I am having the same problem with Ponoko's (US) shipping options. Being located in Europe, I could also use the local hubs here, but they only offer a small subset of the US materials / sizes and no 3D printing.

Why dont you just offer USPS Express Mail International (and not the cheaper, perhaps less reliable USPS options)?
This provides very good tracking, fast delivery and a free included US$100 insurance (US$200 is +0.80; US$500 insurance is +2.25$).
These low-price insurance options would also mitigate the risk of eventual paket losses.

Shipping prices with USPS EMI are around 1/2 to 1/3 of the price I would have to pay with your UPS shipping options (which are much too high and out of the
question, btw.)

I think many customers located in Europe (and perhaps also elsewhere in the world away from the US) would appreciate it very much if you
could offer such an option.

Please consider introducing this option - it would make your great service more accessible for non-US customers !

(Maybe you could send out a newsletter entry about evaluating this option and offer a poll somewhere on your website to easier get the
opinion of your non-US customers about this subject ?!)

Thanks & Kind Regards,
Sven

Hi again, to answer Josh´s lower cost trade-off question: YES! definitely! Even if it means a lost or delayed package once in a while it would be worth it!

Louise

I'll second this.

However, insurance should be automatically included with this USPS option as its very cheap (see my last post above, max. insurance with USPS EMI is US$650 btw. and should be sufficient for almost all international orders) and could be automatically calculated and added by the Ponoko order system.

This way, at least money is not lost if a package gets lost or damaged ;-)

Sven

I would like that also!

I almost fell out of my chair when I calculated the shipping for a simple acryllic 2d design, estimated to cost about $6, and the cheapest shipping option to Norway was $91! :)

Even going for aluminium (which is what I really need, and therefor can't use Ponoko Germany or Italy) the total price was ~$150...

I order stuff from the US off of EBay all the time and usualy for such a small package the shipping is around $20-$30, and I have never had any problems with USPS.

The way things are now, I can't justify making any designs, due to the high shipping prices...

I'd just like to "vote for this" aswell.

I have ordered a few things with Ponoko now and love it, but the shipping always kills me.
Paying $43 shipping for something that costs $13 in making and materials (in total) does not make sense for me?

Materials $50.47 (P1 Stainless Steel), Making $16.83, Shipping to Russia via UPS Saver $167.93 %-(

Hi, 

I am a first time user. Please be gentle.

I just uploaded a design and it came to about $12.00, plus $96 delivery from USA to Australia.

USPS is a great option, and should be available if you want to make this thing work globally

How do I change to a hub in New Zealand as my default manufacturer? Shipping from NZ to AUS is possibly a bit cheaper.

UPS fro USA is definitely a nonstarter .

Thanks Josh,

 I had selected NZ when I registered,  but   the design I selected

patch_antenna_mounting_brac ket.eps x1

 defaulted to USA hub.

How may I change this?

Regards

Frank

Hi Frank - it sounds like even though you've selected the US as your making hub, you still need to remove any materials that you previously applied to your design, as they still relate to the previous making location's materials catalog. You should be able to see a flag applied to your design, as per this image:

Once you've removed any old materials and changed your making location as per the link that Josh mentioned above http://www.ponoko.com/account/preferences, you can then apply materials to your design from the new making location that you've selected. I hope this makes sense :-)

Cheers!

Catherine

I'd also like to see USPS as an option. For small designs it doesn't make sense to pay $10 shipping. For instance, I designed two small $6 each gears that would fit in a small flat rate priority box ($5). I believe it would be automatically insured and I'm pretty sure it would arrive faster than UPS ground as well. I intend to use ponoko for prototyping mainly and that means creating something, ordering it, testing it, change the design if necessary and order a revision and go through the process again. USPS would save me $5 each time. :)

Any idea when the cheaper shipping options will be implemented?

Just had a look at some 3D printed stuff, and despite being designs small enough to fit in a bubble envelope and sent via USPS First Class for ~$3, the only shipping options from USA to NZ were $90+

I don't expect Ponoko to use something as cheap and potentially unreliable as USPS First Class Mail, but I would not pay $90 for shipping something very small which only costs around $20

Shipping to Canada is pretty reasonable, however i have to also weigh in on this, I normally live in the UK and with no local hub I'll be getting parts made in the US, but with the shipping prices I have seen so far i won't be able to continue my designs.....

Please open a euro hub......or offer a more cost friendly shipping solution.

Cheers

Andy

Hi,

 I haven't had Ponoko make anything yet. I want to try using Ponoko due to a 3D printing competitor's incompetence. I won't use Ponoko because as others have noted, UPS costs mean it is a non-starter. For $50 worth of 3D printed parts postage is $91 by UPS Worldwide Expedited post, and even higher at $94 for the supposed UPS Saver. A competitor charges $20US from Europe to Australia, that is a price I could deal with though even then it is on the high side compared to what private individuals post ebay items from the USA to Aus for.

 Ponoko ticks a lot of boxes but at the end of the day value for money speaks loudest and your postage options are crippling your sales.

"The other thing we would like to do is begin offering 3D printing from within NZ, which might be even more useful for you. No specific timeframe on that either, but we're hard at work trying to improve our service in every way we can"

Sounds good. I expect you'll get more customers for sure. I would love to use 3D printing services but the postage costs are just too high for me.

Wow. Just like to add another vote to this. Just uploaded a design with a grand total of $7.03 and was horrified to find the postage was more than $90 to Ireland. I tried switching the hub to NZ to see how that compared but when I tried to add a material nothing happened so had to switch back to US.

Regards,

David.

Why not apply the same "make" logic to this logistics issue as well?

Distribution Hubs

It's cheaper to ship bulk from point A to point B than it is to ship lots of little packages the same route.

You could arrange bulk shipments on say a 5-14 day schedule and customers could then either pick up their package or have it shipped on locally for much cheaper rates once landed at the DistriHub.

thanks

I agree with the original request and the first Ponoko response.

I am providing at item that's tiny and flat, that could easily be shipped in a small padded envelope for a few dollars (currently $10.43 in the US).  I appreciate Ponoko working hard to keep manufacturing costs down, but new shipping options would be really nice.

I also would be happy for more shipping options, as I probably could buy myself a small 3d printer when you ship 10 items.

Also I think you want non interlocked parts in separate .stl files? Then I could not find the possibility to ship several parts in one shipment.