I have a speial little project going on, and to get the parts, I have gone to 3 different suppliers. Two of the three pulled the "shipping switcheroo" on me. They both set the shipping to UPS and charged the UPS rate, but sent the parts USPS fixed rate. In one case, they charged me $15.99 for UPS, and when I got it, it was in a $3.02 USPS envelope. In both cases. they made it right and told me they would ship my account USPS in the future, which is why I called this a "sorta" scam. They mainly pull this on "guest checkout" customers, which is convenient for one-time purchases; if you sign up for a regular account, you can choose the shipping method. The only reason I noticed this is that I don't have local mail delivery, so everything goes to my P.O. box in town. Since UPS won't deliver to P.O. boxes, they deleted the box number in the address. I'd get a delivery notification via email saying it was undeliverable as addressed and I'd have to talk to the clerk to get my package. This caused me to take a good look at what was going on and this popped up. Oh yeah, the cost of the parts was less than the UPS shipping. These people probably made 10 times more on shipping than on the actual product. Keep your eyes open, guys!
Sounds like only 20 the 19.99 special and you get a second one for the cost of shipping and handling shipping and handling is always more than the original item purchased.
AND this is how a bunch of the bottom of the barrel Ebay and internet only guys make any money. They are all selling the same stuff out of the same chinese factory just out of different shipping containers. They buy a container of widgets for $9 a part and sell it for $10 a part. Then make over $10 on the S&H scam. You might also see a limit on how many you can buy so they can get that S&H twice.
That's how the "but wait, there's more" TV hawkers get ya. I usually tell my wife "what a bunch of ****", but you just know their phones are ring'n off the hook.
Golly, when I buy something online or by phone, I always add the cost of item plus shipping and handling to figure out the total cost. If the item is $5 and shipping/ handling is $15 and I am happy with paying $20 total for the item I want, I don't care if the actual shipping is a buck. I get my part for a price I'm happy with. Ebay charges sellers same percentage for item plus shipping, so the only advantage to selling part at low price with high shipping cost is to snag buyers who can't do basic math Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G900A using H.A.M.B. mobile app
That's fine, but when they tell you one thing (we will ship UPS) and do another (ship USPS fixed rate), things start to smell a little.
Don't know about y'all but I'd rather have something shipped by the USPS then UPS. UPS shipping takes twice as long and costs more. Gary
If you have a REAL street address items can come UPS/FEDEX. With the new dimensional pricing on UPS/FEDEX packages, sometimes USPS is cheaper. Dimensional pricing for ground is LxWxH divided by 166. Eg. a 24x20x8 box is rated at 24# EMPTY. If the item and box weigh 25#+ you pay for the weight. Those priority mail boxes that are flat rate can be cheap. Nick
True. But I am in the same boat as Tubman. In my town the USPS does not have home delivery. The only way I can get mail is through a PO box. My postmaster is a royal ***hole. If someone mails a package to my street address it will be returned to sender for an undeliverable address and I will never be notified this ever happened. I have ZERO recourse. The 3rd party sellers on Amazon are famous for this. To me a mailing and shipping address are 2 diffrent things. To fix this the sellers who ship the cheapest way possible just need to ask for USPS and a UPS/FedEx address.
^^ WRONG^^ It's time, once again, to educate the unwashed m***es. USPS machines read from bottom to top & left to right. Therefore, the City/State/ZIP code (use your plus 4 if you know it) are first read. Then the line above it, and etc. So, if you have a P.O. box number, make your address look like this: Joe Hotrodder 1932 Ford St. P.O.Box 666 Detroit, MI 49**X-**** That way, the address gets read correctly by the machines that sort it to the correct location, & the person sorting mail will know the proper box (person) it belongs to. With the cut backs & downsizing, you may have someone sorting mail that doesn't know who you are, or what your street address is. They only know to put the mail in the box number on the letter/package. You really can't expect them to know EVERYONE in a city, can you? I have been trying to teach this to people for years, & they just can't understand that their mail isn't handled by the same old woman at the post office that was there 40 years ago. It's mostly read by machines.
as re eBay... I usually offer free shipping on items I'm selling. Mostly, they are small items and it's a not a big deal. But, even if it's a bigger/heavier item, include the estimate in the pricing; just make sure the estimate is enough to cover what it will cost to ship to any US postal zone. Keeps things simple. Then, eBay doesn't get the additional 10% of whatever shipping would have been. eBay discounts the shipping charges to a seller if using USPS, but....they then take ~ 3% of that same charge as part of the selling fee. I checked 2 or 3 times to see if the "discounted" figure was correct at the P.O. and it was indeed less. Sometimes, as Nick said "Those priority mail boxes that are flat rate can be cheap". Especially true with heavy items.
The problem with this is that a lot of shippers use systems that use Autocorrect to make sure that addresses are kosher. The post office has ***igned my street address a zip+4 of nnnnn-3459. If I do what you suggest, and enter my shipping zip+4 of nnnnn-0857 , most systems will change it back to nnnnn-3459. Some will even go so far as to remove the P.O. Box 857 from the address. I am sure, all in all, that a lot of time and money is saved by these systems. Just in my case (which, I admit is a small minority), it doesn't work like we would like. Fortunately, we still have "the same old woman at the post office" in our town that knows who I am and what I do. All I am trying to do here is to get people to be aware of what's going on in some situations.
No you clueless to my struggles. You are also an apologist for the lousy USPS BS bureaucracy. I have been dealing with this since the start of the internet in early 1990s. 90% of the online websites WILL NOT let you enter a street address on one line AND a PO box on the second. Amazon did not until recently. Again 90% of the web sites only allow the 5 digit zip and disallow the 5+4. Also a lot of web sites will not ship AT ALL to PO boxes. Yet turn around and mail me a package to my street address. So I try to list my address as; Joe Hotrodder 1932 Ford St. Box 666 or B 666 or just 666 Detroit, MI 49**X And my postmaster STILL rejects packages. It is a town of 2K and has about 150 PO boxes and 1 postmaster that has been there for at least 15 years. I talk to him at least twice a week. It is only a 2 room Post Office. So maybe you are the one who needs a shower.
Not sure what eBay system does this, BUT some sellers items will NOT checkout if there is a Box number in the address, even if it is presented as suggested. It will direct you to contact seller. Real Pain in the ***. Other items, no problem. Delivery guy in our rural area suggested the same as above, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
I'm not a USPS apologist. Just trying to help you understand how it works. As stated, machines read bottom to top, left to right. If you can't have the extra line because of some internet thing, remember what I have just said & try this: Joe Hotrodder P.O. Box 666 1932 Ford St Detroit, MI 49**X Left to right, the P.O. Box gets read first. If you put this: 1932 Ford St. P.O. Box 666, then the street address gets read first & it may come up as no such number. If it makes it to your Post Office with both box & street address, your Postmaster or clerk should give it to you. If they don't, then go to USPS.com & complain. These complaints are not ignored. If you know how it works, you can do it correctly & the system works very well. Most problems are because the public doesn't understand the system. Hell, most of the employees don't understand it either! If for some reason you are not allowed to enter things like "Box **X" or "P.O. Box **X" try: POB 666 1932 Ford St.
If the cost of the shipping ($15.99) is more than the actual part, you can bet that they're going to be making some $$ off the shipping and handling. They have to. You can't expect they'd charge exact cost for shipping on a product less than $15 and make a few bucks on the entire transaction. Like 'Arkie' said, you have to weigh the entire purchase cost as a good value or not and leave it at that. Sometimes you'll see a $20 part with $100 shipping to duck the seller fees. Ask yourself if it's worth $120 to have it at your home in a few days. Also, consider the "handling" portion of the shipping charge. It's for all the packing materials and labor of wrapping up a parcel, trip to the shipper, etc. I've sold things that go in a packing envelope and simply get dropped in a mailbox and I've sold parts that took 15 minutes to carefully package and a drive/wait in line at the post office. That's labor. Shipping "fees" (profits) are a reality. I recently priced some concert tickets at Ticketmaster ("ripoffmaster"). $85 for the ticket and $22 for ticket fees ($22 each ticket). That made the tickets $107 each. Buying decision time. I found $35.00 seats one section back (12 seats away), drove over to the Arena box office, bought the tickets with a $4.00 service fee and was out the door for $79 pr. rather than $214. If you're truly in a small town that doesn't offer USPS or UPS home delivery, you should email/call the seller first to establish proper shipping. They're probably shipping a lot of items and utilize the cheapest shipper depending on what/where he parcel is going. I casually sell a few items on ebay and set a fixed shipping fee. That puts me over/under the cost on various sales and it just seems to average out.
I kind of do the same thing . After getting screwed by Ebay on shipping charges a couple of times I changed my methods. When listing the item I inflate the size /and or the weight to make shipping higher. I do however refund the excess in a money order to the buyer.Ebay once had a bumper jack at $11.80 shipping . When I shipped it that was half the UPS charge. I ate the rest. Now about P.O. boxes. I live in a little town that does not do home delivery. Everything has to have a P.O. box number or it gets returned. Not a big deal the Postmistress has worked there 1100 years and knows everyone in town . She retired a year ago and now they have a different part-timer every week. If I know about when its coming I go to the Post office and make sure he knows me and I will come pick it up . My wife doesn't have as much problem, when expecting items she takes cookies or Rice Krispie treats to them .Works everytime.
When I sell on ebay, I take pics then box it up, measure the box, and weigh it. Go on usps and find shipping rate than add a little for my time to package it, then list the item. I clearly state in the ad it will ship usps for $x shipping and packaging price. I have had buyers come back because I charged $4 and the actual shipping was $2.78. Kinda ridiculous. Lost my *** once on shipping, not doing it again, I'm not out to make money on it, but need to cover packaging expenses.
Most of my listings have a set shipping price. The buyer can see the price. I'll send it however I want. Not once have I had a customer offer me an additional 10% for the ebay fees or 3% for my PayPal fees.
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