Beauty

[Mona Dahl]

On another thread, I mentioned that I now decide whether to purchase QVC items by asking myself, "Would I purchase this item at this price if I were ordering it from Europe?" Because, frankly, that's a decent approximation of what the shipping charges and delivery speed would be from QVC.

But I was wrong. I just purchased a Bourjois finishing powder from ASOS.com (UK), and here is the breakdown of the charges:

Product--$14.07

Shipping--$0.00

Tax--$0.00 (ASOS pays any duties that apply)

Delivery time--4 days. (They guarantee delivery in under 6 days.)

Now let's compare to a similar product from QVC:

Product (Smashbox Photo Set finishing powder)--$22.00

Shipping--$5.97

Tax--$1.68

Delivery time--My delivery time was estimated at 7 days, and I only live a couple hours' drive away from QVC.

So, hmm. A company in Great Britain manages to ship significantly faster and cheaper than a company in Pennsylvania. And instead of charging customers a dubious sales and shipping tax as QVC does, this company absorbs the cost of taxes itself.

Suddenly, QVC doesn't seem like such a great company to shop from anymore.