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17$ shipping for Europe is crazy

viper1701viper1701
edited July 2010 in Shopping or Activation Support
Hi Telltale,

I'm an old customer who bought almost every single game since you started...

However I must say I'm very disappointed with the shipping cost for one freaking DVD sent to Europe (France in my case)

17$ for one DVD ? really ?

For comparison Amazon is charging 6$ for a dvd and very little more if you add one or two more.

I mean USPS is not even that good, it took weeks to receive Wallace & Gromit.

I'm sure there are less expensive shipping method, specially for telltale customers who receive this DVD as a "gift" and who probably don't mind waiting for a few weeks to receive their games (considering they can always download the digital version).

I hope you will be able to change this because this 17$ fee is really transforming the gift into a curse...
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Comments

  • xChri5xxChri5x
    edited March 2010
    It's coming up as $18 for Canada...
  • OzzieMonkeyOzzieMonkey
    edited March 2010
    You know, you can get postage free if you spend more than 50 dollars at the telltale store (S&M Devil's Playhouse included).
  • xChri5xxChri5x
    edited March 2010
    Yeah, if I add an extra $50 worth of stuff to my order....
  • harlequ1nharlequ1n
    edited March 2010
    OzzieMonkey wrote: »
    You know, you can get postage free if you spend more than 50 dollars at the telltale store (S&M Devil's Playhouse included).

    Will that free shipping also cover Europe then?
  • LaserschwertLaserschwert
    edited March 2010
    Is that an error in the system? I have ordered from the Store so many times, and there was always a shipping option (to Germany) for less than $10.
  • OzzieMonkeyOzzieMonkey
    edited March 2010
    Laserschwert wrote: »
    Is that an error in the system? I have ordered from the Store so many times, and there was always a shipping option (to Germany) for less than $10.

    This is just for promotion of the Tales of Monkey Island DVD and Sam and Max:The Devil's Playhouse.
  • dementia13dementia13
    edited March 2010
    I've always been under the impression that TellTale was on the gamer's side - near as I can tell, this increase in shipping is a scam - shall we say "incentive" - to get us to pony up for $50 worth of swag.

    For the Sam & Max games I believe they had regular US Post ground shipping to Canada, and that came to something like $7. Forcing us to pay $18 for a "free" copy of something we've already purchased is not cool. I live in Canada and don't see why I should have to pay such an exorbant shipping price, especially when we got by perfectly well without it twice before.

    Telltale, legitimately upset customers here, can we get a response please?

    (Appologies for the re-post in other threads, but I really want to get my pre-purchased "free" copy of this game and don't want to pay twenty bucks for it. You can understand that, right?)
  • corruptbigginscorruptbiggins
    edited March 2010
    shipping prices have gone up yes, but not because of Telltale but because of the people they use for shipping (USPS I believe). They are well aware of the problem for international customers which is why they're trying stuff like this free shipping for orders of $50. They've even made it very easy to get to that total by just allowing you to get the TOMI Deluxe DVD package & pre-order the new season of Sam & Max - two things that most people on these forums want. Obviously not everyone wants them or can afford them but at least they are trying.
  • viper1701viper1701
    edited March 2010
    corruptbiggins wrote: »
    Obviously not everyone wants them or can afford them but at least they are trying.

    I'm sorry, but making shipping free if you spend 50$ is not trying anything except to make you buy more stuff

    Since TellTale exist I bought
    Bones
    Sam'n Max (all 3 seasons)
    Wallace & Gromit
    Monkey Island
    + some merchandising stuffs.

    So excuse me if I don't want to spend 50 more dollars to deserve an honest price on shipping.

    Also you're saying it's not their fault, it's USPS'. Well they always can change can't they ?

    I am actually quite used to online shopping, ordering a lot in the US and in ASIA and believe me, 17$ for a DVD is unique. Even private seller on eBay would not ask as much.
  • FalancaFalanca
    edited March 2010
    viper1701 wrote: »
    Also you're saying it's not their fault, it's USPS'. Well they always can change can't they ?

    I wonder if it's that easy, changing their distributor at one spesific moment. Agreements are done and stuff.

    And by the way, I've read about others' complaints a while ago and I've seen that Telltale staff theirselves DO KNOW about this "problem".

    It's a very rude and an unfair attitude, trying to make Telltale look bad by even saying 'they can change their distributor so it's their fault!'. Heck, they don't even get any dime from the shipping money. And Telltale would really like having a easy solution to that problem. I believe it's not as easy as you think.
  • bonniebonnie
    edited March 2010
    Yes, ttg is very aware of shipping charges. Falanca is correct, there are contracts with the current distributor. We're looking into many different options but that takes some time. And, moving from one distributor to the next takes a whole lot of money. Moving inventory around is painful and costly. One option to consider is having a European distributor but I can't say that's in the works yet but certainly being thought about. The bug is in the ear of decision makers over here.

    USPS IS the shipper of choice with our current distributor. Unfortunately, we don't get a whole lot of say in what shipping prices are and we only push back the shipping costs back to customers, we do not profit in shipping costs. Our profits are in selling more games and gear.

    To make a long story short, we here at ttg hear you loud and clear about shipping prices being too high. All I can say is we are working on it.

    Cheers,
    bonnie
  • LaserschwertLaserschwert
    edited March 2010
    THANK YOU! Finally a thorough statement.

    Now I can go and buy stuff for more than 50 bucks :D
  • Macfly77Macfly77 Moderator
    edited March 2010
    USPS is the United States Postal Service and is the cheapest international shipping option (from the USA).
    As my family lives in Belgium, I tried to see how much shipping would cost if I lived in San Rafael (like Telltale) and shipped a package to my brother in Brussels.
    The cheapest UPS option (if the package is dropped off at a UPS shipping center and packed in a flat rate UPS envelope) comes to $69.34.
    The cheapest FedEx option (if the package is dropped off at a FedEx shipping center and packed in a flat rate FedEx envelope) is $48.48 (oddly enough for their Priority service; their Economy service will set you back $69.66).
    As for USPS, their flat-rate Priority envelope (or small box) is $13.45 if the package is taken to the post office ($12.78 if paid online), whereas using your own envelope would be $7.12 for 1/2 pound.
    UPS and FedEx include a tracking number and the contents are insured (for free) for up to $100.
    No insurance is included with USPS but it might be available for purchase at an additional cost (I'm not positive and can't find it on the USPS website; also, keep in mind that any insurance would let the customs know the value of the contents)
    As for tracking a package shipped via USPS, registered mail will add $11.50 to your total.
    None of these costs include handling.
    Shipping did go up (I live in California and since I moved there in late 2002, stamps have gone up in price 3 times - and had apparently gone up shortly before I moved there) and there's not much that Telltale can do about it, except being their usual awesome selves and offer free shipping over a certain amount.
    Sure some other companies may offer cheaper international shipping, but those companies do a lot more volume (saleswise) than Telltale and can afford to eat part of the shipping costs.
    Plus, Telltale is so nice that they give you easy ways to reach $50 (Monkey Island swag, Sam & Max Season 3).
    So, of course I wish shipping were cheaper but, I am sure, so does Telltale! ;)
  • AvistewAvistew
    edited March 2010
    This is not directed at telltale at all, but I feel like ranting.
    I used to live in France. I ordered stuff from the US and it cost a lot to ship. I ordered stuff from Europe and it didn't cost much to ship.
    I moved to Canada.
    If I order stuff from the US it costs exactly the same to ship as it does to ship to France.
    If I order stuff from Europe it costs much more to ship than it did when I lived in France.

    I thought "okay, I'm moving to Canada, I won't need to spend much on shipping from the US". Think again. It didn't change anything. There are even times when it costs more for some reason.

    It's annoying.
    [/rant]
  • nachtritternachtritter
    edited March 2010
    bonnie wrote: »
    Yes, ttg is very aware of shipping charges. Falanca is correct, there are contracts with the current distributor. We're looking into many different options but that takes some time. And, moving from one distributor to the next takes a whole lot of money. Moving inventory around is painful and costly. One option to consider is having a European distributor but I can't say that's in the works yet but certainly being thought about. The bug is in the ear of decision makers over here.

    USPS IS the shipper of choice with our current distributor. Unfortunately, we don't get a whole lot of say in what shipping prices are and we only push back the shipping costs back to customers, we do not profit in shipping costs. Our profits are in selling more games and gear.

    To make a long story short, we here at ttg hear you loud and clear about shipping prices being too high. All I can say is we are working on it.

    Cheers,
    bonnie

    So basically... that's what I said in http://www.telltalegames.com/forums/showpost.php?p=270815&postcount=182
  • viper1701viper1701
    edited March 2010
    bonnie wrote: »
    To make a long story short, we here at ttg hear you loud and clear about shipping prices being too high. All I can say is we are working on it.

    Bonnie, thanx for your answer.

    I hope TellTale will be able to find a solution to satisfy his European (and apparently Canadian) customers.

    In the the meantime I will continue to buy everything you produce like I always did.

    Amitiés,

    Romain
  • AdrianrAdrianr
    edited March 2010
    I agree, I'm appalled at this new shipping rate. They want to charge me $18US to ship to Australia.. I've ordered both seasons of Sam & Max, Wallace & Gromit, Strong Bad and each time the postage was only a few $.

    I order games from so many overseas sites and the most I have ever been charged is only $4.95 for postage where do they get off charging $18!

    From what I understand it's because of USPS or w/e service they are using but thats just BS prices... I can send stuff to America, England, France with the weight of 300g for $4.15AU.. 1/5 of their asking price.. They cant say it costs 5 times more to go the other way. For $18 I would expect it to be flown into Australia and hand delivered to me by the postal company.
  • Macfly77Macfly77 Moderator
    edited March 2010
    A little under 300 g (300 g would be about 10.6 oz) from the USA to Australia via USPS (cheapest international shipping service in the USA).
  • AdrianrAdrianr
    edited March 2010
    Yup 1st class mail $9 how can they justify $18... its absurd..
  • Hassat HunterHassat Hunter
    edited March 2010
    Tracking, insurrance, handling etc.
    Stuff adds up. But then again; I too am going to profit from free shipping.

    And accusing TTG uses this to make us "buy swag" is nonsense. What profit do they have from that if they have to pay the $18,- shipping costs then themselves? Well? They might as well just give it away free (and in a way, they do)...
  • Macfly77Macfly77 Moderator
    edited March 2010
    Adrianr wrote: »
    Yup 1st class mail $9 how can they justify $18... its absurd..

    The problem is that you are looking at first-class mail when the service you are paying for when you order from Telltale is Priority Mail, which is $13.45.
    Never having received anything from Telltale in a country other than the USA, I can't be sure how it's packaged, but for International Priority, the postal service offers boxes and envelopes for free (thus reducing the handling fee, but games and other stuff still need to be packed and protected).
    For first-class, there is no such thing as a free box from the postal service, which adds the price of a box or (padded) envelope to the handling fee.
    So, of course $18 is a bit steep, but like I posted earlier, Telltale does not have the volume of sale of an Amazon.com or the benefit of a cheap mail carrier (or distributor, apparently).
    One last thing.
    Over the years, I've ordered a few DVD boxsets from a company called Family Box Office (located in Australia).
    I have never ordered more than one at a time (I usually ordered them as they were released), shipping has always been around 25 AUD (which would be about 23 USD at today's exchange rate) excluding insurance (which cost me between $5 and $9.50) and it always took well over a week for me to get my package.
  • slohohoslohoho
    edited March 2010
    I agree here. I too live in Belgium and was surprised of the shipping cost. I didn't download monkey island as I still prefer to have a dvd, so I didn't play it yet. The game cost me 34.95USD at time of ordering.

    I dug up the shipping costs of the sam and max dvd: 
    Thank you for ordering from Telltale Games on September 2, [B]2007[/B].
samandmax-s1 Sam & Max Sea [B]9.95USD[/B]

    Shipping a dvd in 2010 now costs 16.75USD. That's a lot in those 2 years and a half. So with this extra charge, this games costs me actually 51.70USD, half of which is just shipping :o
    Wish I had known that at time of ordering... :(
    I'm also wondering what it would have cost to just buy the game from amazon.co.uk in a few months.
  • Hassat HunterHassat Hunter
    edited March 2010
    Yeah. Same here (Holland).
    10 euro for season 1 (2008)
    11 euro for season 2 (still 2008)
    16 euro for W&G and Animated series (1 month ago)
    Haven't really checked for MI since I am going to go for free shipping anyway.
    I'm also wondering what it would have cost to just buy the game from amazon.co.uk in a few months.
    Yeah, that would just wield you the games, and not all the extra's our TTG disk provides. So in the end, I think it would be a worse deal, even if shipping costs less.
  • dementia13dementia13
    edited March 2010
    Bonnie, thank you for the response.

    I understand that shipping costs are not TellTale's responsibility, nor does TTG make money off of it. But I do think that it is TTG's responsibility to be informed about what the consequences of your "contract partners" is.

    In other words, yes, it's a shame that the shipping is a rip off from USPS, but the fact that this is clearly a very poor choice is TTG's fault. It's easy to pass the blame onto the shipping company, but at the end of the day it's your valued customers who are getting screwed.

    Again, thank you for the response. Hopefully you guys can get your shipping sorted out ASAP. Might I request that an email be sent out to international people so that we know when the shipping problem has been fixed?

    In the meantime, I'm going to try to decide what I'll do about Sam & Max 3. Not being gouged on shipping for the discs is a serious factor in my decision.

    Cheers.
  • Hassat HunterHassat Hunter
    edited March 2010
    Considering another thread mentioned shipping types, I checked again, and yes, the 10/11 euro S&M shippings are with First-Class-Mail, while the 16 euro W&G was with Priority-Mail (and indeed arrived much sooner).
    So there is already a large portion of the increase there, due to the changed shipping type, a faster, more expansive one (apparantly due to first-class-mail not allowing tracking I heard other members say).
  • razzberryrazzberry
    edited March 2010
    I'm noticing some strange behaviour in the shipping costs.
    Yesterday, the DVD alone cost $18 in shipping.
    Today, it lists the DVD alone as $16.75 in shipping.
    If I add any other digital purchase item to my cart along with the DVD, the shipping price drops to $15.75.

    Seems odd that it changes since there is only one physical item shipping in either scenario.
  • theKryztheKryz
    edited March 2010
    I'd like to add weight to the discussion since I think for us Europeans (Germany in my case) there's a lot of music in this.

    I was trying to save shipping, so after having bought ToMI, Wallace&Gromit and Strong Bad I waited until all of the DVDs became available for shipping and thought that $10 shipping for all of them would be alright (better than paying $10 for each of them). So today I throw them all into my virtual shopping cart and am really confused! $33.05 for shipping??! Don't you put them all into one small package? That is crazy!!! I don't want to preorder the new Sam&Max Season (especially not if I have to pay extra crazy shipping for that one again) andy buy extra stuff for free shipping and I am really irritated!!

    Please Telltale, do something about this.
    I will not buy anything at Telltale until this issue is resolved!
  • Bruno83Bruno83
    edited March 2010
    corruptbiggins wrote: »
    They are well aware of the problem for international customers which is why they're trying stuff like this free shipping for orders of $50. They've even made it very easy to get to that total by just allowing you to get the TOMI Deluxe DVD package & pre-order the new season of Sam & Max

    correct me if I'm wrong, but if I buy the deluxe edition I'll be charged 14,99$
    the new sam and max season is 34,95$

    that's 49,94$ in total. so there are 6 cents missing for free shipping.

    would be OK, if they had something for 6 cents in store...
  • SteltekSteltek
    edited March 2010
    Please add me to the list of complainers. No other store I know of forces me to use the expensive priority mail. Snail mail is fine for me and 16$ just for shipping a single DVD is simply too much.
  • Macfly77Macfly77 Moderator
    edited March 2010
    Bruno83 wrote: »
    correct me if I'm wrong, but if I buy the deluxe edition I'll be charged 14,99$
    the new sam and max season is 34,95$

    that's 49,94$ in total. so there are 6 cents missing for free shipping.

    would be OK, if they had something for 6 cents in store...
    You're wrong! ;)
    Actually, the deluxe edition is $14.95, so you should be 10 cents short.
    However, other forumers have reported that Telltale is awesome and grants you free shipping as of $49.90 (can't check it as I already ordered my special edition but feel free to try).
  • DjNDBDjNDB Moderator
    edited March 2010
    Macfly77 wrote: »
    However, other forumers have reported that Telltale is awesome and grants you free shipping as of $49.90 (can't check it as I already ordered my special edition but feel free to try).

    Confirmed:
    youqualify.png
  • Bruno83Bruno83
    edited March 2010
    OK then.
    sounds good.
  • LeakLeak
    edited March 2010
    theKryz wrote: »
    I was trying to save shipping, so after having bought ToMI, Wallace&Gromit and Strong Bad I waited until all of the DVDs became available for shipping and thought that $10 shipping for all of them would be alright (better than paying $10 for each of them). So today I throw them all into my virtual shopping cart and am really confused! $33.05 for shipping??! Don't you put them all into one small package? That is crazy!!!
    Considering that ALL USPS shipping methods cost depending on the weight (and just have a certain limit on the size and maximum weight of the shipped goods) what made you think shipping one versus three DVDs wouldn't make a difference?

    Sorry, but that's quite normal - I take it you don't often order from overseas?

    np: Danny Lohner ft. Telefon Tel Aviv - Where Is Everybody (Version) (Nine Inch Nails - Things Falling Apart)
  • theKryztheKryz
    edited March 2010
    Yeah, actually, I don't -_-
  • Hassat HunterHassat Hunter
    edited March 2010
    Still, $33.05 for 3 DVD's sound too much. I got somewhat the equivelant (Animated Series weight counts for 2, easily) and it's still just $16 combined with another DVD, not 33.
  • ShimShim
    edited March 2010
    OK, I just took the Monkey Island Deluxe set out of my shopping cart after seeing the outrageous shipping charge!
    No way, I'll pay this much for a DVD. I have ordered many, many things from the States (I'm in Germany) and never had to pay more than 6$ shipping charges for anything and here I have to pay roughly 3 times the amount!!

    I'll skip this fine set :(

    Very disappointed.
  • Sir Primalform MagnificoSir Primalform Magnifico
    edited March 2010
    I'm pretty disappointed too. I don't even care about priority mail, can't you give the option for first class?
  • NunoCardosoNunoCardoso
    edited March 2010
    Chalk another one for snail mail, and really annoyed by the shipping rates.
    I've bought the season, played on a choppy PC, but now I was eager to play it on my Mac (I downloaded the Mac files, but I want the DVD), but for 18 USD, I rather buy a Wii game in a UK store with free shipping!

    Hope TTG realizes that people are waiting for the result of your contacts, so see if you extend the free shipping offer deadline, as I'm still waiting to see if you can get a snail mail rate.
  • GinnyNGinnyN
    edited March 2010
    I do believe the actual problem is, there was a cheaper option before, but was way too unrealiable. I mean, for example, out of 3 orders, the postal office lost one of them. At the same time, here appear all the time Damaged Goods and more lost packages. Telltale always replace the damaged goods and send new ones out of trust us, but, apparently they were losing too much money in replacing damaged or lost items, and when it wasn't their fault.

    I read somewhere they are searching for a new solution for the shipping, but they disable the cheaper one because is was unbeareble.

    I THINK is that.
  • dementia13dementia13
    edited March 2010
    ^ If this is true then I can see how this is a sticky situation from TellTale's perspective.

    I recall when they shipped me Sam & Max S1 and S2, it was in a regular manilla bubble envelope and looked like it had been sent by a secretary in an office. No problems there. But I can see how it would suck if people keep bugging them for replacements.

    If this is the case, what's wrong with offering the option of regular ground shipping. I'd rather take my chances and pay $7 (it's always been fine thus far), then pay $18 and risk getting hit by customs (which is another very costly and annoying factor - not TTG's fault, but on my end the prospect of paying up to $40 for a "free" DVD of a game I already bought is ridiculous).
This discussion has been closed.