Now, I had bought some time ago a big sheet of 3 mm (1/8 inch) fiberglass for my overly increased hobby of amp building.
I have been using turrets most of the time (besides couple of amps), but decided to build few amps with eyelets, just for experience sake (and because Dumble style builds just might sound better
). Joking aside, finding eyelets for that thick board turned to be a very difficult task here in Europe - TAD has them for what is 20 cents per piece! and there's another distributor of Keystone that sells Keystone No.45 eyelets that seem to be the right ones. The problem is that the later sells to businesses only - so no luck.
Alright then - I turn to US stores, as I did numerous times and I find that Allied Electronics sells pack of 100 for 4 bucks.
So on the verge of my utter excitement I start filling in an order for 2 packs ( I would have ordered 10, but wanted to check how this fit, etc). $8 sounds like a great deal.
In the process of filling a handling fee of $5 shows up - which I don't mind. I understand the order value is too low.
Getting to the shipping choices page, it says - we can't calculate right now, but we ship USPS Priority, so I tell myself - that is still OK - I ordered maybe a hundred times so for what is half a pound at most shouldn't be that much.
I duly went to the USPS website and found that shipping to Bulgaria of up to 4 lbs. envelope is at around 24$ (for a private person, so business regularly shipping should get some sort of discount, but even if not - still sounds good and still makes it a lot better deal than I can get in EU. So I happily agree.
I post the order and start drawing my layout for what is to be the ultimate SSS build
Next day I receive a form from an export compliance officer - alright, I understand that - law is law, compliance is important - I can't exactly build a spy satellite with couple pack of tinned copper, but they should do their job. I duly reply that I am building guitar amps and that is do good for humanity (and myself personally
).Now - tonight I receive a text message from my bank (one of my day job hats being information security, I have notifications for more things that I care to remember
) that I have been charged 73 USD and some change by Allied 
/vent on
I can't exactly describe my feelings at that very moment (or at least my parents taught me otherwise once upon a time), but quick math shows nearly 60 USD in shipping charges for what is half a pound pack at most.
So I somehow end up with the most expensive eyelets, I've ever seen
With shipping charge that is almost equivalent to courier service and a lot of frustration.I don't know whether there are some other options for me to cancel this fiasco, apart from sending a note to Allied on my frustration (which I did), since I am not aware of US regulations around that, but that is certainly my first and last order with them.
Vent off,
Niki
