Although the lappy's CPU fan hasn't caused any more trouble, it sounds like it's on the way out. Working on the basis that surfing for a replacement would be difficult after it croaks, I've been trying to source a replacement.
The obvious place to start looking was the IBM/Lenovo webshop. That's the UK webshop, so the part should already be in the UK. It found the required part, not cheap at £23.17 plus VAT, but it was what I expected to have to pay for a genuine replacement part.
What I didn't expect was the size of the shipping charges. FFS, I wanted it shipped, not a ship!!!
That's just mad. I've had huge packages, containing telescopes with delicate optics worth hundreds of pounds, sent fully-insured almost halfway around the globe for less than half the shipping cost of this fan which, even when packaged, is small enough to fit through a standard letterbox. How can it cost so much for p&p? For that price I'd expect them to do the main send on a NASA space-shuttle and have the final delivery done by The Pope driving a DeLorean.
Needless to say, I've dropped the idea of buying from IBM and now I'm looking elsewhere.
THE SMALL(ish) PRINT... (updated 23/07/2016)
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Funny enough I'm writing a blog post about the self same subject 😯
Sorry if I've stolen your thunder, George.
No thunder stolen, Stef. 😀 I think we all need to expose the rip off of postal charges made by some companies.
This really annoys me. 18 quid is ridiculous for P&P for such a small item!
Up here, we (still) sometimes incur extra postage - a Highlands and Islands surcharge - with some companies. Just how remote do they think we are in Inverness? We're only 100 miles north of Perth. No island ferries, no miles of single track road, just two hours speeding along a road served by dozens of delivery service lorries every day.
Last year one company wanted to charge me £26 on an item selling for £20, instead of the £4 for the rest of the country.
£26 on an item selling for £20? Jeez, that's criminal!
Do you have to pay extra to send from Inverness to, say, London? Does the "extra charge" system work both ways?
FWIW, I've just been shopping for that fan and found one for a couple of quid more BUT the p&p is only £2.07. That small amount is to air-mail the item from the Far-East, as opposed to shipping it from a supposedly Europe-based stockroom for 18 notes.
Makes you wonder.
@BG! -
No extra delivery charges for stuff heading south from Inverness. The companies making the extra charges blame the delivery companies. I don't see why it should cost more to bring a parcel to Inverness when the delivery company have a depot here and can, and do, take parcels south to wherever at no extra cost.
I remember someone in the local paper complaining recently about a bathroom company. He had tried to order a shower enclosure - normal internet delivery £25 (not too bad); delivery to the Highlands £95! Again, he was on the mainland so no ferry charges to take into account.
Ah - the extra "Highland Charge" for delivering to the wild places... might it be the English getting their own back for the Scots slamming up wind farms all over the shop and thus increasing our electricity prices down here?
(I'll get my coat...)
I wonder if there's a "Highland Charge" for delivering turbines to the wild places, Alan.
(I'll go get your nice new softshell for you...)
Maybe the problem in the OP is down to the piss-poor geographical knowledge of the policy-makers...
For a while now I've been stating on job agency applications that I'm only considering employment within a 30-mile/60-minute radius of home (LE10), yet I still get "leads" to positions in places such as Swindon, Chester, Bristol, Tyneside.
My Chris told me yesterday that one berk in her London office considered Southampton to be "in the Midlands" on the basis that it is mid-way between London and Cornwall. When Chris explained the the Midlands is where Coventry, Leicester and Birmingham are, the berk insisted that those cities are "in the North". Twat. How would he classify Scotland? "Polar", I suspect.
Anyway, yesterday's best LOCAL job offer was a peach... Quality Engineer... aerospace and satellite/rocketry stuff... in WINNIPEG!!!
Looks like a great job with a successful and thriving company, but slightly beyond my commuting limit.