Shipping gouging

I understand that there is additional costs involved in boxes & packing material etc., but shipping charges at most all online retailers is plainly gouged.

I think it is a game to make the price appear to be lower than competitors, when in actually, the retailer is making some of their profit from the shipping.

One of the only places that I have ordered from, that has reasonable shipping rates is the Sandwich Shoppe.

Almost all others gouge.


What do you think on this subject?

Agreed. Always check for total shipped cost when comparison shopping. I am in this process right now, and it's annoying, especially on small orders!

I have to agree too. I was just about to order from the wondermagnet.com website for order about $2.10 and they charge me $5.00 for shipping /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif . And these also applied to other vendor as well. Dang!

Same deal on eBay. I won't deal with people that charge $8 - $10- $15 to send you something in a 50 cent padded envelope that requires less than a dollar postage.

I'd honestly rather pay more overall for an item with honest shipping charges than those who try to make up their profit with outrageous shipping charges.

Then there are the ones that charge $4.30 for shipping of a small item, making it look like they will send it Priority with delivery confirmation, then it comes (2-3 weeks later) via that 50 cent padded envelope and a buck postage via parcel post.

And have you noticed how expensive it has become to ship small stuff via UPS? A couple of weeks ago, I ordered something that could have come in three days via Priority mail for $3.85 and took three weeks via UPS for $9.15.

Well, I like Dan of TW's method. I don't know what kind of arrangement he has with Fed-Ex, but he charges just $5 for 2nd day delivery via FedEx, and the couple of times I ordered from him, the packages arrived the NEXT DAY! I wish more dealers could offer this type of shipping/speed combo at that price!
I used to deal a lot with ebay, but have curtailed that practice enormously since many dealers have adopted what I refer to as "stratospheric" shipping charges/practices.

Ed

I hate excessive shipping charges!
Arc AAA for $24.95 + $8.00 S&H? Woooo, not in this lifetime! When shopping on the net, I always check the shipping charges before ordering. I ordered memory a few years back and they charged me $18 S&H and it ended up in a padded envelope. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rant.gif
dat2zip, MrBulk, Lambda, LED Supply and Elektrolumens have decent shipping charges and that is why I am broke! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif

I'm totally with you on the Ebay thing. I can't tell you the number of times that I went to bid on something, only to find out that the shipping costs nearly as much as or more than the item's retail price.

I can send a 10lb package via USPS Priority for less than $9.00 to most places (and the boxes are free).

let's see, a 5oz flashlight can't cost $10 to send from NY to TX... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/broke.gif

-Jason

Variances in shipping costs from vendor to vendor are interesting. Some seem to make money from shipping while others seem to subsidize the cost of shipping with the item cost.

At Arc, we try to keep it simple and just charge what the shipping costs. No subsidizing the costs in the price of the item. Since it varies from package to package, we try to average it for a given catagory so that the price you pay is as close as practical to the real shipping cost.


(paragraphs deleted by PG for being too grumpy. Sorry guys)


Want to know how much FedEx costs to ship your package? Use the online Shipping Rate Calculator and find out yourself! Subtract some for a bulk discount rate and add some more back for handling and you get the real price.

Peter

I completely agree Shankus.

My dad ordered five 5mm LEDs, and he got charged five bucks for shipping. They aren't supposed to even arrive any time soon.

Dan at TW has about the same price as most people do, but you get your order within two days. I think that is quite reasonable. But paying the same price, and waiting a week is outrageous.

Amazon offers free shipping on most orders over $25.00. That is a great deal, IMO.

I just recently shipped a flashlight about 1500 miles via USPS. The largest part of the cost was the fee for the $100 insurance. The "shipping" cost was $0.60 ...

Here's the tag:



I'm also one of those who is annoyed when something weighing under an ounce in a padded envelope and valued at maybe ten bucks is shipped with a $5 "shipping charge."

In reality, I always add the shipping and handling charges to the quoted price of the item and consider that the 'true cost.' By doing it that way I can determine if I'm willing to pay that much for the item and am looking at the real cost no matter how the provider decides to divide up the charges.

Greg over at Bright guy and Kevin at batterystation have shipped me stuff at price.

Mr. Faulkner shipped something USPS priority at $7.30 and charged me only $5.00. He will be getting another order from me next week (PM6, 2 or 3 Ultra Infinity lights, and maybe a 4 pack of AA lithiums.)

Greg will also be getting an order for 2 or 3 Streamlight TT 1L's, maybe even a 2L.

One gripe though, I had a heck of a time trying to get the Chisco powerlanyard onto my SL TT 1L. After tearing apart the ring and lanyard and the post of the 1L. I put back on the old included lanyard and put the powerlanyard on my 2AA maglite and hang that on the wall.

I do agree most places charge to much for shipping. I tend to wait until I have a larger order to spread out the cost of shipping. What I really hate is a flat charge per item, oh well...

But the reason most ebay places charge so much is ebay doesn't get a cut of shipping. So say you sell an item for $10 and free shipping, now ebay just got their cut, I think it is 5%? or 50 cents. Now if they charge $2 with $8 shipping, ebay only gets 10 cents, the company gets 40 cents more. I know that sounds stupid, but if you sell hundreds of items a day it adds up.

The only problem with Ebay recently is that many items are going for nearly retail price.

There are quite a few items that I don't bid on since I could find them at nearly the same price at Walmart. Factoring in sales tax vs. shipping and it's usually a buck or two either way. Often I'll pay $40 compared to $38.99 on ebay just so I can have it now vs. next week.

-Jason

One thing I've learned from my employer over the years (a family-run office equipment dealer) is that you just don't buy small one or two of anything. The same truck is used to send ship in 1 pallet of paper or 15 pallets, but getting just one pallet makes that paper too expensive to sell. Try to just buy when you need a lot of different things from the same seller. Averaging out the cost of shipping is the best way to get a deal by mail order. My most recent personal example was late last spring when I bought an Arc LS 123 twisty battery pack. $8 was the cheapest shipping option, which was over 50% of the item cost, so I loaded up on some of their cheap 123 cells at the same time. I didn't absolutly need 123 cells at the time, but I knew that I would use them and the averaged out cost of everything became a comparative bargain.

I did something similar when I bought my Arc AAA. I shopped the different dealers, then I bought 10 instead of 1. The shipping cost was the same either way, and I finished my Christmas shopping for all the adults on my list in one purchase. Shop smart and try to create ways to average out the cost of shipping and handling.

Interesting subject. I found that I was getting ripped by one of my suppliers. I requested that they begin charging my UPS account. That took care of that. In all honesty, on most of our regular retail orders, they end up just a tad under our flat $6.95 (unless VERY heavy). Like Peter, we are trying to just keep it simple. We have a UPS calculator on our Gel Cel page as they are very heavy. I really wanted a simple one for the CPF page. Some end up $4.00 and some end up like the one in the post above. BUT it is simple and it keeps people happy. We do our best.
Dollars do NOT grow on trees and we all know that. I understand what you did prior to ordering from us, WORK.

This reminds me of the time when a ebay seller was selling the same item as me, for $1, and $24 dollars shipping. He either was doing it to scam buyers or to save on listing and final value fees.

I just got done buying some stuff (Thermals and fleece) from an online sporting goods store to send off to my wife before it gets cold out there in the desert.

For UPS ground that will take 9-14 days to get here, my S&H ran to $14.00. At first I thought it was a little high, but then I remembered that: 1-I'd have to pay around $9 in tax if I bought it locally and 2-I'd be tacking on quite a bit in retail (nearly 1/4 of the total price) if purchased from a B&M store.

I guess I learned something when it comes to the bulk buys like you guys had stated from before.

-Jason

Yep I just paid $6.10 s/h for my second Arc-AAA premium. Generally I will cancel any order in which the charge for S&H exceeds 15% of the items themselves.

Way back when I was a shipping manager UPS would automatically insure any item up to $200 for free. I would really get bent when I saw them add $1 for insurance on a UPS shipment.

GregR

Re: Shipping gouging *DELETED*

Post deleted by flashlightlens.com

You guys have it easy!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif You want to see the sort of pricing charged on international shipping!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/icon15.gif