Fucking Highway Robbery

[Soul Sojourner]

Right, so I need a T9 torx screwdriver and the hardware store didn't have it, so I found some store online, found what I needed, and went through checkout and placed my order. They didn't show any shipping cost until AFTER the order was placed. Of course, I didn't really mind as I assumed it would be around 5 or 6 dollars, basically double what I payed for the screwdriver itself.

But this... this is fucking ridiculous!

S K Hand Tools 83609 T9        1  3.20
3.00in. Torx Expert
Screwdriver
                                    Subtotal  3.20
                                    Shipping  11.45
                                          Tax  0.00
                                        Total  14.65

$11.45! Seriously!? From Ohio to Minnesota!? That's nearly four times the cost of the product! I sent them an e-mail, demanding some of the shipping cost refunded, or if that wasn't possible, to cancel the order entirely since it hasn't been shipped yet.

Where?
http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/

At that fucking price I would've just bought that screwdriver set I saw at the hardware store that had only three Torx ones in it. It had what I needed but it was $25 and it seemed worth only half as much.

Anyway, it's not likely to be going back to that website in the future, but we'll see if they are able to redeem themselves. They'll have to prove to me it won't happen on future orders, not very likely. This is all beside the fact that the tool could hardly be considered "discounted." Not that I was looking for a discount.

Oh yeah, and they have this under their contact page:

Errors or omissions in descriptive, typographic, pricing and/or photographic representation are subject to correction. We reserve the right to modify this site's content at any time.

They know damn well they don't show the shipping charge, because they fully intend to try and rip you off! I can order shit bigger than that from Newegg for half or less than half the shipping charge, AND they pack extremely well and put shit in a bigger than necessary box for added protection.

[cuchulann]

That looks pretty average actually. I do shipping in my job and FedEx ground to a residential address usually starts at about $8. I also got a couple of CD's from Telltale and the UPS or FedEx ground fee was about $12 for one CD in a padded envelope. If ever they give you a choice of shipping methods choose USPS for the cheapest rate. They may even waive the shipping in some cases. That's what I did with the afore mentioned Telltale purchase.

[Soul Sojourner]

There was no options for shipping and, in fact, I never choose USPS even if it's free shipping through them. I'd rather pay than wait two weeks.

Well, be that as it may, that is *hardly* average shipping price for me. I buy online multiple times a month, through Newegg, Barnes & Noble, and various other places and I've *never* paid that much for shipping unless there was far more on my order. (not even on Ebay, though I avoid Ebay now) It's also not an international shipment (which, by the way, I've paid less for shipping for jewelry coming from Hong Kong than this, as well as LED's from a different Hong Kong merchant) and it's not very far in distance otherwise. Also, with Newegg, many items are shipped directly from the manufacturers and therefore come from all sorts of places and the shipping is still far cheaper.

[Mo]

Hmm high or not the fact that it's not displayed until you finish checking out is not legal.  You did not agree to that price.  You can easily contact your credit card issuer and have them charge back to the merchant. 

[Soul Sojourner]

Hmm high or not the fact that it's not displayed until you finish checking out is not legal.  You did not agree to that price.  You can easily contact your credit card issuer and have them charge back to the merchant.  

Actually, I usually use debit, not credit. But in this case it was direct withdrawal from my bank account, as I have a verified PayPal account.

Either way, there should be no reason for them not to cancel the order since it's not yet shipped. I don't mind buying it either, so long as they charge me less for shipping.

EDIT: Or I should say, refund me for shipping, as I've already paid and the order has been processed.

[Mo]

Actually, I usually use debit, not credit. But in this case it was direct withdrawal from my bank account, as I have a verified PayPal account.

Either way, there should be no reason for them not to cancel the order since it's not yet shipped. I don't mind buying it either, so long as they charge me less for shipping.

EDIT: Or I should say, refund me for shipping, as I've already paid and the order has been processed.

Ah Paypal, even better.  Open a dispute, Paypal loves kicking the shit out of merchants and customers when they get the chance...

[Soul Sojourner]

Got a reply today, they said they'd lower the shipping to $8.95 and claimed there was an "apply" button on the shipping page, which adds tells you the shipping cost or adds it in, or something.  While I would prefer $6.95 or less, I don't feel that $8.95 is totally unreasonable for shipping so I told them to go ahead at the new price.

I bought a one quart bottle of cleaner last week off Amazon and the shipping cost was $6.22. Of course, this was a bottle of cleaner so it's far heavier than this little screwdriver will be. It's a quart so it needs a much bigger box than the screwdriver will. Did I mention the cleaner was shipped from California? Just saying.

If I would've known ahead of time, I would have just found another store. lol Oh well. I also checked all three (that's right, only three) hardware stores in town here, not a one had a T9. Two of them the smallest they had was T10. The other had nothing smaller than T10 except a T6. One place did have a bit, but I already have all bits T5-T20, what I needed was a screwdriver.

[Meclar]

During poor sales retailers keep inventory to a minimum.  Yesterday I went to Barnes & Nobles only because after a year and a half waiting for specific books at the used book store (books are only 3 dollars at most) to show up, I found B&N to have a limited stock and none of the books I wanted.  And I'm not talking about some obscure writer but well known Sci Fi and classic American novelists.  Sure I could order them but I'm not gonna wait 3-5 days and pay over 10 dollars for a paperback book that's been in print for over 30 years!

[Soul Sojourner]

I am pretty sure that keeping their inventory low wasn't the case for me, as I read somewhere on their site that any items that have to be shipped from the manufacturer directly will say "out of stock." Even if it were though, I've still paid far less for shipping in those instances as well. To be honest, I've actually never had a shipping cost be so high, except in cases where I've had multiple things on my order or where the item was very large or very fragile, and I've bought a lot of shit online. The highest I've paid for a single item for shipping was around $50. That was for a very fragile, and rather large, Mushroom lamp. The box was huge and it was heavy. That thing was beautiful.

Usually you can find coupons or deals that help, and I think B&N has a 20% off coupon for first time customers on their site. Also web merchants occasionally offer free shipping deals, sometimes they are item specific, some times they are not, if you keep checking back you might get lucky and find your book to have free shipping. You could then slap an additional coupon discount on there and save good money. As for waiting 3-5 days, if you've waited years already, I don't think you should have a problem.

[Mo]

You also need to remember that larger etailers like Amazon benefit from economies of scale when it comes to costs such as shipping.  They no doubt are able to offer lower shipping costs due to their volume.

[Soul Sojourner]

This is true, but as I have said, I've purchased things online from other people, small businesses, and large business alike. You would think a single person wouldn't compare to Amazon, and yet, the shipping prices have never been as high as this. I have sold things myself and never had to charge anyone as much. Even when I sold things bigger and heavier.

I personally suspect shipping costs is where they get some of their profits. After I got hit with the *real* price I showed my father, that was his thought as well. He owns a retail store and has sold stuff online on various occasions as well and says he doesn't usually have to charge that much for shipping. Of course, most things are bigger and heavier than a screwdriver, and often go farther than Ohio. He told me to open a dispute as well, but I rather tell them about it first, seems more courteous that way. Anyway they said they could drop it to 8.95 and if it was that in the first place I would've left it be. I still don't like damn near 9 dollars for shipping, but it's within reason.

I still need the screwdriver regardless, so it works out alright.
However, I do not believe I will buy from there again. I might look another time, but I'll only consider buying if I find an "apply" button and it shows me a reasonable shipping price.

[Meclar]

Found another used books store in town today.  Their  sign says "We Buy & Sell Textbooks"  so I assumed it was just textbooks.  I went in looking to buy and sell textbooks, as it turns out they don't sell textbooks in the store but only online and they're shipped from their warehouse 25 miles from here.  Instead of textbooks in the store they have regular used books.  Got 5 books for 15 dollars (5 dollars of which supposedly went to a charity for Haiti).  Fuck B&N and they're delicious little confectioneries.

[Soul Sojourner]

I buy online for a reason. Good luck finding anything like that around here. I live 10 miles out of a small town, surrounded by more small towns.

[Mo]

I personally suspect shipping costs is where they get some of their profits.

Absolutely.  Many years ago there was a big racket on eBay with sellers ripping buyers off with the shipping.  eBay cracks down on sellers who over charge now.

[Meclar]

I disagree that it's common practice.  There's a lot of costs in the shipping business; fuel, unions, insurance, equipment maintenance, hazmat standards, customs etc.  If the price of shipping is high it's for the shipping company to make a profit.  If it's an item that you can buy in a store that's also available online for 5 dollars more because of shipping, the online seller has to lower the price to offset that price to the consumer and give a competitive price.  If it's a specialty item that can only be bought online because of it's rarity or it's simply not a retail market for it, then there's a lack of competition which increases the price.

[Soul Sojourner]

If it's an item that you can buy in a store that's also available online for 5 dollars more because of shipping, the online seller has to lower the price to offset that price to the consumer and give a competitive price.

The item can be bought in stores, but I live out in the country, so finding certain things is tricky without going to a bigger city. The item was listed for 3.20 and it's larger counterparts which I actually can buy in hardware stores here, were listed at about the same price. So five dollars more would be 8.20. I am paying almost 12 dollars, and the original shipping itself was almost 12 dollars, so I would have been paying almost 15 dollars for an item valued at about 3-4 dollars. If the shipping was anything close to five dollars I wouldn't have said a damn thing. However, it was over two times that.

I found their "apply" button that I missed on the first run, and calculated the shipping for various other states. It was 11.45 for almost all of them. Obviously places like Alaska or Puerto Rico were much higher.