I THINK everything is in place, but without an actual order or two, there is no way of knowing if it is actually working or not. Shipping to Canada is now in place with the rest of the world waiting to see how this experiment goes.
Please note that the shipping IS expensive, but does reflect actual shipping rates.
0 to 16ounces = $10
1lbs to 2lbs = $15
2lbs to 3lbs = $20
3lbs to 4lbs = $25
(Even the largest DIY order for us to date was under 4lbs, and that was a LOT of DIY supplies!)
Over that amount I set to $75 as it jumps in to the next level of shipping cost and is over $50 for a flat rate. It would be MUCH cheaper to split your order in two and make $40 shipping instead of over $50. If it is needed I will look into the flat rate internationals.
I am still doing my best to NOT make profit from shipping, so the rates you see are actually what I am paying to ship. If these are higher than you personally have paid from other companies, PLEASE pm me with details so I can find out who is using what shipping company to get these rates lowered.
But for now, at least until there is a problem that makes me shut this off to fix something... GremlinDIY.com is now shipping to Canada! Australia and UK, You're next (although UK can find MUCH better deals locally than I can provide I'm sure!)
Who will be the first to try!!! :) REQUIREMENT: Must be patient and pleasant if something goes horribly wrong. No worries, you WILL be taken care of, but I just want to make sore you are aware this is a completely new system to us and problems always find a way. Darn Gremlins anyway.
Sorry, it won't be me. I'm in Canada and I get my flavour from a Canadian distributor that offers free shipping on $100+ purchases. Looked at your prices and with the conversion to USD it's more cost effective to purchase from them. I was interested though.... Best of luck.
At least they're trying.**
Oh, not taken that way at all! Not in the slightest. I appreciate the response and the reason. If I can find out the best way to get product to Canada then every message is needed. If it costs too much, I need to know. Even better if I can find a way to make it affordable enough to compete with my Canadian counterparts, but highly unlikely. :) I don't expect to make too many sales to the north, but one of the reasons I opened the DIY site was to sell to places I was never able to before. I think the Canadian sales might be more interested in the Gremlin brand concentrates that you can't find anywhere else. This weekend is a start though, and I hope to get the rest of the world open soon as well. (But really, there HAS to be local places to buy from that don't cost $10 to $20 in shipping!) lol
@Gremlin, thank very much for getting this setup, hopefully some northern DIYer's will take advantage of your services. It would be great if more companies put in the effort you do to service us. If the exchange rate swings in my favour I'll be all over it. Thanks again.
I feel for the Canadians man, sucks they gotta pay so much for shipping and other items. Even as a kid when if buy magazines, they'd have the USA price printed on the cover with the Canadian price next to it.... The Canadian price was always so much higher it seemed if I remember correctly.
Yup, it's the life here. But you know even locally we pay that kind of price for shipping so it's not that bad. The price Gremlin has right now match the local shipping price :)
Totally going to do business with him!
Edit: The only reason it would be better to buy locally is like /r/RedDread1973 stated is that they will ship for free over 100$. But rare are the Canadian shop that have all the flavors of a distinct mix like Bronuts ;)
Shoot, I can't even find all the flavors I want at any given order time at one US vendor. What makes it even more frustrating is that the day or two after I order from 2-3 sites (and pay extra shipping in the process of course) to get everything I need, I get emails stating the flavors I wanted are "back in stock" from the one site I "could" have got them all from.... But then at that point, flavors I did get from that same site are now out of stock.
That and steeping times are my two worse DIY enemies.
Hey man - really do appreciate the reaching out to Canadians and setting stuff up like this. I'm in Vancouver, BC, and there's a certain amount of frustration when dealing with Canadian vendors, including questionable tax charges (flavourings are tax free in my province, classified as baking goods), stuff out of stock, and pretty substantial (sometimes 100% or more) markups.
If I could make a suggestion, which would probably really boost your rep with possible Canadian customers even more than this current offering already does (which, again is very appreciated!) - we often see US vendors offering free shipping over XX amount of dollars spent to US customers, but it never carries over to Cdn orders. If you went out of you way to apply that discount to the shipping costs for Cdn orders (so if you offer free shipping over $50 to US, and that "costs" you $4.50, then apply a $4,50 discount to the Cdn shipping too, so a $15 shipping cost gets discounted to $10.50), you'd probably get a lot of interest from Canadian DiYers because not many US vendors do that. Canadians are getting killed by the super crappy exchange rate the last 18 months, so any little help / accommodation a US vendors offers would see a lot of appreciation.
One Q before I possibly put together an order - sorry if I missed this: are you shipping via USPS, or UPS?
Thank you for your time in writing this out. I will look into some kind of shipping discount if and where possible. You did spark a few thoughts on things we might be able to do. Right now it is just USPS, but I haven't had time to look into the other big carriers yet. The last time I tried to do international it was by using a shipping company that turned into a nightmare so I'm going to be a little more cautious this time. :)
And to those reading from Australia / NZ, as soon as this goes into full affect, I will start on getting product to you as well. I'm just a bit amazed that the shopping options are so weak around the globe... I feel a bit like Pinky and the Brain...
Pinky: Gee, Brain, what do you want to do tonight?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky - try to take over the world!
> Right now it is just USPS, but I haven't had time to look into the other big carriers yet.
Stick with USPS! UPS is a nightmare to Canada. Recipients are routinely dinged with excess charges, like $10, $20 for brokerage, handling charges, duties and taxes even of < $100 orders. Canada Post (via USPS) does not collect any duties, taxes, or brokerage on goods under $150 in most cases. UPS might save a vendor $5 on a shipment to Canada from the US, but will cost the recipient $30, $40 or more at the door.
So a followup to this old thread.
I did pull the trigger and tried an order; process was nice and fast; however, I have a question regarding the type of service you chose with USPS? You're in WA, I'm just up the 5 in Vancouver, BC, but this package went all the way to Miami? I've had things shipped from WA via USPS before to up here, and it usually only takes a few days - goes to Seattle, gets on a truck, driven up to Vancouver; this time around, it went a crazy distance. Perhaps the shipping option you chose made this a super cross country, carbon-spewing journey? Here's a screencap (still haven't gotten it, but I will probably get it tomorrow, since it cleared customs today in Richmond, BC).
http://imgur.com/ANjXQNp
Sorry to say this wasn't an option that we selected... We've been watching this one since the beginning. I've mentioned it to a few people in conversation being that I am so disappointed with USPS. Just the fact that I could have driven it up to you in about 3 hours... to have it go to Florida was bad enough, but to stay there for a few days from Tampa to Miami, and finally leave there to go to Texas. I was VERY happy to see it arrive at the border today after nearly two weeks. This is exactly the kind of service from USPS that made us stop trying international a year or so ago.
I am so very sorry it happened to you, but it has improved, a year ago they just vanished. At least this time it's just taking a scenic route to get there.
It also prompted me to ship the GPS tracking device to our friends at DB Liquids in Alabama for a little more data on how they ship things, where do they go, where does it sit... I kind of hope this DOES take a week to get there so we can see what they are doing! I will be posting the GPS results when it comes back. It's not a live track, we have to plug it in and download the data, but it is COMPLETE data. Every second of the trip on a map overlay, how fast it was moving, altitude...
Anyway, I am sorry for the delay. I am hopeful this is going to be a one and only situation and not become a constant problem forcing us to cancel the international campaign.
Appreciate the response, but also wanted to let you know, I'm not overly concerned and not upset about the length of time for delivery (we're used to parcels taking weeks to come up from the US! :D :D); just wanted to keep you in the loop and inquire if perhaps the level of shipping service you selected for this meant it took a super roundabout way (ie, ground local or something like that lol).