Alan2005

I'm a regular user of amazon, and order from all three places (ca, com, uk). For popular well known stuff amazon.ca is perfectly fine and mostly comparably priced. I'm not fussed about a few $$ extra either way as that's more likely the exchange rate moving than any country getting a better deal. Your kindle example is a good example of this.

Where amazon.ca falls down is on some less well know things - it either doesn't exist, or if it does is a lot more expensive. As I said up thread, this isn't necessarily amazons fault (distribution rights vary from region to region and format to format), but it's very annoying when you see something on amazon.com that isn't on amazon.ca for whatever reason and the words "we do not ship to your default location". I get this with maybe 1 in 5 times I try to buy something.

Alan2005

Anyway, here is a good example of what people are complaining about. I bought this a couple of weeks ago, have a guess which amazon site I used.

Amazon.ca
http://www.amazon.ca/Forwards-Egg/dp...9741500&sr=1-4

Amazon.com
http://www.amazon.com/Forwards-The-E...e+egg+forwards

Former Lancastrian

You used the Amazon.UK one obviously. Those 2 are merely placed as a red herring.

Alan2005

It's 8 quid on amazon.co.uk. I'd have got it quicker than from amazon.ca, but with shipping it would cost more.

Shard

Big price differential! Amazon UK is £8. Never heard of the group.

Jimbo2012

It's just human nature to compare and you are right, it is a crock of shit!

BristolUK

Yep, irritating that one.

Inclusive of delivery £13.64 on Canada and £10.49 on USA. £3 less. An easy choice.

But did you notice that on the Canada site, it was available on the Marketplace (New, not used) it was £5.87 inclusive of delivery but £8.25 on the USA version?

I can see a reluctance to by used items - depending what it is - but the Marketplace option does include new items.

As with other things, quite often the US marketplace site has them for less but the mailing costs via the Canada site are quite a bit less even when the item is coming from the same US supplier!!

Sometimes the cheapest price on the US or UK marketplace won't deliver to Canada (it has to say international shipping) whereas anything on market place Canada will deliver to Canada and at a Canada rate regardless of where it gets sent from.

Oink

The site has definitely got better but the selection is still shite though.

Alan2005

It was the 2-4 week delivery that made me look at amazon.com. The .ca price (for a CD) isn't that unreasonable and I would have paid it.

I have used the marketplace, but prices can be crazily variable. I also like dealing with amazon directly, and don't mind pay a bit of a premium to do so. I'll use the marketplace if it's the only option.

Yeah - it's also common problem with items where amazon is just the storefront rather than the seller. I want a moko cover for my tablet, but they won't ship to Canada

Steve_

Yeah with Amazon, but you don't have to use Amazon. There are huge numbers of people with PO boxes just on the other side of the border who get stuff sent from company X to their PO box and then they go down to fetch it, to avoid the "customs brokerage fees".

Like I said, the trick I've found is simply to buy from companies that are GST registered in Canada, that does seem to work out cheaper than buying the same item in Canada without all the various hassle. Problem is that not many companies in the US are GST registered, but a few are.

Amazon has decided the best business model to follow is to have warehouses in every State so they can offer same day delivery, so they're willing to start charging sales tax because they have to if they're based there.

Anyway anyone who claims to "still be British" or whatever and is arguing over saving a few dollars by buying from so and so is I'm afraid really a true Canadian.

This is the true Canadian national pastime, anyone who doubts it has never been to a land border POE or a post office.

Hawk13

Not that I condone such things but you could have gotten it for free at

http://kat.ph/usearch/the%20egg%20forwards/

or

http://thepiratebay.se/search/the%20...orwards/0/99/0

cjones

That's brilliant!...I don't know why I didn't think of that today when I was looking on Amazon for a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM lens. Do you know of any sites where I could download one of them for free?

Thanks in advance.

Gezza

I am not having this!!!! Its more like

Zellers = Peacocks c.1988?
The Bay = C&A c.1996
Leon's = DFS c.1992[/QUOTE]


Oh yeah, and the jewelery shops stock Portobello Road Market quality

Look on the bright side though, you can ski most places,and drive a car a bit bigger than a Fiesta.

Alan2005

This is so true. Only Canadians look at the prices of things and try to find the best deal. Those price comparison websites in the UK don't get many hits at all, and those are probably just from Canadian tourists.

Hawk13

Wouldn't bother - Pentax is a better camera