So I need a $3.00 part for my jointer or else it is dead. Order it online from Delta. You would think thing they would not charge $8 for shipping since the part weights about 1 ounce. Just annoyed and wanted to complain to someone.
Wow. If my Table Saw, Drill Press or Planer became dead I'd be more than happy to have it working again for $11!
Are you serious? What should they do, eat the shipping just for you?? FYI - UPS charges for 1 pound (minimum) package to a residential address is now about $5.00. Add the cost of the box, packing, label, labor to pull and pack the part.
Be happy they don't have a $25 (or more) minimum order charge. I would.
happy to have it working again for $11!
I often do what I can to avoid paying shipping costs also, and I know they seem high. I'll look around Amazon to bring orders up past the $25 free shipping point, I'll search around online to find a supplier with lower freight charges, or I'll plan to stop by stores (i.e. Woodcraft) that aren't local to me, but are on the way to somewhere I'm traveling. Overall, I probably spend more time trying to save a few bucks than I really save in the end. However, if your part were $11 and shipping were "free", it'd probably be a mini-gloat! Andy
You can't really ship anything for less than $6 via UPS. Complain about it to UPS, not Delta.
One ounce could readily go via USPS for about 39 cents. Add an ounce for a bubble envelope and we are still under a dollar.
UPS is not always the shipper of choice ... certainly not for items that can travel via First Class mail and frequently not for items that can go via prioprity mail.
Apparently Delta is just dropping everything in a box and waiting for the brown truck to pull up outside. But the white truck with the red & blue stripes will ALSO make pickups and, in many cases, charge less than the brown truck.
Just my two cents ... I don't think shippers give much thought to providing cheap shipping from the customers point of view because they know that, as long as the charge doesn't get TOO crazy, they can always recoup it from the customer.
Bill
I'm curious as to what 1-oz part shuts the jointer down dead?
But, as a side note, while I don't disagree w/ assessment that S/H charge of $8 is really out of line, a USPS first class envelope would be less than $1 actual shipping cost--of course, the labor and ancillary support costs still make it probably a break-even deal at best for Delta.
As the owner of a company that ships over 500 packages a month, I can tell you that USPS does not have the infrastructure required to handle any serious volume. We do not offer USPS to our customers for a couple of reasons, first, they do not offer any sort of tracking service, only delivering confirmation. Second, USPS's technology in regards to processing/handling shipments is *really( poor (entering the shipment, printing labels, pickups, tracking). Basically, it's a big PIA to ship anything via USPS, and the only thing it is really good for is for shipping those small few dollar parts, and it's just not worth the time and effort for such low margin items.
Me too.
I agree. If I was the seller, I would drop the shipping cost to two bucks and raise the price of the part to 9.
Shipping USPS makes it *MUCH* cheaper for us Canadians since they only charge a flat $5 for brokerage.
UPS wants $23 for an import permit, $4.25 to collect the fees from you if you don't have a brokerage account, and then a sliding scale of brokerage fees depending on the value of the item you're importing. (For a $40 item they want $19.45 in fees!)
And of course, all these fees are taxable.
When all you need is a $3 part, it's pretty gruesome to end up with a $30 brokerage charge on top of the shipping cost.
Chris
Someone has to take your order, someone else has to pick the item and put the item in a box. _Then_ it has to be passed to a shipping company.
Employees and shippers don't work for free, and boxes don't grow on a tree behind the warehouse.
Think about the alternative, which is where the MBA's close the spare parts warehouse because it costs to much to run and to maintain an inventory. Every inventory, in every situation, is somebody's money tied up.
Why didn't you go and pick it up?
That's why we don't ship to Canada. :)
and we have little to no recourse against credit card chargebacks.
But really, how is your scenario (take order, pick up item, put in box, then send to shipper) that much difference than if you walked into the parts place and picked it up (take order, jaw with customer for awhile, go get part, ring up sale, bag item, hand bag to customer), which the exception of the actual shipping cost? Or even worse, a retail location, where they need to stock shelves, maintain a large storefront as well as stockroom, have cashiers, etc.
Cl>> So I need a $3.00 part for my jointer or else it is dead. Order it
I'm sure you understand Delta's point of view that the other posters reminded you of.
Yeah, I know, just on principle, it doesn't seem right when shipping is double the cost of the item.
Got to have something to complain about, I understand. LOL
The handling costs, which is probably why they don't offer that service. If they do offer the service to locals, they're eating the costs of a small number of folks who can actually take advantage of it.
The part wouldn't be $3, it would be $9-10.
Do you think if Woodcraft ordered that part for you it would have been the same price? I'll bet it would have cost more. If it was $3, at the minimum you'd have to wait weeks, possibly months, until it was grouped with other spares and picked, packed, and shipped as a single order. Maybe you'd get lucky and get it fast, if an order was ready to ship and your part got in the same box.
You're dealing with fixed vs. variable costs. The bare bones cost of the operation is the same, regardless if the part is $3 or $300.
If you bought (3) of the parts, the shipping probably still would have been $8, but for $9 worth of parts.
Remember, be happy you GOT the part. MBA's look at spares operations every day and close them as cash holes. 8^(
With my company, we operate two retail stores with a warehouse in the back of one of the retail stores for shipping internet orders. When shipping an order, our shipper must first make sure the address verification passed with the credit card issuer, if it didn't, he must manually verify it with a phone call to the credit card issuer. Next, he must pull the order, for a larger order, this can take some time, as sometimes some of the product is in the warehouse and some of it is in the retail store. Next we must pack the order in the smallest box possible while still having enough room to properly protect the products. Sometimes this might require partially packing an order until you realize that it's not really the best box (especially with new shippers). Then the box is sealed and weighed. The weight is entered into the shipping software, shipping method is selected, and a label is printed. The package is placed on a cart to be taken to the "outgoing shipment" rack.
It definitely is more work than standing out front at the register ringing customers out. We mark up our shipments $2-$3 to cover the price of the box, peanuts, packing tape, and labor. The rest of the shipping fee goes to UPS. And this doesn't even account for the times when our website under quotes shipping because the item is larger than the weight would imply.
Companies are not getting rich off of shipping fees... well, except for the shipping company ;)
I cringe everytime a package is sent to me via UPS. Every single time it looks like a gorilla threw it around his cage. One time UPS even spilled what looked like used motor oil on it. Another time the box looked like it was deliberately crushed. All boxes, even the undamaged ones are very dirty. It's like they've got a rule that everything goes through a dirt mister or is dragged several hundred feet down a country road.
It's more a testament to the quality of the box and manner in which the merchandise was packed that anything arrives undamaged. In the case of the above mentioned crushed box, the contents *were* damaged. The people that will send via USPS are more favored by me when I have the choice.
UPS sucks.
Same here. I ordered from the DeWalt/Delta/Porter Cable parts people. A simple o-ring, 99 cents. About as much as you paid for shipping. I don't remember exactly - $8? $10? for shipping. It came in a very large box considering that it was only an o-ring. Crushed. Of course. This is UPS after all.
They could have put it in a #10 business envelope and stuck a 37 cent stamp on it and been to my house in 3 days instead of the 10 it took UPS.
UPS sucks.
Hey, you got a bargin!
I'm still more than pissed off at Ford. Spent $15k on a new Focus, and the antenna got clipped off by the garage door when it was 6 months old. My fault, sure- but all it needs is a little sheet metal mount that a new antenna will screw onto. They wanted $8 for that, $40 for a new antenna (I was told I had to buy it if I wanted the clip), $25 for them to recieve it at the dealership from the warehouse, and I'd have to pay in advance and go back two weeks later to pick it up in person.
So that's $73 for an $8 part- and I'd still have to drive 30 miles to pick it up. Good thing the car has a cd player, I guess.
(Of course I'm just going to make a new mount at work on my lunch break one of these days and save that $$$, but it's worth getting really irritated about- an $8 part has guaranteed them that I will never buy another Ford.)
In the 5 years we have been in business we have had less than 10 packages reported damaged, and UPS paid for the damage in every case but one. I think you might be using a wee bit of hyperbole. :)
There are probably very few companies within your favor, I know none of our competition ships USPS, and I can't recall any company I have ever purchased from other than a small mom & pop shop that offered USPS shipping. For the reasons I previously stated I would imagine.
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