Ridiculous International Postage Charges

[Dog Tired]

Thanks for the clarification, Bill.

Do you have an idea of the ballpark of such costs and what would be involved in the homologation process? I imagine it would be quite a rigorous process. I would like to find out more - it's all part of the education of the entire situation I now find myself in, as a paid-up member of the sleep apnea club.

I would also be interested in hearing further from Johnygoodman on the postage issue. I don't mean to be controversial and am genuinely interested in hearing other points of view (after all, the older we get the less we discover that we really know).

But if something is not right, I would like to highlight it - on the other hand, if I am wrong, I am not afraid to admit it and eat my share of humble pie (as a married man with 4 kids, I have had plenty of practice at this...) .

[dsm]

Dog Tired

Re the Hmmmm comments - we have a right to wonder when a newcommer arrives & among their earliest posts is an 'apparent' unwaranted attack on cpap.com's shipping policies followerd by a question from another absolute newcommer asking who sells cheaper & being given a link to a cpap.com competitor - I am sure you knew cpaptalk.com was created by cpap.com ?.

If you had spent time establishing an identity then the Hmmmms might have benn Ahhhhs instead.

Simple communication logic.

Cheers

DSM

[Dog Tired]

Understand the scepticism with a newcomer - which is why I wanted to make an attempt to dispel it.

I trust I was successful - if one views my other posts, I hope that one will eventually form the conclusion that my aim was not to troll. In fact, as I hoped I made clear, I would like to support the forum's proprietor - in return for it providing a valuable forum for the exchange of information and ideas. I am only just at the beginning of a really steep learning curve, that many of you have already successfully traversed...

However, I can appreciate that established forum members would not have "known me from Adam".

I hope I came across as trying to explain my situation and rationale, rather than criticising the other posters or their initial scepticism.

[roster]

The second post seems to contradict the first one.

I am just wondering if you have local regulations which discourage medical equipment suppliers from importing equipment and creating competition for ResMed.

No.

Not sure how "simple supply and demand economics" works in that case

The cost to homologate a product to get it into a market is fixed and must be spread across all the units sold into that market. For Therapeutic products, homologation costs are substantial in all "Western" countries.

For Australia the homologation cost is spread over a much smaller market than in the US, as noted previously, therefore the homologation cost for each unit sold is much higher in Australia than for the US.

Cheers,

Bill

[WillSucceed]

Last time I ordered from CPAP.COM (with product to be shipped to Canada) I complained about the charges and was told by the CPAP.COM lady that as they had to send a staff person to the Post Office to ship my item, rather than having the item picked up for shipping by UPS, the charges were higher. My reply was that I seriously doubted that my order was a one-off and that I suspected that the staff-person's trip to the Post Office was with many items for shipping, not just mine. Slapping the "we had to take it to the Post Office" charges on feels bogus as my shipment was certainly not the only one that required a trip to the Post Office. Earth to CPAP.COM, your customers are not stupid.

The CPAP.COM lady could not have cared less. Her response, similar to Mr. Goodman's

They will stay right where they are.

was a little on the snippy side. As I have not been able to find the mask that I like elsewhere, I still purchase it from CPAP.COM however, now when I order, I have free delivery to friends in the US who then just ship it on to me or, when I visit them, I pick it up. I have to agree that the prices at CPAP.COM have been consistently lower than any other store-front or online vendor.

Regarding Canadian Customs, even though the people at CPAP.COM always label the shipment as "medical equipment," the money-grubbing clowns at Customs slap charges on it anyway. Each time I have filled out the paperwork requesting that the fees be refunded back to me and, every time they send me a cheque. I suspect that they are hoping that most folk won't challenge them.

[billbolton]

The second post seems to contradict the first one.

It doesn't, in any way.

Homologation in concerned with compliance to all the applicable regulatory requirements attached to the class of goods concerned for specific national markets.

It is something that all suppliers of that class of goods to each market need to comply with, whether they are a domestic or foreign supplier.

So, the cost of homologation for a specific national market should be similar for all suppliers (provided they are reasonably efficent in handling homologation tasks) and therefore regulatory compliance in itself does not impact the base competitive position of a supplier, one way or the other, within a national market.

For the purposes of this simplified explanation national markets include economic co-operation zones such as the European Union, or the Australia-New Zealand CER, etc.

[roster]

The second post seems to contradict the first one.

It doesn't, in any way.

Homologation in concerned with compliance to regulatory requirements for specific national markets, and is something that all suppliers to each market need to comply with, whether they are domestic or foreign.

Suppliers have to invest an initial amount of money for homologation which can be quite high relative to their potential sales. They have to come up with this money from their investors before they ever make a sale or a profit on the product.

Usually an entrenched local supplier (as compared to a foreign supplier with little or no established market position) has an easier and quicker route to build up the sales and recoup the sunk costs and provide a return to the investors.

So it is indeed more difficult for a foreign supplier to recover homologation costs and achieve a satisfactory return.

We have a debate (unfortunately only minor debate because our government doesn't want to listen) in the U.S. about homologation costs for a few new drugs developed by European companies. These companies have paid the homologation costs in Europe and the drugs have been approved and are in successful use in Europe. Now the companies are forced to pay all the same homologation costs in the U.S. to enter our market. We have, on our side of the Atlantic, doctors and patients that are in desperate need of the drugs. They are appealing to our Drug authorities to approve the drugs based on the European approvals and not to require repeating this cost and delay. But there is often little common-sense flexibility in governments and here they stand again in the way of effective and less costly health care.

[GreenIce]

As an overseas buyer, UPS shipping charges is expensive. I would suggest cpap.com provide alternative such as DHL or Fedex. The last time I order, I ask a friend in US to send it via DHL, the rate is much lower.

[Dog Tired]

Dear Moderator/s,

Would it be appropriate to move the homologation discussion (which I think is also of interest and one worth having) into a separate thread, in order to keep this thread confined to the postage charges issue?

[roster]

Dear Moderator/s,

Would it be appropriate to move the homologation discussion (which I think is also of interest and one worth having) into a separate thread, in order to keep this thread confined to the postage charges issue?

Dog, If it helps, I'm through with that one and cede the final post to Bill.

[billbolton]

Usually an entrenched local supplier (as compared to a foreign supplier with little or no established market position) has an easier and quicker route to build up the sales and recoup the sunk costs and provide a return to the investors.

That has nothing specifically to do with homologation.

Early participants to any market, whether they are domestic or foreign for that market, tend to get natural market advantages from the simple fact of being early.... such is the nature of free market competition.

[dsm]

Merry Christmas and a damned happy new year to y'all (or youse, or you - what ever accent or dialect works )

Cpaptalk.com is one great place to meet - no matter what country we are from

DSM

(we are ta special cpap family - for better or for worse )