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Amazon.uk Buying Woes


BigMouth
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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 I didn't need t to be new as it was an outdated reference book, but it would still serve a useful purpose for me.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?

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!!!

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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.

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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.

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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 ;)

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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

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