BigMouth Posted September 27, 2008 Report Share Posted September 27, 2008 Am I alone in struggling to buy from Amazon.co.uk? I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, everything from books to hard drives to monitors to toasters. I have never had a problem before. Recently I have had nothing but problems with sellers allegedly refusing to send to Shetland. I say allegedly because of two incidents. I bought some books from a US vendor and they arrived OK in Shetland. I was pleased with the deal so I tried to buy another 4 books. The problem was that there was now a geographical restriction so I got onto the seller and they denied there was any such restriction, but gave me URLs of where I could buy direct. The shipping was less than favourable so I contacted Amazon and asked why one moment I could order from this seller and the next moment couldn't, and that the seller was denying any restrictions on who they would sell to. After all the postage from the US to Shetland is the same as the postage from the US to the UK mainland. Amazon put it down to a technical error and asked me to re-order in 48 hours. It didn't work so I was asked to wait a further 48 hours. It still didn't work. I decided that perhaps the problem was that it was due to the seller being based in the US so I decided to try to buy a book from a seller in the UK. The book was £11 new from Amazon and £2.50 used from the Marketplace seller. I didn't need t to be new as it was an outdated reference book, but it would still serve a useful purpose for me. I tried to order the book, but the geographical restriction came up again. I contacted the seller and they confirmed that they were in the UK and also confirmed that they were willing to ship internationally if need be and that there should be no problem in my ordering from Shetland as they had absolutely no restrictions on where the buyer was. I went back to Amazon. They told me to get the seller to contact them. To their credit the seller contacted them and eventually Amazon contacted them back suggesting that I should ring Amazon's free customer helpline number. I have just done this and after a 12 minute phone call my problem is to be passed to another department after I refused the offer of buying the book direct from Amazon at £11, or the offer of a voucher to compensate me for the cost of the postage of having the book shipped to the UK mainland, then up to Shetland. With xmas around the corner, and Amazon usually supplying most of my xmas purchases, I am a bit concerned about this situation. Am I alone in this problem. Are those of you who are ordering from Amazon Marketplace sellers able to get your orders shipped here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shetlandcars Posted September 27, 2008 Report Share Posted September 27, 2008 I find that with all online ordering, should something go wrong, they can usually sort it, IF its something in their immediate control - ie their computer has a button for it - otherwise forget it have you tried amazons call you back service, you click a button on the site and your phone rings instantly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustMe Posted September 27, 2008 Report Share Posted September 27, 2008 After reading Big mouth's message I decided to place an order with amazon.co.uk using a marketplace seller. Order was for a single dvd and shipping shown at £1.24. No problem placing the order and I do not expect any problem with delivery as the postage, at least with the post office, is the same nationwide.........so far. Will write again if there is a problem. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fairislefaerie Posted September 29, 2008 Report Share Posted September 29, 2008 I've been finding the same problem is coming up more frequently when ordering from Amazon, i presume its uk sellers opting to deliver within the uk only but when they klik that little box on the account set up procedures provided by amazon, it lists the UK as being mainland only. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustMe Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 Just received three orders from Amazon. First was a DVD from a marketplace seller, second was two books direct from Amazon (with free shipping) and third was a book from a marketplace seller. All arrived in good time and no mention of Shetland being any sort of problem. While on this subject Argos claim ""We can deliver anywhere in the UK and Northern Ireland but are unable to deliver to the Channel Islands, Isle of Man, Orkney and Shetland Islands."" Perhaps they could tell us when we ceased to be part of the UK.........I am sure Stuart Hill would also like to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anniecool Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 Most of our experiences with Amazon and marketplace sellers have been trouble free, except Amazon can take ages to deliver some items especially classical music cds.However, we have had that "UK mainland only" problem from some marketplace sellers. On posting a question to the seller to try to find a reason for this, we have been met with total silence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ertieiddabanks Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 ordered 'warhammer online' last week with a delivery time of 3-6 weeks and received an email this morning saying it's been shipped, I've never had problems with amazon. now ebay on the other hand... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sassermaet Posted October 6, 2008 Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 Try play.com - delivery is free, although they despatch things individually so if you make a big order expect it to take up to a week to all arrive. To be honest, I've not used Amazon to get anything in months... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigMouth Posted October 6, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2008 Play.com can be funny about accepting your credit or debit cards, despite them seemingly being acceptable to every other company that you might use. Recently I have started looking up the book on Amazon's Marketplace. If the seller is The Book Depository I go to them direct and usually save a couple of quid on the deal as The Book Depository ship their books for free. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Annie_Anxious Posted October 14, 2008 Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 I recently bought items from Amazon and was amazed at how fast delivery was and how cheap to deliver too. Ordered my items on the Friday and by Monday most had arrived... I ordered a pram which was bulky and heavy - only cost £12 to deliver...I ordered a heater from Argos in Shetland cost me the £5.00 odds for shipping.. then on top of that £18.00 more on shipping for Northwards to get it here. Must add this took over a month!!We are well ripped off here in Sheltand by local companies. No wonder we shop South!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohanofNess Posted October 14, 2008 Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 I sell a fair bit of stuff on Amazon and limit my sales to UK only but that includes all the islands as I get the same for postage irrespective of the buyers location within the UK. Doesn't surprise me about the yanks though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostrider Posted October 14, 2008 Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 Just bought and received a DVD from an Amazon Markeplace seller, very fast delivery, no problems at all. I've bought a number of bits and pieces from both Amazon themsleves and Marketplace sellers over the years, and can't recall ever having any bother. Only ever bought from "UK" sellers though, but how/why some term themselves such though I don't know, as they actually ship from the continent. Amazon themselves can sometimes be a little on the slow side with dispatch, but their average time is okay as there will also be times they ship far quicker than expected too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustMe Posted October 14, 2008 Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 Waiting for a dvd from an Amazon Marketplace seller with a feedback rating of 0. Well I guess someone has to be the first customer and I can afford to lose the money. Had a problem with Amazon themselves when I wanted to buy something that should have qualified for free shipping yet added a shipping charge at checkout. The Amazon call centre (In India?) could not solve the problem so asked me to phone again in the morning but meanwhile I found something else to buy so never did get an answer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MaxFusion Posted October 14, 2008 Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 just ordered 3 books from Amazon with free supersaver delivery...we'll see how long it takes...normally I've recieved orders from them in the past within a week.... as for Market place sellers....I did have a fizz keeper on my list before I noticed how much shipping was!£2.49 for the item (which is probably less than 100g weight)£9.99 shipping.............Item canceled Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Twerto Posted October 14, 2008 Report Share Posted October 14, 2008 Nothing to do with Amzon. but I ordered my new Computer with http://www.cube247.com/ was dispatched yesterday morning using Interlink Express Couriers and it arrived this morning. very pleasantly surprised. I did laugh when the wife told me I would have it by 15:00 yesterday afternoon tho.. but all the same I wasn't really expecting to see it before tomorrow Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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