POSTAGE RATES

We use Australia Post for all our shipping and bill our customers at cost for all post and packing.

Postage within Australia is at standard Australia Post rates.

Our normal means of postage overseas is via Air Mail, unless specifically requested by the customer to use Express Post International. We strongly recommend using Express Post International if the value of the purchase exceeds AUD$150 or if the customer has a requirement for tracking. You will note that for overseas postage the choice is limited to Air Mail (which is our standard means) and Express Post International. Any requests for insured mail or registered international mail will see the goods shipped by Express Post International, for greater protection to the customer. Please be aware the Express Post International is usually five to six times the cost of Air Mail and therefore the high cost is the trade-off against quicker delivery and tracking.

Generally speaking Air Mail takes 7 to 10 days but at certain peak times during the year this can blow out to 14 to 20 days. Australia Post does not provide tracking of any kind for anything shipped via Air Mail or International Registered Air Mail, although customers should bear in mind that insurance is limited to the first AUD$100 of the value of the goods. Recent changes to Australia Post procedures have made it extremely difficult to lodge Air Mail Insured Items which is why we no longer offer this class of postage.

Although this service costs considerably more than Air Mail, it offers greater benefits than Air Mail. Delivery times are greatly reduced; usually 3-5 days depending on where the goods are shipped. Some countries in Europe, Asia and South America may have slightly longer internal delivery schedules. Express Post International may not be available to some countries in which case we will ship by Air Mail. Express Post International is the best class of postage we can offer our customers because it provides tracking ability for every step of the way but costs a considerably more than Air Mail.

Australia Post no longer offers Surface Accelerated Mail or Economy Air Mail. Surface Mail is no longer offered to immediate postal zones and is severely restricted to Europe, North and South America.

Customers will notice that we do not have a postage calculator on our order form. This is because Australia Post uses a complex weight-based method to calculate postage charges. There are 6 world zones, 2 classes of postage and 9 weight divisions! Our response to this is to individually calculate the postage for each order as we pack it for shipping. This means the customer gets an accurate postage and packing charge. To help give the customer a rough idea of the total cost of their order we have three buttons to choose from: one for postage within Australia and to New Zealand, and one for Air Mail postage to the rest of the world, and one for Express Post International. These buttons add a pre-determined percentage to the order total. In some cases, particularly low value orders, the actual postage charges my end up being a few dollars more that the amount shown on the shopping cart. In reality when we calculate and charge the postage for each order the vast majority of charges will be less than these amounts. The obvious exception being for heavy packages (lots of books!!!).

Remember: your invoice will always reflect the exact postage charge and that is the amount billed to your credit card. If you are paying by bank draft or cashier's check, email or fax us for exact charges first. In any case, any over-payment will be credited to your account and be deducted from your next order.We will always only pass on what we are charged by Australia Post.

Please note that we do not use couriers such as DHL, TNT, FedEx, or UPS because they are three to four times more expensive for packages under 20kg than Australia Post.

Customers are billed for these products at a universal price of AUD$2.80 (our Packaging & Handling fee) because the cost of packaging we use falls close to or just above this price. This price also helps to cover the cost or certain imposts Australia Post makes upon us to operate our commercial mail account.