Amazon UK keeps faith with Post Office
ONLINE shoppers worried that Amazon’s ban on delivering items to SA will dry up their supply of books and DVDs can switch to ordering from the UK instead.
The fearless British Amazons are willing to go where the Americans dare not tread and will still post items to SA.
“We can confirm that Amazon.co.uk will continue to dispatch books, music CDs, DVDs and videos to SA,” the company said.
Amazon.com caused a furore last week when it imposed a ban on posting items to SA because of postal theft. Shoppers still wanting to order from its website must now pay for a private courier service, adding more than R400 to the cost of a delivery.
“The news regarding Amazon delivery restrictions to SA is applicable for the orders placed with our partner site, Amazon.com,” the UK site said. The UK website will continue to offer airmail deliveries to SA, with prices starting at £2,09 per order plus £1,49 per item.
Amazon also runs independent websites in Germany, France, Japan and China, which each have different delivery restrictions on items sent to different destinations.
Amazon.com is not the only online trader to boycott SA’s postal service because of theft.
Bespoke tailor Charles Tyrwhitt of Jermyn Street in London also refuses to deliver to SA unless clients pay for a courier service. Customer David Frank lost three shirts when his order disappeared after he persuaded the company to put his parcel in the post, despite its reluctance to do so.
“A friend referred me to the site and he uses a courier at an absurd price. I thought it really wasn’t necessary, but it obviously was,” Frank said. “They told me they don’t send parcels to SA because they’ve had numerous problems with theft, but I convinced them to send it. They used international signed-for mail, but it didn’t help.”
When Frank realised the parcel worth R2000 was missing, the tailor’s customer services representative Diana Osepyan e-mailed him to say: “As I advised previously, our company has experienced problems with delivering to SA. Therefore, we always advise customers from this country to use courier services. In cases when orders are lost in post, we usually send a replacement. However, with SA we are not sure if the replacement will reach you either.”
Local websites quickly offered to fill the gap left by Amazon.com’s withdrawal.
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