Why so MUCH for Interational?
We hate breaking down prices because it generates questions like this, but you should compare
our shipped international prices with others. We can't guaranty to be the lowest on
international orders, but
we are competitive. Our domestic price for the PalmPilot Personal, shipped, assumes we can
drop-ship directly from a major distributor without any handling other than taking the order,
creating the invoice, drop-shipping product, and handling technical support questions and
returns. That's how we have such a cheap price. To ship international requires us to ship the
product our own facility, rebox it, re-weigh it, create invoices and customs forms to attach to the
box, contact an international carrier, and send it back out the door. This is an extremely
time-consuming process. Also, because international shipments are so sensitive to box size (166
cubic inches = 1 pound of "dimensional weight"), we cannot use standard boxes but must use cut-down
boxes to the smallest size possible to reduce size.
We wish we could provide a lower price to international customers, but the additional price barely
justifies the added work. When all is said and done, we make $5 more on an international
order than on a domestic one, and the added labor involved in processing more than offsets
that increased price.
The alternative is simply to decline to handle any international orders. Instead, we offer an
alternative to others. If it makes sense for you, use it. If not, please don't berate us because
we offer a better deal for US customers. We're really not trying to be unfair, but our operation
is such that there are savings for domestic orders which simply do not exist in international
orders.