This has gotten ridiculous!

Yesterday, I bought a small box of rods. Pay the man and go home. Today, I look at the invoice

Rods $12.42 HazMat fee $4.67

THAT IS 37%!

What? I'm going to make a little smoke out on my farm that is going to waft miles away and cause cancer to a whole community? I'm going to throw the stubs down where an endangered prarie dog can ingest one, and then be eaten by something farther up the food chain, and ultimately reach humanity? They're going to go into the soil in a state known for its Uranium mines?

I take back my statement that this has gotten ridiculous. This has gotten past the ridiculous. I'm mad as hell, and I'm going to get them any way I can and every time I get the chance. I love my country, but these laws and politicians need to go.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB
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Two things:

1) A legitimate HazMat fee has nothing to do with what you do with the item. It has to do with it being Hazardous to ship in some way (assuming you mean coated rods, USPS is probably concerned about them giving off fumes in a fire).

2) Unless the shop is having each box of rods separately packaged and shipped to them, they are not paying anywhere near that much in HazMat fees and they are just sticking it to you to make a few bucks, so I'm not sure you can pin that one on The Man.

Reply to
Larry The Snake Guy

The computer puts the hazmat fee on every invoice by default and the person entering the order has to manually remove it for orders that do not contain hazmat stuff.

Reply to
Pete C.

The government isn't allowed to run like a business, yet it must fund its activities. Taxes and fees are how it works. It's gonna get worse, too. Imagine a carbon tax on your electricity, heating/car fuel, and anything else that produces CO and/or CO2 as it burns.

Reaganomics sounds all well-and-good as far as it went, but take a close look at the condition of our airport control towers (as just one example) before you claim that smaller and less expensive government is always better.

Unfortunately, CONgress is the opposite of PROgress. Political agendas and willfully ignorant people prevent rational ideas from flourishing.

I would love to see how those HazMat monies are allocated in your state's budget. Do they pay for something worthwhile, like unemployment insurance and retraining, or are they funding the governor flying around the world to visit a mistress or three?

Note: Official U.S. Census is 307,524,705. Estimated healthcare bill is gonna cost around $900,000,000,000. That's $2,926.59 for every man, woman, and child in the U.S. to buy health insurance with. That's $1,850 more than the cheapest catastrophic health insurance would cost me in my county (and I'm a smoker). I could buy a real good plan for less than what the gov't is gonna blow in setting up another bureaucracy.

Reply to
TinLizziedl

I can top that. I paid U$20 in hazmat on a gallon of denatured alcohol.

3190K93 Denatured Ethyl Alcohol, 99%, 1 Gallon In stock at $28.88 Each

That's 69%!

--Winston

Reply to
Winston

I really doubt these hazmat fees are going to the government. Perhaps the idea is to cover costs relating to government paperwork and other stuff. If I remember right the law was crafted so that the 20 pound propane tank which is more dangerous than welding rods is exempt. I just got my lease bills it seems that Airgas isn't charging any fee (on the lease) this year but Abco is. I bought a small tank of acetylene in West Virginia near the Ohio river and didn't get charged any hazmat fee like I do at airgas here in Connecticut. Hey they charge you to dispose of a needle at the vet for any shot. I don't want to know what sort of disposal fees they tack on at a people hospital. I think they pay by the pound to have stuff like that incinerated. I remember having to pay something like three dollars to dispose of a used ignition trigger from inside the distributor on a Dodge Daytona. I doubt that or any of these things goes to the government. I bought some Dinse connectors lately and either the computer doesn't add the fee on them or the guy removed the fee. You are right it is ridiculous especially if you are looking for a price quote. Kind of like buying a car or truck and the conveyance fee isn't mentioned until the end.

I think the answer is mail order. That way you usually are fully aware of all the fees and don't get shocked looking at the receipt.

Fran

Fran

Reply to
fran...123

That is going around.

Try buying some Nickel rods ! They get you on the flux and then on the metal! Some people are allergic to Nickel.

It is called insurance payment over and over.

Mart> Yesterday, I bought a small box of rods. Pay the man and go home. Today, I

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

Shipping via truck and train brings them on as well. This whole process is out of hand.

Mart>

Reply to
Martin H. Eastburn

So, on the next trip, should I mention this to the guy, as if they collected it and didn't pay it to Barry and Michele, or was it just an oversight on his part. A momentary lapse of reason. A brain fart?

If they invoice it, do they have to then pass it along to ACORN?

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

How is it that WE know this, and have so little effort in figuring it out, and THEY don't?

Armed rebellion is on the horizon, and where do I enlist? I'm sick of this shit.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

I got charged a HazMat fee for a battery once when I didn't even have an old battery to turn in.

What are you going to do?

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

If it's not "going to the government," then by what mechanism does it "cover costs relating to government paperwork?"

Thanks, Rich

Reply to
Richard the Dreaded Libertaria

Batten down, protect your jewels, and hope you enjoy the ride when the whole card house collapses around our ears?

Thanks, Rich

Reply to
Richard the Dreaded Libertaria

Perhaps it covers costs to the retailer associated with the reams of paperwork required by government to do business in hazardous materials. Of course, the retailer doesn't pay those... You do. Either as a tax, a fee, or invisibly rolled up into higher prices.

By itemizing, they can claim the best prices over their competition. Look around and compare prices, fees, surcharges, and taxes, then weigh that against the value of the customer service you recieve at the joint. Only then can you make an intelligent choice of supplier.

I can appreciate your feelings on this, but we live in a profit- motivated society. Even the little shop on the corner with a PraxAir shingle rusting in the window requires a healthy profit to last very long in our litigious business atmosphere.

Every hazmat rule in osha's book was "written in blood." It doesn't matter if it is the blood of fools better off out of the gene pool. You'll still have to pay extra for the suppliers to afford to follow them.

Reply to
TinLizziedl

I've seen it at places in the past. Most of the time the guy entering the order is on the ball and deletes it, but sometimes when they are busy or otherwise distracted they forget to. I had them miss it once on a purchase of TIG gloves, ER70S2 TIG rod and a few abrasive wheels. I pointed out that there was nothing remotely hazardous in the order and they corrected it.

Reply to
Pete C.

That's about all one CAN do. I'm also a lifelong libertarian. If our founding fathers were alive today, they'd emigrate.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

I bought some 6011 rods. IIRC a while back (probably a great while back), there was a notice sent out about the arsenic they produce. Anyone remember that? Was that the 6011?

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

Where to? Not many plots of land left that don't already have a flag flying over them... Unless you can build an igloo....

Reply to
TinLizziedl

Or maybe they'd stay here and fight the good fight to get things back to the way they intended them to be.

Steve

Reply to
SteveB

My "real good plan" rates went up to $851 / month in August (40% increase). That's a fair amount over what you are talking about here, I think. I have made the switch to a $2500 deductable plan at $303 / month, which means I pay and get nothing until something really major happens to me. That's still way above what you talk about.

Reply to
Bob F

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