S&H Estimate

[Sasha_K]

Not really a big complaint, but I think it should be filed somewhere. I find everything about this store to be great except for the S&H which almost scared me away - Some $90 and $190 shipping charge to my place. Yes, I saw a note saying the price is likely going to be some 40% of the estimated price. It would be great if that could be fixed so one gets a real number at the end of the order.

Great work guys!!

[plot]

International shipping is tough. Hopefully ST doesn't use UPS otherwise you'll get hit with high brokerage fee's too directly from UPS.

I'm not sure if fedex or DHL have the same fee's with international shipping...

[TAH 73]

Sasha, the shipping that scubatoys using usn't regular UPS, unfortunately regular UPS to Canada WOULD be cheaper in the start, but if you have ordered anything to Canada shipped via UPS, the "Brokerage" fee's they use would more than outweigh the savings from regular UPS.
I put "Brokerage" in brackets because I can't see how UPS can charge about a 20-40% of the value of the parcel, in some cases up to hundreds of dollars, for something the postal service does for $5 flat rate.
Scubatoys ships via UPS expedited, which in my case got from Texas to the Barrie Ontario are in less than 1 day, ordered at about 4pm one day, got it the next morning at 8am. UPS Expedited that ST uses is more pricey but includes all the brokerage fees.

I ordered a pair of fins, two pair of wetsuit boots, a snorkel, and a couple of clips and the shipping was ~$60 including all brokerage.
I paid GST/PST when delivered and that was all.
I am sure regular ups would have been about $30, but the value of the parcel would have incurred about $45 in Brokerage fees, for a net cost of $75 plus it would have taken a couple of days more.
For larger dollar items the value in the shipping Scubatoys would become more apparent.
I am looking at an old UPS bill right now, a $466 USD parcel had $59.83 in misc UPS crap fee's, then the taxes were tacked on top, the one thing that peeves me off is they charge GST on Brokerage fees.
In the end Scubatoys was still alot cheaper than my LDS. Fin's that were $75 at ST were $165 at LDS.

[Sasha_K]

Makes sense, thanks Tah. I guess the 'complaint' is more along the lines of not knowing what's gonna hit ya when you order the item :-) . I look at other sites - i.e. www.leisurepro.com (and I am not advertising them,just an example), that gives you a firm number for shipping charges ($48 in my case)

I wonder if there are other options available. Our business ships a lot of stuff from US to Canada and we typically use DHL.

Or, is an option to ship it to a friend in the US, and then picking it up later a 'cheaper' option. I am not in a rush -a few days one way or another won't kill me.

[plot]

Originally Posted by Sasha_K

Or, is an option to ship it to a friend in the US, and then picking it up later a 'cheaper' option. I am not in a rush -a few days one way or another won't kill me.

that'd be alot cheaper option if you're gonna drive to the friends anyways

[NitroWill]

Originally Posted by plot

that'd be alot cheaper option if you're gonna drive to the friends anyways

Until you factor the cost of gas in there

[Sasha_K]

Errr..how about a plane ticket :-)

I am thinking of travelling to US anyays, and this would be a bonus. I will try the shipping estimattes to Seattle as opposed to Toronto. :-)

[NitroWill]

Just make sure you could fit everything in your luggage on the way back then and still be under the maximum weight they require..

[Liv7301]

The international shipping cost does make me extremely grateful to be domestic right now! Ouch! But then I don't pay shipping because ScubaToys is a half hour down the highway.

[ScubaToys Larry]

I appreciate you comments and thoughts on this. We get a real good discount from them, but our software can't look at our discount - just the published rates.

In the near future here, as soon as we take care of some server redundancies, this forum, and a few other issues, we are going to address some improvements to our shopping cart system, and shipping corrections was one of the main things we wanted - and better wish list, and links from products into the forum, and more photos and video, and a fifth of scotch....