Amazon cuts back on free shipping - again

Brian G Turner

Brian G Turner

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Amazon have just sent me an email saying that free shipping will no longer be applicable for orders under £20 - unless it involves £10 of books.

Our Super Saver Delivery service is changing. From 01 May 2015, orders including £10 or more of books qualify for FREE Super Saver Delivery. All orders of £20 or more across any product category also qualify for FREE Super Saver Delivery. Previously, a £10 threshold applied for all orders to qualify for FREE Super Saver Delivery. To find out more please click here.
Click to expand...

I know that Amazon really want to push their Prime programme, but they are in danger of prioritising that over normal consumer sales.

If the majority of Amazon customers do not want to become Prime customers, then they now have a reason to shop elsewhere.

On saying that - perhaps this is all due to the increasing crack down on "tax efficiency" practices that Amazon has managed to get away with for so long.
 
I do get tired of how they much they push the Prime nonsense.

Maybe I'll look more at Abebooks than I do now.
 
I would welcome total demise of "free shipping" because it's an illusion.

"Free shipping" is a thing being pushed by Ebay too. On Amazon.co.uk and ebay it often just makes an item unavailable in Ireland as the 3rd party seller either doesn't know or doesn't care to enter rates for other countries.

Also shipping isn't free. So the cost is in the item. I'd rather know the shipping price AND have it displayed before checkout.
Amazon.ie simply loads Amazon.co.uk
You can select Euro pricing.
But either way you don't discover shipping cost, or even if it ships to Ireland at ALL, till you try and buy it. It's unacceptable in a Single Market and where Irish consumers are expected to use the UK site.

Ebay is worse, because unless a seller sets up postage correctly, even though it may say "Posts World wide, contact Seller", it won't appear on ebay.ie at all. Ebay is so broken I have to set up the SAME search for emails on ebay.dk, ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.com and ebay.co.uk I don't bother with ebay.ie at all as it's mostly overpriced Irish sellers. Buying the same thing from UK, Germany or China can be 1/2 the price including shipping. Shipping from Germany to Ireland about half of UK to Ireland. Chinese/Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia are all the cheapest shipping.
 
Amazon do offer one-month free trials of Prime, that you can take more than once (though they do take your free and paid Prime membership history into account - don't be surprised if the trial is only available a couple of times a year). There's little point going for it if you think you'll only order one or two things that month, but well worth it if you've got a month of birthdays, or a home improvement month, coming up.

Amazon.co.uk Help: Sign Up for the Amazon Prime Free Trial

If anyone does start a free month, be sure to turn off the auto-renewal immediately so that you don't forget at the end of the month and end up with an unwanted charge.
 
Since I buy a lot from Amazon, I find Prime very much worth it. It's not just that the shipping is free on so many items (not all of which are books) but I like getting things I've ordered in two days when otherwise I might have had to wait a week or two. There are tons of videos you can watch for free. (When I bought my first Kindle Fire, I spent months practically glued to the screen watching free videos.) And you can add ... I don't remember how many people you can add to your Prime account, and whether they have to be relatives, but it's either two or three. They don't get the free videos but they do get the free two day shipping. Before I bought the Kindle, my (adult) daughter added my husband and I to her account, and for a family that reads a lot, as we do, I think the savings on shipping is substantial.
 
Ray McCarthy said:
I would welcome total demise of "free shipping" because it's an illusion.

"Free shipping" is a thing being pushed by Ebay too. On Amazon.co.uk and ebay it often just makes an item unavailable in Ireland as the 3rd party seller either doesn't know or doesn't care to enter rates for other countries.

Also shipping isn't free. So the cost is in the item. I'd rather know the shipping price AND have it displayed before checkout.
Amazon.ie simply loads Amazon.co.uk
You can select Euro pricing.
But either way you don't discover shipping cost, or even if it ships to Ireland at ALL, till you try and buy it. It's unacceptable in a Single Market and where Irish consumers are expected to use the UK site.

Ebay is worse, because unless a seller sets up postage correctly, even though it may say "Posts World wide, contact Seller", it won't appear on ebay.ie at all. Ebay is so broken I have to set up the SAME search for emails on ebay.dk, ebay.de, ebay.fr, ebay.it, ebay.com and ebay.co.uk I don't bother with ebay.ie at all as it's mostly overpriced Irish sellers. Buying the same thing from UK, Germany or China can be 1/2 the price including shipping. Shipping from Germany to Ireland about half of UK to Ireland. Chinese/Hong Kong, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia are all the cheapest shipping.
Click to expand...

Some of these articles being unavailable from 3rd party sellers may be due to the recently introduced and poorly thought out EU VAT regulations
 
@Tirellan
No, predates it.
Also the VAT is not as remotely as poorly thought out as most people claim. In reality there is almost no change. It's a change in enforcement. It's no change at all for major retailers already trading inside the EU. The largest change is the attempt to have large companies outside EU collect VAT for EU purchases rather than long existing method of Customs charging the VAT at point of import.
So the VAT issue not the reason that UK sellers (already charging VAT) are not shipping outside UK. It's overly complex Amazon (and eBay) seller configuration software for shipping.

Smaller sellers below a quite large threshold have no need to register for VAT at all.

The eBay Global Shipping Program, recently being foisted on eBay sellers, is a particular piece of idiocy within EU as it always lists import duty (zero of course inside EU) and delays shipping from UK as seller ships it to eBay's partner in this, Pitney Bowes, who SEPARATELY charges your Paypal and then the item is re-shipped. Crazy.
Duty and Shipping on the eBay Global Shipping Program from USA to Ireland is often inflated shipping and often duty when an item would be exempt.
Amazon hasn't yet reached this level of stupidity, but they are working on it. They are adding auctions soon too.
 
Prime was fine when it just for shipping. I cancelled it as soon as they raised the price to include to videos.
 
Ray, my understanding is/was that (for direct sales, ie not through a third party like Amazon) the threshold was zero for EU VAT nonsense. That's one of the major problems with it. So, if I sold e-books directly, selling one in France would make me liable for VAT in France. And collecting the information I'd be obliged to collect would be against data privacy laws.
 
thaddeus6th said:
the threshold was zero for EU VAT ... So, if I sold e-books directly, selling one in France would make me liable for VAT in France. And collecting the information I'd be obliged to collect would be against data privacy
Click to expand...
There are many different Thresholds:
a) no it's not zero for the registration of the Business, only the sale. i.e. if you are VAT registered any sale must charge VAT. But below a particular turnover you don't have to VAT register. In such a case you NEVER charge VAT as you have no right to collect it and no VAT Registration to make a VAT return.
b) Sky etc since forever only charged Irish VAT in Ireland on installs (which since these often "free" meant no money for Irish Tax), they charge UK VAT (which goes to UK Tax man) on Sky Ireland Subscriptions. As they were over the Threshold for local registration, even under previous rules they had been breaking them.
Now for companies that are VAT registered the threshold to charge the local VAT is to be enforced. I'm not sure if this is now Zero. Nor am I sure which government gets this VAT.
c) No, you wouldn't be breaking any data privacy law. Google, Facebook and Twitter do break UK data privacy laws. Collecting VAT doesn't
d) There is the separate issue of sellers outside EU now being asked to collect EU VAT instead of Customs collecting it. It's no difference to VAT liability. This will largely be ignored except for Sellers shipping from outside EU but that have an EU office. Customs will continue to randomly seize stuff and demand a invoice and charge VAT on price inc shipping (if more than €20 here).
 
Ray McCarthy said:
@Tirellan
No, predates it.
Also the VAT is not as remotely as poorly thought out as most people claim. In reality there is almost no change. It's a change in enforcement. It's no change at all for major retailers already trading inside the EU. The largest change is the attempt to have large companies outside EU collect VAT for EU purchases rather than long existing method of Customs charging the VAT at point of import.
So the VAT issue not the reason that UK sellers (already charging VAT) are not shipping outside UK. It's overly complex Amazon (and eBay) seller configuration software for shipping.

Smaller sellers below a quite large threshold have no need to register for VAT at all.

The eBay Global Shipping Program, recently being foisted on eBay sellers, is a particular piece of idiocy within EU as it always lists import duty (zero of course inside EU) and delays shipping from UK as seller ships it to eBay's partner in this, Pitney Bowes, who SEPARATELY charges your Paypal and then the item is re-shipped. Crazy.
Duty and Shipping on the eBay Global Shipping Program from USA to Ireland is often inflated shipping and often duty when an item would be exempt.
Amazon hasn't yet reached this level of stupidity, but they are working on it. They are adding auctions soon too.
Click to expand...


You are misinformed in saying that smaller traders need not register - there is no threshold, all business are liable
More information here: http://euvataction.org/2015/05/04/why-we-need-action-on-the-vatmoss-fiasco-as-soon-as-possible/
 
Tirellan, that's also my understanding, and one of the major reasons the EU VAT business is so horrendously ill-considered. It was meant to hit large firms like Amazon by collecting VAT from them, but instead it's really hurt micro-traders who sell direct. [I believe a similar law applying to physical goods is due to come in this year].
 
Most blogs on this subject are just rabid UKIP / US anti EU / Corporate anti EU / UK Media anti EU inspired rants lacking in factual content.
That blog makes a lot of assertions and has no supporting citations.
 
Have you even read it? is there a single party political point made in it?
Perhaps you'll believe Juliet McKenna - I presume you have heard of her - as she is heavily involved in this campaign. http://www.julietemckenna.com/?p=1569
 
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Back to the original topic, I'm getting fed up myself with Amazon's pricing for the free shipping. Their video service is okay, but the Prime part of it really is limited. My yearly subscription as a Prime member is up for renewal at the end of this month, and I don't intend on keeping it going.
There's another service coming online soon, jet.com. Looks to be interesting alternative to Amazon, but I can't seem to find their pricing.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2474944,00.asp
 
Jet sounds a little odd and I've a feeling it will just be an outlet for discount items and stock clearing. I mean the business model it proposes is that you sign up to Jet with a fee, then everything you buy is cheaper than what you get elsewhere, because Jet finds the lowest possible deal and then sometimes makes it cheaper still. I guess it might work for the US market which is a lot bigger and logistically more complex than the UK market (I notice that whilst its a UK magazine the details are all about the US market); but otherwise I suspect shopping around yourself would give the same discounts on most lines.

As for Amazon its a pain but eh they are still generally cheaper than many other outlets. Thing is its like all things, if you just go to one shop all the time then that's all you'll pay - if you shop around you might find better deals. The key is knowing reliable websites to check and in taking the time to do so. There are also a good few websites that do it all for you - PC Part Picker lists prices on most stores and Camera Price Buster does so (UK side) for a wide range of camera gear.
Barring next day and fast services most postage is pretty cheap; annoying that Amazon is charging more and pushing more and more and more for Prime; but with them getting things like major dramas (Ripper Street) and internet getting better I think Amazon is cornering a good market for their Prime. Time will tell though if it works for them or if they end up like Tescos.


ps - I can't blame Amazon for using tax loop-holes. They pay accountants and if accountants do their job right they use every legal means to lower the costs for their employer. The government and EU are where the problems lay in allowing the loopholes or problems in the first place.
 
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