my family, as in the 75% of them that you all actually like and much prefer to hear about than anything i do, have taken quite a shine to - developed a penchant for, even - trashing USB cables. their passion for this means that, despite practically everything one buys these days coming with a USB cable whether you need one or not, we had something of a shortage of them in and around the home. oh.
whereas one can obtain any amount of USB cables one would care to mention from the Pound Shop, i thought i would be quite thrifty and astute in getting some more online, look you see. why, after all, spend 100p on a cable when you can get one - postage included - for 99p?
it turned out, or indeed transpired, that it would have been a lot less baffling and confusing to buy 50% of the two cables i got from the Pound Shop for 100p. why? well, you will see, if you read on.
99p plus free delivery is an interesting concept. it speaks of just how low a cost these USB cables must come in at for companies which sell them. even if they were all made in that big massive factory full of Chinese kids that Apple believe to be the way forward, surely shipping costs would make it so that selling them at 99p and posting free would be done at a loss, i would think.
if a padded envelope costs one, say, 5p or 10p, 1st Class postage would be 62p, and 2nd class postage would be 53p. if you went high there, 72p leaves one 27p to play with to procure the USB cable and to sell at some sort of meaningful profit. it could be done, i suppose.
what's that, you ask? oh, that's how the problematic 50% of the two cables i bought arrived. yeah, they went right ahead and sent it via Royal Mail Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm. a means of postage which starts at a cost of no less than £6.40. which means that on my order the people selling the cable were operating on a £5.41 loss on postage alone.
bizarre, curious and fascinating. also highly annoying, as no one was at home to sign for it. which led to another story, but we shall get there.
in the mean time, however, here's the other cable i bought. yes, it is indeed, as point of fact, a purple one, but my blueberry camera thing seems to have given it a blue tint. unless it looks purple to you and my current dental problems have caused me to go colour blind.
many thanks indeed to the company who provided the above, as this was a headache free experience. the postman dude just put it through the letterbox, and the cable can now do its thing.
the other one? well, we got the card slip thing on Wednesday, right, and worked out where to go to collect. some 8 or 10 miles away, the place was. not a problem, my (considerably) better half said she would go and collect on Thursday, after work, since the web of internet said the place was open until 5.
when she got there, however, they informed her that although they are open until 5, they - in secret - only let people collect mail before 1pm. cheers for that, Royal Mail, very kind of you to keep a secret like that. the people at the collection office informed my (considerably) better half that if she just phoned, however, they would arrange delivery for the next day, the next day in this case not being a Bowie album but being Friday.
this, as it happens, turned out to be bullsh!t of note. the earliest we could arrange delivery, or as Royal Mail reckon "redelivery", was Saturday, that being the day today. obviously i now have it, 3 days later and if you so wish 4 days after i should have got it. if only the company had just sent it via regular mail.
is the cable worth, in any particular sense, any of the above? not really. i am left wondering if this cable was sent in this way as a pricey insult or slur from the seller towards the buyer, or if it is all part of some elaborate tax dodge. in future, then, i think i shall resort to and rely on the sanctity of the Pound Shop for all further USB cable requirements.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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