US & Canada Open Pandora GmbH Preorders & Ithic.com Shipping

[Link]

For those in Canada wondering whether to go UPS or USPS here is the link on the charges:


http://www.ups.com/c..._clearance.html


So you will pay UPS approximately $50 for the honour of them clearing customs for you. They will also charge you more on top of that for paying your HST in advance to customs when crossing the border. (They don't mention that clearly but the charge exists.) These are a big reason I refuse to use UPS Ground shipments into Canada. They really charge a lot for little paperwork.


In comparison Canada Post will charge around $10 for customs clearance and no fees for them paying the HST in advance to customs on your behalf.


Now here is a fun thing about UPS. You often end up pay less in total by upgrading the shipment to UPS Worldwide Express Plus, UPS Worldwide Express, UPS Worldwide Express Saver, or UPS Worldwide Expedited Services. All of those shipping upgrades include the brokerage fees in the shipping cost. You still pay a bit for them advancing the HST they pay on your behalf to clear customs but it is about the same cost as the Canada Post fees. (And you can sometimes avoid that by calling UPS in advance once you have a tracking number and giving them a credit card number to pay for the HST to customs... you gotta get this info to them before the package hits customs.)


Question for Link: What is the cost for upgrading to UPS Worldwide shipping? Choose the least expensive of the above upgrades. I suspect it will be close to using USPS. But the UPS upgrade will usually arrive in 2-4 days (usually) versus 8-14 days via USPS.


Sorry to add some work for you Link, but I ship a lot of stuff in from the States. I think a lot of folks would like the option to use UPS Worldwide shipping - after all the cost will be about the same as USPS and the shipment will arrive way, way faster. Seems like a win-win situation to me.

I just wanted to reply again to this.


A customer whom I sent an UPS Expedited Shipment to Canada last week WAS charged $75.08 Canadian, of which $63 was a GST tax (Canadian Sales Tax from what I understand). The rest were some handling fees to get to the $75.08


UPS Express or Expedited may cover parts of the customs/taxes/handling, but if you get snagged, you are still going to pay fees to get your package from UPS.


I'm no longer going to offer UPS Express or Expedited options to Canada, as this is really not a service that I can feel good about offering anyone in the future. This fee just put someone's Pandora cost over $600, with over $100 in shipping charges. That's not my idea of a service.


I'll stick with shipping things into Canada UPS Ground and USPS Priority Mail as the upgrade option, as I haven't had any complaints of this sort with USPS.


Emails are going out soon to the next round of people who've paid EvilDrgaon from the US and Canada, I've been waiting for the shipment to show up in the UPS system so I can give a timeframe in the email.

 

[Link]

Double post apologies, but its the next box, should be here Wedensday the 18th, US orders will likely ship Wednesday, Canadian orders on Thursday morning.

 

[fredg999]

I have a question concerning the items in the list.


Is there a way to order a classic Pandora carry case from this shop? Or would I have to order one from one of the two other shops aside?


Anyway, I'm interested in one of those custom cases, so in either case, I might pick an unofficial one.

 

[Link]

I have a question concerning the items in the list.


Is there a way to order a classic Pandora carry case from this shop? Or would I have to order one from one of the two other shops aside?


Anyway, I'm interested in one of those custom cases, so in either case, I might pick an unofficial one.

I'm not selling official Open Pandora goods, yet. You should order from EvilDragon's shop, I can ship it from my location.


Looks like the next shipment won't arrive until Friday 4/20/2012 from Germany. US orders should go out same day, Canadian orders Saturday/Monday.

 

[fredg999]

I've read that it is possible to combine a preorder with other items from your store. However, let's say I order a Pandora at EvilDragon's shop (because my parents are probably still pessimistic and wouldn't like to pay all of the money for the Pandora without knowing when I'll get it ­— unless I'm confused and the same deposit applies to your shop?), when would I have to pay for the accessories sold at ithic? As soon as you receive the Pandora from Germany and are ready to ship it? As of when I would order the accessories?


Also, if I order from your shop, how does the queue work? Is there a separate queue for your shop that is passed through as you receive the Pandoras from Germany?

 

[Link]

I've read that it is possible to combine a preorder with other items from your store. However, let's say I order a Pandora at EvilDragon's shop (because my parents are probably still pessimistic and wouldn't like to pay all of the money for the Pandora without knowing when I'll get it ­— unless I'm confused and the same deposit applies to your shop?), when would I have to pay for the accessories sold at ithic? As soon as you receive the Pandora from Germany and are ready to ship it? As of when I would order the accessories?


Also, if I order from your shop, how does the queue work? Is there a separate queue for your shop that is passed through as you receive the Pandoras from Germany?

If ordering a Pandora, my shop doesn't require a deposit. Ithic.com doesn't have a que. The units that appear available at http://www.ithic.com are on hand or alloted for sale when the shipment arrives.


If you want to order from EvilDragon's shop, then you pay your depsosit at http://www.openpandora.org, wait for him to contact you for the remainder of the payment. After you make the payment, he will let me know to alert you to your shipment's timeframe. This is when you can order from my shop to combine orders into one shipment. You'll then get tracking information from UPS once your order ships (or a notice that the unit shipped USPS if you elect for that upgrade from my shop).


For anyone who's waiting for news on this shipment, US orders will ship tomorrow. Canadian orders will take an extra day to process due to making customs forms. They'll go out Saturday or Monday.


Canadian orders have to pay with PayPal. Let me know the goods you want, I'll invoice you for those items via PayPal. You can PM me here, or use the contact button at http://www.ithic.com


Not trying to create confusion here, just trying to keep everything moving along. If you have any other questions, let me know.

 

[Oreadia]

I received my UPS tracking information today! The extra accessory item I ordered from Link's shop a while ago was bundled with my Pandora, as promised. Three cheers for ED and Link and the OP team :wub: ! *dances around the room*

 

[Fluff]

I got mine as well. Should have my Pandora by the 25th. I'm excited.

 

[fredg999]

When you say Canadian customers must pay with PayPal, does that mean I must not use the normal form? That is, the one that uses Google Checkout, which doesn't work in Canada.


Considering PayPal does not use this form, I have looked a bit around, on this thread and on iThic.com, and I couldn't find where to place an order using PayPal. Would that be a payment to your PayPal account directly, or something else I can't think of? I'm not really used to how PayPal works. (way to abuse of 'PayPal' in a paragraph!)


Also, concerning the accessories to be added to the order, would it make sense to send you by PM/email that info before or after the actual order? Again, I'm not sure about how this works. (*feels stupid*)


Anyway, I've got to ask my parents again if I can order. Maybe they'll be convinced this time because of the short time frame between the payment and the delivery. ^_^


Thanks a lot for helping me with this. I'm really asking a lot of questions! I hope this can help other potential Canadian customers.


P.S. I can't find the SD card that was available on the shop anymore. Did you remove it, or did you just run out of stock?

 

[Link]

^


PM sent


Most US and Canadian units shipped today. I will try and have the rest out tomorrow. The post office closed by the time the shipment arrived and was inventoried. UPS store was open til 7PM, so a bunch are out on their way.

 

[spiralofhope]

Link:


I paypal'd you $20 for the USPS upgrade to Canada.


I've been raped by UPS before.. for more than the value of the item. There's no way in hell I'll ship UPS! =)


I don't think my Pandora is ready yet, but I wanted to get you paid asap.


--


Thanks for your hard work figuring all this shipping crap out.

 

[Link]

Link:


I paypal'd you $20 for the USPS upgrade to Canada.


I've been raped by UPS before.. for more than the value of the item. There's no way in hell I'll ship UPS! =)


I don't think my Pandora is ready yet, but I wanted to get you paid asap.


--


Thanks for your hard work figuring all this shipping crap out.

No worries, thanks for the heads up, because I had no idea about an order going to Canada of the sort. Now it makes more sense. You'll be contacted once I get your shipping information.

 

[Link]

USPS is not immune from customs charges either. Sent a package USPS Express Mail to Canada and it got hit with a $75 customs charge. Looks like it is totally random with both UPS & USPS as I believe a few are making it without customs charges. Seems like things moving quickly definetly get looked at pretty hard.

 

[WizardStan]

That would likely be actual duty crossing the border. The problem with UPS is they tack on their own "handling" fee for "helping" to clear customs in addition to the shipping cost whether there was duty or not, and I'd be surprised if there were any cross-border UPS packages that didn't have some kind of fee added on. In contrast, the cost of clearing customs is already worked into the shipping cost that you pay to USPS, and any additional fees you have to pay are only duty. The Pandora shouldn't have any duty applied to it, so there should be no surprises shipping via USPS.

 

[spiralofhope]

The problem with UPS is they tack on their own "handling" fee for "helping" to clear customs in addition to the shipping cost whether there was duty or not...

^ this


I'll just pray to the shipping gods while looking for an albino goat to sacrifice.

 

[Grench]

Link - now that orders and pre-orders are getting caught up on the new 512MB boards...


ED has talked several times about offering the new boards to existing Pandora owners as an upgrade with core return basis.


Are you going to be selling the upgrade boards?

 

[Link]

^


ED would be a better person to throw this question to.


My shop now has the essential tools for Pandora assembly, soldering iron, rounded Knipex pliers, etc, so I'm open to helping the community however I can.


Personally I'm super curious as to seeing the latest case revision as I already have people wanting new cases from stress cracks.

 

[Grench]

^


ED would be a better person to throw this question to.


My shop now has the essential tools for Pandora assembly, soldering iron, rounded Knipex pliers, etc, so I'm open to helping the community however I can.


Personally I'm super curious as to seeing the latest case revision as I already have people wanting new cases from stress cracks.

Yeah - I have had my Pandora for a year, but I'm on my 2nd case and it has stress fractures, separation between the keyboard and lower layer, etc. I hope they get the plastics straightened out.


With a new board, new plastics... at some point it makes more sense to just buy a new unit and sell the old one. After all, changing the case, the motherboard - all that is left of consequence is the battery, screen & keymat.


Hmmm... I suppose I'll have to wait for now.

 

[Link]

Latest batch of preorders shipped on Monday the 30th for US and Canadian customers.

 

[spiralofhope]

I preordered from openpandora.org 2011-11-23, it just arrived (Canada). Paid Link $20 to ship regular post and not UPS. No customs fees. I hear at least one other has been hit by a customs fee with regular post.


The experience has been nothing but pleasant!