House of Tarot shipping

[gregory]

I bought a book from the Amazon market place the other day, it was selling for $0.01. I thought to myself, "how come they are selling books for only 1 cent?". Now I know why, they wanted $17 shipping.

It should be called 'fraud' I reckon, though I bought my book anyway. They don't know, but I would have paid $17 for the book and been very impressed if they only charged me 1c shipping

ACTUALLY - I have had this out with amazon a few times. The shipping you, as a marketplace seller, get to charge is standardised BY amazon. They can't - for instance - charge less than £2.95 - I think it is within the UK - £2 and quite a lot anyway - and the day I received a tiny paperback in which the seller had included a packet of postage stamps, I emailed him to say WTF ?

He said it had cost him 75 pence to mail and he couldn't in conscience charge the amazon flat fee. I said - but sometimes you send out a whacking great book - yes, he said - and I charge the same for that but this was just too much. Like you, Greg - I recently bought a recipe book for a penny - + £2 something postage - which worked out at about right, IMHO. Many sellers now do that - charge a penny when they know the postage they have to charge will cover what they would have charged for the book.... So I asked amazon. Who said the flat fee makes it easier for their sellers...... Hm.

 

[tarot heart]

House of Tarot Oracle Belline

Hi Luna and Jacqueline,

Thanks for your encouragement. I have never had trouble with HoT before either (except for the steep shipping costs, and they are steep). It's just that if you order an item on closeout, you should get the item you ordered and not something else. It's not fair business practice, heck, I don't even know if it legal, to advertise one thing and then sell another. If you ordered a Golden Tarot for $25.00 and got one that wasn't gilt edged, would or should you just accept it because it was a closeout? Then on top of it all to get no response whatsoever after waiting almost two weeks? I have always been a good customer of theirs. I have never voiced a complaint with them, so there's no reason for them not to respond.

I am not going to take the time and spend more money to gilt them myself. It's an issue I would expect HoT to handle as a good business practice. If they don't respond with something in the next day or two, I will NEVER shop there again.

Thanks for the kind words though, it's much appreciated.

Tarot heart

 

[tarot heart]

House of Tarot Oracle Belline

Hi Guys,

Oh, I forgot to mention that HoT states the Oracle Belline is made by Grimaud but the booklet says France Cartes. Does anyone know if this is the same company? Also, the cards I received look smaller that the ones I saw selling elsewhere on the web. HoT picture for the box shows a gold band across the top of the box. The box I received does not have this band. From what I understand the box is supposed to open like the Golden Tarot where the top part lifts off. My box opens like a gift box where the entire box top comes off. So this is definitely not the same item they are describing on the website.

Needless to say, I am profoundly pissed.

 

[Debra]

There are two different versions of the Belline Oracle. One is gilt-edged, and the other isn't.

You can see the Oracle descriptions at Somerville's site (search "belline"). http://www.playingcardsales.co.uk/cards/

Sounds like House of Tarot used the wrong description or sent the wrong deck.

You can dispute the payment with your credit card company, explaining that the item sent was not as described and seller failed to respond to inquiries. If HoT doesn't respond to the credit card company's inquiries, the payment will be reversed.

 

[Aerin]

ACTUALLY - I have had this out with amazon a few times. The shipping you, as a marketplace seller, get to charge is standardised BY amazon. They can't - for instance - charge less than £2.95 - I think it is within the UK - £2 and quite a lot anyway - and the day I received a tiny paperback in which the seller had included a packet of postage stamps, I emailed him to say WTF ?

He said it had cost him 75 pence to mail and he couldn't in conscience charge the amazon flat fee. I said - but sometimes you send out a whacking great book - yes, he said - and I charge the same for that but this was just too much. Like you, Greg - I recently bought a recipe book for a penny - + £2 something postage - which worked out at about right, IMHO. Many sellers now do that - charge a penny when they know the postage they have to charge will cover what they would have charged for the book.... So I asked amazon. Who said the flat fee makes it easier for their sellers...... Hm.

gregory is right. Basically you have to factor the standard postage costs in to your pricing strategy - for UK sellers to sell to the US is difficult as costs of airmail (and amazon insist on airmail) come to more than the postage allowance. amazon also take a fee off the postage costs so you get something like ~£2.20 of the £2.75 in the UK. There's also a closing fee ?86p plus a percentage of sale price if you aren't a volume seller so if you aren't careful you can lose money on a sale.

On balance though it does simplify things once you understand the system.

Regarding HoT, I was jealous that I couldn't get anything shipped overseas but now not so much.

Many sellers do postage as a flat fee no matter how heavy/ light things are. I really appreciate it when shipping costs reflect the shippping (amazon marketplace I know that sellers can't do anything so it doesn't bother me).

 

[gregory]

Not entirely. I have two versions from ages back; one gilded and one not, and they were priced accordingly and bought at the same time.

Then again I am very VERY old..... *grins teethlessly*

 

[Debra]

There are two different versions of the Belline Oracle. One is gilt-edged, and the other isn't.

You can see the Oracle descriptions at Somerville's site (search "belline"). http://www.playingcardsales.co.uk/cards/

Sounds like House of Tarot used the wrong description or sent the wrong deck.

As I said.
The difference in price between gilt edges and plain edges at the Somerville site is 11 British pounds (22.50 vs. 33.50).

 

[tarot heart]

House of Tarot Oracle Belline

Hi guys,

As far as I can tell the HoT has only one Oracle Belline in their closeout section. The original price is something like 49.95usd and that is scratched through and the closeout price is 24.95. I thought I was getting the gilt edged cards because that is what is in the description. I didn't know there are two versions of this card. I simply went by the description given by HoT.

I absolutely did not get what I ordered. I will file a dispute with the credit card company if I don't hear from them in the next two business days. Maybe their customer service staff is on vacation. But, they could still have a phone number listed on their website. None there.

Based on the service I have received (or lack, thereof) I will not do business with them again, and their shipping fees suck anyway.

 

[gregory]

As I said.
The difference in price between gilt edges and plain edges at the Somerville site is 11 British pounds (22.50 vs. 33.50).

EXACTLY ! Sorry - I lost your post before; I am very old and dim.... But I bought them FROM him when he still had his store in the UK and I could pick them up and stroke them .

 

[lunakasha]

I absolutely did not get what I ordered. I will file a dispute with the credit card company if I don't hear from them in the next two business days. Maybe their customer service staff is on vacation. But, they could still have a phone number listed on their website. None there.

Based on the service I have received (or lack, thereof) I will not do business with them again, and their shipping fees suck anyway.

I would do the exact same thing if this had happened to me.

It is unacceptable (IMO) for a business to not respond to customer emails, and apparently there is no other way to contact them.

Hopefully the credit card company will provide better service.

Luna