(Topic ID: 161933)
Milford, MA
If it is more then 1/4 inch thick then it is pretty close to actual postage cost I would think...the post office jacks the price for thick envelopes as they don't go through their sorting machinery.
Don't like the high USPS shipping? Don't blame USPS. Blame UPS, which can't jack its rates unless USPS does so first.
"..If the PRC were to approve the UPS proposals, the Postal Service would need to raise the prices of its competitive products significantly — much more than the 9.5 percent increase announced a few days ago. UPS would find itself in a much more competitive position. It could raise its own prices and/or grab a larger share of the parcels market. That would be good for UPS’s bottom line, but it would come at the expense of the Postal Service. ..."
Ok, had to know, package weighs 1.5 oz, I entered as 2 oz, sent first class mail. Shipping cost... 2.65!!
Quoted from o-din:Marcos $9.95 all you can ship rate isn't much of a joke. Unless you find humor in such things.
Great, for a large purchase, no question, but 1.5 oz 7.00?
That's nothing, the company would probably have charged $20.00US to ship it to me in Canada, which is closer to $30Cad. than I'd like.
Too bad so sad, I just go without parts. Around $800Cad. for an upgraded color display? (including ~$150 in shipping and taxes) No, I'll just pass at this point 
Quoted from MrBally:Marco has been known for their high shipping & "handling" fees. Wouldn't you rather block out your address instead of Marco's?
On second though, you could be right, blocked.
I'm not saying I agree with people's shipping charges but let me just say this. I have ALOT of parts that I'm trying to get rid of by selling them at the three shows I vend at each year. Many of which I'm taking a loss on just to get rid of them since I don't want to deal with most of it anymore. No other time during the year do I sell parts either online or on the pinball newsgroups ( used to sell through out the year all the time). The number one reason why I don't anymore is because shipping them is a biggest hassle of them all. By the time I get a box and packing material and get it taped up and addressed and then take it down to the post office and stand in a line 20 people deep (that can't decide on what postage stamps to buy) and finally get the $5 part out of my hair...its just more trouble then its worth. Now I will sell a playfield and ship it anytime during the year (because playfields are hard to sell a lot of times and at least they bring in a decent amount of cash) and in fact I just sold a NOS Harley Davidson playfield and thought $25 charge for shipping would be enough. Turned out that it cost me $38 instead....ugh !! But do I go back to the guy and say "hey it cost me more money to ship it then I thought...send me more", NO, I eat the extra cost ( and time ) that it took to get it sent off to the guy (who BTW: I have yet to even cash his check yet since making a special trip to the bank for $300 is not worth it and I'll cash it when I get paid two weeks from now). I know there are probably easier ways of doing the banking and such but I'm old school when it comes to that stuff and I'm set in my ways for as long as I can. Again, I'm not blaming anyone, its just how it is here at Dayhuffmerica.
Shipping is a huge hassle and you have to consider sometimes the time and expense that goes into getting that $5 part out to someone. That's just my two cent's on it. YMMV.
John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, MI.
269-979-3836
$7 for shipping is fair. You paid an extra $5 for someone to find the part, pack the part, and address the package, print postage etc. That stuff costs money also and the companies selling parts aren't doing it for charity. Be thankful you were able to get your part at all.
Quoted from markmon:$7 for shipping is fair. You paid an extra $5 for someone to find the part, pack the part, and address the package, print postage etc. That stuff costs money also and the companies selling parts aren't doing it for charity. Be thankful you were able to get your part at all.
Disagree, they make their money on the part they sell, they should not be making addition profit on shipping, it should cost what it costs.
By the way, Dayhuff, not sure if your aware, but this might help you out, if you have a small digital scale, you can ship right though paypal, and get your choice of Media, first class or priority, then have the carrier pick it up at your house.
Vendors have packages picked up every day, and they can just go into Paypal, have the label filled out, print it, and put it on the package, and as far as picking, well a retail store pays employees to stock the shelfs and unload product, The margin is high enough on these parts, I do not believe they need to gouge us on the shipping, that package cost 2.65 to ship, I was charged 7 bucks, so they got an extra 4.35 on top of the profit they made on the parts, and I can assure you, these parts probably cost a dime each and I paid 1.25 for each one X 10.
Sana'a
Even if the parts cost a dime, Marco has to order many thousands of them at a time. It costs money to have have capital tied up in a bin of small plastic parts that takes years to sell through.
The padded envelope costs 60 cents, the label a dime.
It costs money to inventory, heat, electricity, insure, let alone shrinkage, returns, picking errors, tracking "lost" packages......
Then the employees make $17 a hour to pick, count, package and label your order.
The employees have to have their unemployment taxes, health insurance, and SS taxes. Plus an accounting firm to handle payroll.
-
It costs a fortune to keep a small business afloat. That is why 97% of them go under in the first 5 years.
We'd all like shipping to be free, but I understand how an envelope of a few plastic parts costs $7 to ship.
I think the actual shipping cost to Marco was around $6 when I entered the information on usps. You have to click the 1/4 inch thickness which pumps up the cost.
Collingwood, ON
Honestly man, when I first read this post I thought IT was the joke - I get mad about shipping charges all the time but to be upset about a 7 dollar one? I would jump at the chance to pay only 7$ for shipping on any pinball related purchase I've made. Even a small envelope like that to Canada is going to cost double that and even more when you factor in border tax.
It costs me over $40 to get anything shipped from pinball life. I'm not very far away from them.
$7 lol
Quoted from CentiZen:Honestly man, when I first read this post I thought IT was the joke
Just throw it into the pile of all the other complaint threads on this website.
One last thing before the lock.
About a month ago I got a email from a guy that was looking for a $3 part and said he was going to order it from one of the usual vendors but shipping was like you said $7 and he thought it was outrageous. So he wanted to know if I had it and what would I charge to ship it. For some reason (I must have had a brain fart) and told him I have it and that I can ship it for $5 so the total would be $8 instead of the $10 he was going to pay someplace else. Now I'm thinking was it really worth it to him to go to all the extra trouble to save himself $2 ??? In the meantime he not only bugged me for it but also a vendor with huge overhead and then didn't get the sale in the end......it's a no wonder the vendor needs to charge more for shipping/handling because of deadbeats that flake out on him over something like a couple of bucks.
John P. Dayhuff
Battle Creek, Mi.
269-979-3836
I think you might feel differently if you were running the business (I run a near identical business in a different field). The (near) actual direct costs to process your $7 order:
- postage = $2.45 (discounted rate which I assume they are getting)
- #000 padded mailer = $.10
- thermal label = $.05
- credit card/Paypal fees = $.50 (1.5% - 2.9% + $.30 per transaction)
TOTAL = $3.10
ACTUAL COST DIFFERENCE = $3.90
I totally get why your first reaction is to feel "gouged", but that $3.90 (plus the small profit - likely about $3.50 - made on your order) has to cover indirect costs of:
- labor (not only order picking but also customer service...questions/assistance is free to the customer but there is a cost for the company)
- business related expenses (facilities, utilities, transportation, insurance, etc)
- vendor related error correction (mispicks, defects, shipping costs exceeding amount charged, etc.)
And then there are returns and/or reshipments...this is a biggie. Due to the nature of e-commerce, customers expect their full payment including shipping refunded if returned for refund. Each time this happens the company not only loses the profit they had made, but actually books a loss on your order of $2.90 (sum total of above non-recoverable expenses) PLUS labor costs on both ends. If the customer is returning for exchange even in the case of their own error they'll expect not to have to pay shipping again...how we handle this is that you pay to get it back to us and then we pay to reship, which costs us an additional $2.60.
So if you are still reading (I know, numbers, numbers, math, bla bla bla) you might look at this in a different light...the $3.90 is sort of like insurance for actual (but difficult to determine on any single order) costs that occur with some orders but not all. Maybe in this particular case they actually pocket the $3.90. But I think all things considered over the long haul they average somewhere close to $1 in actual profit on the shipping charges on the sum of all orders such as yours. This is only my opinion, but I consider that close enough.
What bites my ass is USPS delivers stuff i buy for a dollar, including shipping, from China, yet i can't send a padded envelope 100 miles for less than $2.54 or whatever it is.
Quoted from barakandl:What bites my ass is USPS delivers stuff i buy for a dollar, including shipping, from China, yet i can't send a padded envelope 100 miles for less than $2.54 or whatever it is.
Lot's of countries are like that.
I've sent huge 16x12' Turkish wool rugs back home for free because the Turkish government subsidizes the cost of international shipping.
If I were in the States, shipping that rug would be $96 because it's oversized and heavy. Think what it would cost to ship it international from the USA!
Quoted from OLDPINGUY:Dont get me started.....
Ha, same!
People want to buy 2 bulbs and pay nothing for shipping while I pay employee time. Seems like a great way to go out of business fast!
Cessnock
Quoted from PopBumperPete:Be glad you live in the USA
try living outside America and see shipping prices quadruple (or more)
And then Pete don't forget about getting ripped by PayPal on the exchange rate , usually a good 3 - 4 cents / dollar under the actual rate at the time .
Quoted from MIL:And then Pete don't forget about getting ripped by PayPal on the exchange rate , usually a good 3 - 4 cents / dollar under the actual rate at the time .
Yes, paypal is a ripoff, but unless the seller takes credit cards, it is better than having to go to a bank/post office (not that you can get international money orders) get them to make and international cheque, have to post it and hope it does not get lost in the mail
Quoted from PopBumperPete:Be glad you live in the USA
try living outside America and see shipping prices quadruple (or more)
Haha yeah. I dream of $7 shipping.
Marco is by far the most expensive with shipping/handling.
Terry at pinball life is good, Art at Comet is good, Cliffy is always good. These guys try and keep the cost to "the actual cost" which is really appreciated. Especially when the NZ dollar only buys 67c at the moment.
rd
Quoted from balboarules:Disagree, they make their money on the part they sell, they should not be making addition profit on shipping, it should cost what it costs.
Sometimes they make little on the part itself and make more on the shipping and handling.
It's like a car dealership. They make little on the car sale but make most of their money on service and financing.
Quoted from balboarules:Disagree, they make their money on the part they sell, they should not be making addition profit on shipping, it should cost what it costs.
By the way, Dayhuff, not sure if your aware, but this might help you out, if you have a small digital scale, you can ship right though paypal, and get your choice of Media, first class or priority, then have the carrier pick it up at your house.
Vendors have packages picked up every day, and they can just go into Paypal, have the label filled out, print it, and put it on the package, and as far as picking, well a retail store pays employees to stock the shelfs and unload product, The margin is high enough on these parts, I do not believe they need to gouge us on the shipping, that package cost 2.65 to ship, I was charged 7 bucks, so they got an extra 4.35 on top of the profit they made on the parts, and I can assure you, these parts probably cost a dime each and I paid 1.25 for each one X 10.
Quoted from balboarules:Disagree, they make their money on the part they sell, they should not be making addition profit on shipping, it should cost what it costs.
By the way, Dayhuff, not sure if your aware, but this might help you out, if you have a small digital scale, you can ship right though paypal, and get your choice of Media, first class or priority, then have the carrier pick it up at your house.
Vendors have packages picked up every day, and they can just go into Paypal, have the label filled out, print it, and put it on the package, and as far as picking, well a retail store pays employees to stock the shelfs and unload product, The margin is high enough on these parts, I do not believe they need to gouge us on the shipping, that package cost 2.65 to ship, I was charged 7 bucks, so they got an extra 4.35 on top of the profit they made on the parts, and I can assure you, these parts probably cost a dime each and I paid 1.25 for each one X 10.
I can't thumbs down you enough.
You guys should ease down I just shipped an order to the border.
Total of $756.93US including shipping to NY state.
If I would have shipped the order to Canada it would have cost me $375 in shipping alone excluding brokerage fees...... Shipping state side was only $40 someting.....So all you should be greatful.
wanna trade $7 
.....
Quoted from CentiZen:I would jump at the chance to pay only 7$ for shipping on any pinball related purchase I've made. Even a small envelope like that to Canada is going to cost double that and even more when you factor in border tax.
Great point but forgot to mention our .76 cent dollar !
Quoted from dasvis:I am headed to the great white north
Reservation confirmed : igloo #7 booked for you!
Quoted from balboarules:Disagree, they make their money on the part they sell, they should not be making addition profit on shipping, it should cost what it costs.
By the way, Dayhuff, not sure if your aware, but this might help you out, if you have a small digital scale, you can ship right though paypal, and get your choice of Media, first class or priority, then have the carrier pick it up at your house.
Vendors have packages picked up every day, and they can just go into Paypal, have the label filled out, print it, and put it on the package, and as far as picking, well a retail store pays employees to stock the shelfs and unload product, The margin is high enough on these parts, I do not believe they need to gouge us on the shipping, that package cost 2.65 to ship, I was charged 7 bucks, so they got an extra 4.35 on top of the profit they made on the parts, and I can assure you, these parts probably cost a dime each and I paid 1.25 for each one X 10.
You obviously do not own a business and have zero understanding of the actual costs to run such an operation. There is no profit in that $7.00.
Quoted from vdojaq:And you better hold your hat if minimum wage goes to $15 an hour
Even the local McDonalds pays $11 a hour to start.
$15 pretty much IS the minimum wage (unless you are a newly imported Ukrainian working at the strip bar).
Quoted from vdojaq:And you better hold your hat if minimum wage goes to $15 an hour
Not to get too political but as long as other wages magically jump a similar amount I am all for it . The powers that be have been throwing a ridiculous amount of effort at preventing deflation and succeeding only in making the rich richer so far (hardly and accident I'd wager ).
IF deflation is really the monster they are trying to fight, spread the love. Way overdue after 9(!) years of everything going to the top 1%.
Quoted from vdojaq:You obviously do not own a business and have zero understanding of the actual costs to run such an operation. There is no profit in that $7.00.
True.
Companies dread these tiny BS orders. This is also the type of order (less than $10) that most customer service hours are wasted on.
Quoted from Mike_J:True.
Companies dread these tiny BS orders. This is also the type of order (less than $10) that most customer service hours are wasted on.
Exactly.
That is why some pinball companies charge $1,000 shipping on any order less than $25.
Keeps the nuisance orders to a minimum.
Quoted from BC_Gambit:Not to get too political but as long as other wages magically jump a similar amount I am all for it . The powers that be have been throwing a ridiculous amount of effort at preventing deflation and succeeding only in making the rich richer so far (hardly and accident I'd wager ).
IF deflation is really the monster they are trying to fight, spread the love. Way overdue after 9(!) years of everything going to the top 1%.
Nope, they will not.
$15 an hour minimum will result in a loss of jobs available. McDonalds, fast food, car washes, stocking shelves jobs are entry level positions and are not meant to be "earning a living" jobs. We(The U.S.) can keep creating all these jobs, but it doesn't create the ability to earn a living. Instead of more Taco Bells, WalMarts, and welcome to Meijer jobs, we need to figure out how to bring manufacturing, fabrication, industrial, and technology jobs back to this country. Then, and only then will we bring back the ability to earn a living.
Just because someone can push a picture of a hamburger and can only make change because that's what the computer says does not mean they deserve a wage that constitutes earning a living.
Otherwise a $12.95 happy meal for Jr. is coming our way.
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