Concerns with High International Shipping Costs?

[Terrian]

Was about to buy one of your Macro controllers. But I then got to the shipping price page and was astonished to see that it would cost $100 to ship to the UK. I love your controllers and everything but that seems a bit extortionate for a shipping price.

Seen other people sell rapid fire controllers and such that ship to the UK from the US for $30-$50. Maybe you should start making these in the UK as well if its possible so more UK people can buy. I would love to purchase but $329 total for a controller is a bit too much for me for just a controller.
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[NYjetsNY1]

We used to have a shipper in the UK but now I believe we do not. Read odingalts post below.

 

[odingalt]

We understand your frustration.

Viking360.com site currently only offers UPS's top international shipping option, which starts at about $85 depending on the destination. Here's an explanation why:

Other companies may be using the USPS (United States Postal Service) shipping, which does cost about $45, but is also incredibly unreliable. We used to offer our customers the option of shipping with the USPS Express International service. But we found that about 5% of these international customers would report that they never received the parcel. In these cases, Viking was forced to replace a $200+ controller for free, plus pay for shipping a second time (which ended up totaling about $45 shipping for each parcel). We do not believe the parcels were actually missing, but rather that international customers were taking advantage of the fact that the USPS does not always obtain proper signature for proof of delivery. In order to cut down on "lost" packages (or fraud), and the high cost associated with "lost" packages, we now only offer UPS's most reliable shipping solution. UPS obtains the proper proof of receipt each and every time.

We have found FedEx's international rates to be MUCH more competitive than the UPS. We have recently launched a new site VikingDigital.com which is now offering the FedEx service. Unfortunately we will not be offering FedEx on the Viking360.com site as Viking360.com uses a different e-commerce platform which does not support FedEx. Perhaps we could offer you a custom quote for the FedEx shipping option and then issue a coupon code for the Viking360 site that would reduce your shipping to the appropriate cost quoted by FedEx?

We could then manually intercept your order on our administration panel and manually change the shipping option to FedEx. However I think the FedEx service is still going to be in the $60-$80 price range. I can try to take a look if you know of a City, Township, County and/or Country and/or postal code (if applicable).

 

[odingalt]

We used to have a shipper in the UK but now I believe we do not.

Unfortunately we no longer have an inventory of macro controllers with our UK contact.

 

[Terrian]

We understand your frustration.

Viking360.com site currently only offers UPS's top international shipping option, which starts at about $85 depending on the destination. Here's an explanation why:

Other companies may be using the USPS (United States Postal Service) shipping, which does cost about $45, but is also incredibly unreliable. We used to offer our customers the option of shipping with the USPS Express International service. But we found that about 5% of these international customers would report that they never received the parcel. In these cases, Viking was forced to replace a $200+ controller for free, plus pay for shipping a second time (which ended up totaling about $45 shipping for each parcel). We do not believe the parcels were actually missing, but rather that international customers were taking advantage of the fact that the USPS does not always obtain proper signature for proof of delivery. In order to cut down on "lost" packages (or fraud), and the high cost associated with "lost" packages, we now only offer UPS's most reliable shipping solution. UPS obtains the proper proof of receipt each and every time.

We have found FedEx's international rates to be MUCH more competitive than the UPS. We have recently launched a new site VikingDigital.com which is now offering the FedEx service. Unfortunately we will not be offering FedEx on the Viking360.com site as Viking360.com uses a different e-commerce platform which does not support FedEx. Perhaps we could offer you a custom quote for the FedEx shipping option and then issue a coupon code for the Viking360 site that would reduce your shipping to the appropriate cost quoted by FedEx?

We could then manually intercept your order on our administration panel and manually change the shipping option to FedEx. However I think the FedEx service is still going to be in the $60-$80 price range. I can try to take a look if you know of a City, Township, County and/or Country and/or postal code (if applicable).

Thanks for the Help Odin. Just dont want to have to repay another $100 say if the controller was to go wrong or something. Would seem a pain sending back and forth costing $100 each time. I can give you my address or something and you could look at the FedEx price. If thats ok, thank you.

 

[odingalt]

Ok I will go get a FedEx shipping quote, another important thing to note is that we put down a value of around $150 (this is what the carrier will pay us if they lose the package, we tried putting actual value a customer paid, but the carrier asks for a bunch of documentation and then ends up paying you what they think the parcel was worth). Anyway, important thing to note is that you will be responsible for additional tax/duties that your government may impose! This can add up to an additional 20-30 GBP if you are in the U.K.

 

[Terrian]

Ok I will go get a FedEx shipping quote, another important thing to note is that we put down a value of around $150 (this is what the carrier will pay us if they lose the package, we tried putting actual value a customer paid, but the carrier asks for a bunch of documentation and then ends up paying you what they think the parcel was worth). Anyway, important thing to note is that you will be responsible for additional tax/duties that your government may impose! This can add up to an additional 20-30 GBP if you are in the U.K.

Knowing the state of our government lately I wouldn't be surprised if they charged that much.

 

[odingalt]

FedEx International Economy service, delivery by Wednesday 8/31 if shipped on 8/26. $72.18 USD. Not as good as I expected but I think also part of the problem is we just started using FedEx on the VikingDigital site, so until FedEx sees some volume from us, we don't get the discounted rates. (Basically once you've been shipping for a couple of months, they will assign us an Account Rep who will offer us some discounts).

 

[Vanilla Gorilla 808]

That's not bad considering shipping to Hawaii for a macro is $75

 

[JIM WALKER]

Hi Terian...I am in the U.K. I bought my macro controller in June!(Halo Reach special) regardless of the controller and postage costs,I must admit,the customs bill was a shock!!!!! £48!!!!!!!!!! Yours will proberbly be more as the rate is based on item value,and the macro is more expensive now due to rarity. On top of that,a further £8 was charged by our postal service (ups postal fees only cover on to U.K. coast....BTW...Customs held my package for 9 days before releasing it to parcel force,who then took another 3 days to get it to me....figure that out !!!!!!! BUT....IT WAS ALL WORTH IT IN THE END....I STILL RATE THE V360 MACRO CONTROLLER AS THE BEST THERE IS!!!!!!!!! Sod the cost,just buy it...you will NOT regret it.I do hope odingalt reads this,so he realises the extra difficulties we U.K. folks have importing his product....sorry odingalt if this sounds negative sales pitch,I don't mean it to be....i will always be a leading U.K. supporter of your amazing product,I just wanted Terrian to know what to expect from someone who has already been there!

 

[Terrian]

They should start selling them from the UK again. Would get a lot more UK buyers if they did.

@Jim it does seem like a long journey from purchasing the controller to it actually being in your hands. I gather it is worth it though for the only company that sells these. Just dont know whether to wait until they start selling them in the UK ever again or if I should just pay the shipping.

 

[camper]

I'm in the same boat would like one BUT all the extra charges make it a bit on the steep side, plus having two son's would I every get to use it. I must agree with Terrian START SELLING IN THE UK GUYS PLEASE.

 

[JIM WALKER]

problem is guys....even if they do,there are not enough macro controllers left to make that possible,so if you want a macro version then buy now,before they are sold out !!!!! As for the kids...I am 59yrs old and my grandchildren "DO NOT DARE TOUCH MY CONTROLLER" !!!!! It mine you hear! MINE....lol

 

[Ashley78]

I dont think it is fair on most international customers that do do the right thing that they pay such high shipping costs this is wrong.shame that a few ruin it for everyone else

 

[odingalt]

You're telling me ! :-(

We lost several very expensive chargebacks when we shipped USPS. I suspect what happened was the customer was so upset over having to pay the import duties, that they decided to file a chargeback and screw us out of the $300 plus the $60 we paid to ship it over. We lost several thousands of dollars shipping USPS on international orders. So either USPS is incredibly unreliable, or, customers taking advantage of us knowing that USPS does not get sufficient signature confirmation (since USPS just hands the package over to the local postal service and that service never takes a signature).

Since switching to FedEx and UPS, no more fraud or lost packages. Hurray!

 

[HAWK zer0]

ups is stupid where I used to live they never collected signatures and just left the package on the porch! I just hope they dont leave the package sitting outside so someone can jack it or Im gonna be ****ed!

 

[Tx1000]

Someone explain this to me?

So, its about shipping.



1)Why is the XBOX360 Ragnarok Controller shipping cheaper then the Marco?
2) Why does the XBOX360 Ragnarok Controller have to shipping options A)International Economy $58.27 B)International Priority $62.16
3) How come the Viking macro is way more to ship and only as one option of UPS worldwide saver $78.97?
4) Whats with the big price hike in shipping, i dont understand there 99% the same controller one has no Tac and the other does.

 

[NYjetsNY1]

So, its about shipping.



1)Why is the XBOX360 Ragnarok Controller shipping cheaper then the Marco?
2) Why does the XBOX360 Ragnarok Controller have to shipping options A)International Economy $58.27 B)International Priority $62.16
3) How come the Viking macro is way more to ship and only as one option of UPS worldwide saver $78.97?
4) Whats with the big price hike in shipping, i dont understand there 99% the same controller one has no Tac and the other does.

I think it has to do with the face that the macro controller costs more, so it ends up costing us more in shipping insurance.

 

[odingalt]

1)Why is the XBOX360 Ragnarok Controller shipping cheaper then the Marco?

UPS is more expensive than FedEx due to the current discounted rates we receive with each company. In addition to whether or not Viking gets a discounted rate, and how deeply discounted our rate is, FedEx and UPS also likely has different shipping hubs, which could affect their pricing. We are quoting you the price we pay with FedEx and UPS.

2) Why does the XBOX360 Ragnarok Controller have to shipping options A)International Economy $58.27 B)International Priority $62.16

Some people want to save $4.

3) How come the Viking macro is way more to ship and only as one option of UPS worldwide saver $78.97?

You've just asked the same question in a different way. See answer to #1

4) Whats with the big price hike in shipping, i dont understand there 99% the same controller one has no Tac and the other does.

This is a leading/pointed question. There is no big price hike in shipping. You are ordering one controller using FedEx service, and a totally different controller via UPS service. The services are different. This is like buying an IPad vs. buying an Android Tablet. You are talking apples and bananas.



Basically, if you want to know why shipping rates are a certain way, I would suggest you contact UPS or FedEx and quit getting angry at Viking. We aren't jacking up your shipping rates, we are charging real-time rates as we quote them from FedEx or UPS at the time of checkout. We built the Viking360.com website back in Fall of 2010, and that particular web developer used the UPS API. We saved money by using the UPS API instead of the FedEx API, therefore we offered UPS. Viking360.com is hard-coded to sell macros and to use UPS shipping.

When I personally built VikingDigital.com in the Fall of 2011, I chose a certain e-commerce platform, and that platform offered a superior FedEx shipping API. The UPS shipping API is crap. Therefore on VikingDigital I went with FedEx.

The difference in rates isn't some conspiracy by Viking to secretly make extra money on shipping charges. In both cases, we charge the customer the real-time rates that each shipping company quotes us at the time of checkout. We are a small company. I've covered this many times before, but I'll cover it again. I felt it was more important for me to spend my time developing out the Ragnarok modchip platform, than it was for me to waste my time adding UPS to the VikingDigital.com site and adding FedEx to the Viking360.com website.

The macro controllers on VikingDigital.com are shown out-of-stock for a simple reason: I need people to buy their macro controllers at the Viking360.com website, otherwise, they don't get a free account and access to the macro library. It's too time-intensive/expensive for me to build a database bridge between VikingDigital.com and Viking360.com. Therefore I ask that people buy from Viking360.com -- the site is already set up to generate each customer a macro and support account.

 

[odingalt]

THERE IS NO VIKING INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING PRICE CONSPIRACY. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, GO TO WWW.FEDEX.COM OR WWW.UPS.COM. ENTER A 2 LBS. PARCEL FROM USA ZIP CODE 99336 TO YOUR ADDRESS. I had this argument already with a user called "Terrian" and he lost - he tried this and it turns out that the Viking website rates are actually lower than FEDEX.COM and UPS.COM one-time reates. Please, just do your research next time, and you will see there is no conspiracy.

Thread closed.