Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Read the post above the one you are referring to. The one I quoted but somehow put into his mouth.

And to be clear I'm not defending GWs increase in shipping, I've never seen a leap like that from any of my manufacturers, even when gas prices kept climbingrapidly a few years ago.

I read a statement where it seemed someone had the wrong impression on how shipping charges are tallied and tried to clarify/ correct that view using my first hand knowledge/ experience. Simple as that.

NELS1031 wrote:You told a poster in this thread to demand to know why a shipment charge cost more then the product itself.. Ergo, the statement reads as if you think the shipping charge should be relative to product cost.

No, it reads like he thinks the shipping charge should be less than the product cost. It's equivalent to saying a Big Mac shouldn't cost more than a Ferrari - it's not a statement that the two products should be intrinsicly linked, it's just an obvious threshold to show the absurdity.

And it is absurd: until six months ago Maelstrom could provide the product and the shipping for about half the price that GW now charges for the shipping alone.

AlexHolker wrote:No, it reads like he thinks the shipping charge should be less than the product cost.

Either way, still not how it works. In my experience.

Welcome to the club my Japanese friends, bring your school girls and sake!

Here's hoping that GW sales in Aus/NZ and Japan tank due to this bollocks. 500%... *shakes head*

Worglock wrote:The product is either worth it for you to pay the prices they want, or it's not.

There isn't anything to defend.

You, sir, are a legend.

Just when you think GW can't shaft you any worse...they go and add sand to the KY jelly!!!

That is a fine analogy (...) of the policies enacted by GW over the past 12 months.

H.B.M.C. wrote:Ah feth me he wasn’t kidding. Here is a screenshot from an order I just put through (I didn’t put it all the way through – I just got the the ‘gimme your CC details’ part).

The £60 is a Space Marine Battleforce. On what planet does shipping cost that much? I don’t live on Mars GW. What are the size and dimensions of a Marine Battleforce. To ship a similar item via UK Royal Mail how much does it really cost you price-gouging witches.

Go on apologists – defend that.

I'd get upset but then I'd have to be suprised to get upset.

That's just awful, utterly despicable as well. Think the bean counters have well and truly taken over GW at this point

Grimtuff wrote:

Also, for our ROW guys, Wargamestore in the UK still appears to ship to ROW.

Thanks for the link! I might give these guys a shot.

I'll second Zero's thanks for the link.

Does anyone in AU know one way or another if they still ship GW stuff to Australia. I'll probably give it a try either way.

I was curious to see if they had really hiked shipping enough to cover the doubling of prices in yen, so I looked at a Space Marine Vindicator (something I might have fancied before they lost my custom).

All costs in British pounds, converted at today's rate where necessary.

GW UK
Vindicator Cost: 25.83
Standard Shipping Charge: 50.00 (!)
Total: 75.83

GW Japan
Vindicator Cost: 54.35 (!)
Standard Shipping Cost: 6.01
Total: 60.36

The 50 pound shipping charge is quite astonishing in and of itself, but the fact that it only just covers the insane mark-up on the product even then is beyond words.

How about really big things?

GW UK
Realm of Battle Gameboard Cost: 155
Standard Shipping Charge: 250 (!)
Total: 405

GW Japan
Realm of Battle Gameboard Cost: 270 (!)
Standard Shipping Cost: 0
Total: 270

Ordering through the Japanese site does net you a free web exclusive space marine sergeant, which I suppose goes some way to make up for the eye-watering wallet battering.

One last experiment: How about something really small? This is my favourite.

GW UK
1 Pot of Snot Green Cost: 2.30
Standard Shipping Charge: 60.00 (!!!)
Total: 62.30

GW Japan
1 Pot of Snot Green Cost: 4.00
Standard Shipping Cost: 6.01
Total: 10.01

A clear win for GW Japan continuing to boycott GW.

Temujin wrote:GW UK
1 Pot of Snot Green Cost: 2.30
Standard Shipping Charge: 60.00 (!!!)
Total: 62.30

They're just a business trying to make money Temujin! Stop being a hater!

[EDIT]: Using letter rates, the most expensive rates I could find (obviously not correct, but I picked the most expensive rate), to cover the £60 shipping for a pot of Skull White from GWUK, that pot of paint would have to weigh in the area of 45-kg.



I can just see Tom Kirby's next speech to the board:

"When I came to this company it was on the verge of collapse, and as God as my witness, by the time I leave so shall it be again!!!"
*cue thunderous applause*

I can honestly say thanks, i needed this thread. I have been boycotting GW completely shortly after the who AU issue came out. Completely sold everything i ever owned that had the GW logo on it. Heck, I even removed every GW computer game I owned. Then along came the new Necron stuff, and I found myself getting a very small itch to get back into things. I can honestly say now the itch is gone and I can faithfully continue my boycott.

Thanks GW, we all need someone to loathe and you have really ramped up your campaign to remain #1. What is that I hear from across the pond, "Four more years, Four more years!"

HarlequinZero wrote:I got that email as well. Just as an experiment I put 120 GBP worth of new Necrons in my shopping cart yesterday. The shipping at that time would have cost ~35 GBP for UPS global express. I went back today and the same order using the same method of shipping is, get ready for your jaws to hit the floor, 175 GBP!! Yes, you read that right, a 500% price hike to pay for shipping that hasn't actually become more expensive. Is that even legal?!

In all seriousness I am pretty sure it violates trade laws in the US, and maybe in Europe...which is why they can't do it over here. Otherwise i have no doubt they would. This pretty much follows the same legalities talked about in the AU thread a while back.

I got that email as well. Just as an experiment I put 120 GBP worth of new Necrons in my shopping cart yesterday. The shipping at that time would have cost ~35 GBP for UPS global express. I went back today and the same order using the same method of shipping is, get ready for your jaws to hit the floor, 175 GBP!! Yes, you read that right, a 500% price hike to pay for shipping that hasn't actually become more expensive.

As a busniss GW are da beezkneez and they do have to make a profit
If you don't like the prices don't buy
If you can't afford it go play Happy Families

GW toy soldiers. Made like a Porsche, delivered in a Rolls Royce.

H.B.M.C. wrote:
I can just see Tom Kirby's next speech to the board:

"When I came to this company it was on the verge of collapse, and as God as my witness, by the time I leave so shall it be again!!!"
*cue thunderous applause*

He could take a page from another famous GW. G.W. Bush:

''Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.''

Just sub in 'business' for 'country' and it's pretty spot on.

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:

I got that email as well. Just as an experiment I put 120 GBP worth of new Necrons in my shopping cart yesterday. The shipping at that time would have cost ~35 GBP for UPS global express. I went back today and the same order using the same method of shipping is, get ready for your jaws to hit the floor, 175 GBP!! Yes, you read that right, a 500% price hike to pay for shipping that hasn't actually become more expensive.

As a busniss GW are da beezkneez and they do have to make a profit
If you don't like the prices don't buy
If you can't afford it go play Happy Families

GW toy soldiers. Made like a Porsche, delivered in a Rolls Royce.

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life, especially at that last line. Thank you, you've made my week

infinite_array wrote:

Worglock wrote:The product is either worth it for you to pay the prices they want, or it's not.

There isn't anything to defend.

That's... that's defending it.

It's not. He's not defending it. And he's right, that either it's worth it to you or not.

However, he's sort of answering a different question then the one that was asked. That's an appropriate answer for if a price hike on, say, a battleforce happened, for example.

The hike on shipping is kind of indefensible. Shipping's really not supposed to be a profit driver.


Rest of the world, truley I am sorry for your lots.

Didn't have a battleforce handy so figured I'd weigh a mostly empty GW figure case- came in at just shy of 2KG.

According to Royal Mail it costs £40.35 to ship a 2KG package with up to £500 insurance and a 5 day delivery time to Japan.

So not cheap, but considerably less than the £175!

Padre wrote:Good old GW at their company- and community-fething finest.

Just when you think GW can't shaft you any worse...they go and add sand to the KY jelly!!!

They stopped using KY back in June. Now they're using cement.

Well although this is another step in killing the enjoyment for some people, at least making fake shopping baskets has resulted in some laughs..

Rest of the world, truley I am sorry for your lots.

I believe that GW made quite an effort with Japan at one point, and certainly must have spent a lot of money setting up shop there. Now, after closing 4 stores a while back, and now this it makes you wonder if it is on the slide to no-where?

Korcheski - they are allowed to charge as much for "shipping" as they like. They are not saying the straight cost of UPS is X, they are saying the cost of postage, packing and handling AS WELL AS UPS is X . Given they are free to internally define what everything but the external cost is, they are not "misrepresenting" anything.

So yes, of course its legal. Also, shipping not being a profit driver? Noone heard of ebay?

Does this suck? Absolutely. However it absolutely fits with their current strategy, which is following every other fething business that can and segmenting their market to allow them to maximise profits in each region.

Oddly when MS do this with office you dont see quite the same crap flying around. The entitlement complex gets a little old quickly...

The funny thing is that car dealers only charge $750 to ship an entire car..... a car.

When my wife moved over here, she rented a cargo container...on a ship and it only cost about $300....and that included trucking from California to Oklahoma.

Because tehy ship in bulk, mainly. 6 weeks by boat is quite cheap when youre filling the whole boat...

nosferatu1001 wrote:Because tehy ship in bulk, mainly. 6 weeks by boat is quite cheap when youre filling the whole boat...

And I suppose that UPS will dedicate the entire jet to the one GW package? Nope.

I just posted that because I was completely shocked with GW charging insane e-bay-esque shipping/handling charges. Like the occasional auction for a small item that appears cheap until you see the $90 shipping and handling; I always wondered if they're wrapping the item in gold foil or something.

Pacific wrote:Well although this is another step in killing the enjoyment for some people, at least making fake shopping baskets has resulted in some laughs..

Rest of the world, truley I am sorry for your lots.

I believe that GW made quite an effort with Japan at one point, and certainly must have spent a lot of money setting up shop there. Now, after closing 4 stores a while back, and now this it makes you wonder if it is on the slide to no-where?

Didn't Japan actually WORK? I think I remember reading that it was one of their strongest growing markets.
And they reacted by closing shops.

Wow, at some of these prices it's looking like it might honestly be cheaper to just fly someone to US/UK, buy a bunch of GW product and fill a suitcase, and then fly back to Japan and hand-deliver it to you.

I spent only a little more than some of those prices when I packed up my entire life in Japan and shipped it to the US.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Korraz wrote:Didn't Japan actually WORK? I think I remember reading that it was one of their strongest growing markets.
And they reacted by closing shops.

I think GW Japan took a nose-dive when the yen skyrocketted compared to a lot of world currencies and GW responded by, you guessed it, raising prices in Japan. My local GW store went from having games virtually every time I walked by to being completely empty every time I walked by.

Korraz wrote:

Pacific wrote:Well although this is another step in killing the enjoyment for some people, at least making fake shopping baskets has resulted in some laughs..

Rest of the world, truley I am sorry for your lots.

I believe that GW made quite an effort with Japan at one point, and certainly must have spent a lot of money setting up shop there. Now, after closing 4 stores a while back, and now this it makes you wonder if it is on the slide to no-where?

Didn't Japan actually WORK? I think I remember reading that it was one of their strongest growing markets.
And they reacted by closing shops.

Something is working! We must tank it as quickly as possible!

Those shipping prices are stupid, but of course we know why they are what they are now. Even the email from the OP shows it. They want you to buy from their overpriced in country website. As with all things relating to commerce, vote with your wallet.

Because they ship in bulk, mainly. 6 weeks by boat is quite cheap when youre filling the whole boat...

So how come, when I have bought directly from Japan/Hong Kong postal charges have not been prohibitive?
Bear in mind I am the tightest wad on Dakka and won't pay lots for delivery and it has been single items.
Couple of weeks by boat I guess is all I had to wait

Chibi Bodge-Battle wrote:So how come, when I have bought directly from Japan/Hong Kong postal charges have not been prohibitive?

Probably because the companies you have bought from in Japan and Hong Kong aren't deliberately inflating their shipping costs in order to 'encourage' you to buy from your own sales region instead.

This is GW's way of leveling the playing field. 'Oh, so those darned convicts discovered that they could get around paying Australian prices by ordering direct from the motherland? We'll soon fix that! If we make shipping inordinately expensive, well then they'll have to buy from GW Australia, wot?'

It's typical GW strategy:
Step 1: Identify a problem.
Step 2: 'Solve' it by creating a bigger problem.
Step 3: Blame failure of solution on the internet.
Step 4: Profit...?

I started typing something to that effect, Insaniak but deleted it.
You put it better than I did.

At least we have the reason for the next GW price rise "Due to a drop in mail order sales another 20% (UK & US only 40% for ROTW) increase in prices will be required. Have a happy x-mass"

Insaniak yoy must have +2 to your initiative. GW is just going to keep on rolling along (as much as I hate to say it ). As long as little kids walk into their stores the money will keep on coming. But once this market dries up there will be nothing, just a bare baren desert. Sadly of all of the veteran gamers I know I am the only one who still buys GW products every now and again. With the advent of computer games Kids just won't care about toy soliders any more. And GW will fall like a fat kid on a bicycle because the veteran gamers have lost all faith.