This is what I did.... My sister lives in US... TBR shipped it to US for min price ($35) and she shipped it to me for ($50) and I saved just under $100 (ok, its only $85)
I will suggest you the same.... I got them sooner no probs at all...
This is a great idea. The problem is that when a business ships across the border, there are various taxes and tarriffs that apply. It's insane that it costs $170 to cross a friendly border, but that's what Fedex charges (which I assume accounts for their taxes and cost of inspection). If you can get them shipped there by a cheapers means, then definitely do it. And if (or when) you resell them, hopefully you can sell them to a Canadian and save them some shipping costs.
Absolutely not.
For that price you could order the full ExamKrakers study kit, the full Kaplan study kit, the full 10 exams from Gold Standard, and all 8 AAMC exams. No joke.
Perhaps you are not joking, but it's not accurate math either. At first, let's ignore that the $430 includes $170 for Fedex and $25 for sales tax. The cost you are referencing is the cost of buying from BR, so let's see how that compares to the prices of the materials you listed when bought directly from the company websites. $245 AAMC exams (from their website) + $150 GS exam (from their website) + $175 EK books (from their website) + $170 EK 101s (from their website) + $79 Kap Prem book = $819. I couldn't find a Kaplan study kit, so I went for the big book price at amazon. If you were to ship those books by Fedex to Canada and add in sales tax, then you're talking about over $1200. That's much larger than $430.
It's a bit unfair to compare a price that includes Fedex shipping costs and taxes to pre-tax and non shipped numbers, so basically it's $235 vs. $819 or $430 vs. $1200+. That's an accurate comparison.
I'm genuinely sorry that your experience with the company was poor, and assume it took a bit longer for materials to arrive than seemed reasonable. I read comments like that every so often, and it hurts because I know they are trying hard. I also read about people commenting that the woman on the phone is very helpful and the guy on the phone is really knowledgeable. It's luck of the draw when calling in, because if it's a slow time they'll spend thirty minutes helping you set your schedule up. If it's a busy time, then you get a busy signal. This results in a few posts here at SDN on both ends of the spectrum. I'm very sorry you are at the end of the spectrum that you are.
I get you don't like BR, like I don't like GM or AT&T for a reason I can't completely rationalize to myself, but please be accurate when making comments like these. And in the end, no matter what the service was like when you purchased your books from the company, I sincerely hope the questions and passages helped you prepare and that you do great on your applications.
i'm hoping that I won't get slapped with another $40 at the border
