Amazon.ca to start price gouging much of Canada

[Tilas]

So, Amazon.ca has decided to start price gouging much of Canada now, I received this email this morning

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201514490
Shipping to Remote Locations within Canada

Remote locations are postal codes that are difficult to serve.

Examples are:
    Towns far from a shipper's hub
    Towns that are infrequently served by shippers
    Canada Post Air Stage Locations (where mail must be airlifted at certain times of the year)

Only Standard shipping is available when the shipping address is a remote location. Please allow an additional 2-5 days for delivery to these locations.

Some items cannot be shipped to remote locations. If an item cannot be shipped to remote locations, this information appears on the product detail page.

Total shipping cost = "Per Shipment" cost + "Per Item" cost. If the "per item" cost is listed in terms of price per pound, you can check the weight in the item's detail page.

Signature may be required for shipments over $1,300.

All prices hereunder are in Canadian dollars.
     Per Shipment* - Per Item
All items    $29 - $9.99/lb ($22/kg)

* In certain cases we'll combine items from multiple orders into a single package. However, we'll never charge you more for shipping than the amount that was originally quoted to you at the time you placed the order.

To say I was ticked off when I got this notification was putting it lightly, so I sent them an email of my own...

I received your email today about the change to Prime and how you plan to start gouging much of Canada for shipping due to "remote locations", so I'd like to receive the full refund of my prime fee you promised in your email.

Look, I get it, shipping is expensive, but $29 per item plus $9.99 per additional item is straight up robbery. I have both a .CA and a .COM account, so I tried places various items in my carts to see the price difference, and what did I find?

It's far cheaper to use .COM instead of .CA now. I placed the same DVD in both carts. .CA was $30.80, but .COM was $6.98. Do you see the difference here? Shipping from the states should NOT be a 1/3 of the cost than shipping from a Canadian warehouse. It's not "high shipping", it's all out theft, especially when I could mail that same DVD from MY location to any of your Canadian warehouses for $1.80 (since it would fall under large padded envelope).

I understand the need for some shipping, but REASONABLE shipping is the key here, not price gouging. You can't "flat rate" shipping! Mailing a single DVD is a lot different than mailing widescreen TV! Why would you think that's fair? Because you think there's "not enough customers"? You're WRONG. A good 1/3 of Canada would fall under your "remote location" description now. You are going to lose a very high number of customers in the coming months, like all three Territories, and the northern parts of practically every province.

Which includes me. As I mentioned at the beginning, please send me a refund of my Prime account and I'll be keeping my business with your American half.

Rude? Yah, probably, but I'm not about to sugar coat it, they need to hear that customers are ticked. I'm all for paying reasonable shipping, but I refused to be taken advantage of just because I don't happen to live in lower BC or Toronto! 

/rant


EDIT:
I did get a reply, which was basically a polite sucks to be you.

Hello from Amazon.ca,

I completely understand your disappointment.

As per our new policy, only Standard Shipping is available when the shipping address is a remote location.

For more information about Amazon.ca’s shipping policies related to remote locations, visit:

Our shipping policies reflect the economic and shipping complexities in remote areas in Canada. Our goal is to offer fast, affordable shipping to all of our customers and we are committed to exploring new delivery solutions that better serve customers in remote locations

It is always important for us to hear from our customers. Customer feedback like yours helps us make important decisions about how our shipping procedures and we appreciate the time you took to write to us.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/help/customer/display.html/?nodeId=201514490

However, I've confirmed that your Amazon Prime membership has been cancelled and you won't be charged.

[Ringlets]

wow that's a big price difference !     I would be annoyed too! I do think they will have to listen if enough customers make a complaint  but they are hoping to get away with it by the look of that reply

[brittney_rochelle]

Wow!! That's just crazy.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Oh wow...  what does your usual Canada Post delivery look like?  They are seriously downsizing eh?

[Tilas]

No not really, Canada Post hasn't seen much of a change, at least not here. Everything comes in Canada Post. I've spoken to the postmasters at our office, and they said that this will be a HUGE hit on the number of parcels they receive now, as much of the town used Amazon for practically everything. :\

[Cool.Breeze]

Geez, when I saw the title of this thread I panicked! But then I read which areas were being affected (Yukon, N.W.T., and Nunavut). The combined population of those three territories is actually less than a third of the population of my fairly small city (or .3% of Canada's population). Not to downplay how many this is affecting, but I just don't consider that to be "much" of Canada. Really sorry you're unfortunate enough to fall in the range of 'remote location', Tilas that totally bites hard. Hopefully not all areas in those three territories will be affected. I just found this on their webpage (emphasis mine):
 

FREE Super Saver Shipping is available for qualifying orders of at least $25 ($125 for remote locations).

(Found here: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1196364 )

Maybe you could get crafty and combine orders with friends to get the free shipping?

[hathorcat]

Ugh...we suffer something similar here. Anything north of Falkirk (bear in mind this includes 2 of our largest cities) in Scotland tends to be classed an area that has a supplementary charge. Fair enough its a proportionately small part of the population (although most of the land mass when you take in the islands). We are not penalised by the postal service but by pretty much every courier and carrier and website if you have a post code outside of southern Scotland or the central belt you are hit with a premium shipping charge.

It really does suck but I guess like the price of many things in more remote regions its just one of those things.

[Tilas]

Geez, when I saw the title of this thread I panicked! But then I read which areas were being affected (Yukon, N.W.T., and Nunavut).  The combined population of those three territories is actually less than a third of the population of my fairly small city (or .3% of Canada's population). Not to downplay how many this is affecting, but I just don't consider that to be "much" of Canada.

It's not just the territories. Northern parts of most provinces are too. I've heard complaints from all over. They consider any place away from their "hubs" as "remote", and considering they only have like 3 hubs (Vancouver, Mississauga and Edmonton I believe are the only main hubs...), well... it's a lot. :\

FREE Super Saver Shipping is available for qualifying orders of at least $25 ($125 for remote locations).
(Found here: http://www.amazon.ca/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=1196364 )
Maybe you could get crafty and combine orders with friends to get the free shipping?

That is only a holiday promotion. I just tried it by throwing $200 worth of little items in my cart. Shipping was $66.

While shipping is admittedly a little more reasonable when ordering bulk, it has to be a lot of bulk to make it worthwhile. So for me, the days of ordering a roll or two of stabilizer for my embroidery machine as I need it are over. If I need things, I'll have to make a massive $300-$500 order to justify shipping. And buying DVDs form Amazon is strictly off the table now unless I use .COM.