Fred,
It depends a lot on what shipping they used. ParcelForce (the parcels
operation of the Royal Mail, our main postal provider) would charge #22.75
for a 4lb parcel sent standard delivery, but #34.30 for Scheduled (and there
are further, both faster and slower, services than these). There's no
secret to these prices, they are on
http://afis.postoffice.co.uk/Parcelforce/Internet/CustServGuide/calculator.asp
Scheduled offers 3-6 days delivery to the USA, guaranteed delivery, and
compensation. Standard takes longer ("from 5 days"), and does not guarantee
delivery. Holden may have considered that your parts were important to you,
and therefore selected a service with guaranteed delivery and a shorter
wait.
Whoever sent you that other parcel for only #10 is either taking a loss on
it, or is sending via another carrier with a less
fast/professional/reliable/guaranteed service. There are a whole variety of
ways of sending parcels, with an enormous range of prices.
If you want your parcel sent a specific way, either because you want it fast
or you want it cheap, you have to tell that to the people you are buying
off. If you don't, you let them choose the service - and the price. For
the service Holden considered appropriate for your parts they could easily
have spent the amount they charged you.
Richard & Daffy
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