it is actually cheap to send cars to Oz...I used to ship 4 in a container, loaded with parts...the tariffs was a lot more than the shipping
Not complaining about 'that' retailer overpacking, I've never gotten anything from them that was damaged even if the box looked liked it was tossed out of the plane as it flew over the airport. My rant is that I no longer have the choice of having stuff sent first class mail. Though in the case I mentioned with DCC items there is no need for a half dozen Z2 or DZ125 decoders to come in a box that a dozen locos would fit in.
I agree with damage control... I've received a few packages in my day that appeared to have gone to OZ for a game of Rugby. I certainly would have been angry about any under-packaging of an Athearn Big Boy or Challenger. In this instance both arrived unscathed even though the packaging for one of them was relatively snug. I certainly believe the large packaging was a good idea for shipping the Big Boy safely...though... there was almost enough room left over to fit a 1:1 scale Fiat 500cc with it. LOL
I was going to post something nice about USPS, as I shipped a package to Ontario, Canada for only $9.15, but then I changed my mind. I checked the delivery status of an order I had coming to my house, it was "out for delivery" at 8:00am today. So I can presume it's on the truck. My mail gets dropped off a little after 5:00pm. No package. I check the status, now it shows "Delivered" at 5:08pm. Guess what, it's not here. It will show up tomorrow, but my slacker mailman does this, I think he tries to save face by lying to the computer. Ugh... sorry had to vent.
This sort of thing happens with my regular carriers day off replacement. He will not deliver ANY signature letters when he does the route and leaves them for my regular guy (great guy by the way) because he is too lazy to get out of the truck. PS the guy has 45 years of postal service!! Mike
WOW!!! 21 pages of posting in about one month. I read through the first half and I did not see where this item was brought up. It may be in the second half, I don't know. The item is sales tax. When I buy at the 'local' hobby store I pay 7% sales tax. The 'local' hobby store is 30 miles away and staffed by a real piece of work. I buy on line and there is no sales tax (not yet anyway). With the price of things today it does not take much to run up a bill in the hundreds of dollars. I got two 40+ car unit trains of Atlas 90 ton hoppers. When I first bought them they were selling for $1.98. Now they are around $17.00 full retail (what my LHS charges). Add in the sales tax of $1.19 per car and you are looking at taxes of $23.80 for 20 cars or a total of $363.80 combined plus my time to travel there (60 mile round trip) gas for the car and all associated expenses (insurance, tires, etc.). Now online I buy those same 20 cars discounted to $12.95 and maybe pay $14.00 shipping. That total is $273.00. I save at least $90.00 and probably closer to $100.00 when all those other costs are factored in. When I order anything I make sure that my shipping charges will be less than the sales taxes.
Shipping from Non European Union to UK, if the item value including postage is over £15 you have to pay import vat of 20%. As soon as you have an item that requires import Vat to be collected, Royal Mail charge a £8 handling fee for collecting the VAT on behalf of Her Majesty's Customs and Excise. I was going to buy an item from a Canadian retailer recently. The price was £22, plus £10 shipping. I was then having to pay £6 for VAT and a further £8 for the handling fee, making a total of £46. Needless to say I re-thought my purchase.
I was going to order some parts for my G scale GP, parts are $8.00 should be about a $1.00 each shipping is $8.00. That $16.00 for what should be about $4-5
Okay, old thread but why is it I can buy a digital clock on the bay and have it shipped from Singapore via air freight, get it in about two weeks and pay a grand total of $8.63? That is for clock, battery shipping and handling combined. P.S. the battery died within a week and a new one cost $4.50+ 6% tax.
Why? It seems to be relevant and a never ending story even with our critical comments these days!! Tom
