Signs of Spring ??

The end of March is here, but where is the Spring???  Latest weather forecasts seem to be telling us to wait another month - let's hope they are wrong!

A more predictable arrival is the annual increase in postal charges.  This time, Royal Mail have really gone to town and completely re-vamped the scale of charges for parcels.

It used to be fairly simple: We knew how much your order weighed, so the postage was easily calculated.  If it was a little more valuable, we could pay a little extra to safeguard compensation in case it went astray or got damaged in the post.  And, although we would love to be able to just fork out any extra costs to send you your tools, unfortunately our little business would soon fold if we didn't pass on those costs to you!

Now, the Post Office have introduced size-related charges as well as weight-related ones  . . .  thank you SO much  . . .  just what we didn't need!  Anyway, we think we have just about got our heads around these new rates - we hope.

What does seem to be shrouded in mystery is the scale of charges for additional compensation relating to more valuable items.  The published information says "Additional compensation can be purchased . . . at the time of posting . . ."  but can we find a list of those charges ANYWHERE on the Royal Mail website?  NO!

So, our current prices in our Price List and on our website are as accurate as we can calculate at the moment, but they may change quite soon, probably slightly upwards - if at all.   NO CHANGE NEEDED AFTER ALL - OUR FIGURES TURNED OUT TO BE 'SPOT ON'.

Unfortunately, you will see that we have had to make substantial price increases for many of our tools.  Although the postal charges have pushed prices up a little, the plummeting value of the British Pound has really put the boot in.  Thank you, Mr. Osborne!

All the Glaser tools come from Switzerland and so are priced in Swiss Francs.  Since we last set our retail prices in January, the prices we have had to pay for fresh stock have climbed, so we have had to fix our prices according to the latest exchange rates.

The same goes for the Ho-Mis from Korea (South Korea, in case you were in any doubt!)  We buy from there in US Dollars, and the good old £ Sterling has suffered against that too!

As always, we are quick to put our prices DOWN  again when the exchange rates stabilise in our favour, and our next price review will be at the end of June.