Shipping Charges

Just another thing to factor in. You can use it to your advantage. I just ordered 100 pounds of cat litter - delivery was $8. It's not worth my time to go to the store and hump 100 pounds into and out of the vehicle.

I suppose in your instance it just means you'll be building a bigger order, and I'm sure that's what they're hoping.

or make a "non critical" list and don't order that stuff until there is a free freight sale - which is fairly frequent in some cases.

I just took a look at Lee Valley's shipping fees:

Orders up to $20 - $8.50 $20.01 to $120 - $11.50 Orders over $120 - $13.50

It looks to me as a flat fee of $13.50... reasonable. ;-)

Can you drive 80 miles for $11.50?

It's not such a "new" practice, I noticed it years ago.

I think it goes to the cost of calculating/charging shipping costs most efficiently, despite obvious errors (e.g. a lb of lead vs. a lb. of feathers). It costs more to "think about i"t than it does to "just ship".

-Zz

Easily. Hell, I can manage that in my old truck -- 85 Dodge, 360 4bbl, about

Of course, that disregards the value of my *time* to drive 80 miles...

Add wear and tear on the vehicle, maintainance, pro-rated insurance. The governmant allows you a bit over 50 cents per mile when used for business purposes. That is probably a bit shy of actual cost.

Typically a 80 mile trip really costs you about $40.

Would it be cheaper for you to return it to Lee Valley?

Good truck: I had an '85 Dually with the same engine and 4-speed. Wow, was it stable on the road.

I didn't ask "can you use less than $11.50 in gas to drive 80 miles?", Doug.

I asked "Can you drive 80 miles for $11.50?"

Your answer appears to be "No."

This subject comes up at least once or twice a year. At times, the charges seem high, but the basic cost is fixed, no matter the value and no matter the weight. Thee is a cost to process the order and do the paperwork. Then the rest starts to happen. You need a carton, you need an order picker, you need labor and packing material to get it all together, then there are the actual UPS or whatever carrier charges. The $10 shipping really get annoying when you need a $2 knob for the toaster. With tools and supplies, it is an incentive to make a larger order.

The cost can vary considerably from one business to another. Amazon, for instance, offers free shipping on $25+ orders. They are highly automated. My company will not accept an order less that $300 and we ship freight collect. We are not set up to handle small stuff.

I have noticed - I wonder if they've noticed that I've been ordering less from them...

...probably not. :(

On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:02:52 -0600, the infamous "Leon" scrawled the following:

Yeah, $4.95 PRIORITY MAIL.

-- We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. -- Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774

On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 21:33:15 -0600, the infamous Dave Balderstone scrawled the following:

The real pisser is that the other item he bought last week, for example, cost $1.80 for the same size and weight but from a longer distance. And the book from across the country cost $2.37, etc.

Some of us feel that exorbitant shipping fees are unfair. YMOV

-- We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. -- Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774

On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 22:26:27 -0600, the infamous Morris Dovey scrawled the following:

I'll bet Rob pops up here and gives an unequivocal "Yes" to that query, but it's more likely from our devalued dollar than from his company's shipping policy degradation. Overall, not from individuals.

Next time, Gerald, call Rob and ask him to pop it in an envelope for you.

-- We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. -- Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774

Oh, I agree with that. I wanted to by the son a shirt from ThinkGeek.com for his birthday but shipping from the US to Canada would have doubled the price.

So I didn't buy it.

It's a very simple equation involving value received for money spent.

Will you be walking it there?

On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:34:16 -0600, the infamous Dave Balderstone scrawled the following:

Ayup. Unfortunately, that works both ways between the US and CA. I can no longer afford to buy Lee Valley tools, so I treasure those I already have. The stainless transplant spade (sucker looks chromed!) and the scraper set are real keepers, as are a dozen other items I used to import from there. Sest lavvy.

(For those of you in Rio Linda, that last item is "C'est la vie" in Merkin.")

-- We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. -- Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774

On Sat, 21 Nov 2009 11:57:27 -0600, the infamous "Leon" scrawled the following:

Yes, all the way to the mailbox. I'll be putting up the red flag by myself, too. Want to see the video on Youtube?

-- We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. -- Abigail Adams, letter to John Adams, 1774