For years we’ve shipped most of our packages out via FedEx, with smaller ones going via United States Postal Service. Now, the big change is, for about the last six weeks we’ve shipped most of our boxes out UPS. Cables and remotes ordered alone with free shipping still generally go out USPS.
The change was primarily based on price. We were offered better rates with UPS, and consequently we’ve been able to reduce our express shipping charges to customers significantly. We still offer free ground shipping of everything we sell (that gets painful with the new 5LNB DirecTV dishes) but now our overnight, 2-day, and 3-day rates to customers are about 20% lower.
In addition, since UPS integrates the ground and express shipping charges, we’ve simplified our shipping process here. One truck arrives, and tracking numbers are more uniform. So far so good.
The other big shipping news here is that we’ve started shipping to Canada. TiVo recently supported using their TiVo DVRs in Canada, and we’ve had an increase in questions from potential customers in Canada. To be sure, there’s no rush of Canadians flooding us with orders, but there are some at this point. The two big drawbacks here are: 1) the rebate for TiVos only includes TiVos purchased for use in the US and 2) shipping isn’t cheap. We’ve been shipping all packages destined for Canada via the USPS, which works fairly well, and is far less expensive than using FedEx or UPS for international shipments.
Lets hope TiVo extends the rebate to our neighbors north of the border – why would Canadians be any less valuable as customers than US residents?