Support

Hi

I found your website by chance a few months ago, and have just returned to find it completely redone. Very nice!

I have a few personal projects on the go that could really benefit from you services. Do you take orders from Canada?

Thanks

Thank you for your kind words, Zeke.

Yes, we absolutely do accept orders from Canada. We look forward to serving you!

Great, and thanks for the quick reply!

I have 2 more questions:

1 - does your software reflect accurate pricing and shipping costs for Canadian orders?

2 - does your quantity discount pricing apply to multiple panels of differing design, or only to multiples of a single panel design?

Thanks again for your help

Zeke,

1 - The current version of Front Panel Designer, 3.5, contains the correct pricing for panel designs from Canada. Please keep in mind that the pricing is in USD. Shipping costs are only a ballpark estimate, since shipping carrier pricing is fluid. Your final shipping cost will be added to your invoice at time of shipping.

2 - Our discount pricing applies to multiples of a single panel design.

Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any other questions.

Kind regards,
Karen

Some time ago, I ordered a couple of panels from Canada. The product was excellent - they look great and perform as expected. However, I offer a caution in case you haven't used UPS to get stuff from the U.S. before. The shipper, in good faith, charges the quoted UPS price to ship the product. UPS then adds a handling fee, and a brokerage fee (a percentage of declared value) which they collect COD. This moved my order from $120, which was ok, to $180, which was a bit pricey. I don't know if Front Panel Express offers shipping via USPS (they didn't when I ordered) - but that let's you trade traceable delivery for a $5.00 flat brokerage fee. I have had product mailed to me from the UK, and, for items in the $100-200$ dollar range at least, consider the risk of loss in transit an acceptable trade off to avoid extortionate UPS fees. Just my $0.02, and perhaps a query if you folks would ship by mail if I order again?

Dear Carl,

Thank you for your feedback. Shipping costs for international shipments can be more expensive than those for domestic orders. We encourage our international customers to always let us know if we should explore alternate shipping methods toward saving you money.

Kind regards,
Karen

I placed an order for about $50 worth of stuff, shipped via UPS ground. And UPS made me fork out an extra $40 at the door, or they would send back my package. The actual import tax was only $7 but apparently I owed them another $35 for filing my paperwork. I even had to pay GST on their brokerage fee. Hah.

Paying 80% in "duties" over the cost of the item is not fun. And that's not even counting the shipping cost.

The panels themselves were excellent. Superbly packaged, and in flawless condition. I couldn't ask for more there. But I suggest putting up a prominent message in the next version of Front Panel Designer, that warns customers about the UPS fees if their shipping address is in Canada.

I believe USPS is a good alternative as their shipments do not have such high brokerage fees.

Hello Joshua,

We are very sorry to hear about your issues with customs. It seems that this is becoming more prevalent with UPS.

To get around these charges, you can set the shipping method to "Other", then leave a note in the "Remarks" box letting us know that you would like us to ship your order with USPS.

We will provide a rough estimate for your order confirmation, then alter the shipping amount on the day of shipping. Though the USPS shipping can be a dollar or two higher than UPS Standard, the customs brokerage fees are quite a bit more reasonable.

Let us know if you have any other questions or concerns.

Kindest Regards,
Paul Birkeland