Shipping and "Handling" Ripoffs

The bestbuy.com thread got me thinking about how much I loathe companies who pad shipping and “handling” charges. Okay, we could start with Ticketmaster, but that’s been debated.

Last year I ordered a little baby outfit for a friend from Hanna Andersson. It was knit, probably not more than 8 ounces of yarn total. The shipping charges, however, were figured by cost, not weight. So I was charged something like $7 shipping. I tried to argue with the catalog salesperson about it, and nearly cancelled my order. But then I thought about the hassle, time, and other costs association with driving to the mall to find something similar, and caved.

I also recently bought some replacement parts for a toy from the manufacturer, Neurosmith. They don’t sell them at any retailer. They cost $10, fair enough. Shipping was $5 (grumble, but okay) but when I went to “check out” I found a handling fee of $2. For what? That’s a 70% cost increase to me, all told. I told customer service they’d damn well better arrive at my house looking like they’d been well and truly handled. But no, pretty much a standard box, no padding. They paid someone $2 to type the address and heave it into a box? Get me that fucking job.

Yes, I appreciate that a human being has to put forth some effort to prepare the package. But since this is the business the seller is in, they’ve built in some efficiencies (or so I hope). And I assume that since they’ve got it all sitting around in a few warehouses instead of trucking to 2500 retail outlets, and I’m paying for the cost of shipping on top of that, the close-to-retail price I’m paying must surely mean that they’re making some extra profit thanks to the savings on distribution costs. Might that $$ go to pay the schlub who is slapping the label on the box, instead of sticking the customer for that, too?

Hands down this is what keeps me from buying just about everything online or from catalogs. I’d much rather do it that way–but the handling charges get me so peeved, I refuse to play along.

No fucking kidding, man. $10+ to ship a stick of RAM that weighs maybe three ounces. I don’t know who the hell these people think they are, but they sure are overpaid mofos…

Many mail-order companies will charge an additional amount-- say $10-- to ship orders to Hawaii and Alaska. Why, I don’t know. Surely they weren’t planning on delivering my order to me by truck, right? So they must be flying it over. If they’re flying it over, what difference does it make whether it’s over land or water? Two thousand miles is still two thousand miles, whether it be to New York or Hawaii. Unless there’s something I don’t know about, it’s a major rip-off.

Purolator tried to ding me with a bill for over $200 for a customs (Canada to US) clearing fee in addition to the delivery fee concerning a pair of skis I was returning to the manufacturer who had loaned them to me. At first I thought it was just a misplaced decimal, but no, they actually expected me to pay it. Took several conversations with a Purolator V.P. to clear it up.

Now I ship via UPS which does it own customs brokerage.

FYI, my daughter lost the train from Neurosmith’s “Little Linguist.” I called Neurosmith direct and they shipped the piece to me free of charge (and shipping).

Needless to say, I was stunned, but now continue to be VERY happy with their products…even if they do go thru a new set of batteries every 2 weeks. :rolleyes:

Um, Audrey?

The cost of operating a plane traveling 2000 miles versus the cost of operating a truck traveling 2000 miles is a world of difference.

The pilots are payed a lot more, the fuel used in the plane costs a lot more, and sometimes, depending on the good, it has to be specially packaged for air travel. All of that translates into incurring the cost onto the consumer.

I mean, come on, you didn’t think UPS was going to pay for all this out of their own pocket?

ah but they charge (or at least used to, I haven’t tried to send anything to Alaska in a couple years) $10 extra above and beyond what they charge for continental 48 AIR shipping.

I bought a small coffee grinder for $5.00 a while back. The thing broke recently. I look at the instructions and sure enough, wow! a one year unconditional warrantee.

Just mail the unit to them, there goes a dollar or two, and include a shipping and handling fee of $6.00.

WTF, the grinder cost all of $5.00! Let’s see, $7.00 to get it replaced?
Maybe I’ll just shop for another brand next time, @ssholes!
[sup]THANK GOODNESS I BOUGHT TWO OF THEM AT THE TIME.[/SUP]

Um, vandal and Audrey?

Did some messing around on the USPS and UPS sites (yeah, I’m a little bored today) and, assuming a 3 pound package the size of a shoe box here’s what I found:

USPS Priority mail
St. Cloud to Minneapolis - 5.15
St. Cloud to New York City - 5.15
St. Cloud to Los Angeles - 5.15
St. Cloud to Honolulu - 5.15

UPS 2nd day air
St. Cloud to Minneapolis - 8.20
St. Cloud to New York City - 12.86
St. Cloud to Los Angeles - 13.47
St. Cloud to Honolulu - 18.73

So there’s shipping.

As for handling rates: I know that this is the cost of warehousing and packaging and forklifts and skids and shrinkwrap, but I wish mail-order companies would add those costs into the price of the item.

Fuckin’ VB coding :frowning:

He stuffed three of the Music Blocks into our subwoofer, and we couldn’t get them out. They do sell replacement blocks --but now I think I shoulda asked them if I could just get the three I needed, instead of paying for all five! Anyway, the reason I am hijacking my own thread is to tell you that etoys currently has the Japanese Little Linguist cartrdige for $3.99. I just ordered the LL for my budding little genius, because it’s on sale too.

Either these people don’t understand basic economics, or they’re ignoring them to get more money. The price you charge for a good is the cost of providing the good and all associated services. What’s next, are they going to charge a “knitting fee”? A “marketing fee”, reimbursing them for the cost of advertising the product? An “entrepreneur’s fee” to pay he owner back for the risk he took starting the company? A “rent fee” to reimburse the company for the cost of renting the offices they used to process your order? I think I should stop now. I’m probably giving these guys new ideas…

Thanks for the rates, chique. Makes me wish USPS was more often an option for the catalog merchants I go through.

Needless to say, I agree with all the pissed-off Dopers who have posted thusfar.

But what I really don’t get is why on earth some companyies still charge for shipping charged cost-of-purchase and not by weight. I can understand how back in, say, the 1980’s (when the mail order biz really took off) they instituted this system figuring that “sometimes they get screwed, sometimes we get screwed – but it’ll even out in the end, and it’s easy to calculate.”

But, Jesus, times have changed. With scanners, computers, robotic fulfillment mechanisms, etc. they should know the real shipping fees instantaneously. They’re either stupid, lazy or dishonest.

Tell you what, I’ve found a few sites that have a “flat-rate” policy, regardless of wieght or cost. IIRC, sportingauction.com charges 4.50 regardless. For a pair of goggles, it sucks, but for a snowboard, you’re dancin’.

How 'bout places like Mailboxes Etc.? I’m still aghast at what they charge to ship things. Last week, I had to send a package to my mother, and return a small box to an online merchant. I checked at the UPS website, and shipping the box to my mother through UPS would cost $7.60. I didn’t check the cost on the return package, but as it was one “zone” closer and about 1/3 the size of the other box, I figured $5 at most.

Seeing as the nearest UPS drop off is about a 25 minute drive for me, I opted to drop the boxes at a Mailbox, Etc. for shipping. “Sure,” I think, “I’ll pay more, but that’s OK, it’s more convenient.”

Total charge for shipping two boxes that would have cost me, at most, about $13 at UPS? $33.00. Amazing.

Later that week, Mr. Athena had to ship a pair of motorcycle saddlebags to Alaska. He had checked with the post office, and they had told him it would be about $40 to ship, including $600.00 in insurance. He didn’t have any shipping materials, so he went to Mailboxes Etc. to ship it. Their first estimate was $200! When he complained, and said that the post office had quoted him $40 for the pair, they decided they could ship them for $40 each, plus $10/each for a box and peanuts. He was low on time, so he agreed to this. They packed 'em up, and he then said “Oh yeah, I need to insure them for $600.00.” They told him that insurance through the post office was impossible, the USPS did not insure packages. At that point, he gave up, paid the $20 for the packing material, and took 'em to the post office. Total shipping charge? About $35.00.

What a racket. I understand that they need to charge an additional amount above and beyond shipping charges to cover the costs of their storefront and employees, but over twice as much for each and every package? UPS, of course, doesn’t help this, as they seem to almost encourage third party sources for shipping as their customer counters are always on the outskirts of town, in scary dark industrial areas, and usually have weird hours.

Well if you would catch up with the times and shop online instead of using those old, landfill filling, tree killing, house cluttering catalogs, you might find more options. :slight_smile:

Seriously, though, I’ve ordered from a few places (online) that usually ship UPS exclusively and asked them politely if it was possible to ship it USPS and they did. (The reason for this being that I’m never home due to work, and were in a state of total chaos at the new office.) This includes my beloved CDROutlet.com and even Barnes & Noble (.com), and I don’t know if it was any cheaper (though it almost had to be), but it sure was a hell of a lot more convenient.

Oh, and I got my 3 ounce stick of RAM today. Fuckers may be overpaid, but at least they’re quick… :rolleyes:

Check out http://www.outpost.com , they offer free overnight delivery.

Hey, you saw me. I called before we got there. My mom could have cleaned up her catalogs, but noooooo…

:slight_smile: