Did you contact Frank directly and ask him about shipping? I'm sure if you emailed him he would address the problem himself. I have ordered many times from him and never had a problem. Just my two Cdn Cents worth.
Cheers,
Bryan

Hi Bryan. Actually I did try to contact them from their site by using their "Contact Us" feature only to be informed that I need a Net Passport account and that they want my name and password. Not the most user friendly site I've ever encountered.

I think you have to email Frank, all of the orders I have ever gotten from him were not over priced on shipping. Drop him a line with your snail mail addy and what you want to order and he usually gets back to you the next day. I think he does this as a sideline and not his primary business but I am not sure. I always email him at :
[email protected]
and have always had good service.

Mark

Contact them by phone if your having problems Here is a link to the contact page with athe 1 800 number. HTH
http://www.bentbutnotbroken.com/about.htm
Cheers,
Bryan

Hey there Tapper, next time you are looking for something like that, check out Air Connection, http://www.airconnection.on.ca/

Canadian company, free shipping to Canadian buyers.

They don't carry everything that the barrel store does, but what they do carry is competitivly priced.....plus free shipping!!

Have a look!!

HI

While I do agree that having to figure out your own PST etc is a bit antiquated, I agree with the others that all you need do is drop Frank a line. I have been "charged" one amount but actually billed a lessor amount.

I think that The Barrel Store is one of the better on-line places in Cda. I found for the longest time that his costs were very cheap when compared to other big US companies.

HTH

Tom

The best one for me is Dave at Military Hobbies.

Thanks Bryan and Mark. I'll try your way next time I want to order something from them. I'm still not happy about having to come up with my own totals,etc. He would really have a great site if he had a "search" feature and automated checkout.

Scott, I placed an order with Air Connection and had a problem with my order(ordered something I thought I removed) and I still havent heard back from them. Free shipping is nice but not worth it if they dont reply to customers emails. Pretty cool site though.

Thanks for the help guys, its very appreciated.

Don't blame the Barrel Store, blame Canada Post. I've found that it's actually cheaper to mail something to the US than to mail a parcel of the same weight to just about anywhere in Canada!

Hi Doug.

Unfortunately, this is the case. When Canada Post ships something within Canada they calculate the weight, size and distance rate including a fuel surchage for the shipment within the country. So the longer the distance the item has to travel (within Canada) the more the postage will cost (especially in the case of packets and parcels).

When the price is calculated on a shipment to the USA , all the above are taken into consideration up to the Canada USA border, once the item crosses into the US, the US Postal service rates take over and they are then added to the cost of shipment. Since the US shippig rates are cheaper, a parcel mailed from Toronto to California is cheaper than a parcel shipped from Toronto to Vancouver.

Cheers, Michael

I have to agree entirely. Don't blame the Barrel Store, who as far as I know has a great reputation. Blame the political appointees at Canada Post and their high 6 figure salaries. Also don't forget that a shipper has to package an item as well and the postage shown on the package does not include the GST, whcih the shipper has to pay..

Its Canada Posts fault? LOL! All they had to do was stick a barrel and the PE in a padded envelope and mail it at letter rate for 96 CENTS. Ive had this done countless times before by other companies that dont charge me an arm and a leg for postage.

Here are a few rules of thumb I have learned over the years.

A): Nver use the automated checkouts, Email the store directly with a list of what you want to order and ask for the best rate on shipping and item availability.

B) Most online shops calculate their shipping based on total price and not weight so make the order worthwhile. Maybe pick up that P/E set you will need for your next project.

C) If you have not used a particuar vendor before, a simple post on many of the online DG's asking about the shop and their service will answer most of your questions.

I try and follow these basic rules and have not been burned by an online vendor yet. (Knock on wood )
Cheers,
Bryan

I think if you read through his site you will see that he used to do that and then ran into difficulty with a broken barrel. He says this and thats why he won't put a barrel in an envelope, I think we have all had problems with stuff being bashed by CP.

I have to echo what most of the others have said, I have ordered from Frank a few times and had no problems from Canada to the US.

Mike

thats a lot of moeny to ship something.
home town hobbies, charged me 9 dollars also,
i got a metal barrel from them.
it was 9 dollars and the shiping was 9 so it was
18 dollars.
so i called home town and i said why was shiping so much. he gave me a bull crap story,
i will never buy from him again.
and i live in the usa

I have a couple insights into shipping items through Canada Post as I work for the Corporation and sell many items through Ebay using Canada Post.

Damage to an item is 99 percent the shippers fault. It is done through poor packaging. Canada Post uses alot of machinery in the sortation and shipping process including hydraulic dumpers and conveyers etc. When there is damage done to an item it usually (the case of 1 percent) because the item was caught in some part of the conveyor belt system or the hydraulic dumper.

As for shipping the barrel in a padded envelope, it can be done sandwiched between two pieces of corrugated cardboard. This is what I do when I ship trading cards or something of a narrow nature. I think that the Barrel Store may just use a box and shipping popcorn because it is less time consuming than cutting two pieces of cardboard and sizing them for an envelope.

Any questiions relating shipping and Canada Post? I'll do my best to answer them

Cheers, Michael