Amazon.com.au has just launched in Australia.
These are the free eBooks in the Australian authors section.
Please check price before downloading.
Yeah. Was getting me excited.
I was like, how did they launch this with no one knowing. What what what. And then, oh.
This is exactly what I think. Ebook is a big NO to me. I can purchase Ebook from anywhere online.
Amazon's heard of the Australia Tax and greedily wants a piece of the action.
That's all this is about, nothing more. Don't take them up on it.
The Australia tax on free eBooks is huge, this is more like a way for them to let more people know that they can buy eBooks from Amazon since there seem to be many Australians that don't understand how easy it is to buy from overseas especially when it comes to digital media.
"The Australia tax on free eBooks is huge…"
Lol, well yes, the free ebooks on offer here are obviously not more expensive than the Amazon.com versions. They wouldn't be a very good carrot for encouraging aussie Amazon.com customers to the new .com.au if they were more expensive than the .com versions, would they?
" this is more like a way for them to let more people know that they can buy eBooks from Amazon since there seem to be many Australians that don't understand how easy it is to buy from overseas especially when it comes to digital media."
I don't think that's all it is. They could very easily do that WITHOUT requiring current Amazon.com customers to give up their ability to purchase from the US site.
Have to admit this is a good point.
Create a new account if you must but don't surrender your US account. The prices won't always be in our favour (though they are a little cheaper on average today)
As for the free books — yes, this is mostly to introduce the service in our region but can also serve as a bait to migrate accounts
I'm not sure if you can link a Kindle to two separate Amazon accounts. Never tried it. I suspect it wouldn't work, maybe showing up the dreaded 'this device is already linked to another email address' or similar.
I peed a little when I saw amazon.com.au, then I noticed it was only for eBooks. Now I have to clean up for nothing!!!
I'm sure you'll find cleaning products on special @ ozbargain
:-)
And adult diapers
No, those were free, remember?
or indeed at Amazon.
So it wants to transfer my account from amazon.com to amazon.com.au.
What are the downsides..? Is this a trap..? D:
my thoughts exactly -would we lose access to the US freebies??
IT'S A TRAP.
Somebody online just posted this:
"Says if I transfer my account to the Aussie store my credit balance will NOT be available here"
So you will also lose any credit you have in the account, and one person tried to switch back to the US store after realising his credit wasn't available, but the website wouldn't allow him to switch back as he didn't have a US address.
"one person tried to switch back to the US store after realising his credit wasn't available, but the website wouldn't allow him to switch back as he didn't have a US address."
Very interesting, got a link?
I manage credit on both amazon.de and amazon.com and only the relevant credit balance is available when i log into .de or .com I understand amazon.com.au is not the same because it migrates your .com account rather than allowing multiple signon like the .de/.com deal
Thanks everyone. Looks like it's a trap!
Not going for it!
Though I foresee Amazon forcing us onto amazon.com.au in the future by IP location.
But this is how it starts. Remember Amazon did start as a online book store.
They sold physical books stored in a warehouse and shipped, very different than what they are doing now which is just using the .com.au domain that they have held for years to try and push through slightly more eBook sales. I really hope that they want to start bringing the full amazon to Australia but it's not like this gives them an extra foot in the door, just slightly more exposure.
Anyone else notice the amount of "50 Shades of Grey" clones?
Anyone see this though? http://www.amazon.com.au/gp/feature.html?docId=3077740036&ie…
Hell to the yes that Big W will be getting the Kindle Fire HDX 8.9! Might start stocking up on those WISH vouchers!
It is the 16Gb version of the HDX 8.9" for $479. Two days ago, the pre-order for the 64Gb on Amazon was $508. Today it is $568 due to the falls in the Aussie $. I'ii watch for the $ to recover (hopefully) before pre-ordering the 64Gb.
When I try to purchase I get the following:
Your Kindle account is currently registered at Amazon.com. Please transfer your Kindle account to Amazon.com.au before completing your order.
What will happen after you make Amazon.com.au your default store for digital content?
• You will be able to shop for Kindle eBooks at Amazon.com.au and access the Australian Kindle eBook store on all your Kindle devices and Kindle reading applications.
• You will also be able to shop the Australian Amazon Appstore on your Kindle Fire device. If you also shop the Amazon Appstore on another Android device, you will continue to access the Amazon.com Appstore on that device.
• You can continue to purchase physical goods at Amazon.com in US Dollars or at Amazon.co.uk in British Pounds.
• You will continue to have access to all of your past eBook and app purchases.
• If you currently have magazine or newspaper subscriptions, they will be cancelled and you will receive a pro-rated refund.
• If you have purchased Audiobooks from Audible.com, you will no longer be able to access those from your Kindle Fire device. However, you can continue to access your audiobooks by downloading them from Audible.com on a supported device.
• Amazon.com.au supports Visa, MasterCard and American Express.
None of the above will cause me issues but I'd be very annoyed if I had a magazine or newspaper subsrciption!
Just noticed the following:
If you do not like the change and prefer to continue shopping on Amazon.com for digital content, you can revert the change anytime through Country Settings under Manage Your Kindle page.
…you can revert the change anytime through Country Settings under Manage Your Kindle page.
For now.
Remember, though, that Amazon's typically offered a smaller selection of books at much higher prices, to Australian Kindle customers. If you switch, you'll miss out on a lot of books, and the ones you can get will cost more.
(I regularly check prices with a US/UK VPN; they're often 50% higher here.).
• If you currently have magazine or newspaper subscriptions, they will be cancelled and you will receive a pro-rated refund.
Holy shit. That's a massive restriction. Very disappointed that they are trying to sneak that past unsuspecting users.
Ironically those Amazonians that are most keen for an aussie store probably have magazine/newspaper subscriptions.
This'll end well…
A simple fix (at least it works for this deal for the moment) is to remove the .au from the link. Most of these books are currently free in both Australian and US Amazon websites. I just 'purchased' two free books by removing .au from the link then reloading. I've had success with this before with other purchases too, when trying to acquire books that say 'Not available in your area' I just remove the .ca or .uk or change it to .au in some cases.
Rather concerning that magazine and newspaper subscriptions are cancelled! I'm not subscribled to any mags or newspapers but have some weekly digests, I wonder if they are affected too. I'm not willing to change my location without knowing what else it will affect!
Carefully not discounting anything by Matthew Reilly I see; just lots of soft porn.
I bought "Republic of Thieves - By Scott Lynch" from Amazon.com this morning for US$11.99 … its listed as AU$16.99 on this new .com.au site … I think i'll stick with my US account
This ozbargain is not much of a bargain. Free ebooks, IF you give up the freedom of your global amazon.com account.
I think it's a very bad idea for any aussie kindle users to switch their account away from the american site. Seems to me that new kindle users in Australia will soon not be allowed to register on Amazon.com, only on Amazon.com.au.
Welcome to geoblocking for ebooks.
Shayne3,
I think the implication is much more complicated than that.
What is going to stop them now to start charging us a much higher "Aussie price" like what Apple did on iTunes store, Adobe on their softwares etc
Seriously this is definitely a NEG.
Steven, that's what I was getting at. I agree entirely.
I did a quick comparison with the US store and Australian store prices.
Picked a popular series as an example.
US STORE
A Game of Thrones: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book One $2.90
A Clash of Kings: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Two $5.99
A Storm of Swords: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Three $4.81
A Feast for Crows: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Four $4.81
A Dance with Dragons: A Song of Ice and Fire: Book Five $2.90
AUSTRALIAN STORE
A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 1) $4.99
A Clash of Kings (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 2) $12.99
A Storm of Swords Complete Edition (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 3) $19.99
A Feast for Crows (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 4) $12.99
A Dance With Dragons: Part 2 After The Feast (A Song of Ice and Fire, Book 5) $12.99
WTF, I think I will stay with the US store, thank you very much. :D
In amazons defence, they have to pay the Australian distributors who may well charge more for the book. The same goes for why DVDs and Blu rays are more expensive here, it's not necessarily the company selling it being greedy.
I'm not saying don't stick to amazon.com, I completely agree. I just want to make sure the annoyance is aimed at the right people.
Your have the wrong US Store prices. See the prices below.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bookseries/B00CHNOX6A/kindle/ref=sr…
Are you using a US Amazon account with an Australian address? Using your link (with my US account and new US Borderlinx address) I see exactly the prices cuteseal quoted.
I stand corrected. cuteseal prices for US Store are for US account with US address.
This is a trap
This post is about free eBooks from the Australian authors section on the amazon.com.au website. It is not about whether you should switch your amazon.com account to the Australian one, or whether paid books are cheaper on amazon.com compared to the Australian one. Please discuss your concerns in the forum link below. Thank you.
http://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/122682
I disagree. If you try to access this deal, you have to change to the Australian Kindle store, which might give you a free book now but then charge you four times more for another book after you do the change. You are giving up many benefits for very little gain. Without a hack (removing the .au from the links) this deal CANNOT be used without changing from US to Australian stores.
agreed it's relevant to the deal to disclose the true cost
The discussion feature of posts on OzBargain (like yours) are partly for the purpose of discussing whether the offer in question is worthwhile. In my opinion, this one isn't.
After reading all the comments I decided to "revert the change anytime through Country Settings under Manage Your Kindle page", but it wouldn't let me without a US address.
Finally my Borderlinx US address comes in useful for something!
Agreed, this is a trap to get people to switch from .com to .com.au. The books on offer are not worth the consequences.
The prices are bad and Amazon should feel bad…
Also free crap is still crap.
Just removed the ".au" and works perfectly on my US account :)
Unfortunately "Master Your Memory" it not/no longer free.
Thanks. Link removed.
I was trapped. Should have read these comments before happily clicking.
As someone stated above, get an international shopping address and enter that as your address on amazon to switch back.
(My phones spell check seems to have a bug up its ass tonight…)
Sorry to hear it
Even though I change to USA store
Just try buying some ebooks from usa
Getting this error
XXX, please contact us or change your country to complete your purchase.
You attempted to purchase an item while in a different country than listed on your Amazon account.
Are you traveling outside your country?
Please contact customer service in order to continue purchasing Kindle items.
Did you recently move to a new country?
You can easily update your country for your Amazon account.
Oh damn…
Are we going to get a real Amazon store, or just eBooks?