Shipping charges [Warning: Rant enclosed]

I've just ordered a steering bushing for my TR7, you know, the one that goes in the firewall and is a pain to replace?, anyway the part was reasonably priced so I went to order it from a well known British aftermarket retailer that shall remain nameless, but is well known here. As I'm doing my final checkout it gives me the total. They wanted nearly $7.00 for shipping this thing to me. We're talking about a small PIECE OF PLASTIC!!! I understand mark up and having to pay shipping and handling fees and such, but $7.00? I KNOW for a fact it will cost less than $2.00 in actual mailing cost. Does this mean it will take $5.00 worth of handling to put it in an envelope, seal it, them drop it in the mailbox? This infuriated me soooo much that I went to another site, that shall also remain nameless but is well known here also, that is based in England, ordered a cheaper part and had it shipped cheaper from there than from here!!!! My wife can order clothes and shoes online all day long and not pay one red cent for shipping, but I can't order a stinkin piece without paying some exorbitant price to have it shipped to me?

This infuriated me soooo much that I went to another site, that shall also remain nameless but is well known here also, that is based in England, ordered a cheaper part and had it shipped cheaper from there than from here!!!! My wife can order clothes and shoes online all day long and not pay one red cent for shipping, but I can't order a stinkin piece without paying some exorbitant price to have it shipped to me

Yeah it sure makes you wonder who is helping who HUH ????

I know exactly who you are talking about and I also had a small thing like that.
So I ordered a few to make it pencil out.
and it's their lowest shipping fee.

I bet if you put in 4 of them it would still be the same shipping.
In fact, much to their credit I have had them lower the shipping when it goes out.

Not leaping to any particular vendor's defense, but shipping charges are not cheap. I work for a company that ships all over the US using UPS, and we get a considerable discount from them on shipping charges due to our volume. First, they charge by the pound, not the ounce. Doesn't matter whether your package weighs 2 ounces or 16, it costs the same. Our rate for a 1 pound package averages around $6.25 with variables the distance it has to go. Most vendors (including my employer) do not ship USPS as we've found that they are not a reliable, and it gets expensive replacing lost shipments. Also, we have to take USPS shipments to the post office ourselves (they won't take them with the rest of the mail. So, even though you are correct, that throw your part in a padded envelope and throw it in the mail would probably cost $3- $3.50, when you factor in everything, a company would lose money doing that.

ObiRichKanobi said:

Not leaping to any particular vendor's defense, but shipping charges are not cheap. I work for a company that ships all over the US using UPS, and we get a considerable discount from them on shipping charges due to our volume. First, they charge by the pound, not the ounce. Doesn't matter whether your package weighs 2 ounces or 16, it costs the same. Our rate for a 1 pound package averages around $6.25 with variables the distance it has to go. Most vendors (including my employer) do not ship USPS as we've found that they are not a reliable, and it gets expensive replacing lost shipments. Also, we have to take USPS shipments to the post office ourselves (they won't take them with the rest of the mail. So, even though you are correct, that throw your part in a padded envelope and throw it in the mail would probably cost $3- $3.50, when you factor in everything, a company would lose money doing that.

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Can't trust a man with that avatar, "These aren't the droids you're looking for..."

I also ship at work all day everyday and will not deal directly with the post office. We use ups and fedex and frankly $7 is probably what it costs them is it shipped UPS. Makes you want to place larger orders doesn't it?

ObiRichKanobi said:

Not leaping to any particular vendor's defense, but shipping charges are not cheap. I work for a company that ships all over the US using UPS, and we get a considerable discount from them on shipping charges due to our volume. First, they charge by the pound, not the ounce. Doesn't matter whether your package weighs 2 ounces or 16, it costs the same. Our rate for a 1 pound package averages around $6.25 with variables the distance it has to go. Most vendors (including my employer) do not ship USPS as we've found that they are not a reliable, and it gets expensive replacing lost shipments. Also, we have to take USPS shipments to the post office ourselves (they won't take them with the rest of the mail. So, even though you are correct, that throw your part in a padded envelope and throw it in the mail would probably cost $3- $3.50, when you factor in everything, a company would lose money doing that.

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I understand what your saying, but disagree with your assessment. Why should I pay for shipping a pound when my package doesn't weigh a pound? A small padded envelope cost about $2.00 to ship across the country. Reliable, the post office has greatly improved that in the past few years, they now offer tracking on all of their parcel services. I send everything out USPS and have not lost a single thing. As far as taking things to the P.O., does your company get street delivery or do you have a PO box? If you do get street delivery and your carrier isnt picking up your packages, you are talking to the wrong person. A call to the Postmaster should clear that right up. If you are still having problems, let me know. I'll look into it.

My my second thing is how will a company lose money by shipping a product for what shipping cost? Here's how I see it. If I go to a parts store and ask for a particular part, the counterman looks up the part, gets it, prints out a bill of sales and makes change. If I order a part, the counterman gets the part ( I've already looked up the part # for them) puts it in an envelope or box, prints a bill of sales and a shipping label, seals the box and has it picked up or drops it off. Where's the big expense? I think any business who looks at shipping as a big expense or a way to make a few bucks b calling it "handling fees" is doing itself a BIG disservice. Again JMO.

mailbox said:

Reliable, the post office has greatly improved that in the past few years, they now offer tracking on all of their parcel services.

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My mother mailed me a thumb drive in a padded mailer back in February. From Virginia to California, it took a day or two shy of a month. Tracking just said it had left some office in Virginia.

P.O. tracking is a joke. I ship small packages using smartpost daily. Fedex picks up the packages and delivers to the nearest postal dist. center and the post office does the final delivery. The package normally arrives before the tracking number is in the system. (which is good and bad) Fedex tracking is by far the best. Tracking starts when the driver picksup and scans the box. UPS takes a day (mostly)

PO starts when it gets scanned in the local main office on delivery.
Greg
Your mom should have used the small prepaid.
$5 and 2 days

When I receive parts through the USPS they are usually broke or boxes are busted open. I shipped a cast iron skillet from STL to FWB, Fla in a priority box flat rate and the box had been thrown so hard the handle came through the box and then they cracked the cast iron where the handle meets skillet. I ordered a CD thru USPS and it came broke with a footprint on box. Reordered thru UPS came unbroken. USPS handle packages too many times for their prices, make sure you insure. Priority is automatically insured to $50. I use FedEx and UPS as exclusively as I can. I Retired from USPS and have handled and witnessed handling. I have seen FedEx crew play bowling on the rollers too.

DNK said:

Your mom should have used the small prepaid.
$5 and 2 days

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It was mailed priority with a tracking number in a 5x7 padded mailer. I think the Post Office even sells these. I remember she even put my zip+4 on the address. Don't recall if it was typed or not. I worked at the PO for 4 and a half years at the tail end of the 80's. I didn't see anything wrong with how she sent it.

P.S. I just checked some old emails, it was longer than a month.

mailbox said:

I understand what your saying, but disagree with your assessment. Why should I pay for shipping a pound when my package doesn't weigh a pound? A small padded envelope cost about $2.00 to ship across the country. Reliable, the post office has greatly improved that in the past few years, they now offer tracking on all of their parcel services. I send everything out USPS and have not lost a single thing. As far as taking things to the P.O., does your company get street delivery or do you have a PO box? If you do get street delivery and your carrier isnt picking up your packages, you are talking to the wrong person. A call to the Postmaster should clear that right up. If you are still having problems, let me know. I'll look into it.

My my second thing is how will a company lose money by shipping a product for what shipping cost? Here's how I see it. If I go to a parts store and ask for a particular part, the counterman looks up the part, gets it, prints out a bill of sales and makes change. If I order a part, the counterman gets the part ( I've already looked up the part # for them) puts it in an envelope or box, prints a bill of sales and a shipping label, seals the box and has it picked up or drops it off. Where's the big expense? I think any business who looks at shipping as a big expense or a way to make a few bucks b calling it "handling fees" is doing itself a BIG disservice. Again JMO.

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Not going to get in a war over this, but we do use USPS to ship to US territories outside the 48 states, since it is so much cheaper than UPS. Frankly, USPS tracking is a joke. I have shipments delivered to the end user and tracking indicates it never left our local post office.

We have delivery right to our building. We have talked to both the local postmaster and the regional one. Too bad, you want to ship parcels, especially to APO/DPO addresses, you must bring them in and drop them off.

You ask how a company loses money charging actually shipping costs. Easy...it's called packing materials, labor to pack it, and if shipping USPS in our case, the time it takes someone to take them to the post office.

Bottom line is commercial carriers are in business to make money, and have rate tables to reflect that. If a private person doesn't like that, then sure, pack it into a padded envelope and take it to the post office. But our company is in business to make money, and having it cost us more money in labor so that we can offer cheaper shipping isn't conducive to that.

Ok, I concede. The PO sucks. However, my point was this, they lost business because they wouldn't use a cheaper form of shipping which I was paying for. Give me the option of how and who to send it thru. Insurance can be purchased against loss or damage. UPS and FedEx both have a nasty habit of leaving my parcels at the wrong address in spite of repeated calls to them. Never had that problem with the PO.

Obi, I agree this is no point to start an argument over and respect your opinion as I have no idea what you have to put up with at your company. Frankly, I'm floored the Postmaster is giving you such a hard time about you giving them business. I can assure you if you were MY customer, I'd bend over backwards for your business.

My employer sends parcels and parts all over the country using UPS and USPS. UPS comes here every afternoon to pick up the three pallets of parcels while the local PO will not pick up from us. We used to have somebody take the mail to the PO but that meant packages sat here from 6pm until 10am the next day when we could send somebody down. We now have pick up here but it's done by an independent mail contractor who takes it to a much friendlier PO in the next town over. We only use our local PO for our PO box only now. When we ship small items we can't just throw them in the mail for $2. The postage might be $2 but if it's a tiny part (just for fun let's say it's one rubber grommet.) there is more involved. Grommet may cost the consumer $.95. of that we may get $.40 profit. That profit then has to cover the time of the person who enters and checks the order in the computer system, the time of the picker who picks the grommet of the shelf and then places it in the padded envelope, and the time of the person processing the shipping tag for it to go out by mail. At this point that forty cents of profit has long disappeared. Minimum shipping charge to ship any order might be $7 which also covers the postage ($2), the packing (varies), and the envelope ($1.50). Any leftover "profit" from the shipping charge on the invoice goes to try and cover the labor costs that the $.40 profit from the part doesn't begin to cover.

Just kinda my two pennies on the matter.

I understand all of that and in no way do I expect a company to sell or ship a product at a loss. This simply isn't a good business practice. I have no problem with paying for what it actually cost to package and ship. One of my issues is this, if I go to the parts store to get a part...oh, I don't know, a rubber grommet maybe, I don't have to pay extra for the counterman to look up and retrieve the part, check to see if I have everything and print up a invoice. That should be covered in the price markup. Are you telling me it cost so much more to get it ready to be shipped? Please forgive me but I just don't see it.

I do understand your pickup problem. Carriers are not allowed to make return pickups after their delivery for that day. I don't agree with that, but hey whatcha gonna do?

if I had a more substantial part I might not have balked at the shipping price. I just felt that charge was excessive for no more than I was getting. What really got me was ordering the very same part from an overseas company and having a similar shipping charge. The price made more sense coming from " the other side of the pond" but not as much from " the good ole USA" I had just as soon kept my business here, but it was a fair amount cheaper from there. The company might not have made a lot (if any) money on my purchase, but I WILL be more leary of their charges in the future.