Def never ordering a physical copy from Stardock again

49,95 for Elemental
20,00 for Limited Edition Upgrade
20,00 for shipping

29,5 + TAXES for some customs crap

I'm really pissed. I remember buying some huge collector's edition from USA some years back and that was about a total of 20 dollars in shipping and from Great Britain somewhere around 10 dollars for a phone. Never have I seen this crap happen before, the damn shipping just Cost almost as much as the game. If you only count the physical part of the price I guess the shipping was 3 or 4 times as much as the damn game.

Are you saying you had to pay $30 + taxes extra?!?  For crying out loud that's insane.  If I have to pay that much extra when it does decide to show up (still waiting), I'll just refuse the box.  No way a metallic dragon and soundtrack cd is worth another 30 + taxes.  I have the digital download at least, even if I paid $100 for it.  I'll consider it a lesson learned.

As for Stardock.  I know they are not responsible for duties and taxes at the border, but still, their billing system should factor it in.  Or at the very least notify us in bold letters that this could happen and give an estimate as to how much it will be.  Although this is the first game I've ordered from out of country, I'm not new to internet shopping and this is the first time I've seen excessive costs like this.  Is there a reason this game is different?  Is the dragon setting off metal detectors at the border or does it weight 20 pounds?

Oh, for people saying the game isn't available in Canadian stores yet, give it time.  I remember I wanted to buy Galactic Civilizations after launch as well, but I couldn't find it either.  When I couldn't find it I gave up and moved on, but then I stumbled upon it in a few stores later.  I think it was a few weeks or months after launch.  Given the state of Elemental and how I've shelved it until a future major update, I suppose just waiting for the game to show up at Future Shop would have been a better route to take than this online order BS.

That's what the damn paper I got today from customs says, 22,60 Euros + Taxes.

Seems to be. People have reported that Stardock sales have said to just keep the second copy when it happens. I guess the cost of returning and shipping it again isn't worth it for them.

I got mine today in NB too, and I got a second suspiciously identical box that I haven't opened yet. Didn't have customs due on either of them, but it's worth noting that there is a high degree of randomness when it comes to customs. I've shipped $800 gifts in for my wife with no customs, and had $75 packages dinged for HST despite being marked and shipped the same way. The $5 fee tacked on is customs "handling fee", which is something we Canadians pay for the privilege of having the government charge us tax. If they don't charge you tax, they also handle it for free.

It looks like things just aren't going Stardocks way these days, the game is buggy (At least on release), poor reviews, duplicate shipments, high cost for pre-orders (at least in Canada).

On the bright side things have nowhere to go but up

Hang in there Stardock !

Cheers; Snarl

Just a quick update. I recieved another 2 copies today. One was LE and the other was a reg edition. The good news is customs did not assess any duty and tax on these. Everything worked out in the end. The LE box is very nice.

it takes 1-3 weeks shipping from the U.S. to Canada... as European I am really curious what takes so long?! I mean shipping from Germany to Austria takes about ah 2 (two!) days although I don't know what the time pre-European Union was... nevertheless it is the same continent and both countries are quite "developed" and organized or did I miss something?

Shipped August 30th

Reached boarder on 15th of September

Arrived today in Montreal 21st of September.

Additional charges

GST: 3.58$

PST: 5.63$

Handling Fee: 5$

Total Additional Fees: 14.21$

Definately, not worth paying extra just for the soundtrack. Next time would it be possible to get the soundtrack as a digital download and avoid this whole hassle.

Good to see people are starting to get copies. I recieved a standard copy in Manitoba on Friday (of course I had ordered the limited edition   ). Stardock has assured me that a limited edition copy is on its way so I guess I will just have to wait...

I upgraded my pre order so I figure a seperate invoice was drawn up for each order the standard and the upgrade (just speculation mind you, but it seems fairly likely).

Well the distances we deal with in North America can complicate things a bit (Google maps yields some interesting results):

For example to drive straight from Loveland, Ohio (seems to be the distribution center) to, lets say, Winnipeg, Manitoba (the capital of my province) takes between 20 and 21 hours of driving, to walk the distance would take about two weeks. And that is a direct route with no stopping, it takes even longer for the mail.

That's about 1880km (1168mi) and really that is a fairly short distance:

 To go from the southernmost major city in the 48 contiguous states of the US (Miami, Florida) to the northernmost Canadian city (Iqaluit, Nunavut) is about 4310.9 km    traveling in a straight line (it would take about five and a half hours to fly).

Compare that to the 593km or so that seperate Berlin and Vienna. In good conditions that should take maybe 7 to 8 hours to drive or 4-5 days to walk, I think.

There really is alot of truth to the old saying:

North Americans think one hundred years is a long time, Europeans think one hundred kilometers is a great distance.... .

regards,

ct