Lo Scarabeo and Amazon Xtra Charges!!!!!

Thread originally posted on the Aeclectic Tarot Forum on 08 Aug 2003, and now archived in the Forum Library.

Aerin	08 Aug 2003
Amazon.co.uk are now charging an extra £1.99 on top of Lo Scarabeo deck prices e.g. Mermaids Tarot, Crystal Tarots. They claim it is because these are 'hard to find items' What the?????????? Lo Scarabeo are in continental Europe. Amazon.co.uk is allegedly a UK site. Where's the problem? Has someone had a row with someone else, or what? *off to Alida* Aerin

Wildwood	08 Aug 2003
I've noticed this as well on Amazon.co.uk, in connection to Capall Bann publications (a leading UK pagan publisher)...there must be more to this than meets the eye...wonder if all "small" publishers are being treated in the same way? Wildwood

baba-prague	08 Aug 2003
It probably isn't to do with the size of the publisher, but with the method they choose to supply to Amazon. This may be a bit boring and technical but basically you can 1. have your book "listed" on Amazon, in which case they put "4-6 weeks delivery" and only order the book from the publisher when they (Amazon) get in an order. OR 2. Supply some books to Amazon up-front, in which case they keep them in their warehouse, put up "ships in 1-2 days" (or even 24 hours) and just re-order from the publisher when they run out. So - you are wondering why on earth anyone would choose "1"? Well, this way Amazon take much less of a cut on the cost of the book. If you supply by the second method they take a pretty large discount (larger than most distributors). All this is public knowledge and on Amazon's website - so I'm not giving away any publisher's secrets - just summarising. When a publisher chooses method "1" they make a little more money from selling the book (not a lot - hardly anyone gets rich from publishing!) but from Amazon's point of view you could argue that it does take more effort (and generate less profit) when books have to be sourced this way. So when Amazon say it is "more difficult to source" they don't mean that the book is rare (though they may give that impression) they really mean that for Amazon there is more effort involved. Whether that really justifies a 1,99 plus VAT handling charge I don't know. For info - we use method "2" to supply Tarot of Prague to Amazon, so it ships fast from the UK. On the other hand it more or less wipes out any profit we can make, so it was a difficult decision. I can well understand other publishers deciding not to do this.

Aerin	08 Aug 2003
Thanks for that Karen, useful info. Thing is, I have ordered plenty of stuff from Amazon on a 4-6 week delivery in the past and have never been stung for £1.99 (including a Lo Scarabeo deck). I shall have to keep an eye on this. Seems to me they may be attempting to claw back some of the delievery charges they are losing hrough the 'free if delivery is over £25' thing. It just seems dishonest to me. Stupid thing is if they had simply added the £1.99 on I would not be feeling so grumpy. Aerin

oceanpoetry	08 Aug 2003
Aerin, I am sure it is a 'business decision' from Amazon because it costs them extra to provide delivery on those specialty items. Caveat emptor. I love Amazon, because I can find great deals, 30% discounts on most orders and free shipping. If you're not happy about the surcharge, shop around.

Aerin	08 Aug 2003
Quote: Originally posted by oceanpoetry Aerin, I am sure it is a 'business decision' from Amazon because it costs them extra to provide delivery on those specialty items. Caveat emptor. I love Amazon, because I can find great deals, 30% discounts on most orders and free shipping. If you're not happy about the surcharge, shop around. I am shopping around. I do in any case. This seems to be new charging policy, and not one that was announced beforehand. I have had the Mermaids on my wish list for a while and one day the charge wasn't there and the next day it was - I could have missed it, but I haven't seen it on anything before (and I have spent huge sums at Amazon). Probably naively, I expect businesses to actually announce business decisions before they make changes so that everything is transparent. For me, it felt like a brand new way of charging snuck in under the wire: that's why I was grumpy about it. If I'd been on their management team I would have put up a very strong argument for putting an announcement up where it can be seen. I didn't even notice the charge until I came to the checkout. The thing that really made me see red though is that the wording is very misleading: Quote: This hard-to-find title is subject to an additional handling charge of £1.99 per item (excluding VAT). I don't expect to find a big business like Amazon using misleading wording. Caveat emptor should not mean 'so it is ok for big corporations to fib'. A more acceptable and truthful wording would be 'We have to order this item specially from the publisher. A charge of £1.99 per item (excluding VAT) is therefore levied.' I wouldn't have minded that: it would have been a case of 'oh, OK: I'll look at Alida' as against 'you what? It isn't hard to find, that isn't true'. It sounds like 'this is a really special thing you are unlikely to be able to find' which is not the case. Kind of an e-bay spin. I thought that Aeclecticians ought to know, in case anyone sees this message on an item and assumes it will be hard to get. When this isn't the case. Aerin

The Lo Scarabeo and Amazon Xtra Charges!!!!! thread was originally posted on 08 Aug 2003 in the Talking Tarot board, and is now archived in the Forum Library. Read the active threads in Talking Tarot, or read more archived threads.