What in the HELL happened to amazon.de's shipping prices?!

[Monroville]

I don't know what the happened, but their shipping costs just went to hell.

For the past 4 to 6 months, their shipping costs dropped dramatically.. it has been costing me on average @ 5 to 10 Euros for orders around 10 to 15 items. Now? I have an order for @ 15 items and it will cost me 51.84 Euros, and that is for the slow standard DHL rate.

Does anyone know what is going on to drive shipping costs so dramatically?

UPDATE: I managed to work around and figure out where their customer support link was. I sent an email wondering what caused the dramatic rate hike, especially considering that if I changed the shipping from "standard" to their "3-5 day" rate and "2 day" rate, the cost went from E51.84 to E60.50 and then E70.50 (plus or minus a few Euro versions of the "cents"). Considering that their standard shipping usually takes 2 to 4 weeks, that is a pretty dramatic rise in cost from just last week.

Also, I placed an order for 10 blu-rays from amazon.de on 7-16 and shipping was E8.99.

[greenguy]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

I usually only order 2 or 4 at a time. I did place a order for 2 Blu's on July 21st and shipping was 8.98 euros.

I will watch carefully on my next order. I love the freedom of watching discs from all over the world, but sometimes those shipping charges really work against you.

[movielib]

I just ordered Invaders from Mars, Das Boot complete TV cut, Christine and Fright Night and the total shipping charge was just €3. However, if I add Slither or You Kill Me/The Air I Breathe double feature, it adds shipping of €5.99 for either one or €8.98 for both.

I've tried to figure out why they are different and I've experimented with a bunch of things and I can't find rhyme or reason. All are sold and shipped by Amazon. I've eliminated the factor of whether they have been released. It doesn't seem to be weight. I just don't know what is going on.

Their shipping chart says that to the US, the charge per shipment is €3 plus €3 per kilogram pro-rated. My shipping for the order I made is obviously less than that and for those other two items I mentioned above it is considerably more.

[Nighteyes]

Maybe it's a glitch. It wouldn't be the first time their system went haywire either. Happened with Amazon.com before.

[USiT]

I did some search on there site and found this:

http://www.amazon.de/gp/help/custome...05CAF591FCF84A

It looks like they have started to take shipping for each kg you order. First on is €3.00 and after that each kg is €3 for standard shipping. So if the package gets 10kg its about €30 in shipping (it looks like).

Did check around on other amazon sites like uk, it, es, fr and all of them have started with shipping like this but the cost is different.

[movielib]

Originally Posted by USiT

I did some search on there site and found this:

http://www.amazon.de/gp/help/custome...05CAF591FCF84A

It looks like they have started to take shipping for each kg you order. First on is €3.00 and after that each kg is €3 for standard shipping. So if the package gets 10kg its about €30 in shipping (it looks like).

Did check around on other amazon sites like uk, it, es, fr and all of them have started with shipping like this but the cost is different.

See Post #3. I posted those numbers and they are not that new, they have been around for awhile. The point is that the charges we are seeing do not reflect those numbers.

[Monroville]

Originally Posted by movielib

I just ordered Invaders from Mars, Das Boot complete TV cut, Christine and Fright Night and the total shipping charge was just €3. However, if I add Slither or You Kill Me/The Air I Breathe double feature, it adds shipping of €5.99 for either one or €8.98 for both.

I've tried to figure out why they are different and I've experimented with a bunch of things and I can't find rhyme or reason. All are sold and shipped by Amazon. I've eliminated the factor of whether they have been released. It doesn't seem to be weight. I just don't know what is going on.

Their shipping chart says that to the US, the charge per shipment is €3 plus €3 per kilogram pro-rated. My shipping for the order I made is obviously less than that and for those other two items I mentioned above it is considerably more.

That is interesting. I've already opened a customer case and am in contact with one of their CSE's. I attached images of the 3 different prices, as well as order info for the past 3 months from my account to show the vast change in shipping charges. Once I hear from him, I will post over here and let you guy's know what he says.

I still have the box from my last amazon.de order (which doesn't have the shipping price on it, but it has the weight of the package). The 10 DELLAMORTE blus came out to 0.92 kilograms, so I got raked a bit (should have been E6 or a bit less, so E8.99 is not too bad of an upcharge).

My current order has 24 items and doing a rough guess as to the weight (using blus and digibooks I already have and a postage scale) it should be around 6 pounds and 2 ounces. let's just round that up to 7 pounds, or 3.17 kilograms. That should still be @ E12.00, not E51.84 (E3 initial charge, plus E3 per kilogram of weight).

PS: thanks for the link, USiT.

[ultlife2013]

Why do you import so many blurays? Aren't there enough cheap bluray options in the USA?

[DMRI2006]

I run into weird things with the shipping when ordering from Amazon.de.

I placed an order for 4 Blu's on 7-13 (including the multi-disc Clint Eastwood collection), and was charged a total of 3.00 Euros to the US.

I placed another order for 4 Blu's (all single discs) at the same time and was charged 6.71 Euros.

I found out one of the titles I was ordering, TARANTULA, by itself was jacking up the shipping cost. If I removed it from my order, and substituted another disc, the shipping was still 3 Euros. When I added it back in, the shipping would go up to 6.71 again.

I ran into the same thing last year with LEGEND OF THE LONE RANGER. That particular disc alone doubled the shipping cost every time, no matter how many other titles I had in the order!

I emailed customer service on it but they were useless...I wonder if some of their discs aren't "coded" incorrectly or something in regards to their weight, which causes weird fluctuations in the shipping price, which shouldn't happen.

[AUS1969]

Money aside, my last order arrived in only six weeks.

[Monroville]

Originally Posted by ultlife2013

Why do you import so many blurays? Aren't there enough cheap bluray options in the USA?

And how is this your problem? There are plenty of movies in Europe and Asia that are not in the US.

On a more "post related" note, I think I've figured out the problem. When I took the 10 TARANTULA blu-rays off, the shipping went down exactly E30. When I re-added 20 TARANTULAs, shipping went up E60.

That tells me that their HTML coding for some of their blu-rays and dvds is malfunctioning to the degree that instead of you being charged one initial charge of E3.00 and then the rest of the shipping for the entire order being based on the total weight, you are being charged E3.00 for each item, much like when you purchase multiple items from an individual seller (ie if you purchased 10 items from an individual seller for international shipping, you will be charged E14 per item).

I've contacted amazon.de customer support and notified them of this. Hopefully I will be hearing from them within the next couple of days.

[greenguy]

Originally Posted by Monroville

I've contacted amazon.de customer support and notified them of this. Hopefully I will be hearing from them within the next couple of days.

Please keep us posted, and many thanks for the detailed information.

[roguejp]

You are sure you're got the TARANTULA sold by amazon.de itself, and not a seller like "Onlineshop-Nord", who also ships with amazon? Just guessing.

[Monroville]

Originally Posted by roguejp

You are sure you're got the TARANTULA sold by amazon.de itself, and not a seller like "Onlineshop-Nord", who also ships with amazon? Just guessing.

It is them. Usually when you pick an item from an individual seller and when you get to the final checkout page, all of the outside seller items are listed below the ones from amazon's home site (so you can distinguish between the various seller sources). All items in my cart are from amazon.de.

PS: here is an update from their customer service department:

Dear Mr. Seay,

I'm sorry to hear about the misunderstanding regarding the blu-ray "Tarantula". I just took a look into the matter for you.

You are correct. The shipping costs for the title "Tarantula" are to high. Unfortunately I couldn't find any reason for that. Therefore, I forwarded the issue to our technicians. They will check, why the shipping costs aren't charged correctly. May I kindly ask for your patience? As soon as I got an answer, I will send you an e-mail, not later than August 5th.

Sorry for any inconvenience. Have a nice day.

Warmest regards,
Beatrice Müller

I also let them know that there may be other blu-rays with the same problem... so at least they know and they are looking into it. Whether they will fix it (or offer a credit for overcharging on the shipping)... well, we shall see.

[ultlife2013]

Originally Posted by Monroville

And how is this your problem? There are plenty of movies in Europe and Asia that are not in the US.

On a more "post related" note, I think I've figured out the problem. When I took the 10 TARANTULA blu-rays off, the shipping went down exactly E30. When I re-added 20 TARANTULAs, shipping went up E60.

That tells me that their HTML coding for some of their blu-rays and dvds is malfunctioning to the degree that instead of you being charged one initial charge of E3.00 and then the rest of the shipping for the entire order being based on the total weight, you are being charged E3.00 for each item, much like when you purchase multiple items from an individual seller (ie if you purchased 10 items from an individual seller for international shipping, you will be charged E14 per item).

I've contacted amazon.de customer support and notified them of this. Hopefully I will be hearing from them within the next couple of days.

Alright, remind me not to ask you any questions again in the future.

[Monroville]

Here is an update:

Dear Mr. Seay

Thank you very much for your reply.

Your proposal is most welcome and if you like, you may place your order now and we will refund the wrong shipping costs. You may send your photo of the shipping label as a jpg file to:

impressum@amazon.de

For your information: I assume that the item is stored with a wrong weight in our database resulting in these unusual high shipping fees. As soon as this error was corrected, the shipping fees should be calculated correct again.

I hope you will find this information useful.

Never hesitate to get back to us by replying to my e-mail, in case there are any other questions left.

Warmest regards,
Uwe Müller

The proposal I suggested was:
being that the package sent from Amazon.de has a weight on it (actually 2: one on the customs/claims side on the right, and the actual weight on the left corner) and that their policy is E3 for the first item and then E3 for each kilogram that the package weighs, I can scan the label upon arrival and send them the scan, whereupon a proper shipping price can be calculated and the excess can be refunded back to the card used to make the initial purchase.

This way they can maintain their shipping policy with integrity and it will give them the time to correct the issue.

Estimated arrival date for my order is 28. August 2014 - 1. September 2014, so when it arrives I will proceed and further update this thread (to let you all know if they follow through with the shipping refund).

[NoirFan]

I had noticed Amazon.de's extreme shipping hikes last month, and commented on it here (starting in post #13). You certainly received a more helpful response than I did!

[greenguy]

Originally Posted by NoirFan

I had noticed Amazon.de's extreme shipping hikes last month, and commented on it here (starting in post #13). You certainly received a more helpful response than I did!

My guess is that Monroville probably had more luck because basically he figured out the problem for them, leading them to look in the right place.

If you only inquired asking about why the shipping was so high, you probably were sent the standard response.

So based on everything that's been discovered, I was nailed on that last order. I ordered Buckaroo Banzai and Streets of Fire and was charged 8.99 as opposed to the usual 3 and some change. Sadly I've already thrown the package away with the shipping label.

Thanks again Monroville for all the gumshoe work.

[movielib]

The continuing problem is that a whole bunch of titles have apparently been coded with the wrong weights and fixing them on a case by case basis as people point them out will take forever. I don't know if there is any way they can correct it en masse.

BTW, I tested Tarantula and they have not corrected that error. Given that I have found several titles I'd order but they are also miscoded I think this is a wide ranging problem that could persist for a long time. I don't think people are going to go through what Monroville did every time they want to order something from them. This could hurt their business as word spreads until they find a way to correct it.

But thanks, Monroville, you have done us all a service.

[Monroville]

The good thing is they seem to be willing to refund the excess shipping charges. Just make sure to keep your package, as it has the weight on it (the actual weight on the upper left, and the rounded up weight on the lower right).

Scan it or make a snapshot and email it to them... or least that's the plan. Again, per the last message, I will update you guys and gals when the package arrives and I send the postage label scan into them.

Here is hoping they keep their word...