G’day. One Friday afternoon I ordered a book from America via
the internet (remember, I’m in New Zealand) and was offered a
choice of shipping; all of which used abbreviations I know
nothing about. I was in a bit of a hurry, (wife was waiting to
go out) so picked one at random, did the thing with the rest of
the ‘form’ and with the credit card stuff and said “Go, man” or
words to that effect. To my utter amazement it arrived at my
house on the following Monday at 1.0pm! Ha! But there was a
slight snag. The book cost US$13.50 but when it arrived and I
checked, I had been debited NZ$120!!! Wow indeed. OK, so your
dollar is worth very nearly 2 of ours - which I’d forgotten about
in my hurry - So the book cost US$13.50 and the total US$65. I
hadn’t realised that I had inadvertently chosen the most
expensive of all the shipping methods. NOW: would some kind
person please enlighten me on the various current US shipping
abbreviations? Please? I don’t want to take out another mortgage
to pay for shipping in future, even if the deliveryman doesn’t
have to whip up his snails to a racing frenzy to beat the world
record. Thanks - and cheers, --John Burgess