Straff

Good news,

From today (Thurs 16 Oct) Amazon have reduced their 'free delivery' minimum £15 spend to £5.

Thought I'd make folks aware, as its often made me look elsewhere.

Semper ubi sub ubi

orpheum

Sounds like they are having problems.I consider the site to be a rip off on the postage charge aspect.They charge £2.75 and pocket a substantial part of this.

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julian_craster

<< They charge £2.75 >>

This is for books (and some are very heavy....) , DVDs are cheaper.

If you buy from an Amazon re-seller, postage charges are higher (and double if you order from a re-seller in the USA!!)

batman

The postage charge for DVDs is £1.24 on amazon.co.uk ..... that includes US marketplace sellers as well.

Chevyman

I still use this before I buy

Find DVD - Compare DVD prices from dozens of UK retailers

Almost all the sellers quote their price "delivered" apart fom Amazon

A Happy and Healthy New Year to all

"Don't tread on Greta Garbo, as you walk down the boulevard?"

orpheum

Amazon charge £2.75 for books,then take a good part of that.For a small paperback which can go Large letter for say 76p,this means the reseller will make a profit on the postage,hence so many items listed at 1p.Also the buyer is paying more for postage than it costs and are therefore paying commission to Amazon,which Amazon dont mention as far as i am aware.

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Straff

In the past 6 months I have bought around a dozen '1p' books from Amazon resellers. These were books I had been looking for for ages, are out of print and for which I have scoured every second-hand bookshop and charity shop for miles around. I don't consider myself diddled at £2.76 per book, no matter what the split between item and postage. Without doubt no local retailer would have parted with them for less than £5, let alone 1p. As in every purchase, if I don't like the price I don't buy.

Semper ubi sub ubi

BristolUK

Amazon's marketplace is full of anomalies.

I'm in Canada. On the Canada site, delivery of DVDs is about $3.50 and VHS/books are $6.50. On the USA site they're all $12 or $12.50.

Often, the marketplace seller is in the USA and will deliver to Canada.

If ordering on the American site, Amazon will charge $6 or $9 more even though it's the same seller sending the same item to the same address.

BristolUK

It's worth checking out if you can get them directly from the sellers. In North America I have done that and the 1c or other paltry cost is the same. But sometimes the delivery rate reduces per book ordered.

I used to save at least $3 a book that way and because of the saving, I actually ordered more than I'd otherwise have done.

Steve Crook

I've found similar anomalies with postage costs from North America to the UK and Europe when buying on Amazon (US & Canada), eBay and when I have north American friends send me stuff.

Postage from the US of A to the UK always seems to be a lot more (many times more) than postage for the same items from Canada. It's not just Amazon loading the postage charges

Steve

julian_craster

Amazon charge £2.75 for books,then take a good part of that.For a small paperback which can go Large letter for say 76p,this means the reseller will make a profit on the postage,hence so many items listed at 1p.Also the buyer is paying more for postage than it costs and are therefore paying commission to Amazon,which Amazon dont mention as far as i am aware.



What about packaging costs (padded envelopes are not free....) and the time spent travelling to the post office (likely to be further away following the recent closures.....).

For any hardback book over 200 pages, the postage costs are likely to be much higher than £ 2.75 ...

asiamiles

Most things I order from amazon.com are very poorly packaged; there's no hope of them travelling across the globe and arriving undamaged, but often I have no alternative. Amazon.co.uk is sometimes just as bad. I find amazon.co.jp packs things much better.

Yesterday I was compiling a book order from amazon.com and while most of their prices were the cheapest I discovered I would get a much better deal buying most from Deep Discount (they're not just DVD's these days*), even though their prices were higher, because they charged a flat rate of less than $17 for shipping $150 worth of goods...postage for just 3 books from amazon would cost that much. I did end up buying a some books and a couple of DVD's from amazon.com because either DD didn't carry them or amazon had a hefty discount on those titles.

*And if you want to buy DVD's from Deep Discount wait for the twice-a-year 20% off sales.

orpheum

The point i was trying to make is that Amazon say that if you are buying a book from a reseller you are paying post and packaging of £2.75.however this is not correct.Amazon actually pocket around £1.30 of this.So the reseller only gets £1.45 which hardly encourages him to use any substantial form of packaging.This is something which in my view is misleading the consumer and which is probably netting Amazonn millions each year.Anyway i have decided that it is far better now to get books at the public library.I have just taken out the biog of Trevor Howard which would have probably cost me a tenner on Amazon.

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CaptainWaggett

The fees for selling on Amazon are 86p per item plus 17.25% of the sales price. The seller gets £2.26 out of the £2.75 postage (not £1.45). Obviously Amazon makes millions a year out of marketplace sellers - why wouldn't they? They're a business not a charity. But I can second Orpheum's recommendation of public libraries