Over the last year or so, we suspended shipments to both Australia and New Zealand. There were several reasons for this decision — most notably the cost of shipping, particularly for larger items where the shipping fees could and were eclipsing the cost of the item itself. Together with VAT or customs fees, we were beginning to wonder why anyone would choose to use us to place their orders instead of sourcing product from an Australian or East Asian dealer.

At the other end of the spectrum, some customers were routinely asking us to find cheaper methods of delivery. Simply put, the USPS offered and continues to offer the cheapest rates available, with FedEx and UPS coming in a distant second and third. Gone are the days of surface mail or inexpensive air mail where we could ship an item around the world at an acceptable rate. Today, the cost to ship to Australasia is vastly prohibitive, so trying to attract and retain customers from “down under” no longer made sense.

Additionally, there were some customers who would place larger pre-orders for all sorts of items due out at varying intervals in time. They would then expect us to bear the cost of shipping each and every item individually citing the initial shipping fee that appeared on their invoice as a means of covering the cost of shipping out each item separately. Simply put, that is untenable and we would, in fact, be losing money if we elected to accept those orders. The only way that would or could work for us was if the customer kept their credit card information on file with us and permit us to charge them as each item arrived. Again, an iffy proposition for everyone concerned.

As a temporary solution, we’ve decided to resume shipping to both Australia and New Zealand for in-stock items only. We will not accept pre-orders, back orders or anything else not available at the time the order is placed. Remember too that Australia and New Zealand are twelve hours ahead of us, so we are unable to review an overnight order until the next day.

We recognize that this isn’t a perfect solution, but one we can deal with so long as the customer is okay with it too. Going forward, any pre-orders or back orders we receive will be cancelled outright unless we know for certain that the merchandise is expected shortly, and by shortly we mean over the next 30-days so that the authorization code we receive from the bank at the time the order is placed is still active. Otherwise we will simply point the customer back to this blog post as our reason for cancelling their order. Sorry, but that’s the fairest system we can come up with…