Amazon uk no longer shipping games to Ireland?

Hakumei Naru

Bastards. That really doesn't answer any of our questions. It's just laying out the conditions without giving any reasons as to why they are in that state.

Hugh Hefner

I don't care so much about the games - there are other places, such as Play.com, that have low prices - but I bought my camcorder from Amazon.co.uk a year ago for €200 less than it would have cost me in Dublin. 6 months later, it was still €200 cheaper on Amazon.co.uk. I don't want to loose those kinds of electronics prices.

Wertz

The cookie cutter mail may be outdated but the link in it is spot on...okay it doesn't explain policy but that's not really surprising.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/tg/browse/-/524836/ref=cs_hd_lp_3/026-1162563-1794002#pc

Be nice to have an official explantion rather than a big "f*ck you valued customer"

Hakumei Naru

Hugh Hefner wrote:

I don't care so much about the games - there are other places, such as Play.com, that have low prices - but I bought my camcorder from Amazon.co.uk a year ago for €200 less than it would have cost me in Dublin. 6 months later, it was still €200 cheaper on Amazon.co.uk. I don't want to loose those kinds of electronics prices.

I bought two books by Brian Froud on Amazon for about €30 altogether. If I bought them in the shops it would have cost me about €75. I went to many bookshops looking for "Into The Darkness" by Harry Turtledove but they all claimed to have never heard of him, however I found the book in Amazon. I don't want to lose those prices and easy-to-get items either.

wayne040576

I only bought a pair of headphones from them a few weeks back. If I was to try to get the same ones now, I couldn't.
They were handy to buy from as the items usually arrived fast. Play.com is cheap but it can take ages to get the items.
Contacting them is a waste of time as you basically end up dealing with trained monkeys.

chump

That's weird, I just got lucky so...

Your order #203-BLANK-BLANK (received 25-April-2006)

---

Ordered Title Price Dispatched Subtotal

---

1 Fuji FinePix F10 Digital Came £154.47 1 £154.47

---

Subtotal: £127.66
Delivery Charge: £6.98
Total tax: £28.28
Total: £162.92

This completes your order.
Arrived on Friday 28th... fairly impressive delivery.

That was the cheapest price delivered on the net. Luckily got it before they stopped!

nava

Hi

Below are some contact details for Amazon.co.uk

Called them today and the person I talked to didn't even know about it, they will look into it and get back to me.

Contact Amazon
Freephone (only from within the UK): +44 800 279 6620 Free if using VOIP from Blueface
Phone (outside the UK): +44 20 8636 9451
Call back: Call Me

If I do not get a proper reply I will send another mail to the CEO of Amazon.com and the general manager for .co.uk

Regards

aidan_walsh

Well now, isn't this a coincidence...

ressem

Tried ordering from Amazon UK.

Allowed books and audio CD. Would not accept electronics and PC games to go through checkout.

Hugh Hefner

The cheatin' fu... Langers!

Wertz

Grand for PC games and s/w, but you're a bit f*cked if it's PAL games you're after for a console...

Also, how come they can guarantee delivery from US/Germany/wherever and not from their UK warehouse? And what about VAT issues?

bernhardp

Hi, I'm from Austria.

I was used to order English video games from Amazon.co.uk because translations into German can be really annoying. I tried to order two PS2 games today and was surprised and shocked that I couldn't. I already sent an email but probably the answer will be as unsatisfying as yours.

It's really strange. The website states:

Click the links below to check the list of countries those items can be delivered to.

PC & Video Games, Toys & Games and Gift items

* Amazon.co.uk: Austria, ...

I really hope they fix this problem soon.

nava

Hi

Here 1 of the replies from Amazon, but I replied that there should only be a restriction on Electrical items, not toys, games, etc, still waiting fo a reply on that.

Amazon.co.uk wrote:

Dear .....

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk with your enquiry.

We can confirm that, at present, we are unable to dispatch Electronics and Photo, Home and Garden, PC / Videogame and Toy items to addresses in the Republic of Ireland.

Sales of these products are temporarily restricted as we work to comply with Irish recycling legislation. We hope to resolve this issue soon but unfortunately we are unable, at this stage, to provide a definite timescale.

We do value your custom and sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this may cause.

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk Warmest regards

Will see what they reply.

Regards

bernhardp

Now, that's interesting. I'm looking forward to the response on my email. I will keep you updated.

shercon

just got this from amazon :


Dear Customer

Thank you for contacting Amazon.co.uk.

We can confirm that, at present, we are unable to dispatch
Electronics and Photo, Home and Garden, PC / Videogame and Toy items
to addresses in the Republic of Ireland.

Sales of these products are temporarily restricted as we work to
comply with Irish recycling legislation. We hope to resolve this
issue soon but unfortunately we are unable, at this stage, to
provide a definite timescale.

We do value your custom and sincerely apologise for any
inconvenience this may cause.

super_furry

What have videogames got to do with the recycling charge?

nava

I replied with the same question on video games and also toys, no eply so far.

wayne040576

super_furry wrote:

What have videogames got to do with the recycling charge?

I think asking Amazon any more questions is a waste of time. They are only complying with a law. And Video games + toys do fall under this category along with a lot of other items. Here's a link to a document produced by musgraves. The tabe at the bottom lists all of the items that fall into this category. Games are listed under the "Toys, leisure and sports equipment" section.

http://www.musgrave.ie/mus_corp/WEEEComplianceForRetailers.pdf

The good news is that this is an EU directive so all EU member states have to follow suit or face charges. The UK are dragging their heels on it. I'm just wondering that if Amazon have to cancel shipments to Ireland, how long before other companies do the same? It's really only a matter of time until they get notified. I think Argos were fined last year already.

Mossy Monk

god damn ****ing European Union and its stupid ****ing recycling charge

but recycling is important i know but why cant amazon just add in the charge?

Laguna

I guess because it's because they're Amazon.co.uk and adding in the PRF charge would be a non standard procedure as their main customer base is UK citizens where the PRF doesn't exist.

If this ridiculous goods embargo situation calls for anything its that a genuine www.amazon.ie comes into existence, I'm sick of paying postage when ordering from Amazon (never less than £5) when Ireland is only across the water from the UK.

wayne040576

Mossy Monk wrote:

god damn ****ing European Union and its stupid ****ing recycling charge

but recycling is important i know but why cant amazon just add in the charge?

They have to display the charge as a separate number beside each item. As it only applies to Ireland, it would confuse UK customers I guess.

bernhardp

There have been problems with the database backend of this forum, so I was unable to post. Anyway, the response I received isn't something new:

We can confirm that, at present, we are unable to dispatch
Electronics and Photo, Home and Garden, PC / Videogame and Toy items
to addresses in the Austria.

We hope to resolve this issue soon but unfortunately we are unable,
at this stage, to provide a definite timescale.

Zhane

Why cant they just open up an Irish store with the prices all in Euro and accept Laser?

nava

HI All

Latest reply today,

it looks like the restriction are because of the WEEE, but they didn't bother to do it on each item, so they restricted every section that had an item that will need to be charge WEEE.

Dear xxxx

You are correct in saying that,

Playschool is a toy and the relevant legislation covers electrical items.

We can confirm that, at present under our "Toys" tabs we have many items that could be deemed electrical. Thus the "Toys" tab is included in the affected product lines.

We do value your custom and sincerely apologise for any inconvenience caused. Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk

Warmest regards

Will think about a reply to that mail, but no ideas so far.

Regards

wayne040576

nava wrote:

HI All

Latest reply today,

it looks like the restriction are because of the WEEE, but they didn't bother to do it on each item, so they restricted every section that had an item that will need to be charge WEEE.



Will think about a reply to that mail, but no ideas so far.

Regards

It would require some changes to the way the site displays prices and since this would only be for Irish customers they probably figured it wasn't worth the hassle. They must have received threats of legal action, so they're just covering their arses.

Laguna

Amazon aren't going to change this new policy of theirs if enough irate Boards.ie members email them, it annoys me greatly too but the fact of the matter is Amazon have probably decided to cut their losses and alienate the Irish market (and the rest of the EU), all because of this retarded PRF charge.

The UK doesn't have this charge and they're not going to introduce it. I can't see Amazon.co.uk creating a special PRF charge procedure for when an Irish/EU customer comes on to the site or even to display adjusted prices with included PRF for every item on the site that it affects. Next thing you know, we'll have www.play.com refusing to ship games to Ireland, now that would be a travesty.

Nietzschean

Given the design of amazon's website, which they love(really really love if you've ever been to a talk by their staff....) , it would be trivial to make amazon.ie a clone of the uk store but with just the extra charge. I would imagine some work around or other store is being done at the moment, i doubt its a cut your losses strategy as it wouldn't cost them much and i imagine income from the irish market would be worth it.


and is the PRF not an EU directive? if so the UK has to introduce it Laguna...it might delay it a bit, and maybe amazon are banking on that to hope they just don't have to do anything and the uk will fall in line making it more or less a self correcting problem...

netman

Nietzschean wrote:

and is the PRF not an EU directive? if so the UK has to introduce it Laguna...it might delay it a bit, and maybe amazon are banking on that to hope they just don't have to do anything and the uk will fall in line making it more or less a self correcting problem...

I think WEEE and RoHS are EU directives, but PRF is the Irish implementation of that directive.

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/waste/weee_index.htm
http://oasis.gov.ie/public_utilities/waste_management/recycling_waste_from_electrical_and_electronic_equipment.html

Lemming

Simple solution to all this folks. It's called "consumer voting". If Amazon are dragging their heels (and tbh it sounds like they are since they are no doubt aware that this is affecting their sales across the entire EU except locally), then vote with your feet and go somewher else. Really simple.

It's not exactly like Amazon are the only e-shop on the int0rw3b and you can't find what you're looking for elsewhere for about the same price.

Laguna

Nietzschean wrote:

and is the PRF not an EU directive? if so the UK has to introduce it Laguna...it might delay it a bit, and maybe amazon are banking on that to hope they just don't have to do anything and the uk will fall in line making it more or less a self correcting problem...

Sure it's an EU directive, but when did that ever stop the UK?, they've still got and always will have an Island mentality, for christs sake they're dragging their heels over using € for the future because they can't have the stupid Queens face on the coinage. This is coming from someone who is born and bred over there, they're the most non conformist bunch of assholes ever when it comes to these sort of things, they want all the benefits of the EU withouht having to change their own policies. I just can't see this Amazon debacle being solved anytime soon.