If any of you Australians want someone to drop ship you, email me
How do they know they can trust you?
Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
11–20 of 44 posts
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#12Earlier quoted context omitted.
This may become? Hasn't it always been like this for most commercial companies and sites? "Video not available in your country". "Google Nexus is not available for your country, check back soon". google.com -> google.ro (or whatever). I guess most Americans haven't noticed it because they haven't needed stuff from abroad...
I've occasionally run across European online retailers while looking to buy something online and sometimes the prices are even attractive before you see what the shipping costs. They've never flat out told me "You can't order from here because you're in the US." Cell phones and videos have service and licensing problems that physical goods don't run into, so geographic limits on those is less surprising.
> Cell phones and videos have service and licensing problems that physical goods don't run into, so geographic limits on those is less surprising.
My personal favorite is when there is geo-restricted licensing on some content, and the content isn't available in my region so I effectively can't buy something even though I want to. That I frequently have to find an obscure media seller in a foreign country, without enforced geo-restrictions to pay is asinine.
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#13At least they clearly know. Compare to frustrations with shipping from US to Europe where you'll never know till checkout whether delivery is possible or not.
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#14"Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise." -- Donald Horne
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#15At least they clearly know. Compare to frustrations with shipping from US to Europe where you'll never know till checkout whether delivery is possible or not.
cries in swiss
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#16The move is a response to a new GST policy that will apply 10% tax to all overseas purchases under $1,000 announced by the Turnbull government last year in a bid to “level the playing field” between Australian and overseas retailers.
Not so much "new" but "now enforced to all the things"
Already happened with Valve. Buying from the store has 10% in the price, but not all prices changed.
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#17"Australia is a lucky country run mainly by second rate people who share its luck. It lives on other people's ideas, and, although its ordinary people are adaptable, most of its leaders (in all fields) so lack curiosity about the events that surround them that they are often taken by surprise." -- Donald Horne
(1964)
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#18It saddens me a bit that this may become the new norm for the internet.
What part of companies complying with local tax law saddens you?
If Amazon, or anyone else for that matter, wants access to the Australian market then they need to abide by the tax regulations as dictated by Australia. If it's the tax itself that considered off putting, that's up to Australians to decide (i.e. local protectionism / profit capture v.s. lower prices and higher global imports).
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#19It saddens me a bit that this may become the new norm for the internet.
What part of companies complying with local tax law saddens you? If Amazon, or anyone else for that matter, wants access to the Australian market then they need to abide by the tax regulations as dictated by Australia. If it's the tax itself that considered off putting, that's up to Australians to decide (i.e. local protectionism / profit capture v.s. lower prices and higher global imports).
I grew up in Canada and in the 70's and 80's when I ordered something from the US or elsewhere, it would be shipped to me and I would get a notice in the mail that a package was waiting for me along with the amount of taxes that I owed. That's a nice way to handle it because I could order from anywhere in the world and every small vendor across the planet didn't need to understand Canadian tax codes. I suspect if all those companies had to collect and remit taxes to the Canadian government, they would have just refused to ship there. That's the part that would sadden me.
Re: Australians will no longer be able to order from Amazon’s American site
#20Earlier quoted context omitted.
This may become? Hasn't it always been like this for most commercial companies and sites? "Video not available in your country". "Google Nexus is not available for your country, check back soon". google.com -> google.ro (or whatever). I guess most Americans haven't noticed it because they haven't needed stuff from abroad...
Yes :(. $59.50 (£44.75) for Levi.com Jeans in US £85.50 from the "Levi.com UK" branded store. In the early days, when we had double the exchange on the dollar, I used to buy everything from the US, and the shipping prices were pennies. It used to be exciting to have different markets to browse.
In 2002 a novel came out in the UK. I priced on amazon.com and it was only available at ca. $100 from people who had probably read it on the plane back from UK. I priced it at amazon.co.uk and bought it. It was about $60 or $70 on my doorstep. Not a great price, because it was probably much less when it got expurgated and published in the US. But much less than $100.