Shipping cost question for KW

[nonamehandle]

hi,

was in the process of ordering a subscription and 2 back issues as well as 2 other books and noticed that each of the individual items had its own postage cost.

.................................................. .....postage .....price

1 Issue 3.4 ........................................$9.90 ......$10.00
1 Issue 4.1 ........................................$9.90 ......$10.00
1 4 Issue Subscription - Individual...........$36.03 ......$40.00
1 Kendo Kata: Essence and Application....$13.16 ......$15.00
1 The Kendo Grading Book + DVD (NTSC)..$5.00 ......$35.00

.................................................. ......Total: $183.99

though i can understand that the subscription would incur a postage cost separate from the others, not sure why each of the other items will have separate postage. i would want all of the others (back issues and the 2 books) in one shipment and not in serial shipments.

can a KW Team staff clarify this for me? thanks.

[Alex]

Hi there,

I am in transit in Auckland at the moment, and I think Mike is on his way back from the EKC in Helsinki. We will return to this post when we all get back to Japan and explain what the situation is.

Alex

[Alex]

Back again,

the reason for the cost of sending back issues is because our stock has been stored in differnt warehouses in NZ and Singapore. This will change soon, however, as we have just sent all of our reminding stock in NZ to our warehouse in Singapore. This means that we can send orders of back issues in one package very soon. If you have any more questions, please send mail to customer_svs@kendo-world.com

cheers,

Alex

[rcheung135]

I sent an email in regards to the same question to customer_svs@kendo-world.com. I haven't gotten a response, and I would like to know where else I could direct my question to. Much thanks.

[Alex]

what is your question?

Cheers,

[rcheung135]

Well, I'm pretty much in the same boat: I wanted to order two past issues, 3.3 and 3.4, as well as the Kendo Grading Book + DVD (NTSC). The shipping is separate, so I am wondering whether the shipping has been fixed (to ship back issues in one package).

Much thanks.

[Jack Flash]

I have the same problem.
3 back issues + 1 kata book = 45 bucks. Very reasonable, or so I thought.
But then the catch - P&P (1 - 2 weeks airmail) 56 bucks...:shocked:
Come on guys, I could Fedex 30kg for that!

Is there no chance of parcelling all the items together?
Pretty please?

[kendo_bum]

I have the same problem.
3 back issues + 1 kata book = 45 bucks. Very reasonable, or so I thought.
But then the catch - P&P (1 - 2 weeks airmail) 56 bucks...:shocked:
Come on guys, I could Fedex 30kg for that!


I think I understand what everyone is thinking regarding the shipping price if you are not a Singapore locals. Yes, the shipping cost here from Singapore is very high compared to other countries.

I guess to ship what Jack Flash was trying to order, it may be 2.5kg ~ 3kg. If you go to the Singapore Post website (http://www.singpost.com.sg/quick_services/quicks_02postage_cal.asp) and plug in the shipping weight as "2500gm" and "USA" in the destination field, you will find that it costs S$67.25 for Speedpost Air Parcel, which is around USD$50. :eek:

FedEx is also quite expensive for posting a 2.5kg parcel. I know because I frequently use their service. It is very fast, but of course, it comes at a pretty price too. :ponder: Anyway, this is the price you are looking at for posting a 2.5kg parcel from Singapore to The States.

FedEx International Priority® S$160 = USD$118
FedEx International Economy® S$130 = USD$95

So I can sort of feel the pain of what Kendo World is going through. Anyway, enough rambling. Just got too much time on my hand at the moment.

[always_learning]

Sometimes I worry that the magazine, books sales are seriously hindered due to the heavy costs of shipping. I certainly balked not at the cost of the magazine or books but the cost of shipping.

BTW I was going to get my friend to bring me KW stuff from singapore, but even when I selected Singapore as the destination the cost of shipping didnt change :(

[bobdonny]

FFS, how much do ye fecking pay for a new shinai? or membership fee's? or the tenegui?
The cost of this publication (including shipping) is feck all.

Quit moaning and get out your credit card! :)

[rcheung135]

Sometimes I worry that the magazine, books sales are seriously hindered due to the heavy costs of shipping. I certainly balked not at the cost of the magazine or books but the cost of shipping.

BTW I was going to get my friend to bring me KW stuff from singapore, but even when I selected Singapore as the destination the cost of shipping didnt change :(

I wonder if going in person to the KW printing shops help. Does KW have a phone line or front desk?

[MikeW]

FFS, how much do ye fecking pay for a new shinai? or membership fee's? or the tenegui?
The cost of this publication (including shipping) is feck all.

Quit moaning and get out your credit card! :)

lol.. Well my membership fee including local dojo, SEUSKF and AUSKF dues together are about $110 a year. I have bought one new shinai in the last 5 years and the shipping wasn't as much or more than the cost of the shinai (as it is with KW mags). I haven't bought any kendo equipment or tenegui in 6 or 7 years. As a business model having your shipping cost more than the actual product and not having combined shipping is a problem.

[Alex]

lol.. Well my membership fee including local dojo, SEUSKF and AUSKF dues together are about $110 a year. I have bought one new shinai in the last 5 years and the shipping wasn't as much or more than the cost of the shinai (as it is with KW mags). I haven't bought any kendo equipment or tenegui in 6 or 7 years. As a business model having your shipping cost more than the actual product and not having combined shipping is a problem.

Gee thanks for that. We do have combined shipping that goes on weight. And as for shipping being more expensive than the product...I guess we'll just have to make the product more expensive to balance it out more. :) Oh, and the shipping isn't much more than the mags. it only seems so when shipping is paid for in advance for a subscription of 4.

As for your shinai, 1 in the last 5 years??!! I am assuming that you are using a CARBON SHINAI. You may or may not have seen an article in KW a few years ago about how CARBON SHINAI are made. The president of the company that makes them made a desparate plea to people that they do deteriorate, and should be replaced every 3 years lest they break and cause serious injury to your training partner. If its bamboo and hasn't broken, you either aren't training at all, or are somehow related to Musashi.

[MikeW]

Alex, I'm not related to Musashi (lol, wish I was) but I do use bamboo shinai. I do take very good care of them however and I am not a woodcutter. I practice about 6 hours a week spread over 3 practices and have been for years. Personally I hate the carbon shinai.
Please do not take my comments as anything personal about you or KW magazine. I think the magazine is very good. But I still stand by my earlier post that the shipping arrangement is not optimal especially as far as combined orders go. Perhaps due to Singapore shipping as was suggested. I buy stuff from all over across the internet and I can't remember paying as much or more for shipping on anything I have bought (yes I know its all based on weight). Maybe its just impression and if the book did cost 20 per issue the shipping would seem cheap..lol! However, my daughter subscribes to magazines from Japan and the shipping cost for two issues (they each have about 150 pages plus extras) is only about $12 US. I don't know if it is a possibility to offer different mail rates or not from Singapore instead of air but people that don't mind waiting an extra week or 2 (or more) might like to have that as an option. Sorry just kind of shooting from the hip here as far as ideas go. If there is nothing KW can do about their shipping arrangements then thats the way it is. I would love to subscribe to the mag myself but I can't really afford it. Please note I'm not saying it isn't worth it (despite the shipping comments). I wish it were available through other routes, I don't know if you guys have ever looked into a distributor instead of doing it yourself but perhaps you aren't interested in that. Like I said, just brainstorming out loud... you guys have probably already looked at it from all these angles.

[Alex]

Hi Mike,

I am not a great fan of carbon either, but it certainly has a very important place.

Anyway, your points are well taken, and well known. There is nothing we can do about the cost of sending things out of Singapore. When we first decided to print in Singapore it was because the cost and quality of printing was significantly better than most other venues. Cheap, good quality printing offset with expensive mailing costs... In the end it evens out one way or the other. Anyway, changes are afoot, but I can't go into any detail...

[rcheung135]

Going off topic a bit, but is that you in the front cover Alex? :D

[Alex]

Yes, that's a few of the KW team. We participated in the publishers tournament at the Noma Dojo for the last few years. That photo is from the last tournament before they ripped it down. This issue has a special article on the Noma Dojo, so we used that photo.

[Rularn]

Same topic but different question... is it just me or did the price for shipping the KW magazines go way way way up? A four issue subscription of $40 has a $50 shipping charge, totaling $90.