Hi Donna
Thanks very much for the followup. Yes I love the new tote. Bolted it all together and am thrilled to bits!

I must say I was very impressed with the service from D+D (Marvin and yourself really).

Was not so happy with the shipper Exel, but this is not the fault of D+D.  In the US they had stamped the shipping document with DDU (which I was told by the agent in the NZ branch meant delivery and duty unpaid). Having specifically been invoiced for this I was somewhat indignant at being asked again  to pay the Goods and Services Tax plus delivery here. Once the two branches of the company had communicated I was told that the US$86 fee that I had paid on top of the shipping was just their handling fee and I definitely still had to pay the 12.5%GST (like a state tax, for NZ) based on the tote plus shipping plus the delivery and duty. The tote did not attract any duty payments at this end ( the agent admitted this), so I guess they kept the $86 as the handling and delivery.
In the end the extra fee was NZ$133, or about US$100.  
I have a feeling that I would have had to pay this fee in NZ no matter how the shipping was done, but as I have not received any proper documentation from exel I cannot verify it.  Have decided not to pursue it any further as life is too short.

I will certainly still be recommending the tote to riders here in NZ, just hope you use a different shipper in the future.

Kind regards and thanks to Marvin also.

Nigel

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Hi Marvin

Many thanks for the refund, more useful than an Oscar!

Any money should have come from exel, not you guys though.

I promise I will keep my m3tote nice and clean and see if I can get you some more trade from NZ. Also you don’t need to apologize, the service and follow-up have been tops and the product you are selling is good quality.

Thanks again

Nigel