Damn shipping costs!!!!!

These inflated shipping costs of (even featured) flashlight vendors are ridiculous! I go to order a small lightweight Inova X1 for a semi decent price (but by no means the cheapest) and when I go to checkout the least expensive shipping charge is $11.50!!!! That pisses me off to no end! To quote someone on here: Shipping should NOT be a "profit center"! When will vendors learn? I will go out of my way to NEVER order products from companies that try and make an extra profit on their shipping. Why not offer inexpensive USPS as an option? I mean you can ship anything under 2 pounds with priority mail for around $5 or less. And if your a larger shop you can negotiate really cheap Fedex and UPS rates.

Residential deliveries of lightweight packages are really quite expensive via UPS. UPS charges extra for residential delivery on all packages, and an additional "Delivery Area Surcharge" on many Zip codes. These two additional surcharges can almost double the cost on a residential delivery weighing a pound or two. The benefit of UPS is it's trackability and hassle free insurance claims (and not having to go to the Post Office). $11.50 is a lot of money for a small package, but I really don't think the vendor is making a killing on any overage.

Priority Mail is a much better option for lightweight parcels. It's cheaper and faster, and quite reliable too. The shortcoming is no tracking, expensive insurance, and a claims process that will usually just make you give up. In most cases I think it's worth the gamble though, and I think companies that stubbornly refuse to offer USPS options are going to continue to lose business to those that do.

Peter

Is anybody gonna say no????

I think this is going to be a one sided battle /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

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LitFuse said:
Priority Mail is a much better option for lightweight parcels. It's cheaper and faster, and quite reliable too. The shortcoming is no tracking, expensive insurance, and a claims process that will usually just make you give up. In most cases I think it's worth the gamble though, and I think companies that stubbornly refuse to offer USPS options are going to continue to lose business to those that do.

Peter

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I agree, I love USPS Priority mail! It's cheap, it's reliable and they deliver on Saturday for no extra charge!!! I wish more shops would offer USPS priority.

I tend to buy from stores that give free shipping when I can. They're welcome to my business.

As an eBay store owner, i ship both USPS first class and priority. I try to send first class when i can to save on shipping and pass the buck to the customer whenever possible. When shipping light weight items, the shipping can drastically be lower by using first class USPS.

I once needed a flashlight part from somebody here on CPF and that person said that the the deal would be a breaker because of shipping (Priority USPS). Shipping could have been adjusted quite a bit to first class since item was real small and light, but was never offered to me.

As a small business owner, if someone contacts me about price and is fair, i sometimes adjust shipping to first class to save the customer monies.


My .2 cents

I ordered a small item a while back,it would fit in the mail box,so it was shipped USPS. NEVER GOT IT ! After calling the vendor they sent me an e-mail with delivery conformation from the postal service.It was scranned for my address but put in another box.Once the postal service has that scan # but it isn't delivered to the right box..YOU'RE SCREWED ! It ain't fool proof ! I've have NEVER had a problem w/ UPS...NEVER ! You have to SHOP for good shipping rates. The same item can range from $5 - $15. SHOP!!!!

I'm at an advantage since I can have packages sent to my office and someone is always there to receive them. My wife has packages sent to our house and they sometimes sit on the front porch all day until we get home.

As far as shipping costs- any company that wants to be competitive should charge reasonable shipping costs or we will shop elsewhere.

I have heard the argument that you have to have boxes and packing materials and it takes a while to pack a box, tape it, put on a label, take it to the post office, etc. I understand that this is required but a company has to control its costs for shipping just like controlling its costs for other parts of its business. So a company has to trim its shipping costs and beyond that they become another business expense to be paid out of profits.

When I am buying by mail or ebay or whatever I take shipping costs plus the costs of the product and look at them together. If a person wants to charge $12 for a delivery then I will accept it if the item is cheap enough otherwise I'll hunt for a cheaper place.

For instance, the .99 cent generic led lights on e bay but with a $12.00 shipping charge? Ridiculous!! You KNOW they are using the overage on shipping to make a profit on the light! I won't order anything with inflated shipping charges.

dimwatt

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dimwatt said:
For instance, the .99 cent generic led lights on e bay but with a $12.00 shipping charge? Ridiculous!! You KNOW they are using the overage on shipping to make a profit on the light!

[/ QUOTE ]

They are also profiting by only paying eBay fees on .99 of the transaction. Crazy shipping prices are pretty much SOP on eBay, and you really need to look around for the best deal. I couldn't care less if a buyer is "shorting" eBay by running their auctions this way, and sometimes they are still the cheapest, even with the crazy shipping fees.

Peter

I say NO.
It's like would you prefer to purchase a $10 light & $2 shipping?
Or would you like a $0.50 light with $11.50 shipping?
Just check aroung for the "total" cost of the product to your door.

Either way you cook the egg, if it's rotten it'll still stink.

[ QUOTE ]
modamag said:
I say NO.
It's like would you prefer to purchase a $10 light & $2 shipping?
Or would you like a $0.50 light with $11.50 shipping?
Just check aroung for the "total" cost of the product to your door.

Either way you cook the egg, if it's rotten it'll still stink.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree, the end result is all that really madders.
BUT this particular vendor didn't show shipping costs until I went through the whole sign up process and filled out all the forms!

Note to vendors, please be upfront with your shippings costs! And please offer USPS shipping!

[ QUOTE ]
modamag said:
Either way you cook the egg, if it's rotten it'll still stink.

[/ QUOTE ]

I love that quote. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crackup.gif

Can't do anything about a seller's asking price - including shipping - except not buy from them. What annoys me is web sites which require you to give out our card info before they'll tell you the shipping charges. Those I definitely will not patronize.

REI outlet will ship free to an REI store for in store pickup, but they haven't had any good deals since the $4.83 PT Attitudes months ago. Good in store prices (like the $20 Sharper Image luxeons) are interesting if you live near one, but otherwise, just do your math and then decide.

Try shipping fishing rods!

I'm suprised no one is bitching about the nearly 1000% markup on the shipping on the LH clips from TW. When I saw $4.40 for shipping, I had assumed that was for Priority Mail. This was my fault of course, as it plainly states First Class mail. But charging $4.40 shipping for something that actually cost .49 (2 oz.) has me shaking my head a bit... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

Peter