Amazon, a necessary evil?

I use fakespot through a chrome extension and it works very well - have a look:

Very easy to check all european amazon sites for a specific product using its ASIN number which you can find in the product description:
https://www.hagglezon.com/

I always, always do this.

The other thing to be aware of is the managed “price odyssey” for many products sold by Amazon. If you watch the evolution of an item or it’s variants’ price over a period, often 2 or 3 months, can be a longer cycle, you will be able to catch the price at or very near when it comes back to its lowest point for that country’s Amazon site. .uk and .de do a lot of this. camelcamelcamel is fairly accurate as to what sort of price might come back.

Many items on .fr are as much as 2 or 3x other countries. I’d prefer to buy from France but at these differences just not possible.

If you keep in with your friends at the fishnet tights, short skirt and feather boa shop near you, usually you can have orders delivered for free if you use this option as whatever minimum order they’re operating for ship to your door is not applied if you go pick up.

If you’ve been a longstanding customer has your OH joined? This can lead to fresh new opportunities- he should do an order at least 1x in first year.

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Not in my experience but you need to check very carefully that you’re buying from Amazon and not a 3rd party supplier. Amazon will take an estimated amount for customs charges and, if the actual charge is less they’ll refund the difference, if it’s more then there’s no extra charge.
I bought a camera lens from Amazon UK and the estimated customs fee was in 3 figures. Oddly, about a month later, the whole fee was refunded so I assume that it slipped through customs.

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I never, ever now buy at all if it isn’t delivered by Amazon and will also always choose something sold by them over a marketplace seller. Had my fingers badly burned once in sending a faulty computer back to Madrid. €40 down the drain. :slightly_frowning_face:

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I’m with @David_Spardo on this. I always buy from Amazon as the seller, not 3rd party.

I’m fairly sure that Amazon charges up front to cover duties and such for an international order. Not so hard for them to calculate given that they have the origin address, the item value and the delivery. I shall wait to see how things transpire. :sweat_smile:

It’s not a major purchase but I’m thinking that @KarenLot may be right about the price odyssey business. Exact same ASIN in both country sites but I’m assuming is probably currently lodged in a UK Amazon warehouse because it was made in UK. So much to learn!..

Well Amazon have to pay some tax, so why not let the customer do it? :joy:

They seem to be pretty good at avoiding that bit though.

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Good news! Delivered via La Poste Colissimo into the post box with nary a whisper. Jolly speedy too.

This is one to note for members - Delivery and any import taxes Amazon charges which you pay up front at check out. Goods arrive as usual.

Thing is, check for an item you want to buy on Amazon.fr, Amazon.de and Amazon.co.uk. As long as it is supplied by Amazon itself, there should be no surprises. I have also tried Amazon.dk once and found it also excellent.

Often, it’s not really just about price, but finding the needle you want in a global haystack. :smile:

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My Samsung TV died last night (completely dead, won’t switch on, just winks its little red light at me), so I’ve ordered a new 42" LG C3 OLED TV from Amazon - £120 cheaper than Currys, Richer Sounds, John Lewis etc. and it will arrive tomorrow (bought from Amazon themselves not a Marketplace seller).

I do try to buy from other sources but Amazon does tend to win most of the time.

Am annoyed with Samsung though - OK it was a budget TV not OLED but it was only three and a half years old and had been fed and watered regularly so I expect better longevity than that. Not worth going through the hoops of getting it repaired out of warranty though.

Oh yes, the blinking light of Doom! Know it well. The little component in side (mosfets) pack in. Repaired mine twice but soldering components the size of a match head with 6 leads coming out of them is stretching my abilities these days.

I have a Sammy monitor (20" LCD, cost about £350 at the time) that failed just outside of warranty. In my case it was a couple of capacitors in the power supply, and after a quick google I replaced them myself. It’s still working fine, about 15 years later.

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I do possess a soldering iron and know how it works, :smiley: but have zero inclination to start doing TV set diagnostics!

To be fair it was the most budgety of budget 4K sets so in some ways I’m not surprised it’s gone phut. Its laggy on-screen menu system was starting to annoy me as well to be honest, so although I wasn’t really looking to spend the thick end of £900 right now I think I will enjoy the upgrade…

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As was once said on one of my favourite films ‘when I’m wrong I say I’m wrong’.

I have only ever bought two Samsung products, both around twenty years ago. The first, a top of the range Samsung American style fridge, it blew up after four or five years. It’s Bosche replacement is still going strong. The second, a top of the range laptop, developed a crack near one of the hinges despite having been barely used. I will never buy a Samsung product again, I characterise them as having loads of features, none of which work :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

I don’t think you were wrong just warning caution.

It is really good news for us all. I never noticed the prices could be so different but I shall from now on spend much more time researching before buying! :grinning:

On present evidence I am inclined to agree with you.

Yes I have a Bosch lawnmower chainsaw and garden shredder which are all excellent.

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Amazon.se can be surprisingly good on availability and pricing. I started noticing this when I tried out Hagglezon a few times.

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Also from data when I worked in the Phones-specifying and Phones-buying department of a major UK mobile network, Samsung’s figures for electrical emissions by the phone to your head and body were found on quite a few models to be ‘unreliable’, as compared to when the phones were tested. And the variations in emissions between different units of the same model phone could often be wildly different.

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shiny but shoddy :slightly_smiling_face: