Breaking News: Kindle Store Live at Amazon.ca! - Page 2

holymadness · 12-10-2012, 09:47 AM

How do you figure you were paying an extra $3-7 for Kindle titles? Compared to what?

HomeInMyShoes · 12-10-2012, 09:54 AM

^Compared to Chapters if I owned one of their e-readers instead of the Kindle as well as compared to the US price.

The general pattern with what I want to read is $11.99 at amazon.com, but when I click on the book it shows up as $15.99 or $16.53 or, gack even $20.07 because I have a Canadian address. Usually the same title costs $15.99 at Chapters in Canada, but I can't read ePub (easily) on the Kindle so I just go to the library and borrow the paper book.

Synamon · 12-10-2012, 09:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by holymadness

How do you figure you were paying an extra $3-7 for Kindle titles? Compared to what?

Compared to US prices. Some of the publishers who priced their agency bestsellers at $12.99-$14.99 in the US were charging $17-$21 in Canada.

holymadness · 12-10-2012, 12:09 PM

Interesting. I have never tried to buy from Kindle US so I never saw the inflated price at the checkout, just the list price which always seemed on par with—or lower than—prices on Kobo.

Pookeysgirl · 12-10-2012, 01:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synamon

Compared to US prices. Some of the publishers who priced their agency bestsellers at $12.99-$14.99 in the US were charging $17-$21 in Canada.

*cough* Penguin *cough*

Synamon · 12-10-2012, 03:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

*cough* Penguin *cough*

I didn't find Penguin to be that bad, they were usually priced close to the US price. Simon & Schuster was the worst for titles I was interested in, then Hachette. I eventually boycotted all of the above since they won't supply ebooks to libraries, but their pricing schemes certainly helped with my resolve.

Pookeysgirl · 12-10-2012, 03:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Synamon

I didn't find Penguin to be that bad, they were usually priced close to the US price. Simon & Schuster was the worst for titles I was interested in, then Hachette. I eventually boycotted all of the above since they won't supply ebooks to libraries, but their pricing schemes certainly helped with my resolve.

So far all of The Dresden files have had a significant difference in the US and CAD pricing. Upwards of $5 on some of them.

maccyber · 12-10-2012, 08:12 PM

Prior to December Canadian Kindle owners bought their ebooks at amazon.com in US funds, making sure to choose country designation "Canada." The "Canadian" US dollar price was always higher than the "American" US dollar price.

Now, as of Dec 7, Canadians can buy ebooks at amazon.ca in CAN funds and the Canadian price at .ca is CHEAPER than the "Canadian" price at .com. But, in order to buy at .ca you must transfer your account from the .com kindle store to the .ca kindle store. When you do this, you will not be able to buy ebooks with your account from the .com store and you will lose access to all subscriptions and periodicals, no access to music or cloud player, no access to video, possible limited or no game subscriptions.

If you do not switch your account from .com to .ca and you shop at the storefront using your kindle device, you will pay the higher "Canadian" non-.ca price and not even know it.

Example: The Racketeer by John Grisham
amazon.com - country USA - $12.99 USD
amazon.com - country CAN - $16.32 USD
amazon.ca - country CAN - $13.99 CAD

the Canadian dollar is worth slightly more than US dollar but close enough to call it par for comparison purposes.

Seems, like Amazon is forcing customers to sacrifice content or pay like a sucker. Not a good way to build customer satisfaction.

llcj · 12-11-2012, 01:02 PM

Re: maccyber's post.

This now makes sense to me. Those talking about the low Amazon prices are using a US address.

SensualPoet · 12-12-2012, 11:44 PM

A number of publishers sellling ebooks on amazon.com to Canadian addresses charge Canadian taxes bundled into the price. This has been going on and is documented in Amazon.com's fineprint for over a year.

That's why you find things like a book being $13.99 at Kobo and (now) amazon.ca but $15.99 at amazon.com. The final price is still the same (+ or - a few cents) but the Canadian based sites add taxes at the checkout; amazon.com, when it charges Canadian taxes, adds them into the price.

maccyber · 12-13-2012, 03:05 AM

This seems like a reasonable explanation, although in the case I described, the .ca price including all possible taxes would still be a little less than the the .com "Canadian" price charged in USD. Nevertheless, the disparity would be greatly reduced.

Your explanation was logical, brief, and to the point. In contrast, amazon's response to my inquiry via email and a phone call was vague and inconclusive. Their final email ended by saying that Canadian customers who choose not to migrate their account from the .com site to the .ca site cannot avoid being "overcharged" at this time and presently, there is nothing they are prepared to do about it. According to your explanation, this response is not only false, but counterproductive on the part of the representative. Can they be that ill informed about their own pricing policies?

Note that if a Canadian migrates his "Kindle account" from .com to .ca he gains the advantage of prices listed and charged in Canadian currency, but must sacrifice access to all subscriptions to magazines, periodicals, etc, cannot access the music store, loses access to the music cloud, and will have limited or no access to games or active content. In addition, kindle devices are still not available at the .ca site and must be purchased through .com

I'm curious if you have any first hand knowledge of an ebook purchase at the new .ca kindle store and exactly how they describe taxes and total cost. I cannot purchase a kindle book there unless I migrate my account from the .com site to .ca. It seems that for kindle purchases, one's account can be used at either .com or .ca but not both. I am unable to "proceed to checkout" in the .ca Kindle store which means I cannot see any potential additional charges like tax. Only the lower list price is shown.

This is an extremely confusing situation and should have been handled with greater clarity by amazon. Finally, I would say that Canada is so economically, geographically, and to some extent even culturally integrated with the US verses other "non-north american" countries that the limited product/services access and "foreign" market treatment is a little annoying. I have friends who commute to work in the states and some weeks probably spend more time over there than they do at home. I think they take this market for granted and don't feel the need to try very hard.

HarryT · 12-13-2012, 09:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by maccyber

Now, as of Dec 7, Canadians can buy ebooks at amazon.ca in CAN funds and the Canadian price at .ca is CHEAPER than the "Canadian" price at .com. But, in order to buy at .ca you must transfer your account from the .com kindle store to the .ca kindle store. When you do this, you will not be able to buy ebooks with your account from the .com store and you will lose access to all subscriptions and periodicals, no access to music or cloud player, no access to video, possible limited or no game subscriptions.

To the best of my knowledge, video and "active content" has always been limited to the US. It wasn't available to Canadian users shopping at "amazon.com", was it?

Arithonne · 12-13-2012, 10:08 AM

The price difference can't entirely be accounted for by taxes, as it's unevenly applied, and does not reflect the actual tax rate I would have to pay for the book.

Example: The Racketeer by John Grisham
amazon.com - country USA - $12.99 USD
amazon.com - country CAN - $16.32 USD (1.167x the .ca price)
amazon.ca - country CAN - $13.99 CAD

Example: Skirmish by Michelle West
amazon.com - country USA - $12.99 USD
amazon.com - country CAN - $16.61 USD (1.187x the .ca price)
amazon.ca - country CAN - $13.99 CAD

Meanwhile, Kobo or Sony will charge me 13.99 plus tax (5%), or 14.69 for either book. I didn't actually attempt to checkout on the kindle .com version, so the tax may be adjusted at time of purchase, as opposed to charging some random rate that may be accounted for by "tax."

HomeInMyShoes · 12-13-2012, 10:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

A number of publishers sellling ebooks on amazon.com to Canadian addresses charge Canadian taxes bundled into the price. This has been going on and is documented in Amazon.com's fineprint for over a year.

That's why you find things like a book being $13.99 at Kobo and (now) amazon.ca but $15.99 at amazon.com. The final price is still the same (+ or - a few cents) but the Canadian based sites add taxes at the checkout; amazon.com, when it charges Canadian taxes, adds them into the price.

Sales tax is only 10% in my province (including Federal and Provincial). Frankly $11.99 to $20.07 does not add up tax-wise and it varies across publishers and even within publishers. It's adding a lot of other stuff as well as the tax. Oh, wait we're talking the manufacturers tax that was supposed to be gone when the GST (Federal) went in. Or maybe it's the not paying attention tax or the government needs a new F-35 tax.

I stick with one of my previous posts that I'm shocked that Canada taxes literacy so much.

As far as Amazon.ca goes. I'm not sure what I should do on that. I think I'll just backup my reading purchases and swap myself out to Canada and see if that looks better in the end. I'm pretty close to ditching my Kindle anyway given that 77% of this year's reading was paper and another 6% was public domain. Only 17% of my reading was puchased e-books.

treadlightly · 12-13-2012, 11:19 AM

Wondering how they reached their inflated price for Canadians on their .com site is what made me stop shopping at Amazon a couple of years ago. When I can't find a book at Kobo or BOB with my Cdn address, I much prefer B&N because they thankfully turn a blind eye to Canadian IP addresses with US account addresses. I'll still take advantage of Amazon.com's free ebooks though.

12-10-2012, 08:12 PM	#23
maccyber Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 505086 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: kindle	.ca kindle store Prior to December Canadian Kindle owners bought their ebooks at amazon.com in US funds, making sure to choose country designation "Canada." The "Canadian" US dollar price was always higher than the "American" US dollar price. Now, as of Dec 7, Canadians can buy ebooks at amazon.ca in CAN funds and the Canadian price at .ca is CHEAPER than the "Canadian" price at .com. But, in order to buy at .ca you must transfer your account from the .com kindle store to the .ca kindle store. When you do this, you will not be able to buy ebooks with your account from the .com store and you will lose access to all subscriptions and periodicals, no access to music or cloud player, no access to video, possible limited or no game subscriptions. If you do not switch your account from .com to .ca and you shop at the storefront using your kindle device, you will pay the higher "Canadian" non-.ca price and not even know it. Example: The Racketeer by John Grisham amazon.com - country USA - $12.99 USD amazon.com - country CAN - $16.32 USD amazon.ca - country CAN - $13.99 CAD the Canadian dollar is worth slightly more than US dollar but close enough to call it par for comparison purposes. Seems, like Amazon is forcing customers to sacrifice content or pay like a sucker. Not a good way to build customer satisfaction.

12-13-2012, 03:05 AM	#26
maccyber Junior Member Posts: 2 Karma: 505086 Join Date: Dec 2012 Device: kindle	Canadian Kindle Book pricing This seems like a reasonable explanation, although in the case I described, the .ca price including all possible taxes would still be a little less than the the .com "Canadian" price charged in USD. Nevertheless, the disparity would be greatly reduced. Your explanation was logical, brief, and to the point. In contrast, amazon's response to my inquiry via email and a phone call was vague and inconclusive. Their final email ended by saying that Canadian customers who choose not to migrate their account from the .com site to the .ca site cannot avoid being "overcharged" at this time and presently, there is nothing they are prepared to do about it. According to your explanation, this response is not only false, but counterproductive on the part of the representative. Can they be that ill informed about their own pricing policies? Note that if a Canadian migrates his "Kindle account" from .com to .ca he gains the advantage of prices listed and charged in Canadian currency, but must sacrifice access to all subscriptions to magazines, periodicals, etc, cannot access the music store, loses access to the music cloud, and will have limited or no access to games or active content. In addition, kindle devices are still not available at the .ca site and must be purchased through .com I'm curious if you have any first hand knowledge of an ebook purchase at the new .ca kindle store and exactly how they describe taxes and total cost. I cannot purchase a kindle book there unless I migrate my account from the .com site to .ca. It seems that for kindle purchases, one's account can be used at either .com or .ca but not both. I am unable to "proceed to checkout" in the .ca Kindle store which means I cannot see any potential additional charges like tax. Only the lower list price is shown. This is an extremely confusing situation and should have been handled with greater clarity by amazon. Finally, I would say that Canada is so economically, geographically, and to some extent even culturally integrated with the US verses other "non-north american" countries that the limited product/services access and "foreign" market treatment is a little annoying. I have friends who commute to work in the states and some weeks probably spend more time over there than they do at home. I think they take this market for granted and don't feel the need to try very hard.

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12-10-2012, 09:47 AM	#16
holymadness Guru Posts: 722 Karma: 2084955 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: iPhone	How do you figure you were paying an extra $3-7 for Kindle titles? Compared to what?

12-10-2012, 09:54 AM	#17
HomeInMyShoes Grand Sorcerer Posts: 19,226 Karma: 67780237 Join Date: Jul 2011 Device: none	^Compared to Chapters if I owned one of their e-readers instead of the Kindle as well as compared to the US price. The general pattern with what I want to read is $11.99 at amazon.com, but when I click on the book it shows up as $15.99 or $16.53 or, gack even $20.07 because I have a Canadian address. Usually the same title costs $15.99 at Chapters in Canada, but I can't read ePub (easily) on the Kindle so I just go to the library and borrow the paper book.

12-10-2012, 12:09 PM	#19
holymadness Guru Posts: 722 Karma: 2084955 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: iPhone	Interesting. I have never tried to buy from Kindle US so I never saw the inflated price at the checkout, just the list price which always seemed on par with—or lower than—prices on Kobo.

12-11-2012, 01:02 PM	#24
llcj Addict Posts: 250 Karma: 883854 Join Date: Oct 2012 Location: Canada Device: kobo touch	Re: maccyber's post. This now makes sense to me. Those talking about the low Amazon prices are using a US address.

12-12-2012, 11:44 PM	#25
SensualPoet Wizard Posts: 2,302 Karma: 2607151 Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Toronto Device: Kobo Aura HD, Kindle Paperwhite, Asus ZenPad 3, Kobo Glo	A number of publishers sellling ebooks on amazon.com to Canadian addresses charge Canadian taxes bundled into the price. This has been going on and is documented in Amazon.com's fineprint for over a year. That's why you find things like a book being $13.99 at Kobo and (now) amazon.ca but $15.99 at amazon.com. The final price is still the same (+ or - a few cents) but the Canadian based sites add taxes at the checkout; amazon.com, when it charges Canadian taxes, adds them into the price.

12-13-2012, 10:08 AM	#28
Arithonne Member Posts: 22 Karma: 499003 Join Date: Jun 2011 Location: Canada Device: Sony 350, Kobo Glo	The price difference can't entirely be accounted for by taxes, as it's unevenly applied, and does not reflect the actual tax rate I would have to pay for the book. Example: The Racketeer by John Grisham amazon.com - country USA - $12.99 USD amazon.com - country CAN - $16.32 USD (1.167x the .ca price) amazon.ca - country CAN - $13.99 CAD Example: Skirmish by Michelle West amazon.com - country USA - $12.99 USD amazon.com - country CAN - $16.61 USD (1.187x the .ca price) amazon.ca - country CAN - $13.99 CAD Meanwhile, Kobo or Sony will charge me 13.99 plus tax (5%), or 14.69 for either book. I didn't actually attempt to checkout on the kindle .com version, so the tax may be adjusted at time of purchase, as opposed to charging some random rate that may be accounted for by "tax."

12-13-2012, 11:19 AM	#30
treadlightly Wizard Posts: 1,370 Karma: 6957792 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Ottawa, ON Device: Kobo H2O	Wondering how they reached their inflated price for Canadians on their .com site is what made me stop shopping at Amazon a couple of years ago. When I can't find a book at Kobo or BOB with my Cdn address, I much prefer B&N because they thankfully turn a blind eye to Canadian IP addresses with US account addresses. I'll still take advantage of Amazon.com's free ebooks though.

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