More About Helping by Accident

If I keep this up, I'm going to save the world without even realizing it.

I recently wrote about Igive.com, how I apparently signed up for it without really noticing, and how it seems I'm raising funds for a charity more or less blindly.

Now it would appear I've accidently bought 30 biodegrabable shopping bags.




Good for me, I guess. The thing is, I was going to make a whole other point entirely.

I first learned about these from an Ideal Bite e-mail. In it, they listed a handful of companies that offer these types of biodegradable bags. I'm sure I could find some locally, but I never think of it when in a grocery store and I don't recall noticing them at the green products store I frequent most. Besides, I that store tends to be a little price-heavy and these were only about $5.00.

One company (I could have sworn it was the one making the above bags) specified that their product disolves (is that a correct word to use?) in the space of about ten months.

After use, this plastic is safely returned to the natural bio-cycle as ‘organic carbon’, ingested by micro-organisms. PSI"s Products accelerate the natural process by factors of 100 to 1,000 or more. This contributes to the fertility of compost, frees-up air space in landfills and protects against plastics in our environment and watersheds.

Sounded good to me, so I went to make my purchase.

I forget the details now, but if the bag themselves were about $5.00. the shipping was something like $14.00. Postal service charges made it a ridiculous purchase, and THAT was the point I was aiming to make.

Yet today, preparing to write this post, I went on the ecosafe site and attempted to recreate that experience. I was only seeking, for the sake of accuracy, to get the specific amounts for shipping that I'd been charged before.

I entered my mailing address, no problem.

I entered my credit card information, no problem.

I went to the final checkout page, no problem.

And when it was all said and done...

Subtotal 4.99
Shipping 0.00
Handling 0.00
TOTAL $4.99

So...No shipping charges? That can't be right. I kept waiting for them to be added but it never happened.

The only thing I can think of is that I bought from the USA site as opposed to the Canadian one, but still. I do recall that the phone number to call for more info had a 604 area code which I believe is British Columbia.

So I don't know what gives, or whether I'll have a nasty surprise later, but for now I guess I can look forward to using biodegradable garbage bags.

Yay?

March 2nd Edit: I've received an e-mail to the extent that my order was cancelled and asking me to shop through the Canadian store. Let the record show that I was led to the American store automatically when I visited the site and did not know about a Canadian option. Let me also remind everyone that the phone number to call for inquiries was a BC one, so I had no reason to believe I was in the American store.

In any event, I tried again and sure enough my result was the same as my first experience. The bags I wanted (I went for a larger size this time) were $7.99 and shipping costs $14.93. Sorry, I find that excessive and will look to see if I can score some locally.