Last month Trekell was having a sale on paint, and the Glenn Arthur detail brushes finally came back into stock, and I'd been eyeing them up for the longest time. So I ordered a set of the brushes and three bottles of the fluid acrylic.
The entire order was something like $35 and the shipping was $20 on top of that. Truth be told, I wasn't keen on the price of that shipping, but I do live in the UK, so I took it on the chin. There is an ocean and most of a continent between me and them, after all.
No, that was all fine. The problem is when it got here.
Since my order was over a certain amount, and from outside of the EU, I had to pay a customs charge for it. Fair enough.
However, altogether I paid £13.39 to the Royal Mail and £8 of that was the handling fee.
Eight British Pounds. (That's twelve USD.)
That's the minimum wage for a full hour's work from someone over twenty one. It did not take a full hour of someone's time to punch the data on the customs form on the box into a computer.
And if the fact they had to hold onto it until I paid the fee has anything to do with it, that's totally unfair. I paid the fee on the same day I got the card and they took two days to redeliver!
Ugh.
It just seems totally excessive for it to be that much. Especially since it was so much more than the customs charge itself.
If it was just the customs charge again then it would still be kind of excessive, but it wouldn't be that much of a punch in the gut.
This whole thing makes me want to order really expensive things just so I can justify such a steep handling fee in my own head.
Bah.
Long story short, get a dealer in the UK, Trekell and I will buy all of the paint.
In increments.
Because I'm kind of poor.
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