Re: conjelco - ontario
chuck,
I am an authorized 2+2 bookseller as well and I have been in the mail order retail business in general for over a decade now, with customers in over 30 countries. I have shipped over a quarter million boxes and I have seen just about every possible thing go wrong and how to deal with almost all bad situations.
I agree that the postal service is far from perfect when it comes to international shipments. It may be "cheaper" but there's virtually no way to track packages in transit (even their so-called "delivery confirmation" is only that, proof that it arrived, but nothing in between). if your package is lost, trying to make a claim on insurance that you PAID EXTRA for, is pretty futile too.
International express shipping via UPS or FedEx is indeed a lot more expensive, but you have an extremely higher peace of mind that the box will actually get there on time (and your money back if it doesn't). however, if you do have a decent amount of package volume (say, at least 50-100 foreign orders a month), you may be able to negotiate a substantial discount on book rates with your account manager. UPS also has a "Canada Standard" ground rate which is cheaper than air, fully trackable and guaranteed, and takes about 7-14 days which is reasonable for most customers.
with the rates that I have negotiated with my couriers, I can easily offer 50% or more off the international rates you currently offer on conjelco, with full guarantee of timely arrival. what the OP said cost you $29 to ship 2 DVD's to canada, I can easily do for $10 with trackable, barcoded, customs-free UPS service.
the only remaining issues are insurance and customs. it's sort of a catch-22 where the more you declare a package for to insure (in case it's lost), the more the customer may have to pay in border charges when it arrives. customers HATE to pay customs so it's best to declare for as low as possible. however, in my experience, the private couriers are reliable enough that you can send all the books out as "gifts" with no recovery value, and it will get there no problem.
my company's book division is relatively small so I don't mind offering these tidbits out to a potential 'competitior'. it's more important to get as many books out there overall to the people who want them.
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