Never ordering from Northerner.com again.

[beerski]

And if you live in Canada, I suggest you don't either.

I placed a small-ish order last night of about 10 cans and a Phantom Refill kit. Knowing how they shipped all 40 cans in my last order in one box (causing Canadian customs to overcharge because of the quantity), but also seeing no comments section on the order page I decided to order and then immediately contact them to ask them to split it up into a few shipments.

This is the reply I got this morning:

"The shipment has already left the warehouse. My suggestion to be next time reduce the amount of cans per order and break it off into several shipments. As canadian customs is very strict on large quantities of tobacco coming into the country at one time."

NO KIDDING! Thanks for that. So I can pay $60 in shipping, or I can pay $200 in duty. BuySnus.com always splits their Canadian orders without even being asked to, and without charging anything for the extra shipping. I'm done with Northerner, what a load of crap.

[TheJanitor]

If they know customs is strict on large orders, why they send a large order??? One more reason Northerner blows. Northerner Defense Force will be here shortly...

[beerski]

Just an update - They were out of stock on Skruf when they shipped my order, so the one can of skruf I ordered was sent separately... That got here last week. The rest of it however is still not here, and its been over a month. Guessing the border is taking its time trying to figure out how much to charge me.

[lxskllr]

NO KIDDING! Thanks for that. So I can pay $60 in shipping, or I can pay $200 in duty. BuySnus.com always splits their Canadian orders without even being asked to, and without charging anything for the extra shipping. I'm done with Northerner, what a load of crap.

I'd consider Buysnus' policy in that regard to be a loophole. They're really cool guys for doing it, but being cool doesn't pay the bills. I'm guessing they don't have enough Canadian customers to matter. If they lose a little bit of money, they make it up in mindshare, but that only goes so far. If snus took off in Canada, I guarantee you'd see a policy change.

I've heard 5 tins is the magic number. Is 8 shipments to get the snus to you really reasonable? They'd be in the hole on every order. Not trying to be a dick, but personal accountability is relevant here. Getting snus to Canada sucks. The game is to make small orders, or risk big taxes. The other option is outright bootlegging, but that carries it's own risks.

The companies should have a section on the checkout where you can specify shipment splitting. You'd have to pay for it, but it would be a useful addition, and equitable to everyone.

[Premium Parrots]

well.....that all sucks big time. I have shipped as many as 20 tins [at one tine] to canada without any problem or customs fees. But I use my own style of legal stealth technology.

[spirit72]

And if you live in Canada, I suggest you don't either.

I placed a small-ish order last night of about 10 cans and a Phantom Refill kit. Knowing how they shipped all 40 cans in my last order in one box (causing Canadian customs to overcharge because of the quantity), but also seeing no comments section on the order page I decided to order and then immediately contact them to ask them to split it up into a few shipments.

Did you search on the forums here before you ordered? As others have said, Canadian Customs and their draconian attutude toward tobacco imports/duty have been well documented here for a long time. Northerner is kinda between a rock and a hard place when it comes to Canada.

[beerski]

I wouldn't mind paying extra to have it shipped in groups of 5, the problem is that Northerner had absolutely no way for me to specify that short of placing a bunch of separate orders. Its not like I waited a day to ask them either, I sent them an email within minutes of placing the order. I told them that I needed to know if it could be done in time to cancel the order if I had to.

I'm very familiar with how Canadian customs works, I've been ordering for over a year without (many) problems. It seems that whenever I do have an issue its with Northerner. It is my own fault for continuing to use them though, and that's gonna change in the future.

I'm not asking for anything free from Northerner here, there is nothing they can offer that won't cost me 6x the value at the border anyway. I'm just asking for a reasonable policy regarding Canadian orders; they obviously know that customs overcharges when they find an entire order of cans in one box - why send it that way then?

[lxskllr]

Write to them, and offer a suggestion. I think it would be a good idea having a split ship option. Have it on a whole different page where the customer fills out how they want it split. It would be a bit more work on Northerner's part, but imo, it's worth it to keep a customer.

Example: You've filled your cart, and are at the checkout. After filling all the info in, there's a checkbox that says Split Shipping. When you check that, and hit ok, you're kicked to another page where you fill out how you want it split. Nothing complicated; just how many shipments you want. If you ordered 2 rolls, and want to keep a 5 tin max, you'd enter 4. The software would equalize it as close as possible, with any odd tins distributed amongst the orders. In the above example, if you got 3 singles in addition to the two rolls, and picked 4 shipments, 3 shipments would have 6 tins, and the fourth would have 5.

[justintempler]

Northerner's suggestion telling the customer to place multiple smaller orders is a cop-out.

That forces the customer to lose discounts. If I want a roll of snus and have to split it into 2 shipments of 5 cans I lose twice: once for the shipping, and again on the higher price per can.
The extra shipping expense is NOT Northerner's fault but the inability to split your order most definitely IS Northerner's fault.

[Snusdog]

I really like Lx's idea....................I would definitely shoot them an email about it.

[Snusify]

And if you live in Canada, I suggest you don't either.

I placed a small-ish order last night of about 10 cans and a Phantom Refill kit. Knowing how they shipped all 40 cans in my last order in one box (causing Canadian customs to overcharge because of the quantity),

what a load of crap.

Get used to it, all countries have different import duty laws. You cannot expect tobacco companies to be responsible for your country's import laws and as such all tobacco companies put that disclaimer on their websites.

Every time I order a 20+ can order into the UK from America I take a risk of customs intercepting it and charging duty. However luckily I have only been caught once in 4 yrs.

That being said northerner have made arrangements for smaller packages to be sent to the UK from America so I am sure sending them a suggestion to do the same for canada may be considered.

[ABW]

I have good test right now that will test their customer service..

This morning I ordered a roll of boost and realized afterwards that I wanted a few more cans added to the order.. So, I used their ticket system to tell them the cans i wanted to order. I told them to bill the same card and gave rhem autorization to do so..Now, we know it has not shipped because it's the weekend so it will be a good test to see if they can handle a simple customer service request...

I will report back with a pass or fail...

[EricHill78]

I have good test right now that will test their customer service..

This morning I ordered a roll of boost and realized afterwards that I wanted a few more cans added to the order.. So, I used their ticket system to tell them the cans i wanted to order. I told them to bill the same card and gave rhem autorization to do so..Now, we know it has not shipped because it's the weekend so it will be a good test to see if they can handle a simple customer service request...

I will report back with a pass or fail...

If i was a betting man I'd put all my chips on fail..

But for your sake I hope it's pass.

[ABW]

What up Eric...

I hope not... That would be pretty bad Customer Service.. They have 2 days to get it right and if they can't pull off a simple request like "please add to my order" then something is wrong...

We shall see.. I have Faith but you guys have used them more than I have....

[jagmanss]

I have good test right now that will test their customer service..

This morning I ordered a roll of boost and realized afterwards that I wanted a few more cans added to the order.. So, I used their ticket system to tell them the cans i wanted to order. I told them to bill the same card and gave rhem autorization to do so..Now, we know it has not shipped because it's the weekend so it will be a good test to see if they can handle a simple customer service request...

I will report back with a pass or fail...

Sorry Man, But my prediction and vote would be fail...