So today I was perusing NHL.com and I decided that I was gonna check out the brand spankin' new jerseys. Heck, I thought that I just may buy one of those suckers - one of the new Pens sweaters, that is.
I made my way to the shop and I took a peek at the jerseys - $115 for the Premiers, $250 for an Authentic, and 80 bucks to customize. Ok, sweet. I clicked and clicked, went to the checkout, and found out that I had to create an account to buy my stuff. Ok, fine, je comprends. I filled in the address part and couldn't find my stinkin' country on the list! They had Bangladesh, Vatican City, and Thailand, but no Canada. Frig.
Then I noticed a little something at the top right hand corner: a little Canadian flag. So I clicked on it.
Yes, back in business...So I redid my clicky clicky thing again, and FRIG, the prices jumped on me! Premier sweaters sold at a price of $136CAD, Authentics a crazy $296CAD, and customization at $84CAD. Besides all that, there's triple the shipping cost and all those hideous taxes and duties and crap.
In past years, this price difference would be understandable. The Canadian dollar was at $0.70US, so a price difference was no biggie. But the stupid economy is different now, and our Loonie is on par with the US Dollar. One Canadian Loonie is roughly equal to one American Dollar. The news people keep saying that this is good for the Canadian consumer because things will be cheaper. I assumed that this would translate to online shopping. Guess not.
What a rip off...but I'll still probably whip out my credit card (or student loan money) to get one of these puppies. Stupid corporate people, taking advantage of us non-corporate people.
2 comments:
The whole NHL Online Shop is a rip-off and could learn a lesson from amazon.com regarding ethics and full disclosure (especially on incomplete descriptions about shipping charges and hidden processing fees).
I recently ordered 2 t-shirts (each a different design), a key fob and two glass tumblers - approx. $101, including shipping.
Then they broke up my order into at least three, probably four shipments, with $16.08 ground shipping and $3.60 International Handling Fee charged for each and every shipment. When finished, my order would end up costing over $160. And they tried to resend the first t-shirt design a second time (with the second, pending shipment - with the second t-shirt design still on backorder!). If I got this second shipment, I would have to add the return shipping cost to the $160 dollars - adding insult to injury.
I called up and immediately cancelled my order, but I'm still stuck with paying $51.72 for a $19.99 t-shirt made in Vietnam.
Stay away from the NHL Online Shop - you will be gouged by these crooks.
Wow, what a rip-off.
I ended up buying my jersey from icejerseys.com and paid about $230 (including shipping) for a customized replica. It was pretty much the same price as NHL.com, so I thought, eh whatever.
What I wasn't really aware of was the fact that sporting goods stores in Halifax, such as SportChek, carried replica Crosby jerseys for the same price as icejerseys.com and NHL.com...except there was no shipping fee, of course. I kind of smacked myself on the forehead when I saw that since I was living in H'fax at the time.
I understand what you said about the $52 for a $20 t-shirt...I was going to buy a Pens t-shirt from NHL.com earlier this year, but when I went to checkout I saw that the price magically went from about $20 to over $50. I cancelled that order pretty damn quick.
I wish Sears carried more non-Canadian NHL team gear...
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