Jenzo

Nope, Jenson is "all inclusive", and with Nashbar you may have to pay taxes, but never a brokerage fee as they use USPS. Lots of the online bike retailers are quite good, and no problems with brand shipping either. Don't know why the snow sports industry is so much worse for this kind of thing.

It makes it apparent WM is inflating prices or their shipping calculations are off. I sent an email asking about it anyways. Probably a tiny voice in the whale's rectum. I apologize for that terrible metaphor.

david_z

Most of the brand shipping issues are because the manufacturer has a contract with the retailer that does not allow them to sell internationally. This practice may either be non-existent, or not nearly as prevalent, in the bike world.

I wouldn't be surprised if it's inflated shipping. Discounters tend to have their own version of "flat rate" shipping which has nothing to do with what the actual vendor (UPS/FedEx, etc.) charge except that it is always higher than what the vendor would charge.

No that was a pretty rad metaphor, actually.

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Jenzo

Wow I got a quick email back from WM. However it does not explain the prices really.

Hey "Jenzo",

I am sorry for the expensive shipping prices on international shipping. Unfortunately, our only international shipping option right now is UPS and they set the prices on us. We do offer the UPS Standard with tariffs included to help as best we can with the pricing, but we do not have much control over the shipping costs. We would love to be able to have cheaper international shipping, but with our current contracts we are stuck with UPS and their pricing. We review our shipping quarterly, so hopefully we can explore different options in the near future. Unfortunately, there is nothing I can do in the immediate future. I will save your email and relay it to the necessary people to try to expedite this process.

Thank you,

Chris Jenney
Asst Supervisor - Sales
Backcountry


I understand about the inability to ship certain items, that's not what I am complaining about. I am complaining about the massive shipping costs for what they can ship. Here is an example from Jenson that also uses UPS all inclusive (no duty or tax at door).




Just a jacket alone on WM was $60... that's almost $30 more for less items. Also, if you add more items to Backcountry or Dogfunk the price gets super high, whereas I can add many items to Jenson and the price stays reasonable.

Sick-Pow

They are not inflating shipping charges. They have one of the best shipping rates in the business for USA shipping.

Jenzo

They have fantastic rates in the states but this thread is about the inflated prices to Canada.

-relk-

Depending where you live you could always try a place like www.attheborderstorage.com. Costs $5 for them to store your stuff, and if you get free shipping from BC.com you would be saving quite a bit of coin. All depends on how far away you are from the pick up area though.

Jenzo

Yea I have a whole list of those on the sticky in the board section. I use package express as they forward packages.
Ill add that one in as well.

roremc

I did this with my beacon from BC.com. $10 for UPS to hold it in Whitefish MT and I saved about $250 off the beacon price. Sadly when you are looking at items that are not onsale the drive is not worth it. Plus customs at the border can get you for import duties fi they bother checking.

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So many runs so little time.

Jenzo

My main point was that one (and many more) major companies have reasonable, all inclusive shipping for items to Canada, while anther's prices are double that for no reason. I really like BC, WM et al. but they make it such a hassle to order for no real reason. Oh well if they want to keep giving package express business that's fine. The reason I don't want to use em is it is just slower. The packages have to go to my receiver/forwarder and then from the receiver/forwarder to me, takes a month instead of one simple transaction.

david_z

They could be just trying to rip you off. If that's the answer you're looking for you're never going to get it (definitively).

Or it could be that they just don't do enough international business to qualify for some preferential rates offered by UPS? It would not surprise me if FedEx/UPS has different tiers of pricing for different contracts, just like they have different rates for individuals vs. corporate accounts.

Unfortunately there are a lot of variables that affect international shipping prices - and even though you think you are making a point by showing Jenson/Nashbar receipts, they may very well be apples-to-oranges comparisons. The only real comparison would be for the same item, same price, same value, same shipping method to the same destination, from two different companies.

Like I said, I sent a Burton deck to a buddy in MTL no issues whatsoever because at the time it was made in USA and exempt by NAFTA. But I sent him a Ride deck, too. For that he had to pay an additional $100+ in duties.