Klarinet Archive - Posting 000669.txt from 2005/03
From: Roger Garrett <rgarrett@-----.edu>
Subj: [kl] shipping charges and IBO IMS
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2005 17:33:47 -0500
Here is my second posting/question:
Walter wrote:
Date: Sun, 6 Mar 2005 12:36:08 -0500
"International" musical suppliers are *not* international. I called
them once to try to place a reed order to Europe and they wanted to
charge me $40 for shipping!>>
They are charging for the time spent making out the customs forms and
presumably taking the packages to the post office. To do my international
shipping,
I automated the customs forms processing, and I am at the post office two or
three times a week, anyway, so I try to charge no more than the cost of the
actual postage. Shipping internationally does take additional "work" time.
Walter Grabner
www.clarinetXpress.com
World-class clarinet mouthpieces
Unfortunately, Walter is correct about the shipping issues. However, let's
think about the experience I had with IMS when Lisa was running the place
(more about that momentarily). I ordered four Zinner Bb mouthpiece
blanks. Now - I don't order in bulk because there are plenty of people who
make mouthpieces from Zinners - and while I can reproduce a good, closed
tip mouthpiece with a hollow table from a Zinner blank (and I often do), I
prefer more open mouthpieces - for which Zinners are less adaptable than
one or two of the many models of J.J. Babbitt blanks (yes we can talk about
consistency another time - !!!). So - when the blanks arrived at my home,
I was stunned that the price had gone up to $50 per blank (US $ against the
Euro was one reason) - for a total of $200 (previously was getting them for
$35 each). The problem here is that I was charged $29 shipping for a
package that cost no more than $3.85 to ship priority mail. I know the
time spent to package it up was less than 10 minutes - including finding
the blanks from the back room. I just don't think $290 per hour is
appropriate! The cost was based on the $200 - not the product. Thinking
about such shipping - if I wanted to challenge it (which I did not), if
someone is purchasing 4 blanks more when they had already ordered 500
previously, they would get the discount of $25 or $30 per blank - allowing
them to purchase the 4 blanks for about $120 - and their shipping for the
exact same number of mouthpiece blanks, same weight, same time to package
and ship would have been.........$14. So - while Walter is correct for the
time issue with most businesses - my experience tended to reflect the
former post - and IMS was just not using good business "cents!"
Ok - part II:
My understanding of IMS is that it is now International Band and Orchestra
- no longer International Musical Suppliers. I received a letter from the
current owner - Carl Calandra - who stated that Lisa Argeris is no longer
an employee with his company (she was a salesperson beginning in January of
2005) and that they are no longer the sole distributors of Zinner
mouthpieces. I later received a letter at my university offering Bb Zinner
blanks for $25 each. Anyone have any information on where Zinners are now
being sold from?
If you want to respond to me personally - I will be off the Klarinet list
pretty quickly, but you can reach me for both my last post regarding Basset
Clarinets and this post at my email address :
rgarrett@-----.edu
Thanks everyone!
Best wishes,
Roger Garrett
Illinois Wesleyan University
http://www.iwu.edu/~rgarrett/
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