Base.com Is No Longer Sending Video Games to Australia

LKugz on 25/05/2018 - 10:09

Hey guys!

Base.com is one of the few places I purchase video games from nowadays, and they've always had some incredibly great deals in the past. Unfortunately as of very recently they have decided due to the new GST rules on imports to Australia - they will cease to ship games over here.

I emailed them asking why the sudden change - as I had just purchased a game from them on the 14th of May - and the email reply was:

Hi Kugz,

I am very sorry we are unable to ship to Australia.

It is not economically viable for us to register under the new GST rules.

Kind regards,
Jason
Customer Services

It's a bummer to see one of my favourite websites decide to just not send games to us any more, rather than comply with the new GST rules.

Just thought I'd post this in case someone else wonders why they can't get their games any more!

Kugz

Gaming Base GST

Related Stores

base.com
base.com

Comments

  • AdamFury on 25/05/2018 - 10:17
    +6

    What concerns me is that other retailers may fall into the same category with the new GST rules…

    • Kugz on 25/05/2018 - 11:31

      That's my biggest worry too! If it becomes too much of a hassle, or their billing system doesn't support it - or if generally they're against the practice, they'll just restrict selling items to Australians!

      I buy a lot of stuff from overseas that I just can't get here (special editions of video games, statues etc) and if those companies don't fall in line with the new policies I might miss out on the chance to even purchase them!

      • idonotknowwhy on 25/05/2018 - 15:07
        +3

        Kind of feels like our votes are pointless. At most, maybe 10% of the population want this extra tax to happen. Yet here it is!

        • c0balt on 25/05/2018 - 16:00

          You got a statistic to back that up, or just conjecture?

        • idonotknowwhy on 25/05/2018 - 19:33
          +1

          @c0balt: I don't do statistics. 99.73% of statistics are made up.

  • EightImmortals on 25/05/2018 - 10:51
    -4

    Don't post here, send a letter to your local government crony expressing your displeasure over their greediness and incompetent/irresponsible spending. Explain to them that the more tax they STEAL, the less tax they actually receive (tax receipts actually increase when government lowers taxation.). Otherwise find a retailer who is not intimidated by the demands of our pipsqueak government thugs. If we don't engage in peaceful resistance/disobedience it only encourages them you know..

    • D C on 25/05/2018 - 11:28
      +4

      send a letter to your local government crony

      "Hi there, I used to buy stuff from overseas tax-free. Now I can't so you're getting even less tax. Not happy Jan!"

      Uh huh.

      • c0balt on 25/05/2018 - 15:53

        "I demand that you stop protecting local businesses because I want to purchase cheap video games".

        • D C on 25/05/2018 - 16:14
          +2

          protecting local businesses

          Middlemen, you mean.

        • c0balt on 25/05/2018 - 16:25

          @D C:

          So what? They are people in small businesses who pay tax. How dare they!

          Will you only be happy when megacorporations are the only businesses, because they can skirt around local taxes which means you pay less and no tax is paid?

        • D C on 25/05/2018 - 16:55

          @c0balt:

          So what?

          Y'know, if you tone it down just a tad it'll be more believable.

  • AlienC on 25/05/2018 - 12:23
    -2

    Out of curiosity what game did you purchase and why not go fully digital.. I mean I totally get physical game collecting but why not go fully digital unless the game somehow can't do that.. which is very rare.

    • Kugz on 25/05/2018 - 13:34
      +7

      I prefer physical because:

      • Competition with Price: When purchasing digitally, you only have one place to purchase it (usually), and that's the best price you'll get. With physical releases you can shop around, take advantage of store offers etc and in most cases get a better deal
      • You can share physical games with friends easily. I have a large collection of physical games that I can share with my friends, family and co-workers. Can't do that with digital unless you do the whole 'account-sharing' thing.
      • You physically own something. Your digital licenses are tied to your account, which can be taken from you without appeal at any time for whatever reason. I don't want to risk that.
      • You can sell games later on if you want. You cannot sell your digital licenses, whereas if you play a game and don't want to hold onto it any longer - whack it on Gumtree and recoup some of the costs :-)

      They do take up a lot of space though :-P

      • humdingaling on 25/05/2018 - 14:01

        you must be buying indie titles or something because all the big companies are like

        Get a physical copy of a game to install and then spend the first few hours "updating" thru DRM which requires you to be always be online even though it is a single player game……

        well this seems to be the growing trend anyway

        • Kugz on 25/05/2018 - 15:32

          A lot of games have day-one patches which are usually bug fixes and improvements - but most games purchased physically can be played straight away without an internet connection required. Once you download the patch there's no need to be online all the time :)

          That does frustrate me but from what I understand a lot of game developers are pushed to the extreme to rush games out as fast as possible - the time between going gold and launching is usually spent on those patches you can/are forced to download, fixing up bugs and getting performance increases.

  • DASHCAM NOW DUDE on 25/05/2018 - 23:01
    +1

    oh no! please not ozgameshop.

    Edit. I'm guessing most other retailers will just comply.

  • mrend55 on 27/05/2018 - 19:30

    Got most of my games from there so pretty disappointing news guess i'll just use ozgameshop now.

  • Rukiata on 28/05/2018 - 11:15
    +3

    this is trash. we have to pay so much money on games yet everywhere else gets them cheaper pretty much as everything.

  • Sopzo on 19/04/2019 - 18:04

    Thanks for the info. I wanted to buy a blu-ray from there but looks like I can't

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