CANADA HERE!
WHY IS THE SHIPPING 4 X THE AMOUNT OF THE ITEM! I dont need this item and hopefully never need it but I came on here to complain about glowforge shipping to canada!
glowforge needs to do better
thanks.
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Glowforge doesn’t have any control over what the shippers charge. 
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My question to you then is, if you don’t need it or want one then the shipping charges should not be a concern since @geek2nurse is correct. Glowforge doesn’t set the shipping charges the shipper does and generally based on, in your case the Government and it’s restrictions of good being shipped into your country , such as an import tax. So call your Government an complain.
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They do have control over what shippers they allow tho or, I hope they do. I only have the option of fedex international ground. Some more options would be helpful for international customers.
You might get a little bit upset when you go to buy one of those 20$ black lid cables and find out its going to cost you 130 usd and then import and duty fees ontop of that. Its been like this forever and it basically makes it so everything in the store is inaccessible to me unless I want to pay that shipping fee. You can bundle things up and get it to be less of a jarring experience but I cant afford to buy that large of order and if my machine goes down as I’m out of warranty I can’t afford to buy the parts for the machine.
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well …im sorry but they do!
it does not cost $85 to ship a cable…i buy crap all the time from the usa.
thanks!
its based on weight mostly and the size of the box the cable is tiny
it doesnt cost $85 shipping to ontario canada.
for a small cable that weighs maybe 2 lbs max
Fellow Canadian, and I know your pain. This is not a government issue - I’ve purchased a wide variety of items from other countries and have rarely had to pay any duty, and taxes are no higher than on something purchased here. The pain is always about shipping costs, and there are a number of reasons why it hurts so bad compared to what is paid in the USA. In no particular order:
- some retailers subsidize shipping within country. Very few do it for international shipments.
- given population density in Canada, anywhere outside of the biggest cities is more expensive to ship to. There are places as expensive to service in the USA, but if the vendor offers flat rate shipping those places are being subsidized. Alaska and Hawaii are often excluded from free or flat rate offers for that reason.
- There are additional costs to shipping across an international border, even between economies as integrated as Canada and the USA.
- and, for whatever reason (making up for cheap rates to more frequent destinations, taking advantage of purchaser’s limited options, or…?), shipping companies do seem to charge outrageous fees at times. If retailers want to serve an international clientele, they need to look for shippers offering good prices, as suggested above, and also need to monitor the shipping companies and take them to task when the amount they charge gets out of line.
It’s annoying when with generic supplies such as acrylic, but a serious issue for GF and its international customers and potential buyers when acquiring proprietary parts to keep the machine running includes this kind of shafting.
Still trying to figure out what your complaint about Glowforge is if you don’t even own one or want one. You can always buy something comparable there in Canada and pay less shipping…
I’ve seen this pop up a number of times from Canada (and other countries). I ordered a lens for someone in the UK and reshipped it; the label weight on the package from GF with just the lens was 7 lbs, if I remember right.
Shipping internationally IS expensive, but I’m pretty sure GF doesn’t have something configured correctly.
For example, I just rate checked a package to a Canadian customers address, 12x9x4, 2.5 lbs, and ground (with no shipper discount) came out to $28.76. My USPS price on the package was like $16.95.
However, if I ship the same package to the Inuvik liquor store, which is about as remote as I can think of in Canada, that same package does come to $131.27.
I couldn’t get any Antarctica addresses to pull up in FedEx 
You have to be an owner to post here, unless something has changed.
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I NEVER SAID I DIDNT OWN ONE! lol what the hell why would i be on this forum if i didnt own a glowforge.
I said i dont need the cable YET nor do i want to need the cable
but if i do need said cable i have to pay 8 times the amount of it
I agree with you 100%
they are upping the weight for sure to make something as small as a lens or cable come to that much in shipping i wish they would read this forum…ill just have to use someone in the usa to mail it to and then have them mail it to me which is pathetic.
if you want to go halfsies on shipping, I’m game!
I was waiting for all the lenses and cables to be back in stock and doing one proactive order to minimize the pain of shipping
I have to agree with you on the fees charged by the shipper to Canada. I received my glowforge about 6 months ago and I could not believe the cost. Just after I purchased my glowforge the company put in a free shipping promotion. I complained to glowforge that I should have free shipping as well. The reply was only in America and they gave me a 50 dollar credit on glowforge materials. I spent the 50 dollars and spent just as much on import duties. The 50 dollars was a waste. Maybe we should get our own supplier of prefinished slabs of plywood here in Canada.
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Thank you for your feedback about shipping costs-I’ve made sure to let our team know. We are always working to improve and your feedback will help us do just that!
I’m going to close this thread, but feel free to start a new topic if you have any other questions.