[Harp-L] Re:shipping costs

[Michael Easton <diachrome@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Shipping fees can be somewhat tricky for a small time vendor to  
figure out.
4 things figure into shipping costs. The destination or zone, how  
fast you want it to  gets there,
weight of product and insurance value of product.

The cheapest shipping to Canada is via USPS with no insurance  
declaration.
I made the mistake of using UPS to return a customers fixed chrome to  
Canada and it
ended up costing him over $50 in shipping fees.  There was the fee  
for me to insure and ship it up to
Canada then UPS charged him another fee in Canada.

Needless to say I've never used UPS on international shipping  again.
If a customer is willing to risk no insurance, a 1lb package to  
Canada is around $4 USD.

If anybody is making money it's the damn shipping companies. I've  
insured packages with USPS and
had then mark it fragile only to see them toss it in a bin on the  
floor across the room.  Fricking morons!

mike



On Sep 27, 2007, at 11:50 AM, harp-l-request@xxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> Message: 12
> Date: Thu, 27 Sep 2007 10:49:47 -0500
> From: "Jeffrey Spoor" <Jeffrey@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: [Harp-L] harp suppliers and shipping costs
> To: "harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx" <harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx>
> Message-ID: <op.tzbkw9hp67efdg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; delsp=yes;
> 	charset=iso-8859-15
>
> As for shipping charges, some companies employ people who's sole  
> priority
> is shipping.  That may be some of the reasons for the higher shipping
> charges, but some of what people refer to is "shipping & handling"
> charges.  I DO agree that shipping a 4 oz. harp to Canada for  
> $25.00 is
> excessive.  I just checked the USPS postal rates for shipping to  
> Canada,
> there are several choices and it appears that the highest is $23.25  
> (Int'l
> Express) and the cheapest is $4.66 (Int'l First-Class) and the  
> difference
> reflects the delivery times.  I'm not letting a "trade secret" out,  
> anyone
> who can use a computer can find out the rates.  There are some  
> supplies
> that does add to the cost of doing business, but the USPS will  
> supply you
> with some of it FREE......just ask.  Heck, they've even made the  
> Prioriy
> boxes available for international use now too......  Before, someone
> starts a linching party about this, please understand that I do have a
> reason for this long winded response......US as vendors would not  
> purchase
> or tolerate the exagerated shipping costs from the folks we buy
> from......if Hohner or Suzuki or whoever tried that with us, would  
> we sit
> still for that????  I understand that the retail price for this  
> gear is
> VERY competitive.....VERY......and when you widdle the sales price  
> of an
> item down to where you don't have a profit, you have to make it up
> somewhere and shipping rates seem to be the way these days.  When  
> you sell
> an item for nearly cost, there's nothing left for the "company" and  
> for
> the owners of the company to feed his/her family with.   There are  
> alway
> two sides to every story......so please just take a moment and try  
> to see
> both sides.......