I have ordered from Walthers several times over the past year, but I just got the confirmation email for a small order I just placed. I ordered a strip of stirein, and a 1oz bottle of paint. I knew the postage was gonna be about as much as I spent, and understand that. The total order was about $8.00, plus $5.00 shipping. But, I got a suprise when they sent the order comfirmation letter. They tacked on an additional $8.50 for "handling" charges, on top of the $5.00 for shipping. What the heck is THAT about? Personaly, I have a problem with companies that charge you to "handle" their own product!!! They have never done that before on my orders!!! So, now I got $8 worth of stuff, that has cost me an additional $13.50!!! Im not very happy with Waltehrs at the moment. It isn't a bank breaker, but, I am disabled, on a fixed income, and I didn't appreciate that shock after the fact, when it didn't show up on the order when I, or before I placed it. It was'nt on the site at all about that "charge"... This few extra bucks, now makes me cautious of them, and may deter any further orders..
How did they ship it; UPS, USPS, FedEX, Pony Express, etc? No excuse for not telling you up front that it was do to the "handling" of the very toxic and dangerous paint, or whatever. I would expect to pay more for shipping if I ordered paint, chemicals, or other materials that postal/shipping regulations mandate a certain way. But they should tell you what it is up front so you can decide whether it is worth the cost. I live in a town without a hobby shop so I order everything over the Internet. One of my pet peeves is the shipping cost if I want to order just one pack of Preiser people, two packs of couplers, some detail parts, some decals, etc, that only weigh an ounce or so and would be lost in a small padded envelope. You could ship it across the entire country for less than $2 as First Class Mail, but the Internet shops charge a standard $6.50, $7.99, $8.50 for Priority Mail. I don't need it Priority Mail and would like to have the option of ordering small, lightweight items that they would send via First Class Mail in a small envelope at a much lower cost. Guess I'm asking too much. Jim
I don't have a LHS either. there is one about 15 miles from me, but have very little N scale stuff. But, it is being mailed priority they said, and like you, I could deal with standard mail to save a little. I understand the shipping costs of $5-$6 or so for that, for small items. I justify it by not having to spend my time, gas and engergy running around trying to find it at hobby shops. But, handling charges, I don't agree with. I know sometimes they call it S/H charges, which includes shipping. I even dont mind a buck or so extra to compensate for packing materials (However priority mail boxes, and packages are free if ordered through USPS.com). I don't mind them charging a buck or so extra for those additional costs. But, when I checked out, there was no mention of that additional $8.50, which was even more than the priority mail costs. It was over and above that. No mention at all. I also was in the etailer business a few years ago. I NEVER charged someone additional costs to handle my own merchandise. I don't understand that, nor agree with it. It's part of business. Especially no mention of it, untill you are commited to the sell. I didn't see anything about that, until I got the email that items are processed and shipped. Hazardous material, I can see a cost, but, no mention of that either. Or, no mention of that with that additional fee either, other than "handling". Just pick up the sealed bottle of freaking paint and toss it in the box, jeesh.. The paint I got was a 1 oz bottle of Floquil. Im sure they didn't have to don a HazMat suit to pick it up with stainless steel tongs an seal in a lead lined container. i would bet to guess, it would be tossed in the cardboard prioritymail box too, lol..
It is an old story, and has become the standard on E-Bay and with some e-tailers. To avoid getting hurt in the same way, I try to amass a larger order wherein the shipping and handling comes out to a much smaller percentage of the total order price. If there is another way, I would like to hear it.
Unfortunately, Internet shops can come up with a 1,000 reasons why it's their policy to have a high Priority Mail shipping cost on even a very small and light items. If they cared, I'm sure they could take a few minutes and come up with a cost effective way to First Class small items at a very low cost. Jim
T. & J.: We have always charged actual cost for shipping. We also used to use bubble envelopes as a matter of course (for small orders) and sent them via first class mail for small items. However, the level of claims from customers who apparently did not receive their product was approaching 40%. With FCM there is no tracking. We had no choice but to drop that method unless we get a written waiver from the customer. If you process $200/mo in small orders but have to replace $80 from claims of undelivered items you have lost any markup on the entire $200 plus the markup on many $ in sales sent thru normal easier shipping methods.
I include paints with my orders and find there is no addition charges.. Oddly there is nothing in Walthers shipping policy that mentions handling charges.. www.walthers.com -- custserv@walthers.com page Could this be a new policy?
I understand the priority shipping, and I used it too for that very reason. I always including tracking. All that has a cost associated with it. I dont mind the 5 to even 7 or so for small packages for that reason. What I have a problem with, is charging the 5 for priority shipping, THEN after the fact, tacking on an additional $8.50 and justify it as "handling". The fact it was a "hidden" cost, bothers me, and I question the ethics of it. As far as building up a larger order, I agree with that too, and generally try to do that. That really is the only reason I added the paint, just to phycologically, I could justify the $5 shipping for the $2 peice of plastic I needed. Unfortunatly, I didn't need much else. Sure there is alot of stuff i would have loved to added to spead that cost out some, but, then it gets into spending 10s or more dollars just to get my $2 need filled... Kinda like when a wife comes in with tons of bags from shopping exclaiming she SAVED $100, but negates mentioned that she had to spend $500 in order to save that $100.. Kinda nuts if ya ask me. Spending much more than you need to, jsut to save a few bucks. But I do understand it if you have a greater need. I try to save my online purchases up to bunch them together,but this time, I had an imediate need and wasnt able to do that.. My biggest issue was the additional "hidden" costs.. It was just more evident on such a small order. if my order was a couple hundred bucks, I may not have even noticed it, but then again, is that what they bank on, that their customers do not notice those "fake" charges?
I used to work in the hobby industry and usually all the shipping charges were broken down either in print or on the website. I'd call Walthers and express your concerns in a polite way, and maybe they made a mistake, or changed policy, or something else. In my experience with Walthers, they were always professional and did the right thing. It can't hurt. Just ask them to explain the charges and be nice, as that goes a much longer way. As an aside, if anyone wants some of my extra n rolling stock, I'll charge actual shipping and a whopping $2 a car, maybe less if you buy enough. Shoot me a message and I'l send you a list.
I ordered from Walther's yesterday. I just checked the e-mail confirmation(s) and the shipping and handling charges are missing. I will check the invoice when the products are delivered and see if I got banged a little bit more than I anticipated.
This is good advice, and I agree. I always do conduct myself in a profesional mannor on this type of stuff. I had already wrote their customer support and inquired about it. I haven't heard anything yet, but, that was just a few hours ago. Many times, it is an oversight, and I have ordered from them in the past and have had good experieances with them. so, yeah, I do give the benefit of dout.
UPDATE Ok, here is the explaination from Walthers. They said standard shipping is $8.50 (still high, but oh well), and the priority upgrade is an additional $5.00. the only option I saw was "priority" and it was listed for $5.00. I guess the standard shipping is "implied"? So, when I chose the priority, it was IN LUE of the standard which did not even show as an option. So, when I chose that, it meant that I wanted the $5.00 priority upgrade ON TOP of the standard $8.50 charge. That isn't how it showed up on my invoice, and it apparently wasn't clear during the checkout. I have used Walthers in the past, and have never had this confusion. I will not say that I didn't "miss" something, that is very possible, but the point was, it wasn't very clear, and it is stated incorrectly on the invoice. All that said, Walthers was gracious enough to offer to refund the $5.00 upgrade, even tho it was already shipped as a one time curtesy. For something that may, or may not have been their fault, I think this is fair, and very nice of them to do. I do understand if I miss something and it happends again, I will have to eat it, but, that would be a given. So, all's good now.
Just as a curiousity aside, that Floquil paint you ordered, was it the oil-based variety, or was it acrylic? And was it shipped USPS or UPS/FedEx? Reason why I ask is that a lot of times, you can't ship anything flammable by USPS - even a little 1 oz. bottle of paint. And UPS/FedEx costs more. Which could have explained the extra cost for shipping. However, if that was the case, they should have said so from jump, instead of running you around the moon trying to find out. Just my $0.02 worth. Jim
Glad to see that it got worked out, and thank you Tudor for not spinning the whole thing over-negatively. You contacted them and got an explanation and a partial refund and we all learned something in the process. I think higher shipping is here to stay with trackable methods becoming the norm and scammer types out there saying, oh no, I didn't get the item and costing the shipper extra to send additional items when it's not really warranted. I have nearly everything I order shipped to our bookshop so someone is there receiving the item instead of it sitting on my porch all afternoon.
I recently shipped a package (less than 1 lb.) from California to Alabama via UPS. The shipping (ground) was $10.52! UPS has added a "fuel surcharge" to their base charge. Perhaps other shippers have done the same.
Paint in a bottle is not prohibited. I just got finished talking to the Postmaster for Cincinnati and she said that spray paint would be prohibited but paint in a bottle is not prohibited.
It was arcrylic (water based) paint. It was shipped USPS priority mail. In fact, just came in today (ordered it yesterday wow). But at any rate. It was a missunderstanding on my part, and vauge on their part, so it could have really been blamed on either side. As far as the spin, no problem, I never want to put a negitive spin on any post, especially about a business unless it is blantend, and well known to be a scam. I like to settle things civil, and honestly, even if not gone in my favor. I am a very reasonable person. I do like to pass info on, like this, more for a public service so if someting is vauge, it can be looked at in more detail to keep someone else from being shocked. Again, all ends well, and I am a past, present and future patron of Walthers, the are a big part of our hobby.
I'm glad you got it worked out with Walthers. I have ordered from them in the past and found them to be good to work with. Everybody likes and justifies the cost of Priority Mail for small items because of it's "tracking", but you can also send First Class Packages via the USPS with Delivery Confirmation - which most do not seem to know. (I just ordered an n scale item from Japan and the shipping was $5.50 which is lower than you can get from just about any US Internet place - but that's another subject) If I need some small items I will continue to look for the lowest cost shipping, usually from the auction site, or I will wait until I need enough items and then order from the place that has the lowest overall cost. One place I found, and have used before, has no shipping cost at all if you order over $50 worth of stuff which I thought was a good idea. Sorry, I reached the end of my rant and will say no more on the subject. I apologize for carrying on and will go back to running trains...
I only buy from Walthers when the total amount is $100. Then the shipping is free. I don't remember if Walthers has recently lowered the amount to $50 for free shipping. I limit my purchases to sale and in stock items.
Jim, well said. This is one thing I hate about etailers and ebay sellers. I need a bunch of stuff from Atlas right now, but not enough to get charged $12 in shipping. So I'll keep putting projects off till I need enough stuff to justify that price. Sorry Wig-Wag, but yes there is. I use it all the time when I sell stuff on ebay. You can ship 1st class mail with Delivery Confirmation, no problems. Been this way for quite a while now. And it's not just a Paypal/Ebay thing, as I see 1st class w/ DC's at work all the time (I'm a mailman) -Mike
