UK Anime Distributor Anime Limited Discussion Thread

[BrokenPhoenix]

So, the site update seems to be a good time to bring this up. I'll preface this by saying that I am not a lawyer, nor am I particularly knowledgeable in legal matters. That said:

In regard to AL's Anime (Un)Limited subscription service, there is currently only a single page about it on the site that I can find: the sign-up page (which I can only find via searching, it doesn't seem to be directly linked anywhere). There is currently no way to view your subscription info/status, nor a way to cancel it, and they don't send you reminders for upcoming renewals.

As far as I can tell, both of these facts mean AL are currently in violation of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024, where they are required to send notices of upcoming renewals, and allow an "easy exit" of a subscription.

This is a good point. There used to be a button on the account page where you could view the subscription and when it was initially paid, I seem to remember that there was a cancel button on it (but not 100% on that).

However, it seems to be missing on their new site. One option is to dig through your emails and try to find the email they send when you initially subscribed to see when its due for renewal. Then you may have to email them to cancel.

Hopefully they make it easier moving forward though. I can imagine they will be getting a lot of cancellations for it given the new postage costs.

 

[ussjtrunks]

A good point here is most early birds are under £50 people will just wait for sales to order multiple items with free shipping. Surely offering free shipping on early birds makes sense

 

[SkwigglesWorth]

Sorry if already posted; Site refresh is live, details in the blog

One point of note, there is now a £3.50 delivery charge for UK orders under £50

Welcome to the new-look AllTheAnime.com – All the Anime

I'm gonna have to be wiser with order during the christmas sale, espcially with BOGOF and doing seprate orders for each price catagory.

But yeah might be reconsidering my renewal of Anime (un)limited with the postage charge, as I'm doing less orders now and I can probably just wait or find similar prices elsewhere, although I did only re-sub a few months back (I think when bleach pre order was out)

 

[xp_version1]

Yikes. I was already ordering a lot less from AL but this is definitely going to make me think twice about impulse buys. Which I guess is great for me financial speaking so good job AL

 

[Dave1988]

Lets hope @MVM dont follow suite with the postage costs, as they have become my preferred place to order, customer service, shipping times and just generally more active, even with alot less staff than anime limited!!

 

[Just Passing Through]

Sorry if already posted; Site refresh is live, details in the blog

One point of note, there is now a £3.50 delivery charge for UK orders under £50

Welcome to the new-look AllTheAnime.com – All the Anime

Ever since the launch of AllTheAnime.com as an online store we’ve offered free shipping for UK orders, but as I imagine any of you who have sent letters or parcels over the past couple of years will be aware, shipping costs have increased exponentially across all services and couriers in the UK.

Exponentially? Hyperbole much?

 

[ussjtrunks]

Exponentially? Hyperbole much?

They have gotten a lot more expensive tbh especially internationally

 

[Erufailon4]

I was always surprised they were able to offer free shipping for all orders within the UK to begin with, since there's no way it cost them nothing. £3.50 per order is still almost nothing compared to their international shipping cost, and in my experience it's a fairly standard rate for domestic shipping, at least over here. But maybe the UK is a fairy tale land where free shipping is the norm? I don't really know since I only buy anime from there.

The lack of IOSS news is disappointing since they've been "looking into it" for years now.

 

[Just Passing Through]

I was always surprised they were able to offer free shipping for all orders within the UK to begin with, since there's no way it cost them nothing. £3.50 per order is still almost nothing compared to their international shipping cost, and in my experience it's a fairly standard rate for domestic shipping, at least over here. But maybe the UK is a fairy tale land where free shipping is the norm? I don't really know since I only buy anime from there.

The lack of IOSS news is disappointing since they've been "looking into it" for years now.

They’re trying to match Amazon, who since they became a veritable monopoly, have been taking the piss with their free postage thresholds and P&P costs for non-Prime subscribers for ages now. Most media retailers charge £1.99 for sending out post, and lower free postage thresholds (£20), and one or two still have free postage.

 

[Shadow Cat]

My views are:

Free Shipping - Quite a few companies ask customers to spend [an amount] before offering free shipping, £20 or £30 would have been better over £50 imo as this allows people to buy early birds without being stung by an extra £3.50

Or they could have met people half way and offered; £1.99 Royal Mail 48... £2.99 Royal Mail 24.... £4.99 Royal Mail Special Delivery. All of these options I would have been pretty happy with

Unlimited Membership - Now they have removed the option to cancel the membership via the website... that's a pretty [words] thing to do to be honest. I'm pretty sure there was a button to cancel as @BrokenPhoenix mentioned. But I can't see it either. So guess the only option is to email them?

Website Browsing - Looks fine but wish there was an option under the Products -> Blurays to filter for Edition and Publisher

 

[BrokenPhoenix]

But I can't see it either. So guess the only option is to email them?

Additionally, you can also contact your bank to get them to stop the automatic charge. However, I'd only resort to this if you have emailed Anime Limited to request cancellation and they haven't responded.

 

[ussjtrunks]

I was always surprised they were able to offer free shipping for all orders within the UK to begin with, since there's no way it cost them nothing. £3.50 per order is still almost nothing compared to their international shipping cost, and in my experience it's a fairly standard rate for domestic shipping, at least over here. But maybe the UK is a fairy tale land where free shipping is the norm? I don't really know since I only buy anime from there.

The lack of IOSS news is disappointing since they've been "looking into it" for years now.

It’d be nice at this stage for them to just say they don’t want to do it instead of saying they might do it at some stage

 

[BrokenPhoenix]

I was always surprised they were able to offer free shipping for all orders within the UK to begin with, since there's no way it cost them nothing. £3.50 per order is still almost nothing compared to their international shipping cost, and in my experience it's a fairly standard rate for domestic shipping, at least over here. But maybe the UK is a fairy tale land where free shipping is the norm? I don't really know since I only buy anime from there.

The lack of IOSS news is disappointing since they've been "looking into it" for years now.

Free shipping isn't the norm in the UK, but it's not exactly uncommon. The UK's biggest online video game outlets (TGC and ShopTo) offer free shipping on all their orders, for example.

The UK's biggest bookshop, Waterstones, provide free delivery on orders over £25. Rarewaves sells all sorts of physical media and they have free shipping when you spend £10 or more, as another example. Zavvi charge £1.99 for all orders. HMV has free delivery on orders over £25 as well.

I also think Amazon and Amazon Prime have a lot to do with our perceptions of shipping costs (I'm guilty of this myself). If you buy with Amazon Prime regularly, it can be difficult to go to a "regular" retailer that charges £4.99 for standard delivery and takes 3-5 days to arrive.

I don't begrudge Anime Limited for deciding to charge for delivery on orders below £50. They got to do what they got to do, to survive as a business and I would assume they aren't as big as a player like HMV and other places where they can continue to absorb more of the cost. However, I will be thinking twice about buying a single random Blu-ray from them as you can slap £3.50 onto the final price now; a lot of the time you can buy their products for the same initial price or less from another retailer that does offer free shipping. Although, for pre-orders I would assume AL will continue being the cheapest with their EBs and 10% off for members.

Waiting for AL sales and grabbing a bunch of stuff you want, to get over the £50 threshold will probably be the way to go. But I'm just thinking about the singular EB pre-orders that are less than £50, like others have mentioned. It may be a case of just looking around more for the best price available with the cost of shipping included.

 

[Shadow Cat]

Chris on twitter just pointed out the banner that says "Free UK Delivery on orders over £20"

So... Yeh... This is going well

Edit to add the banner:

 

[Denny Fisher]

If there going to add shipping costs of £3.50 on orders under £50 why not have the option to ship when orders exceed that amount?
Otherwise, what's the point of membership if someone only spends £35 of less. In fact, low orders actually discourage membership now.

 

[Googlyhead]

Sorry if already posted; Site refresh is live, details in the blog

One point of note, there is now a £3.50 delivery charge for UK orders under £50

Welcome to the new-look AllTheAnime.com – All the Anime

Chris on twitter just pointed out the banner that says "Free UK Delivery on orders over £20"

So... Yeh... This is going well

Edit to add the banner:

View attachment 36663

So what is it supposed to be? £20 or £50?
Because that’s quite a difference not just in absolute price (2.5x), but (as noted in other posts) it’s literally either side of the threshold for most of the EB or ‘fancier edition’ releases.

I would normally assume it’s best to wait for them to untangle their own mess, but there’s not really a good track record of that, and you would expect everything to be formalised prior to the launch of the revamp.

 

[zappi]

I've cracked the code, I think the price might be £34.99 lads!

 

[RadFemHedonist]

I've cracked the code, I think the price might be £34.99 lads!

View attachment 36664

Surely not, you don't say, dai shocku desu etc.

 

[BrokenPhoenix]

So what is it supposed to be? £20 or £50?
Because that’s quite a difference not just in absolute price (2.5x), but (as noted in other posts) it’s literally either side of the threshold for most of the EB or ‘fancier edition’ releases.

I would normally assume it’s best to wait for them to untangle their own mess, but there’s not really a good track record of that, and you would expect everything to be formalised prior to the launch of the revamp.

Looks like it has been an incredibly amateurish launch. And the website still looks bad and clunky, in my opinion. Scroll down a little bit and the banner at the top comes and covers up half of the main advert they have at the top of the page, and you've got the scroll up in the right kind of way to see the full image. When you're scrolling down the page, the top banner will start glitching and try to come down onto the screen again as well.



Don't know why they just didn't get a proper website developer in to make them a super clean website.

 

[Loris]

It's actually quite amazing how much worse the website is. The older one wasn't amazing but man. Why is there so much dead space and so much white.
I'm not sure why but every website redesign lately has been complete and utter dogcrap, always worse than what they replace.

Shipping sucks but it's not particually surprising, just have to be more selective with christmas sales I guess.