Sick Of The Shipping Charges

[Karmachanic]

Ship me something for free and I'll give you $10.

[inkstainedruth]

Speaking of Amazon, when you examine the prime service, you pay for shipping partially through the $120 prime fee. On top of that, prime items are typically sold at higher prices compared to the same exact item, if prime is not offered, to offset the prime free shipping.

 

So you pay for shipping through partial rolling of the shipping charges into the item price and partially through the prime $120 fee.

 

One of the reasons I have not sprung for Prime. I don't shop on Amazon enough to make the cost of a Prime membership worth it for me (we considered it in order to be able to see Good Omens on their streaming service, then didn't have to because a friend of ours did and we got to binge watch it at her place... ).

We had to calculate the costs for a "business" membership to Sam's Club. I forget what my husband figured out was the minimum we had to purchase over the 5% markup for non-members over the course of a year. And of course with the business, when we're dropping several THOUSAND dollars to start with every March on supplies for the business, the cost savings over a business level membership is definitely worth it. And unlike him, I do NOT use the Sam's credit card except to get in the door and prove I'm a member at checkout, because I don't like the slimy company that they got the MasterCard account through....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[stewmander]

I also avoid vendors who dont offer free shipping, after spending a certain amount (sorry goulet).

 

That said, Cult Pens + sales + exchange rate is your new best friend.

[A Smug Dill]

Ive finally stopped agreeing to pay $6.95 or $7.95 for USPS Priority Mail for a few bottles of ink or less not that I ever did much of it.

Having to either pay expressly (and, by that, I don't mean just for some method of Express delivery) for shipping, or pay noticeably higher prices (often referred to here as including an "Australia tax") listed by local retailers, is part and parcel — pun intended — of the "First World" online shopping experience for us who live in Australia, especially for products not made here but in Europe, North America or Japan (i.e. other parts of the "First World") but also "equally" for some that are purportedly manufactured here (e.g. Robert Oster and Blackstone inks).

 

Not that I particularly wish pain or "misfortune" on "luckier" folk living in the UK or the US, but I don't grasp logically why they "should" expect any different when they want to buy something manufactured overseas, e.g. Americans buying stuff made in good ol' English-speaking UK, or English folk buying stuff made in Japan.

 

If it's a matter of buying power as a collective whole across a nation's consumer base, then placing a low-value order (e.g. for a single bottle of ink or two, because that is all one wants at the time) and expecting "free" shipping is implicitly expecting one's neighbours in the same national consumer base to have subsidised the shipping costs for one's order. Ultimately, if you as a consumer want something, then (in "our" capitalist society, anyway) that's supposed to be an opportunity for others who can satisfy that want to help themselves to your wallet in exchange.

 

That's a distinctly different proposition from setting (perhaps high enough, or perhaps too low) a qualifying threshold for "free" shipping on an order of significant value to the seller. If you buy $300 worth of stuff, perhaps the retailer finds it commercially sound to accept a lower profit margin (after wearing the shipping costs itself) because the order helps move stock, and lower its business risks, etc.

 

Sorry to vent negative responses unappreciated.

So why post on an online discussion forum instead of, say, your personal blog post? Venting is about getting it off your chest and getting it out, and not about getting support and/or validation from one's peers on which one relies to feel better. Being seen to be right or justified is not any part of venting, but fair enough, you might not appreciate negative responses any more than you appreciate any response from others at all.

[pararis]

Having to either pay expressly (and, by that, I don't mean just for some method of Express delivery) for shipping, or pay noticeably higher prices (often referred to here as including an "Australia tax") listed by local retailers, is part and parcel — pun intended — of the "First World" online shopping experience for us who live in Australia, especially for products not made here but in Europe, North America or Japan (i.e. other parts of the "First World") but also "equally" for some that are purportedly manufactured here (e.g. Robert Oster and Blackstone inks).

 

Not that I particularly wish pain or "misfortune" on "luckier" folk living in the UK or the US, but I don't grasp logically why they "should" expect any different when they want to buy something manufactured overseas, e.g. Americans buying stuff made in good ol' English-speaking UK, or English folk buying stuff made in Japan.

 

If it's a matter of buying power as a collective whole across a nation's consumer base, then placing a low-value order (e.g. for a single bottle of ink or two, because that is all one wants at the time) and expecting "free" shipping is implicitly expecting one's neighbours in the same national consumer base to have subsidised the shipping costs for one's order. Ultimately, if you as a consumer want something, then (in "our" capitalist society, anyway) that's supposed to be an opportunity for others who can satisfy that want to help themselves to your wallet in exchange.

 

That's a distinctly different proposition from setting (perhaps high enough, or perhaps too low) a qualifying threshold for "free" shipping on an order of significant value to the seller. If you buy $300 worth of stuff, perhaps the retailer finds it commercially sound to accept a lower profit margin (after wearing the shipping costs itself) because the order helps move stock, and lower its business risks, etc.

 

 

So why post on an online discussion forum instead of, say, your personal blog post? Venting is about getting it off your chest and getting it out, and not about getting support and/or validation from one's peers on which one relies to feel better. Being seen to be right or justified is not any part of venting, but fair enough, you might not appreciate negative responses any more than you appreciate any response from others at all.

 

Empty calories.

[samasry]

On a lighter note

 

 

Last night I had the strangest dream

I shipped a pen from China
In a little row boat to find ya
And you said you had to get your converter cleaned

Didn't want no one to hold it

What does that mean ?

 

 

 

I am not sure really how to do the rest, at least during my lunch time

Edited August 20, 2019 by salmasry

[samasry]

On a lighter note

 

 

Last night I had the strangest dream

I shipped a pen from China

In a little row boat to find ya

And you said you had to get your converter cleaned

Didn't want no one to hold it

What does that mean ?

 

 

 

I am not sure really how to do the rest, at least during my lunch time

 

 

 

Aint nuthin gonna break my stuub

Dry-ink wont slow me down,

oh no,

I've gotta keep that nib mooovin

 

 

The ink bottle fell on the ground

Tomoe-river has all been drowned

oh no,

but I got the Urushi grooovin

Edited August 21, 2019 by salmasry

[samasry]

To really get to the next level of appreciation of the brilliance of this song: The hint is -> I was working on and thinking of a memory stride issue all day today.

[samasry]

To really get to the next level of appreciation of the brilliance of this song: The hint is -> I was working on and thinking of a memory stride issue all day today.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cy46iOwWQiE

Edited August 21, 2019 by salmasry

[inkstainedruth]

Hah! I knew I'd recognized part of the line....

So.... You're writing fountain pen filk! (Or, to be snooty about it, you're writing a contrafactum.... )

Of course now I'm going to be earworming the original for the rest of the day....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[Susanna]

There is no free shipping. Everyone who purchases anything, from Cult for instance, contributes to the 'free." Smoke and mirrors.

 

As a vendor, I always have to pay carriers when I ship parcels (and it's usually more than the price exposed in my website because I try to rebate the final cost to customers).

And the higher the value of the package, the more the shipment costs, because international insurance is expensive.

Specially if it's delivered by a reliable express carrier.

Even in domestic shipments, there are carriers that ask for a third of what I pay to UPS; but they aren't punctual, don't have a valid tracking system, some parcels get lost, or lie for days in a storage somewhere, and are delivered by people I wouldn't open the door to.

I want to avoid such experience to my customers, therefore I choose the best carriers, that happen to be also expensive.

if a pen costs 200 and you are added 20 or 25 shipping, consider that you will have a great service; but to get the free shipping, the pen should cost you 220.

Edited August 21, 2019 by Susanna

[samasry]

Hah! I knew I'd recognized part of the line....

So.... You're writing fountain pen filk! (Or, to be snooty about it, you're writing a contrafactum.... )

Of course now I'm going to be earworming the original for the rest of the day....

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

 

Everything that I hear during the day, triggers an 80's song in my head. I could have a conversation with someone for hours, and it could all be based on lyrics from 80's songs.

 

Most of the storage cells in my brain are used up by 80's lyrics, so I never really had space for words like "contrafactum", I had to use google and pretend to understand

 

Glad you like the song, it is a wonderful song, I had it on a loop during my drive home yesterday, it is a clever little song.

Edited August 21, 2019 by salmasry

[inkstainedruth]

 

Everything that I hear during the day, triggers an 80's song in my head. I could have a conversation with someone for hours, and it could all be based on lyrics from 80's songs.

 

Most of the storage cells in my brain are used up by 80's lyrics, so I never really had space for words like "contrafactum", I had to use google and pretend to understand

 

Glad you like the song, it is a wonderful song, I had it on a loop during my drive home yesterday, it is a clever little song.

 

I'll admit that I'm old enough to be more likely to have something trigger a 60s song in my head, rather than one from the 80s....

"Contrafactum" is actually a fairly new word for me. My choir director started using it to describe the filk which her college-age son wrote. to the music of a piece that we normally do at Christmastime (the filk version is now our SCA baronial fight song.... ). We sing both the original and the filk in unison, and then again in organum (where the altos and basses drop down a fourth).

Ruth Morrisson aka inkstainedruth

[oldrifleman]

 

As a vendor, I always have to pay carriers when I ship parcels (and it's usually more than the price exposed in my website because I try to rebate the final cost to customers).

And the higher the value of the package, the more the shipment costs, because international insurance is expensive.

Specially if it's delivered by a reliable express carrier.

Even in domestic shipments, there are carriers that ask for a third of what I pay to UPS; but they aren't punctual, don't have a valid tracking system, some parcels get lost, or lie for days in a storage somewhere, and are delivered by people I wouldn't open the door to.

I want to avoid such experience to my customers, therefore I choose the best carriers, that happen to be also expensive.

if a pen costs 200 and you are added 20 or 25 shipping, consider that you will have a great service; but to get the free shipping, the pen should cost you 220.

Totally agree, Sure if what I want has free shipping cool, if not, that is the price of getting what I want from a reputable vendor! In reality there is not free shipping, just hidden or disclosed shipping charges.

[Karmachanic]

I want to avoid such experience to my customers, therefore I choose the best carriers, that happen to be also expensive.

if a pen costs 200 and you are added 20 or 25 shipping, consider that you will have a great service; but to get the free shipping, the pen should cost you 220.

 

I'll order @ 220. That way I get free shipping!

Edited August 21, 2019 by Karmachanic

[dennis_f]

 

As a vendor, I always have to pay carriers when I ship parcels (and it's usually more than the price exposed in my website because I try to rebate the final cost to customers).

And the higher the value of the package, the more the shipment costs, because international insurance is expensive.

Specially if it's delivered by a reliable express carrier.

Even in domestic shipments, there are carriers that ask for a third of what I pay to UPS; but they aren't punctual, don't have a valid tracking system, some parcels get lost, or lie for days in a storage somewhere, and are delivered by people I wouldn't open the door to.

I want to avoid such experience to my customers, therefore I choose the best carriers, that happen to be also expensive.

if a pen costs 200 and you are added 20 or 25 shipping, consider that you will have a great service; but to get the free shipping, the pen should cost you 220.

 

Well said Susanna.

[bogiesan]

When I was running a craft business, I passed shipping charges (box and USPS or UPS plus insurance,if desired) on at my cost. No one ever balked. Then I realized I was spending about an hour doing the grunt work and running to the shipping store. This was time for which I was not being compensated and, if I had ten orders to get out, that meant I lost about $200 earning potential. So I had to raise my prices a bit. No one baled at that, either. Those were different times, 1985-1999.

 

Those are incremental costs that small businesses cannot simply absorb. They are passed on to customers in many different ways.

 

I have no problem at all with shipping costs. None. And I dont shop for much these days based on price alone. I buy my pens and inks from people I enjoy doing business with, folks with whom I have had interesting conversations, folks who actively support this community, folks who put suckers in their packages.

Edited August 22, 2019 by bogiesan

[samasry]

<deleted>

Edited August 22, 2019 by salmasry

[samasry]

 

I'll admit that I'm old enough to be more likely to have something trigger a 60s song in my head, rather than one from the 80s....

 

 

Albeit both of our decaded are from the previous millenium, they were two pretty cool decades

Edited August 22, 2019 by salmasry

[sketchstack]

I view it as a relative measurement from the perspective of me, the consumer.

 

Example:

 

Retailer A offers a product for $50 and shipping is $8.

 

Retailer B offers the same product for $50 and shipping is $0.

 

Thus Retailer B is offering shipping at no cost and no compromise to the consumer, aka "free".

 

 

There is no free shipping. Everyone who purchases anything, from Cult for instance, contributes to the 'free." Smoke and mirrors.