Some Delivery Charges now Lower At Amazon

Ogham

Amazon have altered delivery charges on all items except Cds,Dvds,Books,Vinyl,Video Games,Software.
The Charges are Here but basically for all the larger stuff it is now £4.50 per order and then £0.50 per KG. It means that for many smaller items delivery will now be cheaper to Ireland - ie Ipods/ Cameras.
A compact camera I picked at random shows as £4.73 for delivery here. Unless I am mistaken - the old charge would have been £6.98 . Over £2 of a reduction. Even better - adding a second small electrical item such as an Mp3 player only puts the delivery charge up by 23p (before it would have added on £1.99)
Every little Helps!

Thanks to http://shopping.blogs.ie/2009/08/26/amazon-reductions-in-some-delivery-charges-to-ireland/

Effluo

The reason being? Amazon now charge the Irish rate of VAT to Irish customers.

Whoop....

Basq

Effluo wrote: »

The reason being? Amazon now charge the Irish rate of VAT to Irish customers.

Whoop....

I actually did post that earlier..

.. but deleted my post as I read elsewhere on Boards they've actually been doing it for years (under law, they have to)!

They charge 21.5% VAT on everything to Irish customers bar books.

Sad Professor

Yeah, I remember being charged Irish VAT on a camera from them about 6 years ago.

Rsaeire

So that's the reason why the price for items on the website is never the same when you go to check it out?

Davy

Rsaeire wrote: »

So that's the reason why the price for items on the website is never the same when you go to check it out?

Tis, goes from 15% to 21.5%

johnfás

basquille wrote: »

I actually did post that earlier..

.. but deleted my post as I read elsewhere on Boards they've actually been doing it for years (under law, they have to)!

They charge 21.5% VAT on everything to Irish customers bar books.

Presumably they also do not charge VAT on shoes suitable for children under the age of 11. If they do, they're leaving themselves fairly open for difficulty given that such items are VAT exempt in the same way that books are.

The same applies to white, cylindrical, non perfumed and non decorated candles - there is one to catch them out on .

Effluo

basquille wrote: »

.. but deleted my post as I read elsewhere on Boards they've actually been doing it for years (under law, they have to)!

Under Law?

Are you sure? and can anyone tell me what law that is.
How come we can buy from a heck of a lot of other european sites without paying irish vat...

Davy

Effluo wrote: »

How come we can buy from a heck of a lot of other european sites without paying irish vat...

They only need to register for the irish vat if they say over €50k of goods here

Ogham

Effluo wrote: »

Under Law?

Are you sure? and can anyone tell me what law that is.
How come we can buy from a heck of a lot of other european sites without paying irish vat...

Maybe the other sites are not complying with the EU regulations ?

TequilaMockingBird

johnfás wrote: »

The same applies to white, cylindrical, non perfumed and non decorated candles - there is one to catch them out on .

The church are still getting away with that? 'Tis a farce.

denat

TequilaMockingBird wrote: »

The church are still getting away with that? 'Tis a farce.

Agreed. But sure doesn't it benefit all of us if there's a powercut? And we can expect plenty of those as the country's infrastructure disintegrates over the next few years.

Basq

Effluo wrote: »

Under Law?

Are you sure? and can anyone tell me what law that is.

From treefingers post here:

companies are obligated by law to charge the vat of the country where the goods are being sent to, if their total sales in that country exceed a certain threshold (100,000 euro, which Amazon obviously would)

relevant eu directive:

Recast 6th Directive, Council Directive 2006/112/EC, Title V, Chapter I, Section 2, Article 34.

http://ec.europa.eu/taxation_customs/taxation/vat/how_vat_works/distance_selling/index_en.htm

ShaneU

That's why I never buy from them, they're a cheap site in the U.K. but not here. I mostly buy from The Hut group sites.

Ogham

ShaneU wrote: »

That's why I never buy from them, they're a cheap site in the U.K. but not here. I mostly buy from The Hut group sites.

You can't get cameras / ipods/ tools/ dvd players etc from the Hut though.

ephelan24

Returns can be a problem with Amazon as although they use DHL to send items ,if a problem arises you have to use whatever means to send the item back instead of DHL collecting and returning. Very annoying if just a small problem like I had recently as I was sent the wrong adaptor and now have to return the whole item.

leex

Ogham wrote: »

Maybe the other sites are not complying with the EU regulations ?

Some of the other sites (CD & DVD sellers who I won't name) are outside EU as they ship from Jersey etc. I think we pay no VAT at all on these items.

ixtlan

leex wrote: »

Some of the other sites (CD & DVD sellers who I won't name) are outside EU as they ship from Jersey etc. I think we pay not VAT at all on these items.

But if the value is over €22 you are potentially liable for import taxes...

And I believe that limit may increase later in the year. Can anyone confirm that?

Ix

Paul Tergat

At what stage of the buying process do you find out how much delivery is going to be. I want to order some things and they are from different merchants, will i be charged some stupid amount to cover say 3 or 4 delivery charges?

Macer123

ixtlan wrote: »

But if the value is over €22 you are potentially liable for import taxes...

And I believe that limit may increase later in the year. Can anyone confirm that?

Ix

If anything, I would have thought the limit may decrease, to encourage people to buy in Ireland. In the UK they seem to be look at this limit as explained in this article from www.find-DVd.co.uk.

Retail giants like Amazon, Argos, Asda, HMV and Play.com have for a long time made the most of a loophole, which exempts retailers from having to pay VAT on goods costing less than £18, when shipped from the Channel Islands. This loophole has allowed these retailers to take a huge chunk of the CD and DVD online market by selling cheap items to the UK, however, things could be about to change as it seems the loophole is to be tightened.

Organisations such as the Forum of Private Businesses (FPB) and the Association of Independent Music (AIM) have long complained about the loophole and the unfair disadvantage it gave to the giants. Especially as they sometimes ship the goods to the Channel Islands and back again just to make the most of the tax exemption. If the loophole closes it is hoped that this will create more fairness and competition within the market.

The Jersey government have set a policy which outlines which companies can take advantage of the VAT free zone and have decided that companies like Amazon are not contributing to Jersey’s economy and have been given 12 months to find a new base.

But this does not mean the end of cheap CDs and DVDs as many Jersey-based firms like play.com will still be able to sell using the loophole. Meanwhile, Guernsey has made no plans to end HMV’s operation on the the island and other retailers are making no plans to withdraw their Channel Island operations as yet.

bk

p_larkin99 wrote: »

At what stage of the buying process do you find out how much delivery is going to be. I want to order some things and they are from different merchants, will i be charged some stupid amount to cover say 3 or 4 delivery charges?

Amazon's site is an absolute pain to use in Ireland, you don't find out the delivery page until the very last final confirmation page.

This is particularly annoying when you've added multiple items, from different retailers. As you don't find out the cost and even if they'll ship to Ireland well into the check out cart, it is a complete pain in the arse.

gumballz

bk wrote: »

Amazon's site is an absolute pain to use in Ireland, you don't find out the delivery page until the very last final confirmation page.

This is particularly annoying when you've added multiple items, from different retailers. As you don't find out the cost and even if they'll ship to Ireland well into the check out cart, it is a complete pain in the arse.

I agree with you, I hope amazon will fix this.