The Christmas Countdown Thread!

[WillsBabe]

trampledamage wrote:

---

Must remember the Norad Santa Tracker this year, the kids will love it!

Oh, yes, do. It's fabulous. I love all the preamble about all the tech they used to track Santa (mainly special heat-seeking tech used only once a year to pick up the heat signature of Rudolph's nose! )

[King Daniel]

-37

[macloudt]

That Thinkgeek t-shirt I ordered for my daughter arrived yesterday. The shirt was $29.99, the delivery charge was $22.00, and my husband had to pay £15 for customs and such on delivery. If I ever order anything from Thinkgeek again I'll have it sent to a Canadian or American friend and have them send it to me via surface mail as a gift. I've learned my lesson! The shirt is brilliant, though, and my daughter is sure to love it.

[ShamelessMcBundy]

International shipping sucks. I once sent a travel mug to a friend. The mug was $13.00. The shipping was over $20.

[Yeoman Randi]

macloudt wrote:

---

That Thinkgeek t-shirt I ordered for my daughter arrived yesterday. The shirt was $29.99, the delivery charge was $22.00, and my husband had to pay £15 for customs and such on delivery. If I ever order anything from Thinkgeek again I'll have it sent to a Canadian or American friend and have them send it to me via surface mail as a gift. I've learned my lesson! The shirt is brilliant, though, and my daughter is sure to love it.

Which shirt did you order? And in the future, please think of me, i'd be happy to help you out!

[trampledamage]

macloudt wrote:

---

That Thinkgeek t-shirt I ordered for my daughter arrived yesterday. The shirt was $29.99, the delivery charge was $22.00, and my husband had to pay £15 for customs and such on delivery. If I ever order anything from Thinkgeek again I'll have it sent to a Canadian or American friend and have them send it to me via surface mail as a gift. I've learned my lesson! The shirt is brilliant, though, and my daughter is sure to love it.

I ordered once from think geek while I was in Northern Ireland. I actually had to phone the courier company in London and get them to organise putting it on a plane to Belfast

Hoping shipping to Canada will be a smidge easier...


UPS are the worst - anything I order from Weta that comes from their warehouse in the US has a hefty brokerage charge slapped on it by UPS. If I get it shipped from New Zealand it arrives happily by Canada Post with no extra charges.

[auntiehill]

UPS, as in United Parcel Service, or the US Postal Service?

I never had any problem with UPS; it's FedEx that seems to screw us over again and again. Apparently, when the delivery guy for our area takes a vacation, they just let the packages sit on the truck until he gets back.

[macloudt]

Yeoman Randi wrote:

---

Which shirt did you order? And in the future, please think of me, i'd be happy to help you out!

I ordered this one:

http://www.thinkgeek.com/tshirts-apparel/womens/b3e7/

It describes my daughter perfectly, which is why I don't begrudge this one-time major expense for one t-shirt. However I will definitely keep you in mind for any future purchases from Thinkgeek, because I love their stuff. Thanks for the offer.

Trampledamage, it was UPS who delivered it. In fact, I didn't have the choice to send it via surface mail, which is a pain for overseas buyers. I did receive it in 3 days, though, and I didn't have to call anyone in London to arrange a flight to our nearest airport. Heck, it would probably be cheaper for me to take the bus to London and pick it up myself.

[SPCTRE]

^ That's an awesome gift for your daughter.

I've ordered several items from thinkgeek.com last year, delivery to Germany went totally smooth (and fast - took only a week or so for the packages to arrive).

My application for leave still hasn't been approved. It probably will, but I'd prefer to be able to book my train tickets now

Looking forward to spending the week leading up to Christmas Eve with my family down south in Bavaria

[trampledamage]

auntiehill wrote:

---

UPS, as in United Parcel Service, or the US Postal Service?

I never had any problem with UPS; it's FedEx that seems to screw us over again and again. Apparently, when the delivery guy for our area takes a vacation, they just let the packages sit on the truck until he gets back.

United Parcel Service. To be fair, on other deliveries they're are fine, but for some reason Weta stuff gets a charge often almost of the cost of the item all over again.

[WillsBabe]

macloudt wrote:

---

That Thinkgeek t-shirt I ordered for my daughter arrived yesterday. The shirt was $29.99, the delivery charge was $22.00, and my husband had to pay £15 for customs and such on delivery. If I ever order anything from Thinkgeek again I'll have it sent to a Canadian or American friend and have them send it to me via surface mail as a gift. I've learned my lesson! The shirt is brilliant, though, and my daughter is sure to love it.

Wow, that's an awful lot of extra costs you had to pay there! That delivery charge is a scandal! I think when it comes to customs, though, anything over $18 can get clobbered for customs. I think it's been the same rate for years, too. About time it went up.

[King Daniel]

-36

[Holdfast]

auntiehill wrote:

---

I never had any problem with UPS; it's FedEx that seems to screw us over again and again.

To be honest, I think they're all as equally hare-brained as each other. A lobby seems to to confuse the hell out of them, or at least, their delivery policies are such that they don't seem able to consistently buzz the correct bell...

As for international delivery charges, both US and UK customs have majorly cracked down on items slipping through the cracks. You would actually have to have it marked as a gift to avoid charges now, whereas a few years ago it was luck of the draw.

It's also more costly for the recipient if you use a courier rather than regular carriers like Royal Mail or USPS, because the couriers pay some fees in advance, and then charge you for them, plus a handling charge. If possible I always prefer to receive and send things via the normal carriers, but with tracking, signature and insurance to increase reliability up to an acceptable standard.

[Joshua Howard]

We set out our food donation collection bins yesterday at the entrances of my Walmart store. We also constructed and decorated three large christmas trees. People are buying more food than usual now, as they always do pre-thanksgiving. Working retail, Christmas is huge... and I've always loved that.

[Miss Chicken]

WillsBabe wrote:

---

Wow, that's an awful lot of extra costs you had to pay there! That delivery charge is a scandal! I think when it comes to customs, though, anything over $18 can get clobbered for customs. I think it's been the same rate for years, too. About time it went up.

We are lucky in Australia. Broadly speaking we do not have pay customs or GST on overseas purchases under $1000. Customs do look out for people getting multiple packages i.e. if you received 4 packages over a short time with goods totally over $1000 than most likely you would be charged customs and GST.

This is because Australian Customs just couldn't cope with the vast amount of small overseas purchases Australians started to make once internet shopping because popular.