Shipping outside USA not an option - workaround?

[tsaint]

Frequently, companies such as Amazon don't offer shipping outside the USA for a variety of reasons.
 (example: I want to buy a scanner from there but they won't ship this item to australia)
I know there's a company that will provide a USA shipping address for Singaporeans and forward goods to them, but don't know of anything similar for Australia.
Does anyone know?
Failing that, is there a regular DC member who would consider acting as a trans-shipment point for a reasonable fee? I'm not 100% committed to the purchase yet - finding out whether I've any options at this stage.
thanks
tony

[yotta]

wow, i was thinking of starting a thread like this, the problem isnt so bad in the uk, but things do tend to cost the same in £ as US$, and with a US$ = £0.50 thats alot more expensive

[tsaint]

As I mentioned, one company does this for Singaporeans (I don't know their fees). Seems there's an opening for an entrepreneur here (Heidi, where are you?)

[Carol Haynes]

Trouble is that it is a bit of a minefield because a lot of products sold in the US are not licensed for export.

For example US Adobe products are not licensed for export to Europe because Adobe sells licenses in Europe.

This probably breaks all sorts of international trade agreements, involves price fixing and is probably 'cartel' activity (which is certainly illegal in the UK) but some companies (Adobe is one - they actually told me they can identify the product source by the serial code) say they will not provide support or upgrades for products purchased outside the license territory.

Add to that that anyone actively exporting these products could potentially be open to prosecution ...

I think this may be a case for off the record arrangements between friends rather than open arrangements made in a public forum.

[Target]

This probably breaks all sorts of international trade agreements, involves price fixing and is probably 'cartel' activity (which is certainly illegal in the UK) but some companies (Adobe is one - they actually told me they can identify the product source by the serial code) say they will not provide support or upgrades for products purchased outside the license territory.

-Carol Haynes (May 28, 2008, 07:43 PM)

interesting approach!

what happens if you move to another 'licensing territory' and you already own a legitimate copy of a given piece of software (shirley they can't expect you to buy another one just to meet their licencing requirements!!)

[tsaint]

Carol, agreed... I'm thinking more of situations where company X  (or an individual, as in an ebay seller perhaps) simply isn't geared up to shipping overseas for their own reasons.
In the case I was actually considering myself, the item is available for sale in Australia at approx 3 times the usa price and that's like a red rag to a bull for me. My moral point of view: if I'm allowed to go to the usa phsically and purchase, they ought let me purchase by letter/fax/phonecall/internet/intermediary. Hmmm... what if I emailed them a purchase request using an american accent?

[Dormouse]

The Singapore solution is interesting and reasonably priced. People buy goods themselves, have them shipped within the US to the US address, and all their goods are then aggregated into a single package for shipment to Singapore. In many ways the purpose is the savings made by aggregation rather than getting around limits companies place on shipment overseas. I'm rather surprised that a similar service has not been set up for other countries, especially the UK where a lot of people buy direct from the US - Singapore is quite small though it does have a population of very keen and price aware shoppers.

I also tend to feel that Adobe's policies in this area are so exploitative that they deserve all they get from consumers trying to avoid the exploitation.

[tomos]

For example US Adobe products are not licensed for export to Europe because Adobe sells licenses in Europe.

This probably breaks all sorts of international trade agreements, involves price fixing and is probably 'cartel' activity (which is certainly illegal in the UK) but some companies (Adobe is one - they actually told me they can identify the product source by the serial code) say they will not provide support or upgrades for products purchased outside the license territory.

-Carol Haynes (May 28, 2008, 07:43 PM)

I'm shocked about Adobe doing that, I was considering doing exactly that, buying in the States or Canada & then "moving" to Europe.
But as Target says this must happen (people moving) & what happens then...

EDIT/off-topic a little- -for European companies selling in the States I can understand that they have two different prices, it's a bad time to be selling anything to the US from here now & they have to reduce their $-prices to be competitive in states & probably making little or no profit on those sales. I know someone who's just gone out of business because of it & may have to sell their house.. but ADOBE, that's another story