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Jaw dropping prices but where else to go?


Chancer
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My pal wanted me to find a planer thicknesser in England for him as they are twice the price here, I found a good value Triton one on Amazon.co.uk for £280 which is a very good deal however I found it significantly cheaper on Amazon.fr so he ordered it.

It was supplied and despatched from the UK, carriage free despite it weighing 40kg.

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There seems to be no rhyme nor reason to it. Tyres seem to have evened up on both sides of the water, and then I ordered a few bits and bobs a while back, automatically went to UK sites for them but once they had arrived I found I could have had them cheaper here.

I was quite disappointed with screwfix direct after they were talked up in a different thread - cheaper than France, but not by a huge margin.
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  • 4 months later...
Today I bought a brand new radiator for a 15 year old Fiat Punto on UK flea-bay for £27 including 2-day delivery to UK address.

I think that lots of aftermarket car stuff is being made in India now and keen UK guys with Indian roots (judging by the seller's name) are importing the stuff.

Probably over 100 euros in a French scrap yard....

Steve
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I looked online for a cooker hood recently.  Over 900 euros in France, in UK 300 quid.

Paid some small amount, just over a tenner, to have it delivered to a "man and van" type outfit (used them before) and the man brought it to my door here in France for 70 quid.  In fact the transporter wasn't there to receive delivery but he contacted the seller and picked the hood up from their depot.

I paid him 100 euros and, as I was out, OH went to the boulangerie and bought them some pastries and gave them a coffee and filled up their thermos and they went away, happy as Larry.

It was still a HUGE saving for me.

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  • 6 months later...
I have just come across a classic case of jaw dropping prices; and the obvious answer in this case is go to Britain. ( which we are next week anyway)

 

The Grill element on our built in oven is slowly failing, so into local electric dealer who send a man round, call out charge of 68 Euro, I'm quite happy with that. The guy confirms that only the element needs replacing and this morning they phone up with the Quotation, 198 Euro's for element and labour, remember we've already paid 68 Euro for call out., we query why the price is so high and the answer given is because the oven is a Siemens.

 A Quick look on YouTube has a video showing how to do the replacement in 5 minutes, it's actually very simple. Quick "Google", new element correct part number etc. £39. I Ordered the element, and will pick it up next week while in the UK, so I will fit it when we come back. I'm quite happy to spend locally, but this price was a p*** take.

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  • 1 year later...

I started this thread and just had a trip down memory lane reading it, ALBF wanted to know what ex-pats used to talk about on forums, this thread at least the early years shows the economic and competitive comparison between FR and UK during la crise.

 

Todays jaw dropping price:

 

I installed a proper commercial fire alarm system, not obliged but for peace of mind, an optical smoke detector head has gone tits up, available in France, €88 + €29 delivery [:-))] its small enough to fit in the palm of your hand.

 

Made an offer for 3 on eBay.uk (brand new) got them for £24 total for the 3 plus £8.50 delivery to France and that was with the rip off EBay global shafting (sorry, shipping) program where the seller sends it to Pitney Bowes who add loads of handling charges and taxes and then pay another company to deliver it to France.

 

ALBF, have a read of the thread, you will enjoy it, there is even horsefoodmiles contained within, you will be able to harvest loads of material to intensify your pre-concieved notions.

 

Looking back it does seem that in many areas France has made big changes and is less of a rip off, the exchange rate now is the same as one expressed in one posting.

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I got to page 5 Chancer and lost the will to live. LOL.

MInty was around in 2009 !!!!! Bless her little heart.

I see people were complaining about the price of CD-R's.....are they not obsolete now ?? That was was really funny.

Horse feed was good. Like horses in France are starving to death.

So where have all the other contributors to this thread gone with their loverly avatars ???

Facebook, moved back, starved to death ??? Gone backrupt.......I guess.

Being not a tight arsé am trying to think what I have bought from the UK since 1996. hmm. .....???

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Well, have just bought 5 boxes of "calming tablets" for our dog who has dementia and is receiving palliative care that OH and I are providing.

Cost on Amazon France only a couple of weeks ago was 25 euros (6 euros 25 each packet) for 4 packets and no delivery charge.  Looked 2 nights ago and the cost had gone up to 9.99 euros a packet!!!

So, Amazon UK it was to buy 5 packets for 20 quid, delivery charges inclusive.

The thing is you really do need to look around.  I think it was nomoss who posted a site to compare prices on Amazon UK, France, Germany and Italy but I have lost the note I made about it!

There really seems no reason at all for massive changes in prices over a matter of days.  Other thing is, I have bought other pills for dog and it's no problem one day having them sent over from the UK and another day it's cannot deliver these to France.

Someone somewhere is having us on and ripping us off but they are slippery customers.

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No, not moved back, starved to death or gone bankrupt! Just get regularly logged out, and for whatever reason it's the devil's own job to get back in! Probably because the email I registered with is different to the one I use now! First time I've been able to log in in three years!!
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Mint wrote:

There really seems no reason at all for massive changes in prices over a matter of days.  Other thing is, I have bought other pills for dog and it's no problem one day having them sent over from the UK and another day it's cannot deliver these to France.

The problem is that these days many sales from Amazon, are not from Amazon themselves, but from one of their merchants.

So merchant 1 prices his goods at £25 each and merchant 2 the same goods at £38 each.

Naturally the savvy buyer gets his/her goods from merchant 1 and he then stocks out. So now goods are only available from merchant 2 until/unless no.1 gets fresh stock.

But like you I get p'd off with some of Amazon's behaviours. I am something of an archivist and have sought out several books that are not available for shipping to France. Yet when I go to Abebooks, I find the same book from the same seller is available for shipping to France. Abebooks is owned by Amazon. Go figure that one out.
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I remember this thread and those who have looked will note that I was an early contributor but had you asked me the date of it's inception no way would I have guessed 2009 so thank you very much Chancer for bringing into such sharp focus that a whisker short of 9 years of my life has flashed by since.

The point of this post however is to respond to your comments on eBay's Global Shipping Programme which is completely agree with.

Not only is it a rip off which can double the cost of postage or more but it also adds delays to delivery times potentially turning what can and should be days into weeks and a recent purchase which I would normally expect to have taken 3-4 days actually took 16 !

In that instance even with the £15.99 postage (would have been about £7 by Royal Mail International Special Delivery) the item was still the best buy so I purchased it anyway accepting that it would probably take a bit longer to arrive but I certainly hadn't reckoned on 16 days and even though when it did finally get here it was perfect I bitterly complained to the seller about the delay and actually gave him negative feedback for his use of the GSP so called 'service'. I had been in communication with him during the delay and had told him what I was going to do.

My strategy now is first and foremost and whenever possible to avoid sellers using GSP altogether and on a couple of occasions I've even contacted sellers to tell them that but for the fact of GSP I would have bought from them but instead have bought elsewhere even if it's actually cost me more.

Finally if I can't find what I want anywhere else, or the price makes the item irresistible, I contact the seller to ask if they if they will post it normally and if not I will still buy but leave them negative feedback and tell them so.

It's only a small protest and on it's own insignificant but it's only by hitting sellers who choose to use GSP (and it is a choice) with lost sales or poor feedback that it stands any chance of being changed or improved.

Actually these days I find myself using Amazon more and more as prices can be as good and delivery is always outstanding.

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[quote user="AnOther"]


The point of this post however is to respond to your comments on eBay's Global Shipping Programme which is completely agree with.

Not only is it a rip off which can double the cost of postage or more but it also adds delays to delivery times potentially turning what can and should be days into weeks and a recent purchase which I would normally expect to have taken 3-4 days actually took 16 !

In that instance even with the £15.99 postage (would have been about £7 by Royal Mail International Special Delivery) the item was still the best buy so I purchased it anyway accepting that it would probably take a bit longer to arrive but I certainly hadn't reckoned on 16 days and even though when it did finally get here it was perfect I bitterly complained to the seller about the delay and actually gave him negative feedback for his use of the GSP so called 'service'. I had been in communication with him during the delay and had told him what I was going to do.

My strategy now is first and foremost and whenever possible to avoid sellers using GSP altogether and on a couple of occasions I've even contacted sellers to tell them that but for the fact of GSP I would have bought from them but instead have bought elsewhere even if it's actually cost me more.
Finally if I can't find what I want anywhere else, or the price makes the item irresistible, I contact the seller to ask if they if they will post it normally and if not I will still buy but leave them negative feedback and tell them so.

It's only a small protest and on it's own insignificant but it's only by hitting sellers who choose to use GSP (and it is a choice) with lost sales or poor feedback that it stands any chance of being changed or improved.



[/quote]

 

That is really smart ANO I will remember that, they cannot stop you ordering but will be scared of the negative feedback, I have a Young friend who used to buy loads of fashionable clothes from EBay UK often reselling them on EBay.fr if she didnt keep them, she would often contact the seller and ask them to use Royal Mail instead of a courier and/or to convince them to send to France, now she sees lots more stuff because people are using the GSP but the delivery charges are out of the question.

 

Could you do me a favour and PM me the words that you use to blackmail ([:)]) the seller, I want to pass them on to her she speaks good English but I am very conscious that mine is quite poor now and I dont like to give her anything less than 100% perfect or she will get in bad habits.

 

Looking back at my posts from 9 years ago I can see just how well I could express myself then and how much harder it is now.

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