Covid-19 & Bokksu Shipping Update

UPDATED October 23*

If you still have questions related to an order or subscription after reading this update, please contact us. We are currently experiencing a high volume of requests and ask that you only submit 1 request to help us respond faster. We promise we will answer you! Customer service requests will not be addressed in the comments.

To our dear Bokksu Community,

As many of you are aware, the novel coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic is affecting all of us, changing the way we live our lives, interact, and form communities. We have been so honored to have all of you in our community and helping us stay strong.

However, we too are feeling the effects of Covid-19. On April 1st, Japan Post, our primary postal carrier, announced that they are being forced to make changes in their shipping policies from April 2nd. This is because airline carriers are decreasing the number of international flights they make, which Japan Post relies on to ship packages internationally.

This will affect members of our community differently, so please read below carefully. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to email hello@bokksu.com so we can help.

Customers in the United States

Due to continued shipping policy changes by Japan Post on April 24, we've had to work around the clock to find a new way to continue shipping to the US. I'm happy to report that we managed to find another carrier and method, but because of high postal volume and heightened scrutiny at customs, please expect delays in receiving your box. Rest assured we are working as fast as we can to get your box to you safely.

Final delivery will be handled by USPS when your order arrives in the US. As a private carrier, this new method provides faster shipping than Japan Post but also comes at a higher cost, which is why we've needed to increase the price on our boxes for new customers by $5 so we can continue shipping our boxes to you with tracking and the high quality of service you've come to expect!

Shipping to Australia and Israel

We are very excited to be able to resume shipping to both Australia and Israel in October. While Japan Post is still suspending shipments to these countries, we have worked to find an alternative carrier to resume service to you.

As we will be using private DHL Express shipping, we are unfortunately unable to cover the full cost of shipping at this time, but the good news is that shipping will be fast and reliable. Given the circumstances, we will continue to push out renewals for any active customers that do not opt-in to the new shipping fee.

Please note that the shipping fees below are calculated by DHL based on shipping zone, and are reflective of what customers will pay, not the full shipping fee as we are also covering some of the cost.

Australia Shipping Fee: $7.95 USD

Israel Shipping Fee: $19.95 USD

Japan Post Shipping Resumptions

We can now accept new orders addressed to the following countries and resume affected subscriptions! Any active subscriptions that had been postponed due to Japan Post policies will now resume automatically with no required action on your part. Please be aware that due to the continued decrease in international flights Japan Post continues to anticipate delivery delays.

August:

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Liechtenstein, Macedonia, Malta, Montenegro, San Marino, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Vatican

July:

China, Greenland, Indonesia, Italy, New Zealand and Serbia

June:

Estonia, Austria, Croatia, Sweden, Spain, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Norway, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belgium, Poland, Portugal, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg.

Continued shipping to the following countries, updated June 15:

Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Iceland, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Macao, Malaysia, Mexico, Monaco, Myanmar, Netherlands, Philippines, Qatar, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Singapore, South Korea, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tajikistan, Thailand, UK, Vietnam. Special Note for US below

To be transparent, we have been working nonstop since the sudden Japan Post announcement to reconfigure our shipping logistics, and I am happy to let you know that we are able to continue shipping your orders to you. Multi-month subscription box shipments will also continue to have free shipping. However, due to the decrease in international flights, the shipping option we usually use to ship to you is no longer available. In order to be able to continue shipping to you, we will be upgrading all shipments to a higher class priority shipping option at no extra cost to you.

One potential drawback of this higher class shipping method is that it does not include tracking. This was a difficult decision, as we know how important it is for you to know where your order is, but we want to ensure we can continue providing safe contact-free deliveries to your homes. All of the remaining Japan Post trackable shipping options require a signature of receipt for delivery, and we feel it would be in the best interest of our community to continue contactless delivery instead.

Please rest assured that even without tracking, your order will arrive safely. The situation is ever-changing, and due to the decreased space on airline carriers, orders may take 1-2 weeks longer to arrive than originally estimated, and we truly appreciate your patience during this time. Also know that our warehouse is taking all the recommended precautions of the CDC and WHO to ensure the safety of your order.

Temporarily suspended shipping to the following countries, Updated Oct 13:

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belarus, Bhutan, Brazil, Brunei, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Georgia, Gibraltar, Greece, India, Ireland, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Liechtenstein, North Macedonia, Maldives, Malta, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Nepal, Oman, Pakistan, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vatican

Japan Post has unfortunately temporarily suspended all shipping methods to your country. We will not be accepting any new orders from these countries until the suspension has been lifted.

If you have an active Bokksu Subscription or Gift Plan: We have already proactively helped you move all your paid renewal dates to one month later. If your prepaid multi-month plan has any remaining prepaid shipments scheduled for this time, they have also all been shifted forward one month.

We hope that we will be able to ship to you again soon, and for now we will be pushing all scheduled orders (prepaid and subscription renewals) to June. We will continue to actively monitor the situation and adjust any active subscriptions as needed until we can resume shipping to you.

With gratitude for your support,

Danny Taing, Founder