ANDPIERRES (Nicholas King)
CREATOR
5 months ago
Project Update: US fulfillment update pt 2 (PLEASE READ)
hi again everyone!
in my last update, i talked about some of the obstacles we were having in regards to shipping out orders to backers in the US. due to updated de minimus and tariff rules, packages being sent via regular courier services like canada post/USPS, fedex, etc, were being rejected at customs unless duties were paid for ahead of time. i explored an option to be able to do that for you guys, using a service called chitchats, and in that process discovered that duty fees for these US orders were going to cost me about $35 CAD/$25 USD per order to ship, which wasn't something i would be able to afford out of pocket.
so, an update on that:
the good news is that those test orders i sent via chitchats DID in fact arrive safely into the US! so pre-paying duties and shipping these items out via chitchats DOES work, even if it costs an arm and a leg. many of you reached out to assure me that you wouldn't mind paying extra shipping charges in order to receive your items, which i so so SO appreciate & cannot thank you enough for being open to the idea. but the issue now is figuring a way to charge that to you guys in the first place.
i experimented with modifying the US shipping rate to just be $25 higher than the postage price, hoping that that would then retroactively apply to any orders that haven't been shipped yet, but backerkit won't allow you to change shipping rates for currently active orders. so, my next course of action is going to be reaching out to backerkit directly and asking how exactly i should go about charging this new tariff fee, or if it's even possible to do so at this point.
if it's not, well... we'll have to figure something else out!
another thing to consider is that canada post is currently on strike. while this doesn't affect my ability to use chitchats, who ship directly with USPS, it DOES mean that every other carrier currently has higher rates due to increased package volume from the strike. so, even if i'm able to figure out a way to apply this charge to you guys, it may still be another few weeks before orders begin going out again to avoid having to pay even higher shipping fees due to the strike.
so that's where we're at right now! i'm sorry that it's not a whole lot of actual concrete news or updates, but i wanted to let you all know what i've been working on logistically behind the scenes.
it's currently a holiday weekend in canada, so if you sent me an email within the last week or two, expect a reply starting tuesday or wesnesday!
& of course, thank you as always for your support and patience. 🖤
(also, i did ship out a few more international orders about a week or two ago! so we're not sitting at about ~36% of orders shipped.)
in my last update, i talked about some of the obstacles we were having in regards to shipping out orders to backers in the US. due to updated de minimus and tariff rules, packages being sent via regular courier services like canada post/USPS, fedex, etc, were being rejected at customs unless duties were paid for ahead of time. i explored an option to be able to do that for you guys, using a service called chitchats, and in that process discovered that duty fees for these US orders were going to cost me about $35 CAD/$25 USD per order to ship, which wasn't something i would be able to afford out of pocket.
so, an update on that:
the good news is that those test orders i sent via chitchats DID in fact arrive safely into the US! so pre-paying duties and shipping these items out via chitchats DOES work, even if it costs an arm and a leg. many of you reached out to assure me that you wouldn't mind paying extra shipping charges in order to receive your items, which i so so SO appreciate & cannot thank you enough for being open to the idea. but the issue now is figuring a way to charge that to you guys in the first place.
i experimented with modifying the US shipping rate to just be $25 higher than the postage price, hoping that that would then retroactively apply to any orders that haven't been shipped yet, but backerkit won't allow you to change shipping rates for currently active orders. so, my next course of action is going to be reaching out to backerkit directly and asking how exactly i should go about charging this new tariff fee, or if it's even possible to do so at this point.
if it's not, well... we'll have to figure something else out!
another thing to consider is that canada post is currently on strike. while this doesn't affect my ability to use chitchats, who ship directly with USPS, it DOES mean that every other carrier currently has higher rates due to increased package volume from the strike. so, even if i'm able to figure out a way to apply this charge to you guys, it may still be another few weeks before orders begin going out again to avoid having to pay even higher shipping fees due to the strike.
so that's where we're at right now! i'm sorry that it's not a whole lot of actual concrete news or updates, but i wanted to let you all know what i've been working on logistically behind the scenes.
it's currently a holiday weekend in canada, so if you sent me an email within the last week or two, expect a reply starting tuesday or wesnesday!
& of course, thank you as always for your support and patience. 🖤
(also, i did ship out a few more international orders about a week or two ago! so we're not sitting at about ~36% of orders shipped.)
Comments
3