Subject:
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Re: Lego Shop at Home
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.technic
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Date:
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Thu, 10 Jan 2008 22:39:20 GMT
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Viewed:
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9041 times
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In lugnet.technic, Geoffrey Hyde wrote:
>
> "Ian Power" <ian@codemaster.com.au> wrote in message
> news:JuEvDs.8JH@lugnet.com...
> > I have just been browsing the Lego Shop @ Home site (I live in Australia),
> > and
> > the Power Functions elements are now available. Great! $7.99 for the XL
> > Motor,
> > and $9.99 for the regular motor (that's a bit odd, but anyway). For under
> > $30
> > AUD I can get two XL motors and a regular motor to go with my power pack
> > and
> > existing regular motor!
>
> You can indeed get small amounts of stuff for a reasonable cost.
>
> > But here's the catch: Lego want $30 AUD for shipping! Orders under $25 get
> > a $25
> > AUD postage fee. This is crazy! If I ordered a $10 item, I'd pay more
> > postage
> > than the item is worth!!
>
> Not really, they use a delivery method that charges a set, somewhat
> proportional cost depending on your order total - regardless of resulting
> box size - which maxes out at a relatively small amount compared to what you
> could order at one time. It is therefore to your advantage to order the
> largest possible amount of LEGO items at one time, EG $250.01+ and pay
> either $45 Standard Shipping, or $100 Express Shipping, for an order amount
> that can go up past a whopping $2000 worth of LEGO sets/parts. I know this
> would tend to max out the credit cards a little due to the amount of stuff
> you'd be ordering, but you could pool your delivery costs with other people
> from your local area and have one person or a few people deliver the
> individual parts of the package locally.
>
> Let's say, for instance, that you want 5 Technic bulldozers, and 5 Indianna
> Jones classic collections at one time, well with this system of S@H shipping
> rates, there is nothing stopping you from doing it. I don't know what it
> maxes out at for the amount that can be in one order at one time but a while
> back, it used to be the $2,500 mark. I think, though, it has recently
> changed.
>
> > Obviously these parts are being shipped from somewhere outsite Australia.
>
> I believe the Australian distribution is handled through the UK, or directly
> from somewhere in Denmark. I'm not sure though, perhaps you can read your
> order invoice and tell us where it's coming from for you.
>
> > I have sent Lego an email, but to no avail. It appears I would be better
> > off
> > ordering these parts from a US BrickLink site...
>
> They would probably point out much of what I have described here, that their
> costs don't depend on price of order, it depends on price of shipping a set
> sized package. They appear to use a distribution style of shipping, where
> packages do not travel by weight or size, but relative up to a certain point
> by amount of goods ordered.
>
> > C'mon Lego, get your act together!!! I know I would buy from the site IF
> > their
> > postage was reasonable! The amount is extremely excessive. Any of my
> > co-aussie
> > Lego fans out there hear me?
>
> It may not at first glance appear reasonable, but please bear in mind that
> this is not 'postage' as you know it. They use a somewhat different means
> of freight carriage, which is not so dependent on the amount or weight of
> stuff ordered but the cost of goods.
>
> NOTE: In some cases the distribution system in Australia seems to use
> Australia Post as the final delivery stage. I know that up here in Far
> North Queensland, that nearly all of my S@H orders have come through
> delivery by Australia Post. Speaking to Australia Post about why this is
> so, revealed that they get contracts to deliver merchandise like this
> through tendering processes, and usually whoever the tenderer likes wins the
> delivery contract, regardless of actual costs involved in doing it, that's
> what the contracted-to company must deliver the item to us for, if they
> tendered to do it for $x dollar amount that's what we get charged no matter
> where in Australia it winds up. Of course there are tender contracts for
> each stage of the journey, I have no idea what it must cost S@H to deliver
> these items all the way from the UK, but I know it's done for the amount
> specified and usually will arrive within the given timeframe listed on the
> S@H site.
>
> Of course it's entirely possible that in different parts of Australia a
> company other than Australia Post would deliver your packages to you. But
> in most cases they choose companies willing to deliver to street addresses,
> for some strange reason they cannot allow deliveries to a PO box.
>
> As I stated above, the more you can afford to order at one time, the more to
> your advantage it becomes for you and anyone who could combine their order
> with you.
>
>
> Cheers ...
>
> Geoffrey Hyde
I understand the point you've made - buy a bunch and save on postage. This is
the same for most online purchases. Not a new concept by any means. However,
when you live in a small country town where the number of Lego enthusiasts
singularly includes yourself, your options are limited when "grouping together"
for purchases. And I'm not about to go forking out incredible amounts of money
for a bunch of Lego sets to make the postage realistic.
Why is it so much trouble for Lego to have a bit of stock delivered to Australia
for distribution locally? They have offices here. I am sure they are scaring off
alot more people than just myself by charging large amounts of postage. Sure, it
might encourage people to order more and increase their profits, but they lose
profits from the smaller orders that don't get placed because of the postage.
Even if I purchased the large technic Bulldozer, I'd still only expect to pay
around $12-$15 postage. This means, to make postage worth it, I'd have to buy 2
for about $500.
This is a faulty business model. Obviously Lego do not want much business from
Australia. I just don't understand it. Sell direct to public, and you avoid
wholesale discounts to retail stores. They would make more money WITHOUT
excessive postage by encouraging more people to buy direct.
I'm sure that if Lego gave you a postage option where you could choose to "wait"
for batch bundles from overseas, that they would move more stock. Lego waits
until they've got $1000 worth of orders, gets it in from UK or wherever, and
then uses local postage to distribute.
Makes sense to me!
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Lego Shop at Home
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| "Ian Power" <ian@codemaster.com.au> wrote in message news:JuEvDs.8JH@lugnet.com... (...) You can indeed get small amounts of stuff for a reasonable cost. (...) Not really, they use a delivery method that charges a set, somewhat proportional cost (...) (17 years ago, 10-Jan-08, to lugnet.technic)
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