For Christmas, I purchased a 10 speed bike for my wife. Because it was over 25 bucks, I got free super-saver shipping on it. A bike. It came in a HUGE box and was a little heavy.
Recently, they just had a rubbermaid cabinet on sale at a really good price (not unlike the bike I bought), and I thought, what the heck, that would be good for the garage…so I check it out, and even though it is sold by Amazon, it is NOT eligible for super saver shipping. It costs FIFTY dollars to ship.
There is no way this thing was heavier than the bike, and only a tad more bulky (I have one in my garage already, so I know what the boxes are like), but they’re gonna nail me for a 50 dollar shipping charge? Turns out that 50 dollar shipping charge puts it right back into the trealm of the normal price for the item. Also, I’ve been to UPS, and I k now the sorts of things I can ship for 50 bucks. And that’s at man-on-the street prices. I am sure Amazon gets a HUGE volume discount and doesn’t pay anything close to that.
I like Amazon, but they sure do some boneheaded things sometimes.
Have you looked to see if it is really Amazon selling the Rubbermaid? Amazon now lists a lot of stuff that is being sold by other sites/people. I’m not talking about “Used and New” link they have.
Take a look at this puppet I just ordered. See the “sold by Puppet Revelation” on the availablility line? Amazon isn’t selling this. Amazon isn’t shipping this. It isn’t eligible for super-saver free shipping.
Now, can anyone figure out why a Yak finger puppet is listed under office supplier by Amazon.com?
If it’s the first one that comes up when you search Amazon for “Rubbermaid cabinet,” at $79 plus $50 for shipping, it states that the weight is 68 pounds. I can’t imagine that your bike weighed anything like that much, even with a huge box.
I’m just amazed that you can get Super Saver shipping on something as big as a bicycle. I had no idea.
In addition to selling stuff themselves, Amazon also acts as a middleman for a ton of other retailers. In that case, the Super Saver shipping doesn’t apply. It has nothing to do with the weight – I’ve purchased things from Amazon which weighed less than a pound, but which weren’t eligible for Super Saver shipping because they were sold by a third party.
Edit: And I agree with Merijeek that they really need to make the difference clearer at the outset, instead of when you’re about to confirm the order.
crazyjoe did specify that the cabinets are sold by Amazon, which checked out with the one I looked at. It states “In Stock. Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.” The third-party items you’re referring to list the actual seller.
That’s called "drop shipping. Amazon takes the order at a specified retail price, tbut they never actually have it in stock at their own warehouses. They just send the order to the wholesale supplier who ships directly to the customer (although they may use Amazon labels on the packaging).
Amazon makes their profit on the difference between the wholesale and retail price, and because htye enver have to pay for the overhead of keeping it in stock, they can keep their prices lower than Mr. Smith, who runs a brick-and-mortar retail store. Mr. Smith has to pay rent and utility bills for his little shop, so he has to put a bigger price on the same item.
You the consumer can choose to pay a higher price byu going to Mr. Smith’s shop, or you can pay a lower price + shipping costs. Sometimes the bottom line for you works out better at Mr. Smith’s, other times it’s cheaper from Amazon.
The big difference comes in the kinds of gurantees they can offer. Amazon may promise to get you your book from their warehouse in X time, but they can’t necessarily guarantee that a wholesaler will for drop-shipped items. If some of the items they have for sale are drop-shipped, they really, really should make that VERY clear.
ETA: Oh, I see the “In stock and sold buy Amazon” convers that.
It’s no longer available…oh yes, and it was 50 lbs and only cost 30 bucks to ship (standard shipping was 30 bucks, but I was not charged because it was super-saver). I am SURE the extra 18lbs do not cost 20 more dollars. Even if they did, it doesn’t justify nailing me for the full shipping charge instead of a steeply discounted one.
How is the cabinet shipped - assembled or flat? If it’s shipped assembled, there is something called “dimensional weight”, where it is charged for how much space it occupies on the truck.
Up until recently, Amazon had an exclusive arrangement with a toy seller. Nothing listed as a “toy” could be sold exceot by that seller. The yak was probably listed in “hobby supplies,” along with the sewing equipment to make it, and escaped notice.
They do slip free shipping in and out of play on the big stuff from time to time.
I bought a table saw from them last year, and the shipping was free then. And this was “150-pound box bigger than a dishwasher on a wood pallet, shipped in a semi truck, it’s at the local depot in the scary bad part of town now - do you want to pick it up, or we can get a truck out to your neighborhood in three days” freight. Since then, they’ve probably realized what that was costing them, and currently don’t offer free shipping on that machine.
