Special Delivery
On Christmas Eve, Mandy and I finally thought we'd found a nice sideboard for our wedding china and crystal. It was in Hamma Galleries in Hamilton, normally the home of outrageously overpriced furniture, but this seemed good value at only $1700. As it happened, there was also a storewide sale on, which would knock another 15% off the price, taking it down to around $1400.
"Plus delivery," the saleswoman added.
How much would that be? we asked.
"Three hundred dollars".
At first I thought she must be quoting for Santa Claus himself to deliver the thing from the North Pole. $300? That's over 20% of the cost of the cabinet itself. St. George's, where we live, is only 30 minutes drive from Hamilton. I bet I could have a sideboard shipped from the United States for less than that.
The overall price would still have been reasonable, but the feeling of being ripped off was just too much to bear.
Archives By Date
Postscript: Unbeknown to me when I posted this, the owner of Hamma Galleries is Graeme Outerbridge's stepfather. After reading this post Graeme called his stepfather who agreed that Hamma would deliver the cabinet to us free of charge if it would fit in their van (the original quote was for another company to do the job).
Unfortunately it didn't, however I'd like to thank Hamma for making the offer and Graeme for mentioning it to them, and offering to drive the truck to St. George's.
In the end we arranged our own truck (for $60) and picked the sideboard up this afternoon. And very nice it looks too.
Posted by Phil on 03.01.04 at 18:02