Bensons Increase Shipping Charges!
 

Now 1 pound 25p per disc.

Re: Bensons Increase Shipping Charges!
 

What bothers me even more - when you order a 2-disc title, even if it's in a single case, they charge 2 pounds 50p - which is why I didn't bother ordering any of the HKLegends double-disc titles from their current sale.

besides here, Amazon and Blackstar, where else can you order R2 discs that ship to the US? is there anyplace that has decent shipping charges? I basically used Bensons exclusively because of the decent shipping charges.

Between Bensons and Amazon, you have to look at it on an order-by-order basis - and keep in mind that Amazon removes the VAT from the price. I usually compare prices and figure out the shipping before deciding where to place the order. Amazon seems to charge as one DVD product even for box sets, which can make a big difference.

Benson's has been on my shitlist since they f'd up an order of mine..

I haven't ordered much from them since they started charging for shipping. I usually go http://www.cd-wow.net for everything R2, http://www.dvdzone2.com for what I can't find there, and http://www.yesasia.com for anything R3.

I like Blackstar.... every since my first order (which was slow due to them checking if I was okay with it being an R2 disc) the second order arrived promptly (Office Space 16:9) so I will give them my business again. CDWow is always a class act. Haven't tried yesasia yet but will for the Terminator DTS and probably Lion King Gift Set and a few others.

I primarily used amazon.uk for my R2 purchases, but have ordered from both bensons and blackstar as backups. Too bad about the price increase though.

Looks like Amazon.co.uk is cheaper now. Bensons was only marginally cheap on some order. The one thing they had going for them is they'll ship when they get the title and not when its 'released'.

every since they charged shipping, i have not buy anything from there.

I wonder if the price increase is due to the UK postal workers strike? They probably had to raise prices to cover the additional cost of non-postal shipping in the UK.

I don't know, the strike was only a week and it is over now. I don't think they would have jumped on the increase so quickly

Perhaps they thought that they had too many loyal customers, and decided that this would be the best way to get rid of some of them :)

(They certainly lost me as a customer some time ago :(

Hemulen

Their customer service seems real poor. I ordered a dvd on October 11th and it still has not arrived. Much slower shipping than cd-wow, amazon.co.uk, hmv.co.uk, or blackstar.co.uk which are all recommended. When I email customer service I get no reply despite multiple attempts.

Same here with my email attempt. Never received a reply to my inquiry. Blackstar on the other hand sent a reply the next day. Plus their shipping is twice as fast for me.

Well, I guess it's not just me that Benson's is ignoring. I emailed them on Monday, and waited 3 days before following up wih a second inquiry - and of course absolutely no response to either email.

On October 28 I placed orders with both Bensons and Amazon UK. I have heard NOTHING from Bensons with no signs that the order is being procesed - and the Amazon DVDs are here already!

Probably the LAST time I will use Bensons....

It is a shame about the shipping situation. They are good people and I ordered multiple times from them. I guess they realized that shipping internationally isn't profitable enough. Same thing happened with http://www.dvdoo.dk

I will still order from Bensons simply because they are customs friendly. A big plus for Canadians. Unfortunately, despite great customer service, cd-wow and amazon are not. Never tried Blackstar maybe I'll give them a shot.

What makes them 'customs friendly'?

That's easy, none of the many orders I put in with them ever got intercepted by customs. That's friendly enough for me :)

I can't remember exactly ( I get too many packages...) but I think they undervalue the $ content and they also use non-descript envelopes without company info on them.

Bensons are Very customer friendly, when I placed my first order they were nice enough to email me and ask if I was capable of using R2 discs, most suppliers wouldn't even do this.

They have also dropped there prices drastically in the last month or so, which is always a plus in my opinion.

The postage cost isnt high, when you take in to consideration the actual costs of sending the goods from the UK to here in the states.

out of all of the orders that I have placed with them I have been very pleased, due to the fact that I have never had to pay customs charges, even on more expensive boxsets, which I would have done with the likes of Amazon. I can safely say that they will be gtting all of my R2 orders.

I think you guys are just being over sensitive

If you're in the USA you won't have pay customs on DVDs. The added benefit of Amazon.co.uk is that the deduct the VAT and Benson's doesn't.

try www.ezydvd.com.au and www.atlanticdvd.com

you can get a lot of the R2 releases from R4 (including some that aren't even R2, like "Silent Movie" and "Robin Hood, Men in Tights" and the exchange rate is VERY nice.

I've been using http://www.devoteddvd.com.au with good experiences. For a few cents more they'll even open the case and put the disc in a paper sleeve so it won't get scratched in transit.

The exchange rate has been sliding recently (and I fear it will continue in that direction) but it's still a lot better than GBPs.

hmv.co.uk also deducts VAT. I just ordered Coupling: Series 3 two-disc set from them and, despite the fact their shipping charge was more than Benson's (3.10), the fact VAT was deducted made them cheaper than Bensons by about 1.50 (bearing in mind Bensons would charge 2.50 for shipping a 2-disc set). For a larger order, they would probably be an even better deal because I think their shipping structure is such that you pay a base rate for shipping plus a smaller amount per item. On a larger order, Bensons' postage would probably be just as much (if not more).

The disc had the same selling price (13.99) from both stores.

If you're ordering a sizeable quantity of titles, choicesdirect.co.uk can be a good source. They have a flat shipping rate of 5 pounds, so if you're ordering a bunch of titles, it works out pretty good (I did a large order last Christmas and saved quite a bit).

Best thing is if you have pre-orders on there, they go ahead and ship everything that's in stock and ship the pre-ordered titles as they come out for no additional charge (unlike Amazon, where you have to choose whether to "ship together" or not).

A few years ago (when they had free shipping), you could just go to Blackstar and be assured they had the lowest total price going. These days, you really do need to shop around!