Mar. 12, 2009 - NO MORE Free Shipping to Canada From Sonlight
That's right. I am very sad to say that Sonlight will no longer be offering Canadians the free shipping option that we have all appreciated so much in the past :(
You have until March 31st, 2009 to order all of your new books and materials from them and any order over $100 will be shipped free. So don't delay!!! Large orders for complete cores of $700 or more will cost you more than $100 dollars come April and I know that I for one can't afford that so I'm going to be digging out my catalogue and shopping up now.
Below you can find the information on why they are discontinuing the free shipping and how to break down your estimated shipping costs that will be charged.
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I am Tim Heil, the Customer Relations Manager for Sonlight Curriculum, Ltd. It's been my privilege to assist you with choosing and receiving your curriculum over the last several years.
According to my records, we have shipped orders to your Canadian address in the past. If your order was over $100, we shipped it with little to no shipping charges. Up until last spring, the cost to us for shipping was small enough that we were able to cover it in full out of the purchase price we charged you.
Over the last year, however, our shippers dramatically raised their fees for shipping to Canada. For example, in addition to a general increase in per-package shipping costs, due to the wild increase in oil prices last year, fuel surcharges for shipping to Canada soared as high as 34% over the summer months--$45 in fuel surcharges alone (on top of the base fees our shippers charged), for an $800 order! Put it all together (the base cost plus fuel surcharge), and we spent about $170--over 20% of the order's value--to ship such an order to Canada during the summer (when most orders were shipped). For smaller orders, the proportional costs for shipping were even higher. And the upshot? We lost money on most of the orders we shipped to Canada last year.
John and Sarita agreed simply to "eat" the losses last year. After all, a promise is a promise.
But going forward, they said, we have to charge our customers a shipping rate that is reasonably close to the actual cost of shipping (less a subsidy equivalent to what we pay, on average, for shipping to our "lower-48" customers).
As a result,
Shipping fees for 2009 and following will be calculated at the time you place your order--in order to properly reflect current costs.
Considering how wildly energy prices fluctuated this past year (the fuel surcharge at this moment is down to only about 2.5% of an order's value!), John and Sarita said they would like us to take the reduced-cost base fees we have been able to negotiate with our shippers, subtract a subsidy equivalent to what we pay to cover domestic shipping in the lower 48 United States, and then add whatever the actual fuel surcharge is at the time the order is placed.
You can find the base fee (minus subsidy) in the chart below. Beginning April 1st and throughout the coming year, you will be able to find the then-current fuel surcharge online at http://www.sonlight.com/shippingcalc.
In case you didn't know: We have diligently negotiated extremely favorable shipping rates with FedEx to offer you quick, insured, and trackable shipping at a significantly discounted rate.
To repeat: beginning April 1st, as we enter the 2009 sales season, when you place a new order, Sonlight Curriculum will charge you a shipping fee based on the chart below plus the current fuel surcharge.
| 2009 Sonlight Subsidized Base Shipping Rates (SSBSR) to Canada (to calculate final cost, add Fuel Surcharge to SSBSR) |
|
|---|---|
| Order Total ($) | Subsidized Base Shipping Rate |
| 0-50.00 | $13.00 |
| 50.01-60.00 | 25% of Order Total |
| 60.01-70.00 | 23% of Order Total |
| 70.01-80.00 | 22% of Order Total |
| 80.01-90.00 | 21% of Order Total |
| 90.01-99.99 | 20% of Order Total |
| 100.00-149.99 | 18% of Order Total |
| 150.00-199.99 | 17% of Order Total |
| 200.00-299.99 | 16% of Order Total |
| 300.00-699.99 | 15% of Order Total |
| 700.00 + | 14% of Order Total |
And why am I telling you about this?
If you place your order before April 1st, you can still enjoy last year's shipping fee structure.
Heirloom or Core Club Member from this past year or before? Your free shipping benefits are being grandfathered in. They will last until your Club Membership expires--i.e., for Core Club Members, until one year from the time you place(d) your order this past year.
If you place an order by Midnight (Mountain Daylight Time) March 31, 2009, we will honor our 2008 shipping rates and provide free shipping to you for any order you place over $100.
If you have any questions regarding our shipping rates and policies, feel free to contact my Customer Relations team at 1.303.730.6292 or at main@sonlight.com. We will do our very best to answer any questions you may have.
Despite this unsettling turn of events, we look forward to serving you and your family in the near future.
Thank you for choosing Sonlight. I pray you have a great school year.
Sincerely,
Tim Heil
Customer Relations Manager
Sonlight Curriculum
