We may have to invent a new tag just to accurately describe how absurd Think Geek’s shipment to Micah in Ontario was. It was bad enough that the shipping was over $30, but that’s a consequence of stupid shipping options from the US to Canada. What really elevates this story to the top of the stupid shipping mountain is how they packed a sticker. But hey, at least the sticker didn’t get broken in transit. Update: Think Geek responds in the comments below (which is awesome because we felt kind of bad talking about a site we like so much).

My fiance got a $25 gift certificate to Think Geek from a friend of hers in the US. We both like the store but rarely order mainly due to the exorbitant shipping costs. To give you an idea, the $67 total order was accompanied by 2 shipping options to us in Southern Ontario. DHL Express for $27 or UPS Express for $37. On top of that, of course, is the handling fee charged by both companies (usually $7 for DHL and whatever UPS feels like charging, I get hit with $35 often) and the taxes when it comes across the border. I don’t need my order in 2 days, but I had no other options. I e-mailed their customer support, but got a canned letter saying their are constantly negotating rates, etc. If I lived in Buffalo (2 hour drive away) I could get it shipped for $7. Anyway, because it was a present, we sucked it up and got a friend to go in on ordering a couple things to defray the costs.

I received the package today, and was more than a little disgusted by what I saw. It came in two boxes for some reason, and you need to look at both. The first box was an alright size, it had a shower curtain and a glass mug in it. Looking through the box I noticed one thing was missing, a “Linux inside” sticker. To my horror, it was all by itself in the second box. Well, it wasn’t really alone, it had a catalogue and 5 bags of air in it. Thank you Think Geek, you have ensured I will no longer be wasting any more money at your store for useless things. Even if I didn’t care about the waste of cardboard and plastic (I don’t, I’m sure I’ll be reusing the packing materials for something that size) I DO care about my money they wasted.

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