Shipping charges - your thoughts?

Recently bought something from a vendor - will not disclose the name. It was a sub $10 item, they charged 6.99 for shipping. It arrived and the package had two postage stamps attached.

My intial thought is why did I pay 6.99 if they paid less than $1 in postage - just makes me mad!!

Did they say they were going to charge you 6.99 in shipping when you ordered? If so, at least you shouldn't be surprised. If you don't like this policy, shop elsewhere. There are a number of vendors that will ship small items at cost (though it depends on what you're trying to buy, of course.)

With shipping costs you have to also consider the type of packaging used and the time it takes to pack your order. Some places will charge significantly less for shipping but when it arrives you wish they had taken a bit more time to pack it better.
I get a lot of parts shipped to me in Australia from America and if you saw the condition of some of the boxes that arrive it makes me happy to pay someone to take the time to pack it well.

Most outfits call it "Shipping and Handling" rather than just postage or freight charges.

OTOTH, it usually makes sense to order as much product as you can to spread the S/H costs out.

Did you verify that they actually charged you that? Look at your invoice or credit card statement. I once had a customer totally rip me a new one for doing just what you describe. He felt sorta embarrassed at his behavior after I told him to examine the invoice inside the padded envelope and he discovered that I had discounted his shipping after I packed and weighed his package.

Ah yes, shipping charges. A topic that is near and dear to my heart.

As a small manufacturer (the Guillotine Fin Jig for Apogee Components) I have some first hand experience with this topic. The cost of any product is ultimately borne by the consumer, whether such cost is included in the purchase price or stipulated separately. Since I don't live in Colorado I must first make my product here in Texas and ship it to the vendor. I must buy the boxes and packaging materials and perform the labor required to minimize potential damage to the products I make and ship. The boxes, packaging and tape all cost money as does the fuel I burn to get these items to the shipper. I must buy these shipping items in bulk and pay a supplier to ship them to me and they form a cost of goods sold coming out of my pocket just as the wood, aluminum and hardware does. In my case. Apogee picks up the actual shipping charges from Texas to Colorado, adds this cost to the wholesale amount that I charge along with their overhead and profit and finally adds a shipping charge to you, the happy consumer.

Time is money and it takes time to do things right. :2:

I'm constantly refunding shipping overages paid because my site
is dumb in that it just stacks one shipping charge on top of another for dissimilar items..
I do try to keep shipping costs down but they are what they are...
I ship via the USPS because for smaller packages they're less expensive
then their competitors. ..
But the USPS just raised rates across the board
on all of the type of shipping that I do...
I'm still more then fair with shipping charges
and don't condone what was done to the original poster...

Teddy

I use the Paypal shipping calculator and am constantly making adjustments and frequent refunds to customers when the shipping gets out of whack. We have a variety of product weights and sizes which seems to cause the problems.

In brick and motor stores, overhead costs are usually built into the prices charged. The online pricing model is different and usually results in lower prices.

When you add up all the overhead costs of processing an order, - the cost of acquiring the products then storing and organizing them; advertising; utilities; supplies; etc. - it costs us, a small online retailer, about five or six dollars an order before you add the cost of shipping materials and postage. So, we charge $8.95 shipping and handling on small orders because there is not enough margin to cover our costs.

You always pay the shipping and handling charges when ordering from an online vendor even when the shipping is "free." The shipping and handling is included in the price of the item (or in the money you pay annually for the "free" shipping). Most vendors offering free shipping, even Amazon, require a minimum order amount before the "free" offer kicks in.

We could add the overhead costs to the price we charge for each item. But, then you would pay much more when you purchase multiple items. By charging a reasonable shipping and handling fee, we are able to offer lower prices and provide quality service.

-- Roger

Web site orders are usually very automated. I have found that if I e-mail or call a vendor and say, "Can you send me a piece of Kevlar thread and throw it in an envelope with a 49-cent stamp," they'll do it.

In another thread someone mentioned that they could drive to Cessaroni and pick up the motors and avoid the shipping charges. I pointed out that they would spend more on fuel, wear and tear and their time to drive 30 minutes each way, than the shipping fee would cost them.

Zeus-cat said:

In another thread someone mentioned that they could drive to Cessaroni and pick up the motors and avoid the shipping charges. I pointed out that they would spend more on fuel, wear and tear and their time to drive 30 minutes each way, than the shipping fee would cost them.

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Hmmm, 30 minutes? Say, 25 miles? At the going reimbursement rate of 57.5 cents a mile? That comes to $14.38. If there was no HAZMAT involved, you may be right. But motors are heavy....

A little Shipping story to ease the masses...

A small company I worked for had to ship a pallet to Plattsburg NY from Montreal QC, Canada. The trip each way is about 45minutes. The pallet weighed just over 200lbs. I could have done it in my car, easily in a day. But no. Our customer said ship it collect, via [certain freight company, their account]. next day. 45 minutes a way.. (You would think next day should be no problem; put it on a truck, drive it a cross from the Montreal sorting center). Well, they came to pick up the pallet, and put it on a plane to fly it to their sorting center in Memphis, only to fly it back to Plattsburg for first thing delivery the next morning. About $15K in shipping charges for 'next day' air freight. they refuse, we refused. the shipper called collections on us & them. We (all three) finally settled on about $8K shipping and vowed never to use them again.

A store in NY City had a few items I was interested for an art show. I asked if they can do a bulk price & bulk shipping. They said no. I said no, to the expected $80 in shipping for about $60 of stuff, just because they could only use a certain 'brown' shipper. and their rates were fixed for the qty, size, and volume. Not to mention customs, duties, and brokerage fees..




When asked why the route miles & miles away.. "That's policy" was the reply...

Here at Loki Research, the website is old in tech terms and I don't see the use or need in spending the time or money to upgrade it when it works just fine. When you check out, you simply provide your method of payment. If you pay by credit card, you enter that information. If you choose PayPal or Intuit, it does not and will not take you to their site to send payment. You don't pay for online orders until it's ready to ship and you get an invoice from me to pay.

Call me old fashion. You place the order and tell me how you want to pay for it. When I've got it boxed,and ready to go, I figure up the exact shipping amount and that is what I charge you for at that time. No refunds or credits needed. If it requires an extra layer of cardboard or lots of bubble wrap, then that's what it gets. I'd rather be anal packing items right the first time and have a happy customer every time when it arrives intact, rather than packing it sloppy and waist any time spent on shipping claims if something gets damaged, not to mention having an unhappy customer. Very rarely do I ever charge more unless it is overly time consuming, in which case I inform the customer before it ships. In either case, I pride myself on the quality of my packaging. I use bubble wrap, but I also get & use left over news papers and save shipping boxes to recycle and use as free shipping materials. If you get Christmas paper in you box in Jan/Feb don't be surprised. ;-)

Oh and if the package is under 13oz and isn't time sensitive, I send it by Parcel Post for half the cost of Priority mail, and again this price is what the customer is charged.

Bat-mite said:

Hmmm, 30 minutes? Say, 25 miles? At the going reimbursement rate of 57.5 cents a mile? That comes to $14.38. If there was no HAZMAT involved, you may be right. But motors are heavy....

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The guy was Canadian, so no Hazmat fees. He really wanted a tour, but Cessaroni doesn't have any. He did have them shipped after he found out he couldn't see anything if he went there.

I order a lot of electronic parts, usually in big batches, but every once in awhile I'll forget some stupid little part that I NEED to have to send out some kits so I'll order some tiny little parts with 2-Day shipping. Paying the extra $$ is a reminder to me to check my inventory more carefully...

Loki Research said:

....Oh and if the package is under 13oz and isn't time sensitive, I send it by Parcel Post for half the cost of Priority mail, and again this price is what the customer is charged.

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Man, am I learning the difference between First Class and Priority mail. Two members here purchased motor hardware from me and I sent both via First Class mail. What a mistake. They are days behind the 'expected' delivery date. For some reason they both sat in the North TX mail facility for days with no movement. When I went to the Post Office to complain the lady said I should use Priority since First Class takes a back seat and is low priority vs. PM. However the cost for PM as Loki says is about double which on a small item really makes a difference.

From now on if I sell less expensive items I'll give the buyer an option to pay extra for Priority Mail.


Tony

What i don't understand is how I can buy a .68 cent item off eBay that ships from China includes shipping @ that price

michigander said:

What i don't understand is how I can buy a .68 cent item off eBay that ships from China includes shipping @ that price

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One word: subsidized

dmgrime said:

One word: subsidized

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Twice. Both the Chinese and US postal systems subsidize it. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-year-to-help-you-buy-cheap-stuff-from-china/

jadebox said:

Twice. Both the Chinese and US postal systems subsidize it. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-year-to-help-you-buy-cheap-stuff-from-china/

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Thank you for the link , WOW !!!! , that explains that

Horizon said:

Recently bought something from a vendor - will not disclose the name. It was a sub $10 item, they charged 6.99 for shipping. It arrived and the package had two postage stamps attached.

My intial thought is why did I pay 6.99 if they paid less than $1 in postage - just makes me mad!!

Click to expand...

Come shop with me. I refund the excess charges from the site, and ship same or next day for all stocked orders.

jadebox said:

Twice. Both the Chinese and US postal systems subsidize it. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-year-to-help-you-buy-cheap-stuff-from-china/

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Roger,

Thanks for that info! Very interesting. I'll keep buying stuff from you, though.

Going back to the OP: I recently contacted a vendor about some replacement parts. These parts aren't even listed on his website. He gave me a sub-$1 price for each, and said S&H will be a flat $5. Going into this, I know that I'm spending $5 S&H for $6 in parts. He's going to pay between $0.93 and $2.53, depending on how they are packaged, and how he buys postage.

I'm OK with this. Because:

1. I know the pricing up front. It's probably half of what it would be to buy a $6 item from the website
2. He probably has no or little profit on these parts. That's the H part of the S&H. I figure he's got to make $ to stay in business.
3. The situation you described is one extreme. Someone may have made some money on S&H. My experience is that is the exception, rather than the rule. When I see what vendors are paying to ship things to me, compared to what I paid for shipping when I checked out, most of the time I'm the one who comes out ahead.

tbonerocketeer said:

Come shop with me. I refund the excess charges from the site, and ship same or next day for all stocked orders.

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Looks like we have the same biz ideas

bob jablonski said:

Looks like we have the same biz ideas

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Yep. I'm getting ready to unleash something else new with my site right now. Just putting the final touches on it

tbonerocketeer said:

Yep. I'm getting ready to unleash something else new with my site right now. Just putting the final touches on it

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Time to update my anti-malware code.

jadebox said:

Twice. Both the Chinese and US postal systems subsidize it. See: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...-year-to-help-you-buy-cheap-stuff-from-china/

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...and in return the Chinese buy stuff from us, sorta. Quid-pro-quo... but of course they're coming out ahead.

Now you know why there was so much ruckus in Michigan about free trade.

Binder Design said:

Did you verify that they actually charged you that? Look at your invoice or credit card statement. I once had a customer totally rip me a new one for doing just what you describe. He felt sorta embarrassed at his behavior after I told him to examine the invoice inside the padded envelope and he discovered that I had discounted his shipping after I packed and weighed his package.

Click to expand...

Loki Research said:

Here at Loki Research, the website is old in tech terms and I don't see the use or need in spending the time or money to upgrade it when it works just fine. When you check out, you simply provide your method of payment. If you pay by credit card, you enter that information. If you choose PayPal or Intuit, it does not and will not take you to their site to send payment. You don't pay for online orders until it's ready to ship and you get an invoice from me to pay.

Click to expand...

I really wish more vendors would do this kind of thing - don't charge me for my order until the box is packed, weighed, and ready to ship. It continues to get under my skin when I get charged $12 in shipping, then the box arrives with a $6 shipping label on it. Why I like dealers such as McMaster-Carr, Digi-Key, Binder Design, Loki Research, Chris' Rocket Supplies, Wilson F/X, etc. etc. who only charge exactly what it costs to ship...and at the time of shipment.

AlnessW said:

I really wish more vendors would do this kind of thing - don't charge me for my order until the box is packed, weighed, and ready to ship. It continues to get under my skin when I get charged $12 in shipping, then the box arrives with a $6 shipping label on it. Why I like dealers such as McMaster-Carr, Digi-Key, Binder Design, Loki Research, Chris' Rocket Supplies, Wilson F/X, etc. etc. who only charge exactly what it costs to ship...and at the time of shipment.

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My site pre bills at checkout(I don't ever see or want to see your credit card info(it's safer that way because it isn't stored anywhere)), but I will always refund it down to the cost. I tried doing the bill when ready to ship.....and I still have outstanding balances for several people that are over 400 days old. I still shipped the product within 24 hours and didn't hold the box up, but $5 for each person adds up quick.