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Canadian Buyers - Ewheels.com Fedex Shipping and Import Fees


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Someone PM'd me regarding import fees for these wheels to Canada, and fortunately @Jason McNeil at Ewheels.com has been able to negotiate lower Fedex Express shipping which includes all brokerage fees in the price.  This really helps out Canadian purchasers who might have been on the fence about buying from the US.  The announcement is buried in a random posting so I thought I would post a thread about it here and provide a link for easy reference.

 

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This is absolutely amazing news!  Oh wow.  I've been here for a month and have complained about not being able to buy from ewheels a few times already. 

Jason will lock up the whole Canadian market.  I'd consider even making a canadian site for ewheels (.ca) as it could drive additional sales because as a canadian I am programmed to avoid importing anything expensive like an EUC from the states. 

*argh.  I had to put a 16S in my cart and see the new shipping rate for myself.  so tempting. 

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I think the small volume of sales in Canada likely prevents Canadian sellers from being very competitive.  The larger order you place the better price per unit the supplier is willing to give.  In addition, manufacturers deal in USD so we get a big hit after conversion.  A $1000 USD wheel ends up to be a $1300 CAD one.  Add in taxes and import fees along with your profit margin, and you end up with some less than appealing prices.

The practical riding season up here is relatively short.  People like to bike, but usually average non-racing bikes don't cost over $1000 and are easy to learn how to ride (plus are legal :ph34r: / safer) so these wheels appeal only to a certain small percentage of the population here.  If we had sunny Cali weather here all year long I think these EUCs would be more popular.  When the snow hits my wheel heads to basement storage.  :cry2:

The Ninebot Z10 looks interesting, but is Jason going to be selling them?  I think you have to sign up to be a distributor and likely agree to purchase X number of units per month and conform to Ninebot/Segway's ways of doing things.  After they canned and ticked off a bunch of resellers, I wonder if Jason will be wanting to jump  that quickly on the Ninebot boat.  I guess it will depend on what they ask per unit, how reliable the product is, and whether there's that much demand for it.  Time will tell!

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Wow, being a Ninebot dealer sound complicated.

I understand the Canadian prices might end up a little higher (though Jason would have to pay the same taxes, wouldn't he?), but there's also so little choice up there. I think you can't (couldn't before the merger) officially buy any Inmotions, for example.

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@Hunka Hunka Burning Love I agree with you about Canada being a limited market due to the shorter riding season.  I'm more ambitious about attempting to ride in the winter, but I just got back from a short ride and it's 7 degrees celsius right now and even geared-up I'm not going to want ride in colder than freezing temperatures.

We're going to get hit with the same conversion no matter where we buy from.  It sucks that we're weak against the dollar.  The big thing was the duty fees that ewheels has taken care of.  Honestly, my big fear is that they're not going to keep this shipping policy for very long. 

If I'm guessing based on some of the reactions I've seen from people to the wheel, quite a few dudes have gone home and googled "electric unicycle" from seeing me around with at least some interest in purchasing one.  I really think it has that viral real-world effect on people and sell themselves just by being seen out in the wild.

 

I had never considered that Jason may not sell the Z10.  :(

I think he'll have to carry them.  He's gone through the trouble of bringing in a partner for Gotway wheels.  

I'm getting more excited for the Z10 as I become more convinced of the design benefits of going with the wider tire.  It looks like it enables the case to be reduced in size substantially as a secondary benefit.  Where others will wish for a bigger battery, it would be okay for me.   

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Actually there is an InMotion dealer in Canada.  I wonder if the Solowheel/InMotion venture will affect them.

https://inmotioncanada.com/

Their price on the V8 isn't that bad.

https://inmotioncanada.com/products/inmotion-v8

Ninebot screwed over Speedyfeet who was a prominent dealer for them along with many other dealers so why would someone new want to deal with a company who does something like that?  Unless they have a must-have wheel that is in super high demand one has to think twice before getting into bed with them.

7°C with the wind chill - yeah did that / done that / froze that.  Wear a scarf, hoodie under helmet, thermal undies, thick riding jacket, googles, gloves over wrist guards and it isn't that bad.  It just takes a little more effort and determination.  Also factor in how the cold saps battery range, and make do with a shorter ride.  Over here it's so windy that you're fighting the wind a lot.  At sub-10°C that isn't a lot of fun.  Maybe if the wind wasn't so bad it would be okay?

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Uh yes, these temperatures + wind chill really is something, especially after 2 hours of riding you really start to cool out

I've been thinking about this, and my worst case scenario is getting some appropriate oilskin. If it's good enough for fishermen on the wintery, chilly, stormy Northern seas, it must be enough for riding EUCs (the wind chill is the main problem), right? :efee8319ab: This over regular, warm winter clothes should work (you probably have to insulate the EUC too, or the batteries might tell you to f off).

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23 hours ago, Hunka Hunka Burning Love said:

Actually there is an InMotion dealer in Canada.  I wonder if the Solowheel/InMotion venture will affect them.

https://inmotioncanada.com/

Their price on the V8 isn't that bad.

https://inmotioncanada.com/products/inmotion-v8

Ninebot screwed over Speedyfeet who was a prominent dealer for them along with many other dealers so why would someone new want to deal with a company who does something like that?  Unless they have a must-have wheel that is in super high demand one has to think twice before getting into bed with them.

7°C with the wind chill - yeah did that / done that / froze that.  Wear a scarf, hoodie under helmet, thermal undies, thick riding jacket, googles, gloves over wrist guards and it isn't that bad.  It just takes a little more effort and determination.  Also factor in how the cold saps battery range, and make do with a shorter ride.  Over here it's so windy that you're fighting the wind a lot.  At sub-10°C that isn't a lot of fun.  Maybe if the wind wasn't so bad it would be okay?

 

I'm kind of surprised that it seems like you can still purchase the V8 for the original price through a North American retail channel.  I swear that same site was out of stock a month ago.  There's another place out in Vancouver that sells them and is where mine came from (vaneuc.ca).

I haven't heard about Ninebot screwing over Speedyfeet, but may look for some of the history.  Ninebot wasn't an appealing brand to me with their current catalogue so I don't know much about how they fit into the market.  I know that I'm more excited for the Z10 than any other wheel in the pipeline.  The sad reality is that it's probably going to really really expensive ($2500cdn +) and out of my range for the coming year. 

Good checklist for winter wear.  I still need to figure out the hoodie under helmet thing, but my helmet has earmuffs that I'm appreciating.  It's actually not been as bad as I'd been thinking. 

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