Amazon Question

Schwiiing

Is it possible to send an Amazon gift card anonymously? And if it is, how do I do it? Thank you in advance.

rubadub

Not sure, but they have been problematic before. If you buy a .co.uk or .com etc it can only be used on that site. Think there was some issue with kindle stuff too.

Mad Mike

The only part of an Amazon gift card that counts is the 20 digit or so code that the user has to enter to redeem the credit on their acccount. When you buy a gift card from amazon you can opt for the "print it yourself" version which will email you a pdf of a card. If you are handy with computers you may be able to edit the card to remove any reference to yourself or failing that just copy the code by hand into an anonymous card of your own.

The only potential loophole occurs when they enter the code - i don't know if it says who it has come from. You could always do a test run on a £1 card to yourself see if it works.

The issue about .co.uk and .com mentioned by rubadub is that gift cards come in a certain currency and you can only use them to make purchases in that currency. Amazon will not convert it. If you are sending a USA user a gift card you should send one in dollars. If you are sending a UK user you should send it in pounds etc. The easiest way to buy a USA gift card for example is to type amazon.com into the address bar and then log in with you normal amazon account and then buy a USA gift code on the USA site. You can use your amazon login on any version of amazon but it normally defaults to the UK for Irish users.

abff

I have my kindle account with amazon.com and my main amazon account with amazon.co.uk.

I went to purchase a kindle book this morning and I was told I would have to convert my account to .co.uk. Is there any way around this, as I would prefer to stay with .com. In the past, I have been given the option of either changing or staying put. Is this a new policy that has just been introduced by amazon? I bought a book from the .com store last week.

whomitconcerns

well i have as an above poster says, my kindle on US store and my normal buying account on .co.uk. Same username/pword on both and never had an issue

abff

whomitconcerns wrote: »

well i have as an above poster says, my kindle on US store and my normal buying account on .co.uk. Same username/pword on both and never had an issue

Neither did I until this morning. Have you tried purchasing a kindle book today?

whomitconcerns

abff wrote: »

Neither did I until this morning. Have you tried purchasing a kindle book today?

Will try right now

and will update post in 2 mins

Edit: Yes it worked fine..just bought in USD on amazon.com website and it will be delivered to my kindle post haste...

abff

whomitconcerns wrote: »

Will try right now

and will update post in 2 mins

Edit: Yes it worked fine..just bought in USD on amazon.com website and it will be delivered to my kindle post haste...

Thanks for doing that. I logged back onto amazon.com and this time it allowed me to purchase from the US store. No idea why it wouldn't allow me to do that earlier.

Mad Mike

I am in the same boat and I am still allowed to purchase in $ from .com store but I don't think there is any advantage to this any more.

It used to be that you got a better selection and different prices from the .com book store however things changed a couple of years ago. Now the selection and pricing seems to be based on your home country rather than whether you log in to .com or .co.uk. I tested this out using a method to log into Amazon.com from a US IP and then logging in to Amazon.com using my own local Irish IP. The selection and pricing are different even though the currency is still dollars.

Example: with book Crusade by Robyn Young, Kindle Edition. Note all of this was done while logged out of Amazon so it couldn't use my user details to judge my location.

Price from .co.uk kindle store: £5.49
Price from .com kindle store using Irish IP address: $9.32
Price from .com kindle store via method with US IP address: $10.99

Conclusion: Logging in to .com from Ireland just gives you the UK price converted into dollars. In order to get the real US kindle store you would need to use a method. UK price is cheaper anyway so why bother.


Bottom line I don't think there is an advantage any longer using the .com kindle store. In fact you probably incur additional currency exchange fees.

EDIT: Changed wording to remove explicit mention of how to log in using US IP address just in case this is against site rules.

abff

Thanks Mike. I was wondering about that. As you say, there used to be a price differential, but this seems to have more or less disappeared. There also used to be differences in availability and publication dates, but maybe this has also changed?

whomitconcerns

Mad Mike wrote: »

Example: with book Crusade by Robyn Young, Kindle Edition. Note all of this was done while logged out of Amazon so it couldn't use my user details to judge my location.

Price from .co.uk kindle store: £5.49
Price from .com kindle store using Irish IP address: $9.32
Price from .com kindle store via method with US IP address: $10.99

So...I am on a UK network here in work
Example 2
Mr Mercedes by Stephen King
.com kindle price Euro 8.93 (converted on xe.net)
.co.uk kindle price Euro 9.36 (converted on xe.net)
.ie kindle price Euro ?.?? Its not available to Irish customers!
.ie ebook edition on eason.ie Euro 13.99

AFAIK there is still an advantage to US store...and your example does not show any diff except in that exact case

But as for the Irish ebook store on easons!!!!!!!!!! 5 EURO more!!! for the same digital copy!

Mad Mike

Hi Whomitmay concern here are my results for that book in every case I am not signed in to Amazon so it cannot get information from my log in.

Mr. Mercedes Stephen King

.co.uk price using irish internet IP: £7.47 (€9.36)
.com pricing using irish internet IP: $12.57 (€9.37)
.com pricing using a US internet IP: $11.99 (€8.93)
There is no Amazon.ie

The above were done without my logging in. For reference I also logged in using my normal Irish Amazon account to the .com site and I got the same $12.57 price.

Finally for the purposes of science I also created a fake Amazon account with a US postal address and then logged in from my normal Irish IP. Lo and behold I got the US pricing.

OK so let me adjust my conclusions: It would appear that Amazon adjusts its prices depending on where it thinks you are living. If you log in with an account it seems to use the main postal address on that account. I guess for most of us who use Amazon to buy physical stuff that is probably where we live. In the absence of information from your login then it seems to guess your location from your IP.

I am not sure why you are getting American pricing even though you are using an account in Britain. Perhaps you have a US postal address or perhaps there is some other factor that is uses to judge location. For folks like me however with an Irish postal address attached to the account then we are stuck with British prices.

whomitconcerns

$11.99 is the price i get on amazon.com..checked my billing address and it is setup on my amex at my irish home address. I used to order from .com years ago before there was a .co.uk. Its a weird one TBH...

Well now hang on....I just browsed in ingognito mode on chrome to the site and i got $12.57!!! Wonder what thats all about!! (Thats with no login from what appears to them, due to work server to be a UK address)

Ok interesting...the cover is different if I am logged in or not. And if I am not looged in it says price includes VAT!!!

So theres your 58c!! Its a 5% VAT charge that is some reason not showing on my logged in account

whomitconcerns

And theres the image. 1st image ingognito (not logged in) 2nd image logged in. Both on amazon.com site. And the one I bought is 58c cheaper and 42 pages longer.....weird...

take a look at the prices of the Audible Audio editon. On my login its $15 cheaper!! Whatever about the 58c, whats that all about!

Mad Mike

Hah I have long suspected Amazon of playing tricks with prices depending on who is logged in but in this case the difference seems to be related to that strange 5% VAT rate.

I don't understand why Amazon.com gives you the US price and gives me the UK price even though we both have Irish addresses. Mind you I have tried in vain to get Amazon's currency exchange to give me pricing in euro. It claims it will automatically translate all prices into your home currency but it refuses to accept my home is currency is euro despite my Irish address.

rubadub

Mad Mike wrote: »

Mind you I have tried in vain to get Amazon's currency exchange to give me pricing in euro.

There is a firefox & chrome plugin which shows Irish prices. Not sure if they still work OK.

asmith wrote: »

Hi, I'm the developer of the Amazon Prices for Ireland plugin.

I've just fixed and uploaded a new Firefox/Greasemonkey version to http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/64262. To upgrade you probably need to uninstall and reinstall.

fyi there's a native Chrome extension as well. It can be installed here https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/ljbghemliajpgabhbaecbipkgngkoalf.

If anyone comes across any problems with either of these plugins I'd appreciate if you raise a bug, here for the FF/GreaseMonkey version or here for the Chrome version. Thanks.

pleasant Co.

whomitconcerns wrote: »

And theres the image. 1st image ingognito (not logged in) 2nd image logged in. Both on amazon.com site. And the one I bought is 58c cheaper and 42 pages longer.....weird...

take a look at the prices of the Audible Audio editon. On my login its $15 cheaper!! Whatever about the 58c, whats that all about!

I don't think being incognito has anything to do with it, looking at the two images they're two different products (even though they are the same book - they're different editions or something) and if you look the url bar you can see they have two different product codes (the bit of the url to look at starts as "B00xxxxxx"), maybe there's a reason for this, I don't know, I'm just pointing out the obvious :pac:

rubadub

I went onto amazon.com and tried searching in normal mode and incognito. When logging on it asked if I was in Ireland. In both cases I was offered the $12.57 version, first on the list, from Amazon whispernet.

Now I used a chrome plugin called Hola! which changes your country.

I picked USA on Hola, but when I logged onto amazon it asked if I was in Japan. I got offered it for $11.99 and it was the second option "sold by Simon and Schuster etc"

My guess is this Simon crowd may have limited what countries they want to sell to, or there is some other region thing going on.

EDIT: changing to UK and I get the dearer $12.57

germany & france I both get $18.78 which has the red "mr mercedes" text but is via amazon whispernet

Australia gets $18.62 with the blue cover and via whispernet, this time I notice it says "$18.62 includes applicable taxes & free international wireless delivery via Amazon Whispernet"

Jersey $12.20 -blue cover -whispernet

whomitconcerns

pleasant Co. wrote: »

I don't think being incognito has anything to do with it, looking at the two images they're two different products (even though they are the same book - they're different editions or something) and if you look the url bar you can see they have two different product codes (the bit of the url to look at starts as "B00xxxxxx"), maybe there's a reason for this, I don't know, I'm just pointing out the obvious :pac:

I see what you say. But they are the only versions available when you search in each case