Thursday, January 31, 2013

The most expensive lady yet......#33!

A week or so ago, a wonderful lady from Portugal, Ana, contacted me to do a fabric portrait of her dear friend from Brazil.  She and I discussed price, as is normal, and she asked that I send it registered so that she could track it with a number it once it was finished.  She said she'd pay the extra postage.  In all my ladies, and sending quilts all over the world, I have never had this request, so I was flabbergasted when I got to the post office and was informed that the package had to be in a brown box, or wrapped in brown paper, or brown tape in order to go registered.  E-gads...............what?  I buy boxes specifically to ship my "ladies" and they're white!  I write the address with a Sharpie so that it is permanent, and will not run, and I tape with clear tape over it so that it has no way to get lost.  (At least so far nothing has gotten lost.......knock on wood!  lol)  So.......now I'm standing there in the post office with a line behind me, wondering what to do. So the clerk informs me that I can send it EXPRESS and the white box will be fine and a number will be assigned.............so I'm happy as a clam until I hear the price...............$45.45.  (And this is for something that normally would be sent for about $15 BEFORE the rates went up this week.)  So I look behind me, see all the people staring at me to hurry up and agree to the exorbitant cost.

So when I got home, I immediately e-mailed Ana and tell her of my plight (and ignorance of the brown wrapping) and she (such a sweetie that she is) Paypal-ed me the extra $30.45.  The only good thing is that the package would arrive in 3-5 business days.  So we wait!  And we wait!  And we wait some more!  Now, it's well over a week and finally Ana hears that it made it to Lisbon ..........BUT.........it is hung up in customs.  (And the number that we were supposed to use to track it, only went as far as the US border!!!????  Hello!!!)  E-gads.....what's next?  So, poor Ana, contacts customs so that they don't wreck the quilt (since I pack it in such a way not to crease it), and we are both worried to death! Finally I hear from Ana that she has the quilt, but that customs demanded an additional 23% cost besides the cost I declared on the custom form even though I told them it was a gift.  This costs Ana approximately an additional $20 USD.  By now she is just ready to get the darn thing home, I'm sure!

So..........please let me introduce, Lady #33 (who has seen herself, but doesn't have it in hand yet), the lovely Silmara:

#33 Lady - Silmara

Silmara's pretty eyes

Lady #33 - Silmara from Brazil

You can see her work on her blog:  http://quilters-studio.blogspot.com.br

I did get a picture of Maria with herself from last time that she wanted me to show you:

Maria with herself (#31 Lady)

So that's it for today!  I wanted to mention that if you have questions about me doing a portrait of you or friend, please contact me through my e-mail address on my side bar, and not by your comments.  Many of you have no-reply blogger addresses and I can't get back to you.  I go into your blog, but you have no e-mail address listed either and I don't want you to think I am ignoring you.  More on costs next time.  I am working on #34 and #35 now and they are international.  I haven't mailed since the costs went up last week, so I'll let you know what I find out.  Until then, have a super weekend!

15 comments:

Maria said...

Delighted the "lady quilt" reached it's destination. It did turn out to be rather expensive for Ana..but she is well worth it. Just love her hair and the colours in the portrait...I am sure her friend will love it...

Mary said...

WHOA! That is a lot for postage. I have mailed to Australia and Europe but it wasn't as big a package and didn't cost that much more. Int'l gals are so nice to pay the extra most of the time, they are used to it being higher for them. She's beautiful as usual! Love the stitching on her hair.

Little Penpen said...

Well, thank goodness she got there! A few years ago, I participated in a swap through one of the blogs I was reading. It was a cheap and fun swap...so I thought. You had to be willing to ship anywhere. I forgot what my country was, but I offered to ship my daughters, too, so she could play along. When I went to mail our little cheapy swap things , I had to pay 98 $$$. We probably had $10 worth of merchandise in the boxes. Lesson learned...ha ha...never again! (I kept telling my daughter...don't you DARE tell your daddy... LOL)

Ana Maria said...

Your "my friend" portrait is a wonderful one. Im so happy because she really did want to have it. This "Novel or Romance" about mail cost and taxes is the same everywhere.... Don´t tell you how much I paid last year to send quilts to Japan.....! Not Express but registered! LOL.
Thanks once again. We may be a little "crazy" but this is a Healthy One!!!!

Sharon - Lilabelle Lane said...

I am kind of used to high postage costs to get stuff to Australia but this latest price rise is biting a little more than normal! Your new lady looks fantastic. Keep up the great work. hugs

Farm Gate Creations Incorporating Hummingbird Quilting said...

Gosh! talk about high prices. I'm sure that there were very happy recipients at the end though which would of made it all worth while.

Maria said...

A lovely quilt as per usual Carol! A few of us Aussies have lots of stories about horrific postal costs...we just get used to it :-(

Sue said...

If she looks up the delivery standards you can sometimes get a refund on shipping, I have got a refund of postage a few times from Canada to England, hope ts might help. Another lovely lady!

Annie said...

Your Silmara is quite the lovely lady. But geezelouise she's high maintenance! LOL So glad she is close enough now to practically reach out and grab.

Susan said...

What a drama!! I'm sure it was all worth it!! I know the "standard" price now is 23.95 (was 16.95)
But - we do get used to it.

Lesley said...

Fabulous quilts...thank goodness it did arrive, finally. Such beautiful ladies!

Elaine said...

Wow! $45 is ridiculous. Good thing Ana is so sweet. Btw just noticed and love that many of the commenters use their ladies as their profile pic! Love it!

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Rettabug said...

Carol, I think this last lady may be the best one yet...besides ME, of course! LOL
You always do such a nice job. I am astounded by the highway robbery then imposed in both USA & in Spain! Just terrible!

However, I'm relieved that it finally reached her, safe & sound.

Hugs,
Rett

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