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Originally Posted by Gen Disarray
Shipping and handling has long been a way to gouge the consumer. You see it in brick and mortar stores, internet stores, and ebay.
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Shipping and handling, is far removed from "fuel surcharges," "residential delivery," and a "telephone call," to get delivery instructions.
Hello, they are a freight company.
But, maybe they get scared because of that big thing behind the truck, that's tail gating, and trying to pass the driver too.
Shipping has many more areas of true costs, than a "in person" customer.
Shipping costs are already built into the selling price by very large companies that do nothing but ship. But, the freight shipping industry, has forced extra charges that are sometimes more than the actual parts.
If those costs are not recouped, they will be out of business.
The costs to package the parts, the packaging material, preparing shipping documents and the labor involved, are not free. In fact at todays costs, these items can cost almost as much as the merchandise.
Then have special size boxes made, let say for an AC shroud. Tell the box supplier you only want enough for for a 3 to 4 month supply.
Be prepared to fall off your chair, even if you have your seat belt on, when you get the quote.
A small business cannot afford to put several tens of thousands of dollars into special box sizes.
As an example, we use a special size and require about one a month.
Ordering a two year supply of that box, brings the price down to about $25.00, per box.
If we bought enough for 3 to 4 months, as a smart company should, then the price for "just the box" goes to a little over $100.00.
Therefore while I somewhat agree with you, there are many special circumstances where your statement is not true.
Even small boxes today, that meet freight line specs, like Fedex and UPS, assuming you buy several months supply, still cost big bucks.
But the small business has a choice. Use cheap boxes, then submit a claim for damage. The freight lines will deny your claim because of insufficient packaging. Now what does the business owner do???
In fact, UPS cannot settle their claims anymore. Thats done by Crawford and Company, who never see the damaged box, but takes the word of a UPS driver, who will always say, "I don't know what happened."
So how come you see foot prints on the boxes, or holes punched in the boxes, or corners caved in?
Then add to that, the fact that you use double strength boxes to boot, and they will still deny your claim.
Now, you must call them and argue and argue until your almost blue in the face.
We have had our shipping boxes examined by UPS supervisors, several times. They always agree, "that we do an excellent" job with our shipping materials, and packaging.
Bottom line, is our account rep doesn't even call us any more to ask what happen.
We simply "deduct" from our bills, the amount of the damage, and he sees to it that it's paid. Saves everyone from getting headaches.
Then UPS today, ships everything "dimensional weight," even for ground shipments. Their automated processing likes to increase the size of the box, to something larger than it actually is. WHY???? Because the shipping cost increases. Now you have another fight on your hands when you call them to correct the error.
They will tell you that the box was "bulged" and/or your boxes are larger than you said. Again, back to having your shipping supplies inspected, another time.
Additionally, every time you, as the shipper" makes a mistake with the paper work, they charge you $5.00.
We came up with the same program, but it takes time too.
When UPS increases the size of the box, we deduct from our bill that additional amount,
PLUS another $5.00 for their mistake.
They say we can't do that. Our response was "take us to court." They declined our offer.
We have been using our "pay back" system for several years, with no problem, until we get a new account rep, and then we start all over.
It takes time to examine the billing and even more time to correct their mistakes. Time is not free, not even in California.
The shipping problems, years ago, were nil. That is no longer true, by a long shot. With UPS, we have almost a weekly billing problem from them.
Then when it comes to motor freight, that's another problem within it self.
Damages about 80 percent of the time. Again, the business owner has to fight to get the problem resolved.
So please understand, our shipping industry has, for most part, gone south.
We all pay for their carelessness, and have next to nothing that we can do about it, in both their lack of care with the handling, and their outrageous "extra costs."
We can all live with it, or go fishing.
Ah, but even boats need parts.
Andy
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