Amazon.com Shipping
A few years ago, I finally and irrevocably switched to reading technical literature exclusively in English. This is a fairly common approach in IT’s circles, so in this post I would like to talk not about the reasons (which in general lie on the surface), but about the consequence of this decision. Not about the consequences, but about the investigation - about how I became a regular customer of Amazon.
It's no secret that Amazon is the largest online store (including a bookstore, because they started from that). It presents a wide selection of books on various subjects at very affordable prices. However, as in any (almost any) online store, shipping costs are added to the cost of the product itself.
For a long time when placing an order, one of the steps was to choose the type of delivery:
However, once in the preparation of the next order (June 2008), to my surprise, I did not find a step in choosing the type of delivery. By default, the system selected Priority International Courier, and I could not find any controls to change this value. Having written to the support service (there were suspicions that this was just a mistake), I received the following response:
On the one hand, I understood that it was not very pleasant for them to work with our mail (cheaper options were delivered using regular Russian mail), on the other hand, I had already managed to use Standard International Shipping and Expedited International Shipping - and no problems I didn’t find it: I received orders exactly on time.
After that, I ordered books many times on Amazon - and each time I watched the same picture: delivery is comparable in cost to a book (or even more than one and a half times). But they don’t save on their favorite business (mostly I order books on programming), and moreover, books are often needed for work, so I had to put up with it.
The other day, Amazon delighted me with the news that an Entity Framework book was finally sent to which I did a preorder. For the sake of curiosity, I went into the statistics of my bank account - and saw a figure of 2537 rubles. Too much, I thought, recalling that the bill was $ 70. It was then that I felt (albeit on a micro scale) the global crisis and the devaluation of the ruble: the dollar is no longer 24, but 36 (yes, it only dawned on me :)).
Why am I all this? More than six months have passed, but the situation has not changed. Every day, more and more rubles are being given for a buck, so less and less I want to give DHL, Fedex or UPS 36 $ of honestly earned dollars for delivery. Who has any opinion on this? Maybe someone found a solution to this problem? Maybe there are alternative bookstores with a wide selection and at the same time a more pleasant cost of delivery to Russia?
PS When I received a response from the support, I had no idea that by Russia they mean Moscow. Now I entered a random Moscow address and saw exactly the same sad picture. In my opinion, a strange decision is to “throw” Moscow in this way, because, firstly, it is a huge army of customers, and, secondly, there should be no problems with delivery to Moscow.
Update1
As notedhimmel , most technical books are available electronically. Indeed, with the advent of my ebook reader, I am less and less willing to buy paper books. However, firstly, I would like to have some books in printed form, and secondly, Amazon has not been limited to books for a long time, and whatever you order, you will have to face the above delivery restrictions.
Update2
MikhailEdoshin advised the store betterworld.com . I looked at their assortment, read reviews (by the way, it turns out that there was already an article on Habré about this store). I really liked it. Perhaps the next book will be ordered there already.
For comparison, take the book that I ordered last (which was officially released only on February 12, but is already available in both stores) - “Programming Entity Framework”, authored by Julie Lerman. Price: on Amazon - $ 34.64, on BetterWorld - $ 37.98 Delivery: on Amazon - see above, on BetterWorld: International - $ 3.97, International Priority $ 11.97. The difference is more than significant.
Update3
Another alternative proposed by the mishka man is not to use the American Amazon, but regional offices like amazon.co.uk or amazon.de: they are doing better with delivery to Russia.
By the way, in addition to savings on delivery, you can save on the difference in rates. Take the same book on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk:
1. Amazon.com: $ 34.64 * 34.8 = 1205 rubles
2. Amazon.co.uk: 18.19 £ * 49.6 = 902 rubles
A very interesting, in my opinion, result. Previously, they gave about two dollars per pound, but during the crisis this ratio has changed significantly.
Update4
In addition to betterworld.com, the following stores exist: www.pragprog.com , Abebooks.com, Barnesnoble.com, Tower.com. Moreover, it’s worth not comparing the cost of books in these stores, but the total cost of books and delivery (somewhere cheaper than books, somewhere delivery ...).
Also do not forget about ebay.com.
And there is a wonderful resource bookfinder.com, which not only gives the price of a book in different stores, but also translates it into rubles (which is very convenient, since dollars are not always used). Although not all stores are indexed here, so the rest will have to be analyzed manually.
It's no secret that Amazon is the largest online store (including a bookstore, because they started from that). It presents a wide selection of books on various subjects at very affordable prices. However, as in any (almost any) online store, shipping costs are added to the cost of the product itself.
For a long time when placing an order, one of the steps was to choose the type of delivery:
- Standard International Shipping (~ $ 8)
- Expedited International Shipping (~ 13 $)
- Priority International Courier (~ 36 $)
However, once in the preparation of the next order (June 2008), to my surprise, I did not find a step in choosing the type of delivery. By default, the system selected Priority International Courier, and I could not find any controls to change this value. Having written to the support service (there were suspicions that this was just a mistake), I received the following response:
Hello from Amazon.com.
I truly understand your concern and sincerely apologize for any frustration this may have caused to you.
We have recently changed the shipping options offered on our website for orders being shipped to some international destinations.
Because packages shipped there by non-trackable methods frequently did not arrive in a reasonable time-frame, we now offer only Priority International Shipping to Russia. That was the reason your were unable to change the shipping method for the order.
Currently all the orders that are shipped to Russia is only via "Priority International shipping method".
We realize that this method can be expensive and apologize for this inconvenience. However, we felt it was in the best interest of our international customers to ensure that the items they ordered reached them safely and on time.
Please know that Amazon cares about its international customers and is working on ways to improve your service and selection.
Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com.
On the one hand, I understood that it was not very pleasant for them to work with our mail (cheaper options were delivered using regular Russian mail), on the other hand, I had already managed to use Standard International Shipping and Expedited International Shipping - and no problems I didn’t find it: I received orders exactly on time.
After that, I ordered books many times on Amazon - and each time I watched the same picture: delivery is comparable in cost to a book (or even more than one and a half times). But they don’t save on their favorite business (mostly I order books on programming), and moreover, books are often needed for work, so I had to put up with it.
The other day, Amazon delighted me with the news that an Entity Framework book was finally sent to which I did a preorder. For the sake of curiosity, I went into the statistics of my bank account - and saw a figure of 2537 rubles. Too much, I thought, recalling that the bill was $ 70. It was then that I felt (albeit on a micro scale) the global crisis and the devaluation of the ruble: the dollar is no longer 24, but 36 (yes, it only dawned on me :)).
Why am I all this? More than six months have passed, but the situation has not changed. Every day, more and more rubles are being given for a buck, so less and less I want to give DHL, Fedex or UPS 36 $ of honestly earned dollars for delivery. Who has any opinion on this? Maybe someone found a solution to this problem? Maybe there are alternative bookstores with a wide selection and at the same time a more pleasant cost of delivery to Russia?
PS When I received a response from the support, I had no idea that by Russia they mean Moscow. Now I entered a random Moscow address and saw exactly the same sad picture. In my opinion, a strange decision is to “throw” Moscow in this way, because, firstly, it is a huge army of customers, and, secondly, there should be no problems with delivery to Moscow.
Update1
As notedhimmel , most technical books are available electronically. Indeed, with the advent of my ebook reader, I am less and less willing to buy paper books. However, firstly, I would like to have some books in printed form, and secondly, Amazon has not been limited to books for a long time, and whatever you order, you will have to face the above delivery restrictions.
Update2
MikhailEdoshin advised the store betterworld.com . I looked at their assortment, read reviews (by the way, it turns out that there was already an article on Habré about this store). I really liked it. Perhaps the next book will be ordered there already.
For comparison, take the book that I ordered last (which was officially released only on February 12, but is already available in both stores) - “Programming Entity Framework”, authored by Julie Lerman. Price: on Amazon - $ 34.64, on BetterWorld - $ 37.98 Delivery: on Amazon - see above, on BetterWorld: International - $ 3.97, International Priority $ 11.97. The difference is more than significant.
Update3
Another alternative proposed by the mishka man is not to use the American Amazon, but regional offices like amazon.co.uk or amazon.de: they are doing better with delivery to Russia.
By the way, in addition to savings on delivery, you can save on the difference in rates. Take the same book on amazon.com and amazon.co.uk:
1. Amazon.com: $ 34.64 * 34.8 = 1205 rubles
2. Amazon.co.uk: 18.19 £ * 49.6 = 902 rubles
A very interesting, in my opinion, result. Previously, they gave about two dollars per pound, but during the crisis this ratio has changed significantly.
Update4
In addition to betterworld.com, the following stores exist: www.pragprog.com , Abebooks.com, Barnesnoble.com, Tower.com. Moreover, it’s worth not comparing the cost of books in these stores, but the total cost of books and delivery (somewhere cheaper than books, somewhere delivery ...).
Also do not forget about ebay.com.
And there is a wonderful resource bookfinder.com, which not only gives the price of a book in different stores, but also translates it into rubles (which is very convenient, since dollars are not always used). Although not all stores are indexed here, so the rest will have to be analyzed manually.