SpinDrift, Just to be clear I only bought the light after considering the total price. For me it was a simple process. I have had a few items that I had been planning on buying from county comm for a while but held off because I felt I could get a better deal if I waited until I needed a few more items in order to offset the shipping costs. I do however think people are going a little overboard by calling it a rip-off. It is one type of shipping (one of my least favorite types) and it has it's advantages and disadvantages. For example higher shipping cost probably leads to fewer but larger orders. This would likely make for less work on their end (ie receiving one order for 5 items instead of five separate orders). I guess I just feel like some people are inferring that county comm is trying to rip people off and I've always had good luck with them and have found them to be an honest seller. Keep in mind when you get free shipping (my favorite) that is marketing as well. Is it a rip-off when I get free shipping from 4-sevens (awesome seller) but some else that lives further away pays the same price? In the end the only thing that has really hurt my feelings is that you inferred that I shop at Best Buy. How rude!
Lol, I apologize! I guess I got ticked off at the "obsessed" comment. It was before my coffee too...
No hard feelings I hope. :thumbsup:
I too ordered a few other things to try to offset the shipping price, things that I would of gotten elsewhere however with cheaper shipping.
But assuming it's less work on their end and not a rip off contradicts. If it's less work to ship this way, then it costs them less for employee pay/time! So where's our savings?
As for the 4 Sevens example, I think it's a faulty analogy but I don't have time to go into that now. :shrug:
1. Depending on their volume, companies negotiate what they actually pay UPS and FedEx. I doubt that they can negotiate w/ the USPS.
2. Product pricing and shipping charges are all part of marketing. High shipping charges encourages the purchase of more than one Maratac..
1. Why could they not negotiate with the USPS? :shrug: I understand that it is a "legal" monopoly, but are prices still fixed?
In any case, $8 is excessive and if County Comm is seriously asking that price of us because it is that costly to them to ship items then they are incompetent and/or pushovers and are themselves getting ripped off. I don't see why we have to pay for their mistakes/failures.
2. Or none at all, as I almost didn't get this and wouldn't if I wasn't a LED newbie and had a small AAA light already. I know others have not bought one due to the ridiculous shipping price...not everyone is a flashaholic!
it's only a ripoff if you are paying for the ups and it's delivered some other way.
in the ups cost there is real tracking of the shipment and it's has a minimum $100 insured(if i remember correctly) which can alleviate any potential shipping headaches on both ends.
personally i prefer the usps first class which is cheaper on me and them but there is always that risk.
I still say it's a rip off. $8 shipping on a tiny flashlight that cost $22? No way.
If I could get this flashlight somewhere else I would, but I can't. That's what I do when ebay sellers have excessive shipping costs, I just wait for another similar item that has a reasonable shipping rate and save at least $10 and sometimes as much as $50 or more (I buy and fix up vintage--and thus heavy!--audio gear
).
USPS does have real tracking too, I get it all the time on my books (if the seller chooses). I don't really care anyway, a delivery date is all that matters. My flashlight is somewhere in California right now, and there's 2 whole updates since it went into the system on 7/27--both ON 7/27. Well that's great, it's not here, this is no help, and probably, hopefully, wrong and needs to be updated by now in any case. It will be here on Fri., most likely after 5 p.m. (if it was USPS it would be here with the mail by 1 p.m., and probably would of already been here or be coming today for that matter). That's all that matters: that the item is delivered on the date it states. It's coming Fri. and knowing it's in Utah or Kansas or Sri Lanka before that doesn't help me. I'd never pay for tracking and never have (as I said it's included in the USPS shipping price through some of my book sellers...the price being under a dollar sometimes btw, so tracking can't cost that much anyway). All tracking does is show where a package has been, which is usually 2 places in the state of its origin, one or two states in between that state and the one it is shipping to, and then two more places in its destination state before it arrives on my doorstep (that's another thing about USP: they BETTER insure stuff, and should insure it to AT LEAST what it's worth, because they leave it outside. i know that some packages of course can't fit in a mailbox, but this flashlight could and I'd rather have it in my mailbox than on my front porch all day to get stolen, kicked or stepped on by people rubber banding crap to my door knob or salesmen, or left in the hot and/or cold). Tracking is a joke, it's worthless. The thing arrives when it arrives.
In sum: As it stands now with the rip off shipping: good product, fair price. What it could and should be: $3 or less shipping which would equal good product, good/great price.
