Shipping Charges?

[alaskadan]

Try living up here. I paid 27 bucks for shipping a pair of electric motor brushes. They fit in a envelope and weigh nothing. I will send you some cheese to go with your whine, if you pay the shipping!

[dobryan]

[Sodo]

Isn’t it amazing how easily we were hoodwinked by ‘free shipping’?
Its not free, we all know that.
Yet we go for the deal, why not?

And now we’re addicted.
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'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[BlueTwo]

Find me a person who owns a truck, will work for nothing and I will give you free shipping.

[Gauche1968]

[jimf909]

[Busdepot]

Of course free shipping is a myth - no one drives trucks for free, and gas is not free, so shipping is never free. Either it's built into the price, and/or the supplier is incentivized to buy cheaper/lesser quality product to make up for the margin lost on the "free shipping." That being said, big players like Amazon have a major cost advantage over little guys like us because of their volume. They are paying pennies on the dollar for shipping, so they can more afford to "give it away." So it's an uneven playing field; Amazon may have to jack up pricing by a few quarters to cover the "free shipping" while we'd have to jack it up by a few dollars. Also, retailers that are not as specialized can aggregate the cost over a wider range of categories, some of which may have high enough margins to support the "free" shipping.

The other challenge is shipping rate accuracy. The large players spend ten times more money on their shipping cost algorithms than I have to spend on my entire website. Say someone orders two similar dimension items, like a muffler and a steel bumper. Properly packed, they could be packed together without one damaging the other, so the total shipping cost will be much lower than if each was shipped in its own box. But say they buy a muffler and a window. Individually the same overall dimensional weight, but no way they are going in the same box without damage. There are a million scenarios like that, not to mention cases where the weight and dimensional data given to us by the supplier is just plain wrong (or nonexistent). We don't have the manpower to weigh and measure every item. So sometimes the shipping rate will be too low, sometimes too high. Our goal is not to profit on shipping, but not to lose money either. If the price was close we just eat it. If the shopping cart overcharged we try to catch it and reduce the price when the order ships on our own accord. If it's way too low sometimes we have to call and requote. We do have a minimum shipping charge (I believe it's $4.95 now), but apart from that, if you place an order and the shipping seems way off, don't hesitate to email [email protected] and Valerie or Fred can look it up and adjust it if necessary.
_________________
- Ron Salmon
The Bus Depot
www.busdepot.com

[Sodo]

[Alaskaberrys]

I feel like in some ways “shipping” these days is becoming synonymous with “taxes”. Somehow there should be less of them - the goal to push them down. Works for the big stores, but not for the small and ultimately us VW nut jobs.

[Fiddlestyx]

This has been happening since I got my van in 2015, it is not new. This is how they make money, charge $20 for shipping that only costs $8 as an example, pocket the difference. I have mentioned this several times before.

This is why I refuse to use the vendor that makes the Westy Go. They wanted $8 to ship a sticker.
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1983 Vanagon Westfalia Air-cooled
1973 Super Beetle

[jimf909]

[Fiddlestyx]

[vanis13]

[vanis13]

[CanStan]

There have been very few times I’ve shipped something, and decided I could have driven to that state / province / country myself to deliver it cheaper.

[khughes]

Sheesh, this is no different than getting a quote from a shop on a repair. They quote $100 labor and $100 parts. They do NOT pay $100 for the parts, they mark them up to list price, and the labor charge is set factoring in the profit on parts. In this example, do you really show up at the shop with your $10 part off fleabay and expect them to install it for $100? And then berate them for "ripping you off on parts"? And like everyone else here who has wrenched in shops over the years, this isn't a hypothetical, it's a discussion we've all had to have.

To the shop, it's $190 job - would you really feel better if they quoted it as $190 labor / $10 in parts? Would it feel better if that $1 dollar sticker became a $8 dollar sticker with $1 shipping? Free lunches, like perpetual motion machines, just don't exist.

If BD or anyone else quotes $X for shipping, then hits you for $2X, that's poor business practice. If you agree to the shipping CHARGE, not postal or carrier rate, and that's what you get charged, I don't see the issue.
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'86 Westy FAS GenV Turbo (Marvin)

[vanis13]

[Paulbeard]