Comments on: International Shipping Solutions

By: Michael Paul Burns

Michael Paul Burns — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:50:05 +0000

No relation to Alan Burns! But I’ve had the same problem…come on, Lulu, less nonsense and get your act together. If shipping charges support your cost, increase your charges upfront so that you are honest about it, and then charge shipping at real cost. A thin saddle stitched book I’ve done is now totally unrealistic when every copy adds £1 to shipping charges.

By: alan burns

alan burns — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 09:45:50 +0000

Had a reply from Mr Chen. It would appear that over the past few years that quote “a bug that had not been identified before was offering lower prices to our customers when choosing Express shipping method, this bug got resolved”.
Call me a cynic but to me the “bug” is called “RIP OFF”

By: alan burns

alan burns — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 10:12:11 +0000

The answer I received from Michael Chen was completely unsatisfactory.
On a recent order I was charged £7.20. If I placed a repeat order I would be charged £20.49.
As these books are printed in the UK these shipping costs do not reflect Royal Mail parcel pricing.
Again I would ask for your comments.

By: Alan Burns

Alan Burns — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:03:00 +0000

Based in the UK, I have recently ordered books and shocked to discover that shipping costs have risen 3 to 4 times.
Could you explain this please.

By: Nick Popio

Nick Popio — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:19:54 +0000

Bo,
Where are you located, and what are you interested in ordering? I will try to help you get approximate shipping costs.

By: Bo Blundell

Bo Blundell — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 11:34:57 +0000

As a first time user of Lulu, I have been trying for an hour to find approximate shipping costs on this web-site. Having (finally) come across this blog, I now understand that Lulu is apparently now too big to give a ****. Michael Chen appears to have made one only response the entire year. Seems like Lulu needs a competent public relations manager and some more helpful management initiatives. No way am I publishing here until Lulu is more open and forthcoming with its customers.

By: Andy Moseley

Andy Moseley — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 06:55:02 +0000

The cost of ordering 1 book from Lulu might have come down in the UK from £4.75 to £2.99, but since the end of July the cost for ordering 15 has gone up more than 150% from £7.25 to £18.99. How exactly is this a solution to too high shipping costs?

I have been selling copies of my book ordered through Lulu to colleagues at work, but frankly given the far better quality of copies ordered through Amazon, and the fact that the purchase price is 50p less (thanks to them for discounting the book), the increase in shipping costs now means I’m telling people to buy it through Amazon.

I would also like to know where the ’shipping’ comes in for anything I’ve ordered. The books comes from CPI Anthony Rowe in Essex, and are delivered by FedEx in Surrey. Unless they’re coming down the Thames and a canal it seems to me that nothing is being shipped, and someone is making a lot of money.

This may be good for short term profits, but if it means people end up buying from Amazon instead of Lulu then you will lose out in the long term. Lulu makes less per book in royalty terms and also gets no postage/shipping mark up, so if you drive people away from ordering on Lulu you will lose more money than you make by increasing postage.

I have always been impressed with Lulu and the fact that it does not rip off authors. I still am, on the whole, but this is an exception, so come on, play fair and charge actual costs with a limited mark up at most.

Andy

By: Mois

Mois — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 16:07:08 +0000

think that something has changed today, a 444 pages hardcover to Israel shows 11$ shipping as standard shipping. Please check your adresses and report

By: Hugh

Hugh — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 02:25:17 +0000

Twice I enquired about the ridiculous shipping rate from North Carolina, US to just across the border of Ontario, Canada with the following question: “I need to know why shipping fees to Canada (ground) have doubled lately. It makes buying a book published by lulu.com online simply too expensive for anyone to buy! Please, do explain before I decide to publish elsewhere.” No reply was forthcoming. The automated reply simply stated that as a valued customer you’ll be looked after promptly but that this may take some time as they are experiencing heavy electronic traffic. — Yet, when I placed an order, leaving it incomplete purposely, they were quick to let me know that my order had not yet been completed. Makes one think that they never intended to reply to my query anyway.

By: Paul Stewart

Paul Stewart — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 23:00:45 +0000

Michael,

I am an Australian author who has already published one novel through Lulu.com. You can imagine my surprise when I completed my second book (over year’s work), uploaded it to Lulu and then saw the current printing/shipping costs. If I hadn’t spent so much time on the book, I wouldn’t have proceeded with the printing. At this stage, I really can’t recommend to anyone who has read my first book to buy the second one – the printing/shipping costs make it inconceivable to consider going down that road.

I truly hope you are not being disingenuous when you claim you will “Analyze our pricing for Australian customers, and explore areas we could lower our shipping rates.” Your post was written on May 18th. I write this on July 9th. Do you have any information on how much longer your analysis will take? A solution is required sooner than later.

Sadly, on an FAQ on my site I have placed the following Q & A:

“Can I purchase the book?”

“Yes – if you want to, although I’d probably wait until Lulu.com adopt a more customer-friendly printing and shipping model. Its current arrangement is prohibitively expensive, especially for Australian buyers. I do plan on placing the books on other sites that have more realistic printing costs.”

I look forward to receiving information regarding your pursuit of this issue. How will authors be informed of the resolution?

Regards, Paul