referral link to get 10% off shipping with Aquantuo. Good luck!)

Preamble

Some years ago, I wrote about successfully ordering from Shoptomydoor, a Nigerian door-to-door shipping service that appears to have gone defunct now. There was no official announcement, but their website has disappeared, so I assume that’s all she wrote. The actual experience buying from Shoptomydoor was great, but somehow I never really needed anything from the UK/US that I couldn’t get someone to bring, so I didn’t use them again.

Why I’m trying Aquantuo now

However, now that it’s June 2025 and the cedi to dollar exchange rate has improved vastly but meanwhile the Ghanaian retailers all refuse to reduce their prices, it’s time to take matters into my own hands again. I’ve heard a lot about Aquantuo, and it’s a Ghanaian company which should make things easier, so it’s time to give them a try.

As with Shoptomydoor, I will make regular updates until I have successfully received my items, or otherwise resolved things.

June 11th 2025

Made an account with Aquantuo, received my US address, bought a couple of things from Amazon which have been shipped. Aquantuo offers USA forwarding from a Delaware-based address, which means zero sales tax on US purchases, a huge saving compared to other shippers. Actually they support multiple shipping origins (USA, UK, China, Canada) with both air and sea freight options. I may need some stuff from the UK in the near future, especially electronics, but for now let’s start with the US.

Right away, I am seeing that the process on the Aquantuo website is less clear than with Shoptomydoor: with the latter, they clearly stated that they would receive the items and consolidate them, but Aquantuo makes it sound like they will send each one separately? Their online chat doesn’t work, but maybe I can reach them on Instagram, so I’ve sent a message, waiting for a reply.

June 12th 2025

Spent about an hour entering information about the various packages into my Aquantuo dashboard. Had to include the price, tracking number and name for each of 12 packages, and initially I thought I had to create a separate Order for each one, but eventually it clicked that I had to create one order and keep clicking “Add Item” to add all the items to a single order, even if they are coming from different vendors (I didn’t have to do that with Shoptomydoor because everything was shipped from Amazon itself).

I blame my confusion with the process on Aquantuo’s website for not giving clear step-by-step directions on placing an order. There are guides about it on YouTube, but I shouldn’t have to rely on YouTube for that information. After, there’s no guarantee the videos are up to date or even accurate I’m not even sure I have done it correctly, but you let’s wait and see.

They’ve given an estimate for how much shipping will cost, but it is not final yet. There’s also a “Payment pending” button on the dashboard that makes it seem like I have to pay immediately, but there’s no place to actually pay. So confusing. -_- Still, until I pay Aquantuo, I’m not on the hook for anything. I trust Amazon, so I know they will refund my packages if the service doesn’t work. Next update will be when my packages start arriving.

June 17th 2025

The packages have started arriving at Aquantuo’s warehouse.

Cutesy message, dunno if it was needed.

Yoo, the Aquantuo shipping service review continues. Next update will be when all the packages arrive and I pay and begin tracking their route to Accra.

June 26th 2025

I haven’t forgotten about this post oo, I am still waiting for all of my packages to arrive. Apparently there is one outstanding one, since 19kojohoho.

There was an issue earlier one where Aquantuo created a second order in addition to my first one, and that had to be resolved. I was trying to sort it over their website chat function and not making any headway with the first agent (AI?!) but eventually a human being (?!) got involved and it seems to be working out. You can tell the person is a Ghanaian as well from the number of “please”s in the text. “Please” is literally beaten into us as young students in Ghanaian schools. You don’t dare to address an adult without the Armor of a Hundred Different Pleases (+20 DEF).

Long story short, there’s no progress with Aquantuo shipping yet. The packages are enjoying ablotsii summer heat, me too I am also enjoying the rainy season in Accra. I’ll keep you guys posted about whatever happens next.

July 4th 2025

My order is still not ready for shipping oo, hmm!  Aquantuo’s website claims that air deliveries to Accra are typically done in 10-14 working days, meanwhile it has been way longer than that and I am still waiting. I’m so, so, so glad I went with a small test order, so I’m not ripping my hair out waiting for them. Hmm, Ghana businesses, is this how you are? Anyway, we continue to wait.

July 15th 2025

Finally got the chance to pay for the items. It was a small order, around $130, and shipping also came to around $103 so I don’t know if I have really saved anything by ordering from abroad through Aquantuo’s shipping service versus finding someone selling the same things in Ghana. Technically Aquantuo has a price estimator site where you can enter the weight and dimensions of the parcel so you don’t get a nasty surprise, but in practice unless you are only ordering one thing and know its dimensions exactly, I don’t think that is too useful.

In any case, I am not really complaining because I would have struggled to find exactly what I needed in Accra, so it’s okay. In general, though, buying locally seems more appealing. I’d get the items way faster, and around the same price even after Ghanaian companies apply their crazy profits.

(BTW, let me plug my Aquantuo referral link for 10% off your first order, maybe next time it will be a little cheaper for me because $103 for a few books and products is a bit… someway bi.)

Back on topic, I’ve gone ahead and paid with mobile money. Aquantuo doesn’t seem very organized, so I have reservations about giving them my bank card numbers, etc. The process of payment was also confusing. Look at these instructions they gave me:

So I went to Telecel/Vodafone #110 and started looking for the “Generate Voucher” option. Don’t bother, it doesn’t exist. What you are supposed to do, heaven help you, is click “Submit” on this screen, then Aquantuo will send the payment request to your phone so you can enter your PIN on the phone and pay. Hmm, ɛyɛ asɛm oo.

Still, at long last I have paid, so I am hoping my items can finally, finally be shipped to me. It’s been over a month since this whole saga began, I shock sɛf (10-14 days shipping my 🍑). Further updates to follow as and when.

July 24th 2025

Finally received my package from Aquantuo! Not knowing it had arrived in Ghana dadaada and was chilling in their warehouse eating indomie and drinking kalyppo, and no one saw fit to call or email me to let me know. If I hadn’t messaged to ask, like it would have grown up and started a business kwraa without me ever hearing about it.

Well, at least the courier was polite and professional and didn’t get lost. I always feel like I won the lottery when encounter the rare polite deliveryman in the wild.

Unfortunately I’ve been too busy to open the package. In fact Aquantuo kept me waiting so long that I’ve even forgotten what I ordered. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: thank goodness I started with a test order! God willing I will go through it tomorrow and make sure everything is intact, then write my final thoughts and experiences about Aquantuo’s shipping, customer service, website (it’s hot garbage) etc.

Final thoughts

July 31st 2025

Okay, at long last the saga is (almost) over. One of my items is still missing. Aquantuo’s chat agent said it would arrive this week, but of course there has been no communication from them about it. Everything else arrived just fine and is in good condition. They do open all the packages and repack them smaller, so you are not paying for empty space. I’ve written enough about Aquantuo and their shipping service so far, so let me summarize with the good, the bad and the ugly.

The good

I got almost everything I ordered in great condition.

The price I paid was just about the same as what I did with Shoptomydoor some years ago. Expensive but not more than I’d expected. You can expect to pay about $100 for goods costing about the same, depending on the weight. Use the price estimator to get a rough idea.

Aquantuo claims to offer door-to-door delivery across Ghana (mainly Accra, Tema and Kumasi, I bet) and they did bring the stuff right to my gate without getting lost.

The courier was very polite and didn’t demand extra money for delivery, though I did tip him.

The bad

The agents online were not rude, but seemed very disconnected, with insincere apologies and no clear desire to make things better for the customer.

Their online dashboard/user interface is useless. Instructions for use are unclear and the information there is not updated for the user’s benefit. For example, even though I created an order, the workers there proceeded to create their own separate order so eventually I had two orders until a human being intervened and merged the two. This shouldn’t be happening.

They need better tutorials showing people to use their site. I mean ideally they should have a way more intuitive user interface, but failing that, there should be an up-to-date video or written tutorial showing everything step by step, especially the process to create an order and to pay. I shouldn’t have to rely on random YouTubers who weren’t even that helpful.

Furthermore, Aquantuo doesn’t seem to have shipping tracking so that I could follow the package and know when it had arrived in Accra. This was in stark contrast to Shoptomydoor where I tracked the package all the way from Houston to Ghana via Germany and Nigeria. They also didn’t notify me in any way when the package arrive until I asked via chat.

They also sent my package out for delivery without checking what time I would be home. Yes, I had told them they could deliver the next day and confirmed my address, but still you should call before the courier leaves to make sure I am available, especially since circumstances can change.

The ugly

I still haven’t received all my goods even after almost two months. I’m trying to put a positive spin on it by saying I received “almost everything,” but depending on which of your items goes missing, it could be a really big deal. People online claim that Aquantuo will refund you in that case, but usually it’s the item you want, not the money.

Despite Aquantuo’s claims of air shipping within 10-14 days, it took me about 7 weeks to get my items, and not all of them either. If that was the case, then they should have told me so I could use the 6-12 weeks sea freight option and save a ton of money.

Their online billing/payment system is garbage and requested payment from me that was less than what I actually owed. There was a point where I had to pay about $26 before they would deliver, but the Aquantuo system kept asking me for $12.01 instead.

In the end I had to go OFF-PLATFORM(!!) which is very dangerous, and make the payment to their mobile money number directly (!) and send them a screenshot before they would authorize delivery. Ei, is it my fault that your system wouldn’t let me pay the correct amount? Allowing agents to let customers pay money to random numbers is risky for both the customer and the company and doesn’t exactly inspire trust.

Summary

After all this plenty-plenty talking, most likely you just want the facts: is Aquantuo legit, and should I use them to ship things to Africa? And the answer is yes, they are legit. They’re not scammers, you will get your stuff eventually. But the process is stressful and expensive and can take way longer than you had anticipated. Be prepared to follow up with them constantly throughout the process and not rely on their useless dashboard.

Ready to Ship?
Use my Aquantuo referral link to save 10% on your first order. Good luck (you’ll need it)!

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Mushroom omelette – or at least I tried!

I like eggs. They’re cheap and tasty and can be cooked in 2 minutes or less. In a pinch some people eat them raw, but I’m not that hardcore yet. And even picky kids can be coaxed into eating a fried egg or two, so it makes a good bribe.

I also like mushrooms. Not as much as eggs, but they’re supposed to be really good for you and we have a regular oyster mushroom supplier, so I eat them quite a bit. Most often as a meat substitute in a quick gravy when all my meat is frozen or I just can’t be bothered to fiddle with meat.

So you put the eggs and the mushrooms together and you get a mushroom omelette! Or omelet, if you’re American. In the past I’ve experimented with slicing the mushrooms really small and beating them into the omelette, but I didn’t quite like the taste. It still seemed a bit undercooked, and rather flavorless. So this time I had a new idea. First prepare the ingredients as usual:

Mushrooms, onions, eggs, pepper, salt, any other seasoning you wish to add. I then fried up the onions and mushrooms with the seasonings:

Just a few minutes over medium heat so the mushrooms are a little wilted and soft but the onions still have some crunch. Then I started beat the eggs with some salt and pepper and poured it into the pan:

This was where I was supposed to put the mushrooms on top of the egg and fold it over. I would have liked the middle to be slightly creamy and the outside not too dry, but I think I left the heat on too long. It still turned out relatively nice:

But it was more like a plain omelette wrapped around a mushroom filling rather than a mushroom omelette. I.e. I didn’t get that mix of egg and mushroom I wanted, each is still very much its own entity. It was still delicious though. Went great with some hot buttered toast and tea. And a very good time was had by all. If/when I get a better camera I’ll attempt this recipe again and see if I can get it just the way I like it. Until then!

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Experiment: Stewed pears

What do you do with a box of green, underripe pears? Ablotsii pears oo, not avocado pears. Ei wait, where do you even get such a box in Accra? As for that one, you’ll have to thank a generous uncle for that. If you don’t have a generous uncle, sorry oo. Or you can just buy pears. A few of them were ripe or almost ripe, and it’s likely that the rest would have ripened with time. But what if you want to eat them now? Or you just want to try your hand at stewing some fruit?

And that’s how we got Exhibit #25 in the “Chief Foodian need a new camera and much better plating skills” series. I really should start taking photos expressly for the purpose of this blog so that I show the whole process from start to finish. Most stewed pear recipes call for a little wine or other alcohol, which I imagine improves the taste, but I didn’t have any wine on hand and most of the people in my house can’t have alcohol anyway (too young/on medication) so it’s just as well.

Here’s how I did it:

  1. Wash the pears, cut in quarters, remove the cores.
  2. Put them in a small saucepan with a little water (enough to come about 1/2 way up the pears), a spoonful or two of sugar, a teaspoon of cinnamon and a handful of cloves.
  3. Cover and bring to a boil.
  4. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for another 15 minutes until pears are soften. If a toothpick goes through easily, that’s enough.
  5. Remove from the heat. Serve hot or cold. You can also cover them and keep them in the fridge for up to 5 days. Stewed pears probably don’t freeze well unless you intend to blend them into smoothies or drinks.

That’s it, pretty simple. I kept mine in the fridge and had them with oats or yogurt every morning for the next couple of days. Pretty tasty and a good way to get a sweetish kick without adding sugar to the rest of the meal. You don’t even have to stew the pears with sugar if they’re sweet enough for your tastes. In that case just add spices and water and cook.

Enjoy!

 

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Experiment: Scrambled eggs with onions and tomatoes

Another day, another experiment gone wrong. This is a photo I took last year, so I don’t remember exactly what I was trying to make or why, I just remember it didn’t turn out the way I wanted it to. I think I was aiming to make a big omelette filled with tomatoes and onions? No… Or yes… Actually I seriously don’t remember. But looking at the photo triggers memories of too dry, too-finely scrambled eggs, all boring and grainy in my mouth.

It would have been better if I had just fried the eggs separately and the veggies separately and eaten them with my rice for a tasty breakfast or light lunch. The thing is, I make Chinese-style egg and tomatoes all the time so what went wrong here? The onions? It was the onions, wasn’t it? Anyway, I’m just clearing out old photos of stuff I’ve made in the past and came across this one. I have about a 7:3 ratio of success to failure when I cook stuff, so you can expect more stuff like this in the future. See ya!

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Ordering from Shoptomydoor: my experience

Shoptomydoor is one of those services that promises to let you buy goods from the US, UK or China and receive them in Ghana. They’re based in Nigera but claim to ship to Ghana via DHL. Hmm, is that really true? What easier way to find out than by testing them with a smallish order to start with? Hence this post, where I will track my experience with Shoptomydoor from placing an order to finally receiving it in Accra.

Strictly speaking this post has nothing to do with food right now, but there are a number of tools, cookbooks and utensils I want that I can’t find in Ghana. If this experiment goes well, I’ll be ordering a lot more stuff from abroad so a lot is riding on this venture. On the other hand if it doesn’t go well, Shoptomydoor has (or claims to have) a 100% refund guarantee. Looks like I don’t have much to lose so here goes.

23rd November 2017
Created a profile on Shoptomydoor and got a warehouse address for the US, UK and China. The sign up process is very simple, takes about 5 minutes. They’ll send a verification email to your email address and a text code to your phone number, so make sure you use the correct details.

24th November 2017
Placed an order on Amazon US for 4 items with a total weight of 3 pounds or less, dimensions of around 8 x 8 x 8 inches (before repacking) and a total cost of a little over $150. The weight and dimensions will be important later on when it’s time to ship.

I ran into a bit of trouble when entering the address because Amazon kept telling me “The street name or number is invalid” when I put in 12011 Westbrae Parkway #B. If you run into this problem, the solution is to go to the USPS website (here), enter the full address Shoptomydoor gave you, copy the corrected address the USPS site gives you and put that into Amazon.com as the delivery address. In this case, it gave me:

12011 WESTBRAE PKWY # BSTMD
UNIT GH******
HOUSTON TX 77031–3814

as the correct address and Amazon accepted it. Phew!

I used a regular Visa debit card from a local bank to pay. I ordered from Amazon UK a few months ago and they accepted the payment all right but the items never arrived. Someone at Ghana Post must have nabbed it. Luckily Amazon was nice enough to refund my money. This is why I’m bothering to go through a proxy service like Shoptomydoor even though in theory Amazon ships a lot of items to Africa.

Amazon added a tax of about $11 on the order, probably a Texas thing. Just something to take into account when ordering if your budget is tight.

The next update will be around the 30th-1st or whenever my stuff starts arriving at the Shoptomydoor warehouse. Stay tuned!

26th November 2017

Got word from my bank that Amazon has charged my bank account for the price of the goods. That’s a good sign, means everything is okay on that end. I checked up on the order but it hasn’t been shipped yet. No problem, no hurry in life. Incidentally I saved 9 cedis by choosing to pay Amazon in USD (even though my account is a cedi one) and letting the bank do the conversion instead of Amazon. Amazon’s exchange rates are predatory so never pay them in local currency

27th November 2017

I got word from Amazon that they’ve shipped my stuff and it should arrive in Texas by tonight. So far this is all par for the course for Amazon and their excellent service. The true test will come once Amazon hands over the package and Shoptomydoor takes over.

Update in the evening: As expected of Amazon, they delivered it as they said they would. Their part is done. I entered the Amazon tracking ID in the Shoptomydoor website and they confirmed that they had received it.

It will take another day or two for them to put the stuff in my warehouse, they say. If they delay too long, I won’t be able to take advantage of the $20 off shipping promotion! It ends on the 30th of November so there’s still time.

29th November

Received word from Shoptomydoor yesterday that my shipment was ready, so I went ahead and paid. They got all the prices of the stuff I ordered wrong, but the weight seems about right.

The dimensions seem way larger than they should be for 5 very small items, but I will measure the box when it gets here and see. There’s an option to upload the invoice and make them correct the prices, but it takes another 1-2 days and might make me miss the Nov 30th deadline. I went ahead and paid, applying the 20Loaded4Me discount.

Yeowch! Man, that’s expensive. When I did a rough estimate before ordering my stuff, shipping via DHL came to $74.99, which I thought was plenty expensive already. Unfortunately DHL is the only option Shoptomydoor offers for Ghanaian customers. Honestly if the items weren’t already sitting in their warehouse I would be tempted to give up on the whole thing. But it’s too late now, so I paid via Visa card.

That was yesterday evening. This evening I got a message that my order had been processed successfully. They say they’ll send my order this weekend. They also gave me a tracking number to track my package. Let’s see how things go.

4th December 2017

At long last, the struggle has ended. My stuff has arrived! I followed it all the way from Shoptomydoor’s warehouse in Houston till it arrived and I signed for it:

 

It arrived a day ahead of schedule, which is great. This means the whole process from start to finish took only 11 days, which is not bad at all. If you want your stuff in a mega-rush you can have Amazon send it to you via express shipping – assuming they will even ship your stuff to Ghana. But that’s a discussion for a different day. Here’s package itself:

Although Shoptomydoor said it weighed 2.6lb, it actually weighs 3.5lb as DHL wrote on the package and as my own weighing confirmed. On the other hand, Shoptomydoor said the package was 9 x 9 x 9 inches large but it was actually 14.5 x 8 x 5 inches. I suspect it was too much work for them to measure it so they just wrote something. I entered the new figures into their shipping calculator and got $91.47 but I don’t know whether it includes Shoptomydoor’s own charges or not. Besides it’s only a $9 difference. I’m not so stingy as to begrudge a company their little profit, especially if it means I get the stuff I wanted.

All 5 items I ordered were intact and in good condition, despite the fact that the package had obviously been opened by Customs. Speaking of which, they didn’t charge me anything extra for clearing customs so I assume it’s all included in the shipping fee. I like that.

It looks like Shoptomydoor chopped up the original Amazon box, added some cardboard and refitted it into a smaller, snugger box that fit all my items exactly. They didn’t use any padding or packing peanuts, which is fine for my items but might not be so fine if your stuff is fragile or breakable. You might want to check with them first.

Overall opinions on Shoptomydoor

It’s a great service for when you desperately need something and no one is coming down from America soon. The whole process from start to finish only took 11 days and was largely automatic. I didn’t have to speak to anyone until DHL Ghana was ready to deliver. Speaking of which DHL was the most disappointing part of the experience, since in this day and age they still don’t use Google Maps. You have to do the usual “Look for the blue kiosk near the plantain seller and then turn right…” stuff I thought we had moved past. The day the kiosk owner paints it red…

Apart from that, Shoptomydoor works perfectly… if you can stomach the crazy shipping price, that is. That one it’s for you and your pocket to decide. $100 might be chump change to one person and more than a monthly salary to another. I know they have a $29 ocean freight option for Nigerian customers. If they introduced that for Ghanaian customers I would probably order from them every single month, I’m that satisfied.

As it is, this was a successful experiment that will probably not be repeated in a while. At least I know Shoptomydoor are not scammers. They provide the promised service in good time for a steep fee. And that concludes my Shoptomydoor review. From tomorrow onwards, more posts about food!