this post was submitted on 21 Sep 2023
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[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Tell me about it. Hawaii has its own obstacles with various things on a regular basis.

I need a replacement laptop battery that costs $50.

But you cannot get an individual battery not already inside a laptop shipped to you by the usual options, because hazmat shipping restrictions make it prohibited or too expensive for the seller to pay the fees.

I can have it delivered to a freight company and have them forward it to me via sea for $270+, or have it delivered to a friend on the mainland, and have them send it by USPS Ground (also comes by sea in a few weeks) for about $15.

I ordered a portable power station from Amazon from the one and only company that would deliver here, and while I did get it for the usual free shipping to everywhere else in the US, I looked later in the day after making the order, and they had changed their allowed shipping areas to exclude Hawaii like everyone else.

Someone fucked up… and a big mahalo to them!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (3 children)

So are you saying I could buy like, a dozen laptop batteries, take them on a trip to Hawaii with me, and then sell them to pay for my vacation?

[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Im sure trying to smuggle a dozen lithium based batteries onto a passenger plane would go over super well with the TSA. They would probably even pull you into the nice private Polite Conversation Room.

I'm pretty sure the phrase the TSA would use to describe a dozen laptop batteries in a suitcase is "an incendiary device".

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (2 children)

With the right connections maybe.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So... hey Mateo. What are you doing next July?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

I hope my new battery gets here before then…

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

Nice battery related joke!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

They don’t want that, for the same reasons

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It’s maddening. Just figuring out how to get something here without extortion.

I needed a specialized patch cable that I could only find at one company. It could be dropped into a flat rate usps box and sent for less than $8, but the only option they would do is FedEx for a little over $90.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You live in the middle of the ocean.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Read the part where we could still get things here cheaper if companies were willing to use basic USPS options.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If it was easier and cheaper then companies would be using it. But they don't.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

That is very dumb logic. USPS Flat Rate boxes are free. USPS will pick those up like every other company. Sometimes if not often it is the cheapest option, and doing labels etc is no more complicated or involved than for UPS or FedEx. Many companies do offer that as a shipping option, and others don’t even when it makes no sense. It makes no sense to only offer overnight Fedex at a cost of over $90 for a $14 5ft long patch cable that could be put in a free box and sent for less than $8-10, and it still has free tracking included and will get there in 2-3 days. It’s just companies insisting on everything being fast shipping with tracking and signature confirmation etc etc, and they just don’t want to make options available that will take longer if you’re willing to wait for it.