Shipping & Handling Blues

[ScottV]

Sorry folks....but I have to vent!

Recently I decided to raise the price of my top package in my IBA's as I am adding the Lustre Shield option. I called TSS (the company that made the lighted wash menu signs for my IBA's) and orderd 6 vinyl numbers 2" tall by 1" wide. Two "$" signs, two 1's, and two 0's.

The 6 numbers came to $15 and I gave them my credit card. I received an email confirmation that afternoon showing the order acknowledgement and the charge of $15 + Shipping and Handling. I replied back to the email since it had come from the customer service person that I had spoke to on the phone and told him that the 6 vinyl letters could be put in an envelope and mailed with a $0.42 stamp. As I expected, he didnt respond.

Imagine my dismay when I received the small box delivered by UPS ground, with an invoice stating $15 for the numbers and $14.95 for the shipping and handling. The numbers had to weigh a total of 1 oz. and did not need to be mailed in a box.

I dont know why companies do this. It's like they arent making enough money on the parts that they sell, so they have to dig you a little more with the S&H charges. I worked for a large company that had a standard policy of adding 50% to all shipping charges and passing it on to their customers. For some things it's difficult to dispute, but for 6 vinyl letters, it's so blatantly obvious that it's outright robbery!

I guess the next time I need vinyl numbers I'll just go to the local sign shop and pick them up myself.

ScottV

 

[washnvac]

If you have a "Signs by Tomorrow" in your area, I would highly recommend them for any signage. They are quick and prices are reasonable. Vinyl letters would normally be done for you in a day.

 

[Waxman]

I use my local sign guy for things like this; no s&h; he drives them over in his pickup truck.

 

[bigleo48]

I purchased my own vinyl cutting machine a couple of years ago and have used it a fair bit. I like having total control over my signage.

The only reason I can think of for shipping in a box is damage to the lettering...but that too is very remote.

Like the others mentioned, sign guys are a dime a dozen. I live in a small city (20K pop) and there are 15 of them.

 

[Danny]

I purchased my own vinyl cutting machine a couple of years ago and have used it a fair bit. I like having total control over my signage.

The only reason I can think of for shipping in a box is damage to the lettering...but that too is very remote.

Like the others mentioned, sign guys are a dime a dozen. I live in a small city (20K pop) and there are 15 of them.

The company should have the "bubble" envelopes or "please do not bend envelopes" it might cost a whole dollar and the damage issue is addressed. My guess for why they sent it UPS anyway is for the tracking number and signature confirmation. Still $14.99 S&H sounds too high to me.

my .02 for what its worth

 

[BayWatch]

Wait until you need to order a neon stick light or something larger.

 

[robert roman]

I guess its easy to complain when you are on the other side of the fence.

I used to self-publish, sell and distribute large hard-bound books that contained lots of color photography. Over the course of three years, the cost of producing these books commercially rose from $17 to $40 each. I was told that the price increase was due to rising material cost for paper, ink, bindings and labor. During the same time frame, shipping charges per book rose from $12.50 to $23.50 and the price of gasoline to drive them to the packing store increased significantly. I no longer sell hard-bound books.

In today's economy, higher S&H for small-sized purchases has become a fact of life.

 

[ScottV]

Robert,

As I stand here on the "other side of the fence" with all of the other paying customers, I have a real difficult time accepting your statement that "higher S&H for small sized purchases has become a fact of life." When a $15 S&H charge can leave a bad taste in a customers mouth, how loyal do you that customer is going be when it comes time to order that $3,000K neon wrapped menu board, or the curb side spinner signs that he was thinking about.

It's not a fact of life. It's just bad business practice.

 

[robert roman]

Exactly, my point. I could not afford to pass-on higher production and S&H costs without dissapointing customers so I stopped selling hard-bound books.

Common experience suggests that a $3K item would have more profit margin than a $15 item to play around with to hekp absorb rising S&H costs.

However, the merchant has no certainty that you will ever purchase a $3K item from him in the future. What does the merchant do; keeping selling $15 items at no or little profit with the "hope" of selling something in the near future that actually helps pay the bills?

Passing on higher production and S&H costs for small items is not bad a business practice, its reality.

I agree with you. Merchants have to find a way to deal with it or they may lose sales. I couldn't find a way to adapt and it put me out of the hard-bound book business.

 

[MEP001]

One thing to realize is that normal postal service comes with no insurance. Letters get lost, and there's no remuneration for damaged or missing items. UPS comes with at least minimal insurance with every package shipped, so the shipper is protecting itself.

Items can be sent in the same manner with the USPS, but that means a trip to the post office and a wait in line.

 

[Skipper Jack]

It is the "handling" fee that pushed up the cost. UPS shows that the worst case pricing (Seattle to Miami) for a 1lb package (minimum weight) is $10.46.

I suspect that the vendor does not do enough shipping to have scheduled pick-up, so a trip to UPS is required. Also, boxes are not particularly cheap - about $1.50 for mailer size box.

Shipping costs can be expensive, and as Roman said they are disproportionate to the cost of small orders. The advantage here goes to the local guy, which I would prefer to support anyway.



With all of that said, the vendor COULD have put the item in a prepaid USPS priority envelope with delivery confirmation for $5.45 and he wouldn't have to stand in line at USPS to send it.

Judgment: bad service, the vendor needs to be more creative with shipping when dealing with small orders.

 

[Back4More]

Perhaps it is so they can track the order as well. I know when TSS drop ships for me, I get a UPS Quantum View with Tracking number and confirmation receipt. Also, was it a residential address? That costs more too. If you're a large enough organization to have daily pick up and drop off, have them use your shipping number. That's what I do with all my vendors.

 

[Kevin Reilly]

I don't know, but "shipping & handling" is something that just sticks in my craw. Watch
TV ads like "Billy Mays here" he comes on as a commercial on stations I watch out here and he drives me nuts while he makes millions on something none of us need; or "We will send it to you free for just 'shipping & handling' fees"! Do you think they're doing this jsut because they like you? In my mind it's a bunch of BS and if you (we) don't speak up about it they will get away with it. Especially in our industry. Most everything we have in our industry with the exception of propriatory items can be bought some place else and most of the time locally. This of course requires homework and anticipation of breakdowns rather than the Friday night breakdown. Then "shipping & handling" isn't even in the equation.

The cost of the item should be priced so they don't have to add "shipping & Handling" because it does nothing but pi$$ the customer off.

 

[MEP001]

The cost of the item should be priced so they don't have to add "shipping & Handling" because it does nothing but pi$$ the customer off.

It's something you have to be especially careful of with eBay. I bought some computer RAM without checking the shipping charges, and for $90 plus $45 shipping and handling I got 3 sticks of memory stuffed in a 20? padded envelope with 92? postage on it.