There aren't broker fees when dealing with Alaska, it is just that the shipping fees are so very high. On the air shipments aside from the weight, UPS also has a formula for calculating the dimensional weight of the package and they use whichever is higher. Hawaiian shipments are the same way.
In some cases people benifit from the fact that some retailers don't know this and only charge the shipping based on the weight of the item which can be a small fraction of what they are really charged by the shipping company. Recently one customer contacted me to let me know that they were able to have an air deflector shipped from one of our competitors to them in Alaska for only about $20, when I checked the dimensional charges it cost that company roughly $80 to ship it. FedX has basically the same rates as UPS. It gets to where a 1" change in package size can mean a $10 or more change in shipping cost, that makes it very easy to either over or undercharge for the shipping.
The other problem we run into is we take quite a bit of pride in standing behind the items we sell. It makes it very cost prohibitive to try to take care of any problems via 2nd day air.
Okay enough rambling from me.... By the way, thanks for all the kind comments! I know we aren't perfect but we do try our best.
-Trevor
[This message has been edited by TAllen (edited 10-14-2001).]