I bought myself a book… eh, two books
Due to some odd circumstances, I ordered myself two copies of the same book.
One copy is on the table in front of me. The other one is waiting for me to pick it up… in Rena… in Norway… an 8 hour drive away!
The story is
that Barry Ord Clarke’s Norwegian book “Fluebinderens bibel, Sjøørretfluer” – “The Fly Tyer’s Bible, Sea Trout Flies” – was on sale for just 80 Norwegian Kroners on Black Friday. The normal price is about 400 NOK, so that’s about $9.50 compared to a little more than $48. A decent saving, and since I’d been on the lookout for the book for a while, I wasn’t late to order one.
It was the Norwegian shop Skittfiske.no who was selling the book, and I was online ordering it on that famous Friday. The postage was another 89 NOK or some 10 US$, but I would have to pay the postage from Norway no matter if the book was 80 or 400 Kroners.
The only problem was
that the checkout system in the online shop didn’t allow me to enter my Danish address. No matter what I entered, the system automatically changed the postal code from 2450 Copenhagen to 2450 Rena.
Now Copenhagen is where I live… in Denmark. Rena is not. Rena is in Norway. Not an uninteresting place fly fishing wise, located on the Rena river, a well known trout and grayling river. But no matter the fishing, it’s not where I live.
I ditched the order and wrote a mail to the shop, where a clerk told me to register as a user and enter my Danish address. So that’s what I did, reordered the book and entered my Danish address at checkout.
So, all was well and the book was ordered at 169 Norwegian Kroners including postage, and I was happy… until I got the confirmation on mail, that was. Yup, you guessed it. 2450 Rena, Norway!
Yup, you guessed it. 2450 Rena, Norway!
Me back on the mail
to contact Skittfiske.
After a couple of days mailing back and forth, the mystery was solved. I should have registered and ordered on skittfiske.se, the Swedish site for the same shop. They would mail stuff to Denmark, which the Norwegian shop wouldn’t.
Well, what about my current order then?
No problem, was the message. Once the book returned after not being delivered, I’d get my money back.
So on I went to the Swedish shop.
I registered and 2450 in Denmark was indeed Copenhagen. On to order the book only to realize that the price was close to 400 Swedish Kroners or about 47 US$. Not exactly the Black Friday price.
So another mail went off to Norway where another Norwegian clerk showed what excellent service a shop can offer. He sent me a discount code, allowing me to order the book at the low price. Talk about great service!
And not only that, when I entered the code in the Swedish system at checkout, no postage was added. In other words: a really good deal!
Talk about great service!
The book arrived a few days ago, and is exactly what I expected: a really nice book about Norwegian sea trout flies. Some I know, some are Danish inspired and some are new to me. All are illustrated with great step-by-step photos in the usual high Ord Clarke quality. Klympen is of course not anything like the real thing, but the usual Norwegian “variant”, but that doesn’t spoil the book.
In the meantime
I have been receiving a flurry of text messages from Norwegian Mail, telling me that my package had been sent, was underway, that it might be delayed, that it could be picked op in Rena, nudging me to get it done and asking me to please help them get rid of one of the many packages that piles up this close to Christmas.
Well, I’m sorry, but that’s not going to happen… You might as well just return it to Skittfiske in Sandefjord as soon as possible so that I can get my refund.
PS:
The book is for sale at 199 Norwegian Kroners on Skittfiske.no – still a good price, but only order it if you live in Norway.
If you want it to Denmark (or Sweden, I guess), it’s 398.- Swedish Kroners on Skittfiske.se, so no discount there.
Addendum
The money was fully reimbursed after a few weeks, and I guess that means that Skittfiske got their book back. The book I got is an excellent piece of work with lots of great patterns and some top notch photography from Barry - but with text in Norwegian, of course, so don't order it unless you can read Norse.
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