Does anyone else think that Amazon Prime’s free international shipping is a complete con. They sign you up with an expectation that anything shipping internationally from amazon.com will be covered but in reality only a small proportion of items are available to ship to Australia (even though they will ship these into any other country).
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No - I think Amazon as a whole is a complete con, their shipping is just part of the con 
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I have used them a bit since signing up to Prime (mostly for the e-Reading and streaming video). I am careful to ensure what I buy there is Prime entitled and meets the requirements for “free shipping” and even with the free shipping that it is the best deal I can find. Sometimes I have done far better elsewhere but many times the Amazon savings are much better than elsewhere. Of course what you are buying will determine what “mileage” you may get out of the service. They also seem to be stocking more items here now and the Prime service to get the free shipping in these cases requires far less in the value of the purchases than the international terms do.
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I am just really disappointed to see how rubbish Amazon Prime is in Australia compared to the UK. I moved here from the UK in January and was really happy that Amazon were setting up shop. I was a long time Prime customer in the UK and spent a fortune with them. Over here they delayed Prime forever then used its launch and the government’s (long overdue IMHO) imposition of VAT on imports as an excuse to stop most sales from Amazon.com. The result is that we still have a situation where Australians are being overcharged for everyday consumer goods. They pretend that Prime includes “FREE International Standard Delivery on millions of eligible items shipped from Amazon US with international orders over $49” but I have not found any of the products that I want to but to be ‘eligible’ even though they will ship to any country other than Australia (with the exception maybe of Tehran, Syria and North Korea)!
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Let this be a belated ‘welcome to Australia’ then. It is typical of what we endure day to day in the marketplace. Your ‘Australia experience’ will probably one day be enhanced when you want a product common everywhere else in the western world for $30 xrate adjusted, that is unavailable locally.
Now you can bring it in for only $650 courtesy of the Gerry Harvey tax regime supported by government where a dollar in a pocket transcends all other considerations including in many cases, basic common sense. Long overdue? Only last year I could bring in such goods for an additional few $10’s of dollars shipping and even adding GST would have only doubled the price.
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The reason I think gst on imports is important is because a lack of gst puts Australian retailers at a disadvantage and is a barrier to developing home grown Australian based ecommerce. Ultimately that has got to be better for consumers
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If it only was 10% and a bit for profit increase on prices I think many Australians would still buy here due to the easier replacement/refund if needed than trying to get it out of a foreign entity that may not even exist tomorrow.
When the goods can be bought from any normal retail store in the US (but still made in China, India, Korea, Taiwan and so on) for half the price we will pay here, shipped here and still be at least a third cheaper then it is not about GST/VAT it is about gouging. To even further insult us they want to add further tax on our overseas buying by charging a further fee on top of the GST, this further tax only applies to everyday shoppers, and not the businesses who import to sell here. Fair, level playing field, value for money etc I don’t think so.
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It appears that they are also applying GST to foreign sales taxes that are paid as well as on any foreign internal-domestic shipping, eg one US state to another US state (the transshipment point). Seems a bit odd, to be polite. I suspect it is not just about GST, but targeted consumer abuse to suit the Gerry Harvey’s of our world by making overseas purchases as expensive, noncompetitive, and difficult as they can.
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Signed up for a free trial of Prime but cancelled within a few days after discovering that Amazon Australia had NOTHING that I wanted to buy. I have no such issue with UK and USA Amazon as they stock lots more products than Aus but they won’t ship to us. I now don’t bother searching for anything on Amazon Aus.
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Might it be simpler to save up the list, and look for a return flight special, perhaps via Singapore or Hong Kong with a foreign owned carrier.
While away you can be your own dojo, have a relax, box it all up and ship it back or put a few items in that new carry bag, and generally spend some time meditating over why it is so plentiful and cheap where you are visiting.
The only grumble might be the fees on your FEX?
It would make an interesting Choice review to have a team of members test this out for real. It would clearly need the careful supervision of the scientific and analytical methods by several Choice Staff who no doubt will need to be persuaded to join such as risky and perilous expedition.
Perhaps in this one instance Choice could seek a sponsor. Maybe Gerr…? Or maybe not?
Why not pick more than one team and send each to different destinations for a genuine comparison?
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