Thread: Double confirmation and a rant

The Bismarck just arrived from Tony Miller... I am posting this to confirm that:
1) The razor arrived QUICKLY and in a great shape. Thank you Tony, top class as always!
2) My honing to date has been good. Tony honed this razor and when it comes to the sharpness, my own honing work is on the par with it. Even though I got to see X's honing work as well, it's always good to compare with others, especially if they have Tony's reputation.

Now my rant is with Canada Customs.

First they opened the the box and probably had their dirty paws all over my new baby. I'll have to take it to Ivana's salon and have it sprayed with Barbiside before I shave with it. Then they charged me a $5 handling fee ON TOP OF MY TAXES!!! First they don't trust the declaration and then they penalize me for their lack of trust even though everything is as declared? They wasted the time that Tony spent disinfecting it after the honing and the time that I will have to spend disinfecting it and then they have the galls to CHARGE ME A FEE for it?! I'm FURIOUS!!!

Edit: I have no issues with paying my duties, but opening my package should be an operating expense for them. Charging for it is a slap in the face!

I agree and would make it known to the property authorities and if they didn't give the response I want take it as far as it needs to go. Heck, you paid $5 for the privilege!!!!

You paid not for the opening of the package but for Canada post to front you the money for unpaid sales taxes.

You could've gone to a customs office (before it crossed the border), filled out a declaration form and paid the gst/pst yourself, then Canada Post would not have acted as a broker on your behalf and not charged you 5$ fee.
UPS, btw, would charge you around 20$, I believe.

Redwoood

Yeah, customs really screwed me when I ordered my TI from Classic Shaving. It cost me an arm and a leg already, but they tacked on a lot extra for insurance, shipping, duties and taxes. It really made picking it up at the post office a crummier experience.

This is still an extremely inefficient way to conduct cross-border commerce. As a government-owned agency, Canada Post should be receiving tax revenue money to cover their tax-collection EXPENSES. Customs brokers seem to be even worse than loan sharks. Their handling fee is close to 50% of the duties that they "fronted."

In any case, I'll focus on the good stuff. Now I have a rotation of 4 good blades
2 Sheffields (Taylor's Eye Witness 6/8 full holow, G. Butler 6/8 full hollow smiler) and 2 Solingens (the Bismarck and the Satinedge with DOVO SS scales).

Walker's almost ready, W&B's waiting for scales from Nenad, I'm undecided on whether I should fix or sell the Boker, and I'll hone and give away the M&Y.

I remember when I said that I'll only get 2 razors, 3 TOPS and Nenad started laughing... Now I'm working toward a rotation of 7 with 2 spares lol.

Originally Posted by FiReSTaRT

I remember when I said that I'll only get 2 razors, 3 TOPS and Nenad started laughing... Now I'm working toward a rotation of 7 with 2 spares lol.

We all laughed because we all thought the same thing "I don't need anymore than the one or two I have". Boy were we wrong.