Hello @dan,
I find this answer a bit confusing:
"Why is international shipping so expensive?
Dan Shapiro 03/11/2016
With limited logistics time and resources, we had to go with traditional package delivery as the cheapest option we could launch with. The prices listed are the commercial rates for carriers like Fedex and DHL. Shipping dimensions of a Glowforge are 46" x 29" x 16" and 70 pounds. The Glowforge Air Filter is 46" x 29" x 12" and 40 pounds."
You seem to be saying that it should be cheap while the question is about why itâs expensive.
What does âtraditional package deliveryâ mean for international shipping? I know the GF is big and heavy but at $1700 (in my case) I would expect it to be flown (in first class) and delivered within 24hrs(!)
Could you confirm if international orders will be by air freight or⌠sea?
It would help in understanding what a December shipping date would mean for the overseas community in terms of getting their GF.
Look into services like shopusa.com. When you are asked for your address i assume you can put in a US address which will result in you being refunded the difference in shipping.
There are some caveats in using a middle-man like that but $1700 for shipping is just insane. Think you easily could save $1300 by doing it this way.
Iâve paid $560.50 for shipping. Using the above mentioned method it would be $99 for Glowforge US shipping + $253 for air shipping = $352. That is $208.50 saved which I do not think is an insignificant amount either.
Hi Brian,
Compared to other large products we have received in the past the Glowforge shipping fee seems extremely expensive and was actually about half the price of the GF proâŚ
I will certainly look into shopusa. Many thanks for the link.
Hi there, would I have be refunded the difference in shipping? I have placed my order to the Post-Campaign, and so far GF hasnât asked my shipping address. Thus, if I choose shopusa.com, it sounds to me a much reasonable fee of GF delivery. I would say that if anyone who may be cost âextremely expensive shipping feeâ (just like me), we should really consider to use shopusa.com (or similar service.)
I would like to ask you a question. Will it be late to apply shopusa.com for my GF delivery? Will it cause any inconvenience or unable to receive my GF? Most important question is that will I get some shipping refund by sending GF via shopusa.com???
This is my GF order information. I totally agree with the service like shopusa.com, because the fee of delivery is really too expensive from my order details.
This is not for me to answer. I have never used such a service myself and probably wonât be doing it for the Glowforge either.
I know Glowforge have not taken addresses as they knew that given the long time from pre-order to shipping many of these would have been invalid anyways. In the case that a customer had relocated to a different country in the period of time between pre-order and shipping I assume that they will be willing to refund the difference in shipping. They are not profitting on the shipping (as far as i know) So I think what you have paid equals the amount that they pay to a 3rd party for shipping.
Things to consider:
What happens if the Glowforge arrives broken to shopusa?
What happens if the Glowforge arrives broken to you?
I think he meant it was the cheapest shipping they could realistically arrange at the moment - just give each unit to FedEx and ask them to deliver it. In the future they will probably ship units in bulk to various parts of the world to bring costs down, but that isnât an option for them at this stage.
I agree the shipping costs are obscene, but they do seem to agree with the rates quoted by FedEx. In my case the quoted cost is almost 20% higher than what Glowforge actually charged, although that would probably change if I was a commercial customer and gave them more info.
Correct, thanks @Sam - these rates are simply what Fedex or someone similar would charge, minus the discount we get by being a large corporate customer. We havenât announced which delivery service we will use for each country.
Please note that we have to recommend against shipping your Glowforge without inspecting it then insuring it. In the unfortunate event that it arrived broken, we wouldnât be able to repair it since we wouldnât know if it was broken when we shipped it (our responsibility) or when the 3rd party shipped it (on their responsibility).
Given the delays, have you been able to invest the extra time to reduce the international delivery costs?
Shipping to Australia is very expensive and was the barrier in me ordering a filter - just couldnât justify the delivery costs. I would happily transfer the potential delivery charge to a filterâŚ
Also wondering if international location have any influence of the order of deliveries?
@Dan - I second this, I have purchased a unit to New Zealand and the shipping cost is a real burden.
It would mean a lot to international customers who made the early commitment to crowdfunding if you could look at this again.
It clearly had to be priced somehow in the early stages, but there must be a way to arrange a better deal - for example by shipping the consolidated consignment to country and then distributing via local networks?
I suspect that if you do go with an âindividual consignmentâ approach, there will be a very happy account manager somewhere - and a lot of committed Glowforge true believers around the world left with the feeling that there must have been a better way.
given the global volumes and future business potential for a carrier, there would also be a case to outsource this as a fully managed solution - I can think of two companies immediately who would likely jump at this business - Iâm sure there are many more.
I for one would be prepared to wait a few extra weeks for you to sort this out if it meant a significant saving.
Only because weâre farther away. They will still ship in the order that orders were placed, barring beta units and people who delay when supplying their address
Unfortunately everyone here is 100% at capacity just doing what we said we would, as soon as we can, so we have no plans to change shipping arrangements for international customers.
