# Amazon re-routing orders to different fulfilment hub **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 10, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-re-routing-orders-to-different-fulfilment-hub/917726 "2020-08-10T14:49:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 2:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-re-routing-orders-to-different-fulfilment-hub/917726/1 "2020-08-10T14:49:50Z")
I live in Germany, but when I order English-language books (physical ones, that is, not e-books) from Amazon, I find that it’s sometimes cheaper to order them from Amazon UK and pay for the additional shipping costs than to buy them from Amazon Germany with free delivery but higher sales prices. So I did that the other day. The delivery I received bore no signs whatsoever that it was shipped from the UK; it’s hard to tell since Amazon is now running its own in-house parcel delivery network, but if I had to make a call I’d say that it was shipped from a fulfilment hub in Germany, not in the UK. So apparently there is some smart software at work that detects that, while I ordered the book from the UK, the same book is available from Amazon Germany too, and re-routed the order for fulfilment from there, while still charging me the British prices and shipping costs. I’m not complaining; I got the book that I wanted at the price I had agreed to pay. But I find it remarkable that this additional degree of optimisation is also built into Amazon’s impressive logistics empire. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2020, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-re-routing-orders-to-different-fulfilment-hub/917726/2 "2020-08-10T15:01:29Z")
I’d take a WAG, that regardless of which country’s version of Amazon you ordered it from, it still gets shipped from the closest warehouse to you (physically or logistically). I wouldn’t think that would take a whole lot of extra software since that’s essentially what happens anyway. Having said that, I do believe their logistics software is very sophisticated. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2020, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-re-routing-orders-to-different-fulfilment-hub/917726/3 "2020-08-11T08:53:40Z")
They opened an Amazon warehouse here in Australia a couple of years ago, and we all thought at last we’d be getting cheap books and all the other stuff with local shipping prices. Until then we ordered from overseas, usually US or UK, with only books or DVDs allowed, but which was still better prices than locally even including international shipping (but sometimes taking six weeks to get here). But no, that’s not what happened. We are now unable to order from overseas at all, we are forced to only get our orders from the local Amazon shipping warehouse - at the same prices as any other local online store. There are no special deals, no cheap shipping, no bundles, it’s just a glorified routing point for local suppliers. It is essentially useless, and yet we’re stuck, as US and UK Amazon is unavailable to us\*. Anyway, my point is, they do reroute to local warehouses as appropriate. Their approach to what things actually cost them to do this seems counter to any sense. \*_We can faff about with a special go-between US address, but that costs a fee, and is only worth it for large regular orders._ ---
**Author:** ![tavaritz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/71e660/32.png) [@tavaritz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tavaritz)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2020, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-re-routing-orders-to-different-fulfilment-hub/917726/4 "2020-08-11T10:02:26Z")
I decided to order three books I miss from a series on last saturday. I went first to [amazon.de](http://amazon.de) because I live in Finland and Finland & Germany are part of EU so shipping is easy. Came out that in my order only the seller of book 2 would deliver to Finland. So next I went to [amazon.co.uk](http://amazon.co.uk) and placed my order and only the seller of book 1 would deliver to Finland. Finally I went to [amazon.com](http://amazon.com) and placed my order and only the seller of book 3 would deliver to Finland. In the end I ordered the books from three different amazon sites. I don’t really know why amazon does this but I’ve found that their shipping policy is bonkers almost all the time. For example no-one would sell teepots to Finland. How crazy is that? ---
**Author:** ![Bookkeeper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bookkeeper/32/281_2.png) [@Bookkeeper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bookkeeper)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2020, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/amazon-re-routing-orders-to-different-fulfilment-hub/917726/5 "2020-08-14T05:00:13Z")
Were these all ordered from Amazon, or from different third party resellers through Amazon Marketplace? If the latter, Amazon is just a pass-through, and sale and delivery is handled by the individual sellers who will have their own shipping policies.