Battlefront.com Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 We have had complaints about our shipping costs since 1999 when we used to charge $7 domestic and $14 international. Anybody that thinks government inflation numbers are an accurate record of actual cost increases needs to get their head examined. As Martin said, we do not make a profit off of shipping charges. We have two ways to recover those costs: 1. Have a shipping charge that is below cost, then raise the prices everywhere else to recover the money elsewhere. 2. Keep the costs as low as possible and charge the customer for that cost directly. We have always gone with #2 since 1999. We will continue to go with #2 well into the future. Amazon has gone with option #1. Most big companies go with #1. It is called "loss leader" and it is a strategy that larger companies use in order to put smaller companies out of business. Sure, you can get your milk and bread cheaper at the big grocery store, but at the end of the shopping trip you wind up spending a LOT more than you would at the mom & pop grocery store. And don't even get me started on Home Depot and WalMart! OK, rant against box stores ended before I get going Back to a relevant point from Emrys: Amazon has a nice deal where if you order $25 or more, S&H is free, and it's not hard to order that much, so nearly everything I get from them is shipped free. This is a nice gimmick for Amazon, bad for the customers overall. What happens is people tend to purchase MORE than they would otherwise buy in order to hit the magic number. Sometimes going WAY over it because people tend to buy things they want, and if that means buying a $40 second item to add to the $20 first item... so be it. Amazon is more than happy with that! No matter what the marketing says, Amazon is not giving away its shipping "for free". Somewhere in the price of the products you buy that shipping cost is built in. When talking about a for profit company with profit hungry execs, investors, and shareholders... trust me, nothing marked "for free" is really free. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sivodsi Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 hey Steve, how do you think 'The book depository' manages to do free international shipping? Their books are just a bit more expensive than Amazon's, but certainly not enough to make up the difference... (no I'm not working for them, just curious as to how it works) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cédric Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 cedric, the game is in fact multi-language capable (just like CMSF). In the Options menu, you can set the language to be English, German, French, Spanish or Italian (I may have missed one language). However, the game itself is not fully translated. But it is possible to do so by the community, as the texts are all available to modify. The manual is in English only, however. Thanks for your quick answer. Thus i forget the pre-order for the Collector , but not the game I'd prefer to have the manual in my native language, so as soon as you have a French printed manual tell me ... please ... Remark : if i well understood your answer, at the end of april the game will not be completly translated in French, just a little (?). So the community could complete it, but you ? If one day you have a complete official french translated vesion, will i have the translated files for free ? Or i will have to buy the new french version :confused: Thanks & good continuation (A Norman, really ) 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 hey Steve, how do you think 'The book depository' manages to do free international shipping? Their books are just a bit more expensive than Amazon's, but certainly not enough to make up the difference... (no I'm not working for them, just curious as to how it works) I am not familiar with this company, but here is a wild guess... In order to compete with Amazon and the big traditional retail stores (Borders and Barns & Nobel here in the US) they probably reduce their profit margin using the strategy of "a smaller profit is much better than no profit". The problem with this business model is it rarely works long term. Eventually something happens which requires money and the money isn't there for the need/problem. If the money isn't easily available, from say the pocket of one of its owners, then the company is usually forced into making major strategic changes in a state of crisis. That doesn't generally work out very well. One of the interesting things about shipping costs is the bulk of the cost is about the same for every company, big and small. The big companies do get a little bit of a discount from the postal services, but it is fairly small as a %. It adds up for the business, though, so it does matter to them. The rest of the cost, the "handling", is also roughly the same for everybody too. Even though Amazon no doubt has very high tech, efficient methods for getting product out of a warehouse and to the postal service, those machines/processes cost a LOT of money to set up and maintain. They are more important for making the volume possible without increasing the costs of the handling rather then getting a lot of cost savings per unit shipped. And remember, we're not talking about a huge amount of money per order, so there is a fairly quickly reached point of diminishing returns on cost cutting strategies. A process like shipping goods from a warehouse has an interesting truth to it. Every process has a "sweet spot" for the volume it can handle. If the volume goes lower then the costs go up per item, if it goes higher the costs also go up per item (note that I consider things like speed, quality control, accuracy, etc. to be "costs" when they don't work right). So it's not that Amazon, with it's huge infrastructure, can ship a product significantly cheaper than someone like us can, it's just that they can ship millions of things a year and we couldn't ship even a fraction of that with our current setup. The backend of business is a very, very interesting battlefield to explore Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pvt. Ryan Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 The backend of business is a very, very interesting battlefield to explore Steve Looks like an opportunity for a new game: Combat Mission: Invasion of the Backend 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abrams Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 Looks like an opportunity for a new game: Combat Mission: Invasion of the Backend Not a good title ... might be taken the wrong way , by some ... just saying ... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gaff Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 This is such good news. I am experiencing a recurrence of all of the giddy feelings I had when anticipating CMBO. So glad that I won't have to bounce with anticipation for too much longer. And a 200 page manual? That would be amazing reading even without the software. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sloth Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Hi, I Just pre-ordered a copy. When I got to the end of the process where it showed all my details and asked for final confirmation, my country (Australia) wasn't shown in my address. So I had to cycle all the way back through the order process to check that my country was in fact in my address (it was). This is a minor thing, but as we know, anything that makes the order process hard will turn off some customers. Could you possibly fix it so country is shown on the final confirmation page? Before anyone tells me to go post this in the helpdesk page a) my experience with helpdesk has been mixed emailing is harder c) I know the owners read these forums thanks 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abrams Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Rock n Roll !! I'm pre-ordered !! Exciting Times !!! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxnoctum Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Nice surprise to see release date so soon from now. So am I correct in understanding that "special edition" is just hard copy basically of manual and cds? NATO's great but I gotta be honest this looks leagues better. No more hand of god weapons! YES! Infantry must FEAR armor again instead of the reverse. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schlosskirche Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I just pre-ordered. As a COH/TW graduate, the 200 page instructional manual is a combination of daunting and exciting. Can't wait! 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battlefront.com Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 o am I correct in understanding that "special edition" is just hard copy basically of manual and cds? Manual + CD + special box which can hold up to 4 CDs. Steve 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxnoctum Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Why do I need a box to hold 4 CDs if the game only uses 1 cd? I'm confused. You guys should include small containers of sand from Omaha beach and a piece of rock from a bunker in there. I'd pay $100 for that. Cheaper than a plane ticket over to France. If the rock has a bullet hole in it, $125. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
finalcut Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Why do I need a box to hold 4 CDs if the game only uses 1 cd? I'm confused. You guys should include small containers of sand from Omaha beach and a piece of rock from a bunker in there. I'd pay $100 for that. Cheaper than a plane ticket over to France. If the rock has a bullet hole in it, $125.The four CD's are future modules,well the game CD plus room for the three planned modules.As for the sand and rock,I could send you some sand and a rock if you want to give me 100 $.I'll even tell you they are from Normandy if it will make you feel better. I bought a game a few years back,forgot the name of it,But it was based on modern warfare between U.S. and U.S.S.R in the mid eighties,and they included a piece of the Berlin wall in the collectors edition.I still have that piece of wall hanging around somewhere.I thought it was kind of cool to hold a piece of history like that.They even had a little certification from the German Government with it in a nice little box.I love little things like that. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noxnoctum Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Well for the Ostfront game they should include a 91/30 and charge an extra $100 for it. They're dirt cheap, you can get them on the net for as little as ~$80. And final that's really cool. I'd love to have a piece of the Berlin wall in my room. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aknott Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I just wanted to say, I pre-ordered solely on the basis of the printed manual....yeah, I'm old, and almost no one's listening, and not that $70 bucks is going to make or break any company, but my money stays in my pocket otherwise....thankful to have the option..... 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
user38 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I just pre-ordered Crysis 2 Limited Edition. Check out these insane extras: The Crysis 2 Limited Edition will be available for no additional cost, while supplies last, and features four must-have in-game unlocks for the ultimate multiplayer experience: • Bonus XP – Players will jump into multiplayer battles with an edge by starting with enough experience points to gain early access to all 5 preset class load-outs. • SCAR Hologram Decoy – This special attachment to the SCAR will project a hologram image of the player, allowing them to confuse their opponents with the decoy. • SCAR Weapon Skin – This digital camouflage skin will allow players to add a personalized touch to one of the more popular assault rifles in the game. • Platinum Dog Tag – This special one-of-a-kind dog tag is one of over 250 that will be collectible in Crysis 2 multiplayer, helping to separate you from the rest of the field. The Crysis 2 Nano Edition is designed for the ultimate Crysis fan, and will include the Limited Edition housed in a steel case plus an 11” / 28 cm statue of the game’s hero “Prophet” on top of a New York taxi cab, a high-quality art book, all packaged inside a backpack modeled after the Nanosuit itself. Not available in stores, the Nano Edition is available in extremely limited quantities via pre-order only for $149.99 What isn't mentioned above is the game comes with a 12 page manual as a standard feature!!. I was tempted to order the Nano Edition to get the steel case (always a desirable feature in a game) but I'm a bit short of cash since I struck up an internet friendship with the Nigerian finance minister. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Somebody has waaaaaaay too much time on their hands. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
user38 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Once again Michael Emrys is absolutely correct. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scottie Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I just pre-ordered Crysis 2 Limited Edition. Check out these insane extras: What isn't mentioned above is the game comes with a 12 page manual as a standard feature!!. I was tempted to order the Nano Edition to get the steel case (always a desirable feature in a game) but I'm a bit short of cash since I struck up an internet friendship with the Nigerian finance minister. Battlefront is not EA , in fact we are lucky to have BF in this market place at all the way PC strategy games were going. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
user38 Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Battlefront is not EA , in fact we are lucky to have BF in this market place at all the way PC strategy games were going. Agreed. As a teenager in the 70s I was a table top wargamer. There was something about turn based war games that just struck me as correct. Then I discovered Pong and then Time Pilot (with its amazing cutting edge graphics). And in the early 80s I was of course blown away by that state of the art 3D flight simulator Red Baron. I was still drawn to war games but I couldn't deal with painting and collecting toy soldiers and the board war games were a little too arcane for a simple man like me. Ditto the computer board war games. In the 90s I had a love affair with Steel Panthers (that thief of sleep) and I have been searching for a modern version ever since. I tried real time strategy games but I found them unsatisfying, in essence little more than computer war game versions of the arcade game Whac-a-mole (that other thief of sleep): I became despondent. I stopped eating, bathing and talking to my neighbours. I got married a couple of times, and divorced a couple of time as well (I'm a little hard to live with.) And then, during one of my biannual google searches for "turn based war games" I discovered the Battlefront website. It was a few months ago, the day after CMBfN was announced. I was so excited I spent the next two hours looking for the "purchase" link. It took me that long to figure out why Battlefront was so keen to sell me a sophisticated graphical turn based war game about Afghanistan but didn't have the marketing nouse to provide a purchase link to the game I had waited 15 years to play (oh how we laughed about that one). I bought the Afghanistan game anyway, and all the other CMx1 and CMx2 games. That was a mistake. Beyond Overlord and Barbarossa to Berlin might have saved my marriages all those years ago, but the Afghanistan game spoiled them for me. The Afghanistan game showed my what Barbarossa to Berlin might have been. It was like Plato's allegory of the cave. Barbarossa to Berlin was a pale shadow of the Afghanistan game, and the Afghanistan game had no Nazis in it. Cruel world. Cruel, cruel world. Life is disappointment. Life is frustrated ambition and broken dreams. Life is agony and despair and waiting and hoping that tomorrow will be less bleak than today, that the anguish will be become bearable, the pain will become tolerable. Waiting and hoping that someday we will forget. We strive and fail, strive and fail and somehow we continue. Somehow we survive. I am sitting in my living room now. I am breathing in and out. In and out, in and out. I exist. It is almost enough. Almost. So yes scottie I agree. We are lucky to have Battlefront. I am really looking forward to this game. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Asmodeus Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 I was tempted to order the Nano Edition to get the steel case (always a desirable feature in a game) but I'm a bit short of cash since I struck up an internet friendship with the Nigerian finance minister. I remember this one. So how's he like. Or have you already lost contact with the.. umm, banker.. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Emrys Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Life is disappointment. Life is frustrated ambition and broken dreams. Life is agony and despair and waiting and hoping that tomorrow will be less bleak than today, that the anguish will be become bearable, the pain will become tolerable. Well, no, actually everything—or at least almost everything; it seems like everything—only gets worse. I take it you are 50-something, so already your life is on the downhill slide. Obesity, chest pains and shortness of breath, increased body odor, failing eyesight and hearing, the list goes on and on. Don't even mention sex. Yeah, your goose is pretty much cooked. Have a nice day. Michael 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moon Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 Hi Sloth, this is a little bug in the ecommerce software and in the 4 years that it's been like this, you're the second one to notice We'll see about fixing this, thanks. Martin Hi, I Just pre-ordered a copy. When I got to the end of the process where it showed all my details and asked for final confirmation, my country (Australia) wasn't shown in my address. So I had to cycle all the way back through the order process to check that my country was in fact in my address (it was). This is a minor thing, but as we know, anything that makes the order process hard will turn off some customers. Could you possibly fix it so country is shown on the final confirmation page? Before anyone tells me to go post this in the helpdesk page a) my experience with helpdesk has been mixed emailing is harder c) I know the owners read these forums thanks 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rocky Balboa Posted March 14, 2011 Share Posted March 14, 2011 The backend of business is a very, very interesting battlefield to explore Steve Wow, its a good thing we all know what you mean cause you wouldn't want this quote winding up on the wrong forum 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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