Amazon UK Free Delivery minimum spend now £20

[Brother_Dobby]

Yyyyeah, I'm not that stupid to switch over to Prime after Amazon treats their customers like this. Literally can't believe this, such a kick in the backside to do this to us without warning.

Looks like no more Amazon pre-orders or Amazon blind buys for me, then. Then again, they'll probably begin charging £20 for pre-orders now so that you can get "FREE DELIVERY OOO!" Not even the 3 for £17 is covered by this now. This has got to be among the worst business strategies they've done.

[clacton0]

Originally Posted by DJJez

zavvi are the absolute worst online retailer for blu rays but good luck with that

i will enjoy my amazon prime

Never had a problem with them were else you recommend buying blu rays from other than amazon & Ebay?

[Aclea]

Originally Posted by DJJez

i will enjoy my amazon prime

Ah yes, the 5-day delivery service that regularly gives 48 hour delivery estimates and has inaccurate tracking information (and I don't exactly live in an out of the way part of the country). Getting Prime at the new massively increased rate has only resulted in 45% of my orders arriving within 24 hours and many taking longer than the super saver shipping. I can't help thinking the fact that Prime is so unreliable (particularly in holiday weeks) that they upped the threshold for free delivery to get more people who used to rely on super saver to sign up.

[insomniac013]

Originally Posted by clacton0

Be using Zavvi more now it seems.

Zavvi is definitely not a replacement for Amazon. Sure they have good prices but because their stuff is sent from Guernsey there is the change of import tax and their customer service? It's basically non-existent. That's something Amazon ALWAYS was the best at!

[rapta]

Originally Posted by clacton0

Never had a problem with them were else you recommend buying blu rays from other than amazon & Ebay?

I'd recommend Base or some of the Rakuten stores over Zavvi any day...simply because of their customer service.

To be honest, I'm not hugely gutted about this £20 limit. The only annoying thing for me is that I watch some items fall in price and then bag 'em (mainly records), just means I'll have to be a little more on the ball and have items ready to order alongside them.

Either that or when worst comes to worst, just have to cheat the system - pre-order something that makes your basket go over £20, and make sure it's something that's not out for a long time so the order is split...then once the item you want is dispatched, you can cancel the pre-order.

[JimDiGriz]

Just got an email confirming all this.

They arent helping themselves here. I suspect Amazon marketplace will do better mind! Means I will be more picky and wont just order things as I see them, probably a good thing for me.

As for Prime? No. I dont need things delivered 'next day' and dont mind waiting usually. I think this is what this is all about though.

[Dougling]

This is just going to make me use Flubit more. Although I imagine the money will still go to Amazon...

[rapta]

You have to remember Amazon still get a cut from Marketplace orders. I've stopped selling on there because they started taking such a big percentage (and barely enough to cover postage).

I reckon my Blu-ray habits will probably start switching to Base or something, although Amazon do have good pre-order prices so maybe I'd just have to start bunching them up. Thing is, sometimes you then want one item and not the other, and you'd end up having to pay postage if you cancelled one and the order fell below £20.

[CinemaScope]

Well I read that it was £39 at one time, & then it was nothing for a few years, & then £10, & now £20. That's OK, I'm never in any great rush to buy (too many unwatched discs), so I'll wait 'till I have a £20 order, or buy from somewhere else, or pay the p&p (it's not a fortune), whatever is cheapest. It's no big deal.

[Rixx]

Originally Posted by rapta

You have to remember Amazon still get a cut from Marketplace orders. I've stopped selling on there because they started taking such a big percentage (and barely enough to cover postage).

I reckon my Blu-ray habits will probably start switching to Base or something, although Amazon do have good pre-order prices so maybe I'd just have to start bunching them up. Thing is, sometimes you then want one item and not the other, and you'd end up having to pay postage if you cancelled one and the order fell below £20.

Tesco are good for pre-order prices, have free postage and I usually get my pre-orders on the Friday or Saturday before the release date.

[rapta]

Originally Posted by Rixx

Tesco are good for pre-order prices, have free postage and I usually get my pre-orders on the Friday or Saturday before the release date.

Except I've dramatically cut down on pre-ordering studio titles, so that doesn't help things for me!

I've just noticed the weird Free Delivery rule for books on Amazon - still at £10, so if you order something else under £10 with £10+ of books, you still get Free Delivery. Worth keeping in mind as well...though I don't buy books that often, personally.

[Buddy Ackerman]

Originally Posted by rapta

Either that or when worst comes to worst, just have to cheat the system - pre-order something that makes your basket go over £20, and make sure it's something that's not out for a long time so the order is split...then once the item you want is dispatched, you can cancel the pre-order.

That's what I'm going to do - never liked doing it with the £10 limit, felt a bit of a cheat (Amazon have always had great customer service and been very fair whenever I've dealt with them so I didn't want to be a dick in return) but the £20 limit is over the line for me - as with many I'd happily add a cheap item to get the postage but no way am I adding £12-13 to my order. So this workaround will have to do.

Until they become savvy to it and find a way to charge you for the postage after the fact of course

[rapta]

Originally Posted by Buddy Ackerman

That's what I'm going to do - never liked doing it with the £10 limit, felt a bit of a cheat (Amazon have always had great customer service and been very fair whenever I've dealt with them so I didn't want to be a dick in return) but the £20 limit is over the line for me - as with many I'd happily add a cheap item to get the postage but no way am I adding £12-13 to my order. So this workaround will have to do.

Until they become savvy to it and find a way to charge you for the postage after the fact of course

True, there may be a way of them combatting that...like retrospectively charging you postage if you cancel the pre-order straight after the other item is dispatched. But there shouldn't be anything to stop you from cancelling a pre-order with them, so it would be difficult to implement. I did it just the other day - ordered a £5.99 Blu-ray, couldn't find anything else I wanted so pre-ordered something yet to get a release date, and cancelled it soon after the first item was dispatched.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by rapta

True, there may be a way of them combatting that...like retrospectively charging you postage if you cancel the pre-order straight after the other item is dispatched. But there shouldn't be anything to stop you from cancelling a pre-order with them, so it would be difficult to implement. I did it just the other day - ordered a £5.99 Blu-ray, couldn't find anything else I wanted so pre-ordered something yet to get a release date, and cancelled it soon after the first item was dispatched.

I wonder if they'll get wise to it or they know it's a workaround and accept it? I can see them adding a clause which says that customers will be charged for postage if they can cancel items that bring the total below £20, but it will certainly create so bad will and people do cancel pre-orders all the time for various reasons.

I honestly can't see me buying much from Amazon anymore, I look out for TV seasons around the £12 price point, but they'll be going nearer £15 now with postage, and I'll just be ignoring BDs around £6-7. I'm sure lots of people don't want to pay the postage out of spite and the others don't always want to spend over £20.

Not having free postage on their 3 for £17 is laughable, it would be neat if they offered free postage on their promotions, otherwise they become just nonsensical!

[CouncilSpectre]

I'm surprised that no one's worked out there next marketing ploy yet.

3 for £17 no longer covered by free p&p - watch it change to 3 for £20 in the coming days

[rapta]

Originally Posted by chip75

I wonder if they'll get wise to it or they know it's a workaround and accept it? I can see them adding a clause which says that customers will be charged for postage if they can cancel items that bring the total below £20, but it will certainly create so bad will and people do cancel pre-orders all the time for various reasons.

I honestly can't see me buying much from Amazon anymore, I look out for TV seasons around the £12 price point, but they'll be going nearer £15 now with postage, and I'll just be ignoring BDs around £6-7. I'm sure lots of people don't want to pay the postage out of spite and the others don't always want to spend over £20.

Not having free postage on their 3 for £17 is laughable, it would be neat if they offered free postage on their promotions, otherwise they become just nonsensical!

As I mentioned before, you do get free postage on 3 for £17 as long as the titles you pick are worth more than £20 collectively before the discount is added. If they were under £20, less than £3 wouldn't be much of a saving on those titles anyway and they're likely to be titles you can get for less than £5.66 elsewhere.

What's gonna be tricky is when they change the offer to 2 for £10 as they sometimes do...guess you'd just have to get 4 for £20 instead (or do the trick I mentioned before).

[Buddy Ackerman]

Originally Posted by chip75

Not having free postage on their 3 for £17 is laughable, it would be neat if they offered free postage on their promotions, otherwise they become just nonsensical!

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

I'm surprised that no one's worked out there next marketing ploy yet.

3 for £17 no longer covered by free p&p - watch it change to 3 for £20 in the coming days

Originally Posted by rapta

As I mentioned before, you do get free postage on 3 for £17 as long as the titles you pick are worth more than £20 collectively before the discount is added.

To back Rapta up - I just tried the 3 for £17 and it does still apply if the items come to at least £20 before the discount is applied as you decide postage before the final total is calculated.

It now seems to work it out in an odd way - it lists postage as £2.09 at the checkout for me and then lists Free Shipping as one of the 'promotions applied' and minuses it from the total - but it still works.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by CouncilSpectre

I'm surprised that no one's worked out there next marketing ploy yet.

3 for £17 no longer covered by free p&p - watch it change to 3 for £20 in the coming days

4 for £20, sounds better!

Originally Posted by rapta

As I mentioned before, you do get free postage on 3 for £17 as long as the titles you pick are worth more than £20 collectively before the discount is added. If they were under £20, less than £3 wouldn't be much of a saving on those titles anyway and they're likely to be titles you can get for less than £5.66 elsewhere.

What's gonna be tricky is when they change the offer to 2 for £10 as they sometimes do...guess you'd just have to get 4 for £20 instead (or do the trick I mentioned before).

Originally Posted by Buddy Ackerman

To back Rapta up - I just tried the 3 for £17 and it does still apply if the items come to at least £20 before the discount is applied as you decide postage before the final total is calculated.

It now seems to work it out in an odd way - it lists postage as £2.09 at the checkout for me and then lists Free Shipping as one of the 'promotions applied' and minuses it from the total - but it still works.

Thanks for the information rapta and Buddy Ackerman, I'd forgotten about the before the promotion bit, as I think I had a few things during the Lightning Sales that got free shipping, but were under £10.

[CouncilSpectre]

4 for £20 would be good. Amazon seem to be in penny pinching mode at the moment though.

Fingers crossed!

[Markgway]

Greedy tax-dodging bastards!