Last summer, our electric fence charger malfunctioned. While the smoke prevents progress on the driveway, I decided to cross a different item off my to-do list, and began the repair process.
I perused some how-to videos and found the information that seemed necessary. Opening the case was, indeed, as easy as was indicated in the videos. A quick check with my multimeter confirmed that the main problem was a bad battery. The second problem was a loose terminal. Once the battery was disconnected, I felt more comfortable working on the terminal and the repair was straightforward.
Finding a replacement battery was a disappointing process. I searched the internet for a vendor who would supply one and found that most companies would be willing to ship me a new charger containing a battery, but only a few would ship just the battery. It came down to three choices: a company in the Lower 48 that specializes in replacement batteries, a local battery store, and Walmart.
The replacement battery store website had the best price: about $13 for the battery and about $13 for the shipping. Unfortunately, the checkout would not allow me to select “Alaska” as a shipping destination. Sadly, this situation is not uncommon. I sent a message to the contact address and assured them that the USPS ships to Alaska and that using flat rate boxes costs the same as it would to anywhere else in the United States. I even offered to pay for any extra handling that might be required. Their response was one line: “We don’t ship to Alaska.”
Purchasing through Walmart is a good way to get items shipped to Alaska for free or at reasonable rates. One year, my wife bought me some textbooks through Walmart because Amazon and all the other vendors wanted ridiculous prices or shipping fees. It never occurred to either of us that Walmart would be the best source for textbooks on Classical Greek.
The Walmart website had the correct battery, but wanted $50 for it and another $12 for shipping. If I had wanted a case of these batteries, the proportional price would have been much better. At present, though, we have only one fence charger and need only one replacement battery. When it is time to expand I will strongly consider the option. They offer this type of fence charger at the same price as other vendors (about $220), but with free shipping, rather than over $200 for shipping, if they will even ship to Alaska.
At the local battery store, it was a pleasant surprise to find I could get the battery straight off the shelf for $50. Not too bad. In the end, it cost me $24 more than the Lower 48 store, but $12 less than the Walmart price. At the checkout, I mentioned the situation to the attendant. He said that he often ships this type of battery by mail to the rural villages using USPS flat rate boxes. When the price difference is small I usually choose to support the local businesses, but $24 is a bit more generosity than I would have gladly extended.
It would be nice if more Lower 48 businesses would ship to Alaska!
USPS, UPS, FedEx, and DHL all do business in the state. However, some Outside business still refuse to use them to serve customers here. Out of frustration, some people have started businesses in Washington and Montana that allow Alaskans to use them as Lower 48 receiving addresses. Companies ship the goods to the receiving centers (often for free!) where they are collected, consolidated, and shipped to Alaska.
Perhaps you could start an information gig listing all you need to know about glitches in living creatively in AK – different place, different requirements.