I agree. So many companies do that, apparently the logic behind it is that to do something out of the normal it takes time effort energy & $, so they do everything one way. Sucks they wouldn't just ship the screws to you.
Flip side of that... I lost a couple mounting screws for some leupold bases I had, sent an email to cust svc asking what size they were (I wasn't sure) and where could I purchase them? A week later (after no response to my email) 4 brand new screws arrived in the mail - in a small padded envelope (through usps). They never did respond to my email, just sent me new screws. Gotta love good cust svc. I would gladly have paid, never had a chance.