Shipping – The Love, Hate Relationship

Hello Everyone,

As we are sure, most of us know by now, USPS has raised shipping fees once again as of the new year, straight across the board.  It doesn’t seem to matter what way we ship, fees are ever increasing.  Domestically, the increase has been mildly elevated, but for our International customers, the increase has not been so kind.  Even our uninsured flat rate international shipments have increased.

Canada and Mexico are now $14.00

All Other International destinations are now $18.00

Insured methods have gone up considerably.  An example for the UK, one of our major territories we ship to, went from an average of $29.00 to $37.00 +.  Unfortunately, our hands are tied as we truly cannot control these rising costs.

This newsletter today is only to serve as a reminder that due to the rising costs of shipping, especially international, the different shipping benefits we offer, will help to keep your costs down, and for most, this rise in costs won’t affect you.

We still offer the Free shipping domestically for those achieving a qualified purchase, and reduced international insured shipping for achieving the same.  For those living abroad and wish to try our products, there is always the lower rate of Uninsured shipping flat rate, with of course the assumed risk of a loss or stolen package.

We can honestly state, that in the all the time we have been operating, not a single package has ever been stolen or lost domestically, and when it finally did happen to us this past Christmas, it was over in the UK where a parcelforce van was stolen containing, what else, a shipment to our customers, fortunately all insured.  So this is still an option if willing to risk the loss, or perhaps join a friend in ordering and share the cost of insured shipping.

With the increase in freight, we researched FedEx and UPS, but alas, they are actually more money than USPS.  Plus they don’t offer the benefit of rapid delivery.  Same or more fees with an average freight time of 1 week or more unless you happen to reside in a neighboring state to us, then typically 2 days, but for more money than USPS.

So this has become a love, hate relationship with shipping entities, as we are at their mercy to get our packages to our beloved customers in a safe and timely fashion, and bottom line, they are still less expensive to that of UPS and FedEx.

You can Click on the link below to review our updated chart of new fees.  Please remember, these are averages on some fees, subject to weight and dollar amount of insured items.

Shipping Policy

Express Delivery and Global Express:  we are probably going to do away with these services altogether since we have been advised by USPS that the delivery timeframe will be the same as priority with a guarantee of second day, instead of overnight for domestic.  So we figure what is the point of offering this delivery service.  And international, the costs are so expensive, it won’t warrant the cost for packages that can be delivered via priority within a week typically.  On this we’ll keep you posted and update accordingly within the shipping module and on our policy page.

Thanks and hope everyone has a great and prosperous week.