You would think that I would have easy access to all the materials I need for cross-stitch projects since I live in Vancouver. Hah! I had better luck when I lived in Victoria. Recently, I had to order some blending filament and some seed beads to finish a large project I worked on during my hiatus from the salt mine. Kreinik made the process easy with the on-line shops you can access right through their site. Zip zap zoom. I had my blending filament. Sadly, I had to order it twice as I didn’t realize how much I would need. The beads, on the other hand, were a different story altogether.
I decided to use a Canadian stitching supply on-line store: Stitch-it Central as they had the beads I needed. The beads were $1.55. Shipping was $5.95! Sadly, I didn’t need anything else. After taxes, the order costs $8.40! I placed the order on October 11th and didn’t receive the beads until October 28th. 17 days! After waiting for 11 days, I checked on the order and was told it shipped on October 17th. Okay. So, the mail took 11 days to get from St Thomas, Ontario to Vancouver, BC. Kind of slow, I’d say. When they arrived, the postage on the package was $1.25! $1.25! That’s a pretty damn steep markup to $5.95. Considering the order wasn’t filled for 6 days, I really think it’s outlandish to have been charged so much.
Even though I’m complaining, I’m not going to try and get a refund as I really needed the beads. I’ll just never use that site again.
But, get this:
On October 23rd, I received an email telling me that something I ordered from the UK was shipped. The shipping costs of £3.08 is the equivalent of $4.99 Canadian. The package arrived on November 1st. That’s 11 days. 11 days to get from Great Britain to Vancouver. For less money! What’s up with Canada Post?
Well, I’m not going to bitch too loudly about them. Yesterday I mailed a parcel to Red Deer, AB. I paid for 2 day service because I was shipping something perishable. It arrived today! Basically, it made it there overnight. That’s better service than I paid for.
To sum up: Canada Post has uneven service, British mail ROCKS!, Stitch-it Central will never get my business again, and
the project turned out fabulous!!
I had a similar experience with that St. Thomas company and I live only 2 hours away! I recently ordered some quilting supplies from Austrailia and it took just under 2 weeks to get here! The shipping was reasonable. The company also has a number of small items that it ships for free (like the beads). I thought that was a great idea.
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