Actually not Ireland...

luckat

... but Amazon.com I bought a bunch of books there yesterday. Half of them shipped - $24+. The other half shipped today; another $20+. Is this the norm? I don't buy from Amazon before, but I think the shipping price has been creeping upwards each time. Over $45 for around 10 books seems a teenshy bit steep - I send packages to the US often enough, and get packages back, and don't seem to pay that much.

Mr E

When ordering from Amazon, you have the option of shipping them all together or shipping them when they are available. You must have picked the latter (therefore splitting the shipments).

therecklessone

TmB wrote:

When ordering from Amazon, you have the option of shipping them all together or shipping them when they are available. You must have picked the latter (therefore splitting the shipments).

The options are ship in as few shipments as possible, or when each is available.

I get it all the time, choose as few as possible and get 2/3 shipments anyway.

No idea why though.

luckat

I *think* I chose "as few as possible" - got a letter from Amazon saying they'd sent them from various shipping centres. Won't be ordering there again, I think.

therecklessone

What price did they quote you for p&p before you completed your transaction? Was it the same you ended up paying?

According to their own help page:

If you choose to group items into as few shipments as possible, you'll be charged for one regular per-shipment fee, as well as a per-item fee for each item in that shipment.

In addition, they say:

Group my items into as few shipments as possible

Trying to keep shipping costs down? Choose this first option. We'll consolidate your items into the fewest shipments possible. (We'll always show you the minimum number of shipments needed to complete your order.) Depending on the availability of the items you're purchasing, you might have to wait a bit longer for your order to ship, but you'll save money on shipping.

<snip>

In some cases, you might receive more shipments than we indicated you would when you placed your order. Regardless, we will never charge you more for shipping than the amount that was originally quoted to you at the time you place your order.

If you choose the option to ship when available, they say:

If you choose to ship items as soon as they become available, we'll charge you full per-shipment fees for each shipment as well as a per-item fee for each item.

Check your account details on the amazon.com site to see what they quoted you when you ordered. Get back on to them if you've paid too much.

Enii

Think post coming from the states was expensive for a while there as An Post had stopped handling so it went to Germany where taxes are charged on them. An Post used to overlook this and so it used to be much cheaper to post from the states to Irel. I think An Post are in the process of taking back the contract.

The_Conductor

No.

Packages from the United States Postal Service are now handled in Ireland by a sister company of DHL (part of Deutsche Post).

Packages used to be handled by those incompetent eejits in GLS.....

Letter post from USPS is still handled by An Post, but they are renegotiating the contract at present, as it seems to be stacked more than a little against An Post...... perhaps a legacy of when we relied on it many years for packages and parcels from the US- but sent very little back the other way?

Neuro

Amazon has two shipping options:
1. As few shipments as is possible - The cheapest option, but if you're buying multiple items and one or more of them are not in stock the whole order gets held up.
2. Ship as items become available - More expensive than option 1 but useful if you are buying multiple items where one or more of them are not in stock but you still need the stocked items as soon as possible.

With option 1 you may in fact receive more than one shipment. This seems to be wholly at the discretion of Amazon. However, regardless of how many shipments it takes to complete your order you are still charged as if it they were a single shipment. Contrast this to option 2 where you are charged for each individual shipment.