While this sounds good in discussion we have NEVER found that someone did not think it was not our fault that a package was lost and expect us to replace it. While I see your point it is simply not worth it for us to use first class mail. IMHO , Mike
If we are thankful for this forum, that we should be interested in posting content that does not cause the monitors to have to do extra work keeping a careful eye on the posts. I have just been looking at an unmanned model train forum where a complete thread has disappeared again with no explanation, and another frequent poster states “I have had many, many, posts deleted”. If you had started on this other forum like I did, you would be very very thankful for this forum, and want to help make the moderator’s jobs less stressful. Thank you moderators!!! Bob
Priority shipping is only a flat rate if you use the flat rate boxes. The flat rate for the box that would hold a 12" x 12" x 2" package is 16.85 post office price or 15.30 on-line price. Using non-flat rate packaging actually has a lower price but the price varies with distance and weight. The prices I got on the USPS website varied from 5.80 to 11.25 just by changing the destination zip code.
Less than 4 lbs can be shipped first class overseas with priority as an option. Over 4 lbs and it's priority ONLY!
It's $0.95 here on Wednesdays!!!! Okay, I don't normally sell it, but I can buy it on a special deal on Tuesdays and discount it for you . . . Regards, Pete Davies
Yes, some of the airlines have been doing this for a while. You look at the price for a flight from (say) Chicago to Miami leaving at 11.45hrs local on 17 May, and it's 'PRICE A'. Discuss it with the family, and look again with a view to booking. Machine thinks "This is a popular flight" and ups the price to 'B' (or A+15%) Regards, Pete Davies
And don't forget that books can be shipped by the USPS under the classification of "Media Mail", which significantly reduce the price of shipping, especially if it is a heavy book.
Only if taken to the post office. This can not be done online nor pickup. Thanks for the info though. Mike
One on line company, specializing in tools, charges more for shipping the more you buy. Their base rate is high to begin with. Above $50.00 it jumps up. I normally don't buy from them because the items I want are small and I feel the shipping is to high. Shouldn't large orders be rewarded with reduced shipping? I have had a bunch of small items in my cart that when added up are slightly over $50.00. Many times I have removed items from my cart to reduce the shipping charges. Question is, are they there to sell items to customers or make a profit center out of shipping? They just started selling a line of paint I use, but I doubt I will buy from them only because of the shipping charges. There are other vendors on the military models side that charge less for shipping. I buy from them. I'm not saying lose money on shipping, but some vendors seem to make it a profit center. I try not to use them.
But add $3, at a minimum, for insurance and tracking. A relative sent a book to me around the holidays, last year, via USPS Media Mail, from only one state away - without insurance or tracking. Of course, the item never arrived and couldn't be tracked. Who knows if it was misdelivered, eaten by the sorting equipment, fell off the truck or simply vanished into the ether? When questioned, the local PO staff at either end could only shrug their shoulders.
shipping charges Then this thread should have been over on page #1. This thread could have been spared a lot of misinformed, biased and less than benevolent opinions, had some of the contributors, in particular YOU, simply used the USPS website to comparison shop postage charges between different zip codes. I do however agree on the original complaint that some east coast vendors gouge s/h charges, The big one in Maryland, with the real-time shopping cart being the most egregious.
In which case using the USPS site would have done no good insofar as explaining such a discrepancy. And that is the original question for which George seeks an answer.
Using the USPS postage calculator website You are either confused by George's complaint, confused by my reply or just confused. Had he (or other posters to the thread) simply used the USPS site to check postage rates for the same size/same weight package, mailed to different zip codes, he would have realized that distance shipped, does affect the rate USPS charges - a fact he confesses ignorance to, in the post to which I replied.
I am not in the least bit confused. Looking at the USPS site does you no good, unless you know the exact shipping method chosen by each business compared. Is it straight Priority, which is zone based? Or Priority Flat Rate which goes one price to most points, USA? Do you have the exact weight? Do two different shops package in such a way that the parcels will be one heavier than the other? What size is the completed parcel? These are the missing variables. Without having this data in hand, you cannot find any exact answer.
When unhappy with high shipping & handling charges from an online vender, I suggest that you cut & past the information into an email, politely ask for a better deal, and send it to the vender. The response/non-response from the vender should tell you a lot. I remember many years ago having to call a rental car company about ten times trying to get their originally quoted price. And the final one I got was better than the original. Bob
This is true for everything, and this is the side that the buyer does not see. Virtually everything is the sellers fault, no matter what. That is the way the average customer sees it. So people ask you to do them a favor by undervaluing an int. shipment, so they don't have to pay a tax. Well, when that item gets lost and you can't collect anything, because the value was nothing... do you think the customer will go... "Oh, don't worry, that's my fault"? No, they will still want their item, or their money back. Or what if a customer says... "Hey, just put it in the tiny priority box". So you squeeze it in there, and then somebody's 10 pounds of books crushes it while it goes through the system... Will that customer say "Don't worry about it, I'll buy another one"? No, they will want the seller to send another one or refund. The fact that they told you to put it in a tiny little box with zero void, will instantly be forgotten. Then you have the people that use the absolute lowest price on the planet as their standard, and expect you to meet that. Even though they have no idea how that low price was attained by the people selling it... There's people out there who literally have no idea that they are not making a profit, but people still expect that price to be considered a standard, and if you don't meet it, then you are 'ripping people off'.
16 pages of debating the nickles and dimes of shipping charges? Jeez guys, go play with some trains or something. -Mark
