Friday deals: no deal for international customers

Seriously ... a t-shirt for $14.99 and then $35 to ship it across the border to Canada. What are you thinking Cakewalk? Most every other American company I've dealt with has reasonable shipping rates, but you? Nope. Time to revisit shipping - or offer your "deals" to Americans only.
 
KEv

Ah... you're in Newcastle so yeah it would be 14%. However Cake wouldn't charge that I don't think. It would be customs IIRC.
 

Another thing that may be happening is Cakewalk isn't actually shipping these themselves. They may have a deal with the screenprinters who have their own distribution methods and policies and the shirts are being sent from there.
 
Being familiar with this type of cross border stuff the common reason I've heard over and over again as to why sellers in the US insist on using couriers is because Canada Post is NOTORIOUS for having packages from the US or elsewhere simply disappear for weeks/months and sometimes YEARS (yes I had that last one happen a couple times). USPS also has really good tracking for packages even for their regular post stuff but as soon as it hits the Canadian border those tracking numbers become useless because CP does not even acknowledge the USPS system.
 
What happens is the seller ships off an item, it gets to the border (which shows up in tracking) then it will say "in customs" or something then nothing. A week or so goes by and even a patient customer will begin to get antsy and contact the seller who assures them it was sent and gives them the tracking number (which simply shows it reached the border). Most of the time it will show up a little while later but with quite regular frequency it won't and the customer demands a refund or a replacement. The seller will oblige (begrudgingly) or they won't (which ticks off their customer) so they either have lost money in extra shipping or lost a potential return customer (who may tell their friends not to buy from them). If the seller sent another item then the customer may or may no get that one and then the other one shows up so now they have two. Then they contact the seller (if they are honest) to send it back or whatever and someone ends up having to pay for the return shipping or the seller will have to just eat the loss and say keep it (which many times is more cost effective for low cost items).
 
So that's just a couple scenarios but as a business person you can see how that gets REALLY tiresome and costly after a while. With the couriers they totally rape you on fees but they get the job done, provide elaborate tracking on BOTH sides of the border AND they are accountable if something goes missing or is late.
 
I'm in Canada so I had the other end of all this which I won't get into but I used to ALWAYS tell our US customers they had to wait at least two weeks for delivery... even if they were RIGHT across the border. Overseas customers were told they had to wait 8 weeks and even then a lot of the times that was a low estimate especially to places like China.
 
So what I would say is get a hold of Cakewalk and ask them to send it USPS (if they are indeed shipping it themselves) and tell them you don't care if it takes a little longer.
 
Another factor to consider is the "handling" part of "shipping and handling". Someone does need to get paid to pack the thing and drag it down to the post office or wherever it needs to be sent from. It does indeed cost money... just not as much as many sellers claim.
 
Food for thought.

I've always had a bit of a fascination with Boston. Never been and really aside from some of the patriotic history stuff I don't know much about it.
 
I think it's the accent. Girls with Bostonian accents make my dinglies tingly for some reason.

These shipping things are weird. I never look at US sites anymore when looking for something, because of the dozens of times of bumping into a product I'd like, but
- no shipping outside US or Canada
- Outrageous shipping costs
 
At least partly, the customs and tax bureaucracy do serve as excuse, though.
 
I don't understand how so many net shops (in Europe) are able to ship the goods from other countries via UPS or DHL much cheaper than via normal mail. I just ordered two batteries for my screwdriver, and the delivery by UPS from outside of Finland was 2.95€!!
Finland is a sparsely inhabited country, and for that price you couldn't get a door-to-door delivery for any kind of package. Practically all packages (of private customers) are fetched from the post offices, no-one pays for door-to-door, as it's so expensive. It costs 16€ for a package of 2 kg max, and even a 250g letter costs 5€.

Beepster
Canada Post is NOTORIOUS for having packages from the US or elsewhere simply disappear for weeks/months and sometimes YEARS (yes I had that last one happen a couple times).

Happened to you too, uh? I remember having to contact my lawyer and ask why I still hadn't received the document their firm was supposed to send weeks earlier. She told me it had been sent but mailed a second copy, which I received a few days later. 
 
I had forgotten all about that incident when the original document showed up in our mailbox a few months later... Transporter malfunction? Subspace anomaly? Canada Post, ladies and gentlemen.
 
USPS is the greatest thing since sliced bread by comparison. In my experience, their tracking is even better than Fedex or USPS. For instance, Sweetwater shipped new knobs for my SG yesterday morning and as soon as I was notified, I could track my package.
 
Last order I had shipped through Fedex, I had to wait for 24 hours before I could retrieve anything w/ the tracking number, then had no updates for 3 or 4 days, that is, until the very day when the package was due to arrive. Pretty useless. Same for UPS.
 
 

Sounds like you're a real trouble maker there Sharke! 

Don't get me wrong. I saw a lot stupidness from USPS as well but it was far more consistent of a machine than CP.
 
Now, sharke... I gotta laugh a bit there because you had to deal with the Royal Post which by all accounts is even CRAZIER than Canucker snail mail.
 
On the other side of the coin these are very complex services and it's amazing that they even function at all (especially in the vast barren wasteland that is the majority of Canada) but there are a lot of dunderheads amongst their ranks. There is a lot of push to privatize these institutions to make them more efficient, and I get that, BUT really what for profit company is going to send a letter up to Nanook of the North for a buck and a half?
 
None company. That's who.
 
Also, Rain... I learned a looooong time ago that if I ever want Canada Post to get an important document somewhere that I'd better just pony up the ten bucks or so for a tracking number... even if it is in the same city.
 
Even then I've had some problems BUT at least I can get my ten bucks back if they screw up royally and/or there is a paper trail I can point to saying "HEY!!! SEE!!! I SENT THAT THING ON TIME!!! You no make bad things happen to me, kay?!" if someone ever got litigious over it or whatnot.

jbow
Most Amazon shipping is either free or 3.95
 
Even UPS cannot break a tee shirt. YMMV
 
J
 
 

I've heard amazon takes a hit on some of the cheap/free shipping stuff but make up for it because it solidifies their customer base.
 
Us Canadians do not get such an amazing deal from amazon though. Our version kind of sucks actually.
 
And as far as Canadian shipping... just because I'm thinking about it... a good compromise between the Small Packet (no tracking but kind of inexpensive) and Expresspost (tracking/guaranteed delivery within a few days but REALLY freaking expensive... like almost courier rates) is Expedited Parcel. You get a tracking number, it's WAY less expensive than Expresspost (but still pricier than regular packages) but it can take a couple weeks. Also the package has to be over a certain size to qualify.
 
Kind of weird how that all works actually.
 
They may have changed it all. It's been a long time.

Looks like I only needed to praise them in order to jinx it...
 

 
 
Only, it has NOT been delivered. Funny because I was glad to see they were a few days ahead of the original estimated delivery time.
 
So either their tracking sucks, either they delivered my stuff at a wrong address.
 
Insert derogatory remark here.