Ordering English books

[Clair]

[quote user="Coco"]I've never really taken much notice before but checked today and indeed the VAT was charged at French rates.  19.6% on the CD and 5.5% on the books.  Isn't VAT exempt on books in the UK?  If so, another thing to consider.  In future I will order goods in time to get delivered to a friend in the UK who will be coming out to France in the near future![/quote]

I did query that at the time, given that the goods had been bought in the currency of the country of origin, but was not given a satisfactory explanation beyond the usual "... goods are subject to VAT... bla bla bla", which never addressed the reason why French rate had been applied rather than UK rate...

So I now look up any book I want on the UK site and order it on the French site... Free del and all that...

[Penny29]

We spend at least £20 per month or more on books & have happily used Amazon fr & uk for years. But for the best value in secondhand books I use:  www.abebooks.co.uk  To keep delievery costs down we try to order a bunch of books from the same supplier, they simply cannot be beaten on price & also it's a great source for finding rare & out-of-print books.

 

 

[benedicte]

Free postage to France from this site as well, I've ordered from them recently and been very happy with them:

www.bookdepository.co.uk

[Sisneme]

[quote user="benedicte"]Free postage to France from this site as well, I've ordered from them recently and been very happy with them:

www.bookdepository.co.uk[/quote]

Yes, I recommend this one too: they don't charge postage and the books are often cheaper than Amazon anyway! The book I ordered last Friday arrived on Tuesday, which at this time of the year is pretty good going.

[Russethouse]

http://www.bibliophilebooks.com/epages/bibliophilebooks.storefront

Book bargains - often very much reduced. They do ship to France AFAIK.

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote user="Coco"]I'm just off across the courtyard to pick up my

Amazon.co.uk delivery that I see the postie has just put in the

box!  I have started comparing the prices of the .co.uk and .fr

sites.  You can get the free delivery from the .fr site but

sometimes it is cancelled out by the fact that the book itself is more

expensive.  [/quote]

English books ordered from the .fr site are dispatched from the same

warehouse near Swindon that the .co.uk site uses, so postage from the

UK is paid by the receiver in France anyway; its just added into the

price of the book quoted on the .fr site. Or so a bloke down the pub

told me.

[Babbles]

Have to agree that Abebooks and Choices are great value and I've normally found what I'm looking for and with Abebooks it could come from anywhere in the world, Choices are in the Channel Islands so don't charge vat on Dvds. I'm always looking for a bargain![:)]

[Clair]

I had a terrible time with Choice last year, when DVDs, ordered late November to avoid the Christmas rush, did not arrive until late December.

When I realised they weren't going to arrive in time, I placed the same order with Play, who delivered within a week, in time for gift wrapping.

When the Choice order arrived, I had a terrible time getting a refund and had to provide proof of the Play order with dates highlighted to get my money back from them.

I refuse to deal with them again.