Shipping charges WTF

[slravenel]

Help me to understand something here –

I have noticed that quite a few of the larger companies in this sport (I don't want to name any names just yet, but they are 2 manufacturers, and one large supplier) have this thing where they totally rape the customer with shipping charges. Why is this? Countless times throughout my build I have needed a small part or a handful of small pieces. Pieces that should fit in a box the size of a BigMac….yet "shipping charges" are $20+…. What the fawk is that?

$30 - $40 part, weighs less than a pound, smaller than a 5x5 box….no way in hell I'm paying $27 to ship that.

So I go to the small guy vendors….well most of them are just drop shipping from the OEMs anyway…so they stick you with the shipping too.

Why is this a thing? Why are these companies gouging the customers on shipping?

Why do we, as customers, put up with that ****?

I guess my rant is over

 

[Rokcrler]

Re:

You have to remember the handling part of shipping and handling... Packaging materials and the person doing the packing and handling.
I agree that parts could be stuffed in a flat rate box or envelope, sometimes calling the vendor nets good pricing.

 

[slravenel]

Oh, I realize that there should be SOME shipping/handling charges. But $27 to ship a box of basically hardware is absurd and out of line.

Customer service is dead.

 

[yankster]

It's a way to mark the parts cheaper than their competitor and make the money back on the "handling". Ebay sellers do it all the time.

 

[bad80cj]

It's a way to mark the parts cheaper than their competitor and make the money back on the "handling". Ebay sellers do it all the time.

This ^

 

[slravenel]

I could understand that (and do for the most part with the 1 aftermarket supplier)....if these weren't OEM "proprietary" parts.

I'm not buying tabs and brackets - these are parts specific to that OEM/category.

This is simply price gouging in my opinion.

 

[Mortalis5509]

Re:

Well because everyone is making money. If it's a drop ship from a small vendor who gets it from someone else, well small vendor may not have a deep discount on shipping and then adds money on top. Or, small vendor uses their supplier to ship the part and their may have a high mark up on shipping with bigger profit margins.

In the end it's another avenue to make a profit. Sometime the parts don't offer a lot of profit, so they are getting it else where.

Now the prices you listed seem to be a little high.

 

[Stretch]

Its all on how to make back some money and get a better margin. Yeah its BS but thats commerce. I did it all the time when I worked retail. Special order stuff always had some stupid handling fee that our system wouldn't let me override.

I just paid $21.99 for a part from UFO Plastics because Honda doesn't make it any more. Discontinued, unavailable through the dealer. Whatever. Shipping on this small plastic chain slider...$14.99. Yet I order a $275 Leatt that was already on sale and it ships 2nd day for free from California, go figure. I handle the majority of the shipping for our company so its made me pretty jaded when its my turn to pay for stuff since I see what it costs to ship stuff all over the US. A few companies have even denied my request to use my own UPS or FedEx #.

 

[bjeep]

A few companies have even denied my request to use my own UPS or FedEx #.

This. It pisses me off when I know how much ups charges.

Me: I say ship it on my UPS account.
Them: We can not do that.
Me: I can not buy your parts!!

Hang the phone up.

 

[grcthird]

I have cancelled several parts orders due to stupid shipping quotes. I'm all for vendors making money, but not screwing me.

 

[matth_85]

I totally understand online orders being high on shipping. It's a generic system that cant account for everything. If I feel shipping is high, I will always call to place the order. I normally call anyway because 70% of the time you can get a better deal just by talking to them on the phone.