BRS Shipping Fees Excessive

[viperfish]

I was ordering a two part dosing kit from BRS for $69.95 and the shipping and tax is $63.25! That's insane! I just ordered a 48" T5 fixture from another US vendor and the tax/shipping/brokerage only came to $108. I'm thinking somebody is getting screwed and it certainly isn't the vendor!

[Jason McK]

Shipping is done by weight plus BRS hides the brokerage fees in the shipping.

I'm sure if you where to buy something of equal size and weight anywhere else it would be close to the price you pay at BRS

J

[JonT]

They don't hide it, they tell you that they are doing it.

They make sure that once you pay them, your done. Nothing extra at the door.

I recently partook in a group buy, and was quite happy with shipping/taxes etc. Everything was packed well. Extra care was given to things that could get broken. I would recommend them to anyone, and will place future orders when I run out of stuff.

[reefermadness]

I find shipping to be quite high when ordering one or two items...but ordering a bit more doesnt change the price much. SO...I only place one or two large orders a year.

[JonT]

Originally Posted by reefermadness

I find shipping to be quite high when ordering one or two items...but ordering a bit more doesnt change the price much. SO...I only place one or two large orders a year.

I didn't look at the one or two item side to this. My order was fairly large (Just ask my wife when she saw the invoice.... No way I could convince her it was only $20 this time!) So, I guess I was doing alright with my "bracket" of weight/goods.

[snarkys]

Hi,
I hate shipping, taxes and brokerage as much as the next guy however they are real charges that have to be dealt with. Please keep in mind we are located in the US so this is an international transaction. To be clear not only do we not overcharge Canadians on this we loose money on the shipping, tax and brokerage charges.
On the charges
1) The item you are looking at is around 40 pounds which makes it expensive to ship
2) There is a 15% tax which covers the GST , PST and duties to the province where the shipments originally arrive. We charge this on our site and prepay it so it arrives on your doorstep without additional charges and surprise fees. We feel this is the most honest hassle free way of doing business with our customers
3) By shipping all of the packages together on Friday we are able to take part of a program that lowers the brokerage fees enough that we are willing to pay them for you out of our own pockets. For example typical brokerage fees on a $200 package with fed ex or UPS would be almost $50 so this is a huge savings.
I hope this answers your questions

[snarkys]

Originally Posted by medhatreefguy

I was ordering a two part dosing kit from BRS for $69.95 and the shipping and tax is $63.25! That's insane! I just ordered a 48" T5 fixture from another US vendor and the tax/shipping/brokerage only came to $108. I'm thinking somebody is getting screwed and it certainly isn't the vendor!

BTW I doubt the light weighed significantly more than the box of heavy salts you are purchasing so our $63.25 verses their $108 should be pretty fair once tax are factored in. Certainly not drastically off . In other instances where a vendor charges less than us for these things it is because they are breaking international law by misrepresenting the value of the items . We are unable to break laws like this because everyone here would prefer to stay out of jail : )

[fencer]

do you ship USPS?

[snarkys]

No but believe me we would do it if it made sense at all. USPS has a variety of issues from both customer and business standpoints. We are trying to find a way to let the customer have the best of both worlds.

1) USPS often charges more for postage than other services but the low brokerage fees make up for this. If there are no brokerage fees it simply costs more. Since we pay your brokerage fees for you USPS is more expensive in almost all cases.

2) USPS's tracking is next to worthless. Most the time it only says it left here and then updates that it has been delivered. This is no help when you are trying to figure out when a package is going to arrive. It also doesn't help when the package got held by customs and it has been two weeks with no delivery ...

3) Our experience is USPS is really unreliable. One shipment will arrive really fast and another shipped on the same day mysteriously takes three weeks. This can be pretty distressing it if is your new $500 skimmer.

4) International packages over a certain weight need to be hand delivered to a post office employee, this is typically all of our packages. Sometimes the wait there is 10 minutes and sometimes it is an hour, Most businesses simply don’t have time for this type of shinanigins.

5) the USPS’s API for integrating their shipping costs into a websites calculator is poor at best. Often results in the customer being both drastically over and under billed because of limited weight and box size options. It is also incapable of telling you that this item is to heavy or to large to be shipped with USPS

6) They also have size and weight limitations. USPS doesn’t take packages over approximately 2 cubic feet which isn’t that big and certainly doesn’t lend itself to our “bulk packaged” idea.

[lastlight]

No complaints here. I'm a happy customer and will continue to come back. Always felt like prices were fair and yeah...it's shipped from the US too.