HELP ME EN WORLD - Trouble With Art Supply Warehouse

[Olaf the Stout]

Hi guys,

I'm wondering if someone here on EN World can help me out. I'm trying to order some Windsor & Newton paintbrushes and some brush cleaner from Art Supply Warehouse (www.aswexpress.com) but I'm having a little difficulty.

I'm in Australia and I've found that postage costs can really make a difference to the overall cost of orders I make in the US. Before I confirmed my order I wanted to get a rough idea of how much shipping might cost me. I've e-mailed ASW via their website contact page about 6 times now, using 3 different e-mail addresses. I've also e-mailed them directly at their "customer service" e-mail address about 5 times. So far from all those contact pages and e-mails I have received just 1 reply. Even then the reply only addressed 1 of the 3 questions I asked!

Normally if I received such crappy customer service from an online store I would just give up and not order from them. However their current sale price on their Windsor & Newton Series 7 brushes is just too good to pass up. As such I'm going for a bit of a long shot and was wondering if anyone here on EN World can help me.

They have a toll free customer service number listed. I was wondering if a EN World member in the United States could give ASW a call for me and ask them my questions over the phone. What I want to know is pretty simple.

When I put my international order in there are 3 shipping options given to me:
US World Express
US Mail International Surface
Us Mail International Air

Is there any difference in cost for these 3 options? If so, which is the cheapest option?

I don't really care how long it takes to get to me. I just want the cheapest possible shipping option. Based on the information on the website I just don't know what option that is!

The other thing I wanted was a rough shipping estimate. Obviously shipping is normally based on weight. My order at this point consists of the following:

4 x W&N Series 7 Brushes
1 x 2.5oz tub of Master's Brush Cleaner and Preserver
1 x 16oz bottle of Winsor & Newton Brush Cleaner and Restorer
1 x 250ml jar of Winsor & Newton Flow Improver

By my best guess I think my order should weigh somewhere between 2-3lbs. However if each additional pound of weight makes too much of a difference to the shipping cost then I am willing to cut things from my order.

As such I would like to get a rough estimate of shipping cost for sending a 1lb, 2lb or 3lb package to Australia at the cheapest possible rate.

So just to summarise, what I want to know is:

To ship to Australia, what is the cheapest shipping option out of:
US World Express
US Mail International Surface
Us Mail International Air

And roughly how much would it cost to ship a 1lb, 2lb or 3lb package to Australia at the cheapest possible rate?

The customer service number they list on their website is: 1-800-995-6778 (toll free)

Here are their complete contact details for anyone that cares.
Art Supply Warehouse
5325 Departure Dr., Raleigh, NC 27616-1835
1-800-995-6778 (toll free) · 1-919-878-5077 · 1-919-878-5075 (fax)

My thanks and eternal gratitude to anyone that can do this for me!

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

So can anyone help me?

Will it help if I say pretty please?

Olaf the Stout

 

[pogre]

So can anyone help me?

Will it help if I say pretty please?

Olaf the Stout

They're closed until Monday morning. If no one else does, I'll call them Monday afternoon.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

They're closed until Monday morning. If no one else does, I'll call them Monday afternoon.

Thanks for that pogre. I appreciate it.

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

pogre,

I semt you an e-mail.

Thanks,

Olaf the Stout

 

[Olaf the Stout]

They're closed until Monday morning. If no one else does, I'll call them Monday afternoon.

pogre,

I take it that you didn't end up calling them?

It doesn't matter now as I've placed my order and the paintbrushes and cleaners are on their way. Thanks anyway.

Olaf the Stout

 

[pogre]

I suck. I totally forgot about this! I accepted the head football coaching job at my school and it has pretty much consumed my time. I have barely been on ENWorld since then.

Please accept my apology.

 

[Olaf the Stout]

I suck. I totally forgot about this! I accepted the head football coaching job at my school and it has pretty much consumed my time. I have barely been on ENWorld since then.

Please accept my apology.

No worries. I don't know if you would have been able to find out much from them anyway. I sent them yet another e-mail (from a third different e-mail address) and managed to get a reply.

They were able to tell me which shipping option was the cheapest, but they still couldn't give me a shipping price for a 1, 2 or 3 pound weight order. The only way I could find out what my shipping price would be was to actually put in an order (along with credit card details). What kind of messed up system is that?

Any other online store I've ordered from has an online calculator so that I can work out my shipping. And if they didn't, I could certainly e-mail them to get a rough postage cost. I certainly didn't need to place my order to get a shipping price.

So in the end I placed the order. My original order (which had 4 small paintbrushes, a 500ml liquid brush cleaner, a 250ml flow improver and a 2.5 ounce brush conditioner) somehow would have cost USD$43 + $7.50 handling fee to ship to Australia. I know that shipping prices have gone up recently but that seemed rediculously high.

I asked for the flow improver to be taken out and a new shipping quote given and I was told that they couldn't do that. They would have to cancel the whole order and do a completely new order in order to give me a new shipping price! Very weird. After a number of e-mails I finally managed to get a price for an order with the flow improver removed.

In the end it cost me about USD$35 +$7.50 handling fee to ship my order (minus the flow improver). I still think that's way over the top for shipping but I was beyond caring by the end.

So after all that I didn't really save much at all by ordering from ASW. And I really doubt I'll order from them again anyway, based on the way they respond (or don't respond) to e-mails.

Olaf the Stout

P.S. Congrats on the new postion pogre. I imagine head coach of the football team is a pretty big deal.

 

[pogre]

No worries. I don't know if you would have been able to find out much from them anyway. I sent them yet another e-mail (from a third different e-mail address) and managed to get a reply.

They were able to tell me which shipping option was the cheapest, but they still couldn't give me a shipping price for a 1, 2 or 3 pound weight order. The only way I could find out what my shipping price would be was to actually put in an order (along with credit card details). What kind of messed up system is that?

Any other online store I've ordered from has an online calculator so that I can work out my shipping. And if they didn't, I could certainly e-mail them to get a rough postage cost. I certainly didn't need to place my order to get a shipping price.

So in the end I placed the order. My original order (which had 4 small paintbrushes, a 500ml liquid brush cleaner, a 250ml flow improver and a 2.5 ounce brush conditioner) somehow would have cost USD$43 + $7.50 handling fee to ship to Australia. I know that shipping prices have gone up recently but that seemed rediculously high.

I asked for the flow improver to be taken out and a new shipping quote given and I was told that they couldn't do that. They would have to cancel the whole order and do a completely new order in order to give me a new shipping price! Very weird. After a number of e-mails I finally managed to get a price for an order with the flow improver removed.

In the end it cost me about USD$35 +$7.50 handling fee to ship my order (minus the flow improver). I still think that's way over the top for shipping but I was beyond caring by the end.

So after all that I didn't really save much at all by ordering from ASW. And I really doubt I'll order from them again anyway, based on the way they respond (or don't respond) to e-mails.

Olaf the Stout

P.S. Congrats on the new postion pogre. I imagine head coach of the football team is a pretty big deal.

Thanks! I checked back in just to see if you caught my message. Thanks for your understanding. I'm sorry ASW turned out to be such wipes.