Borders says it will match Amazon for price

From the article:

"Dave Fenlon CEO of Borders Australia parent company REDgroup retail said Borders would offer a price guarantee that printed books would always be "cheaper on Borders Australia online than on Amazon.com", which resolves the anomaly of printed books being cheaper to buy online from the USA than within Australia."

http://www.itnews.com.au/News/174179,borders-australia-lays-down-challenge-to-am...

Better still go to booko.com.au and check all the online prices!
www.booko.com.au

Hmm- good to know, thanks!

I tried this out the other day. I was looking for three books; Borders AU only had one of them available, and their price was almost twice that of Amazon. Obviously if you're only buying *one* book then it's easy to be cheaper (given that they include shipping costs).

Someone suggested I check the Book Depository, and they were even cheaper still. In the end I ordered the three of them from the book depository, at less than the cost of purchasing two of them locally.

Exactly felius...couldn't agree more.

Because of our exchange rate, atm, I sometimes pay half the price when using The Book Depository - and regularly save $10 or more - compared to anywhere else locally for new books, except with some remainder stores. Sometimes they are cheaper than the prices in a used book store I frequent! And their customer service is brilliant - they replace lost books with no questions asked - not that I have had very many of those.

That's why my TBR is so huge! :)
I can't recommend them enough - and I even look at the US store (.com instead of .co.uk) if I want a particular edition. Now they have the prices in AUD it is even cheaper, because there are no credit card foreign currency charges.

edited to fix URL

Now they have the prices in AUD it is even cheaper, because there are no credit card foreign currency charges.

Are you sure about that? I think they just display the prices in AUD but they still charge your card in GBP. My last purchase from them was way back in August but the Commonwealth bank showed "41.45 POUND STERLING" ($81.25 at the time) and charged me $2.40 "INTNL TRANSACTION FEE".

International currency charges are a pain. I use PayPal who collect their fees from the retailers and charge me only what Book Depository shows as the $AU price.

Cunning plan that! I'll try it next time.

>6 justjim: Jim, books I've bought this year from the Book Depository site displayed in AUD have appeared on my credit card statement as the exact AUD price quoted. I find it is usually a few cents cheaper to buy in AUD directly rather than in foreign currency with additional international transaction fee.

OK, I'll try that as well. Don't get me wrong, I love BD (and that graphical display of who is buying what from where is hypnotising!), I just thought that they were only showing the AUD as a courtesy.

I've heard a lot of good things about BD, but I wonder about their delivery times. I imagine that if they don't charge for postage they're likely to send books surface mail, which could take months. Is that the case?

The Book Depository sends their books via Royal Air Mail. I usually get my orders delivered to my doorstep within 8-10 calendar days from ordering. (The only exception being the recent disruptions caused by the Icelandic volcano eruptions.) And kgpittman is right: choose AUD currency and pay via PayPal and say goodbye to "International TX fees" forever. I regularly compare total prices (i.e., books+shipping) between TBD and Amazon and Fishpond.com.au and in 99% of cases TBD beats them with miles to spare.
Cheers.

There are no foreign currency charges with TBD now if you choose AUD - just as digifish_books said. The charge on your credit card is in AUD and exactly as posted on the site for each book. The rate is good and will change (I have noticed) if the exchange rate improves. The opposite also occurs too, of course. You can switch between all the rates to see and calculate it yourself - but now the 3.5% card charge (or whatever yours is) is gone so, for me now, 3.5% cheaper than the already cheap price.

And, like lorenzotan, my books arrive within 10 days too!

add: I don't know how they do it - but I love it!

11

No. I have received books from them in under a week. Definitely airmail. Usually as lman says within a week and a half. When no Iceland volcanoes are going off anyway.

I've noticed a big improvement in BD delivery times so far this year. All my books arrive within 7-8 days now. Woot! :D Oh, and often the .com site is a little cheaper than the .co.uk site for many of the books I buy.

Confirming that my experience is also very rapid selection, packing, despatch and post. Often about a week, certainly never been more than 10 - 11 days.

Minor quibble about the BD - one of the few hardcover books I bought from them was sent in a thin jiffy/bubble bag. Fortunately, edgewear was minimal. FishPond, on the other hand, seem to go in for over-packaging - a Wii game (DVD case) I bought was wrapped in bubble wrap and then shrink-wrapped in a large, sturdy reinforced cardboard packet. I was impressed!

Just lately I have noticed TBD now use that cardboard wrap for those thicker, heavier books, which works very well. I complained once about the damage to a thick book I received - they sent me a new one and said they were passing on the message - so maybe they got a lot of complaints about that. I have only ever received hardbacks in the cardboard covering.

They tend to be proactive with customers I have found. I agree, the padded bags aren't enough otherwise.

It's all true about BD. A copule of weeks ago (after waiting for the volcano thing to settle down) I ordered books on the same day from BD and Powells (in Seattle). To my surprise the BD books (a very reasonably priced boxed set of Jane Austen to replace my disintegrated one-volume complete works) arrived first, in 10 days. And of course there will be no foreign currency charge.

btw, the books were well packaged in cardboard.

Yes the joys of paypal..... makes it even cheaper