Exorbitant shipping costs !

[jsrockit]

It is nothing but a method for unscrupulous sellers to pad their profits. A year or so ago there were some Hong Kong sellers on eBay with great deals on CV rangefinder lenses, but they were charging up to $100 for priority shipping.

Well, not always...it was a way to avoid ebay fees as well.

On a side note, international shipping, done correctly with insurance, IS expensive. In these days of paypal reversing a buyer's money based on the seller not having proper tracking, it is silly to send anything the cheap way if you are a seller. You'll only get screwed eventually... either by the buyer just lying or them legitimately not receiving the item.

 

[colyn]

All the items fit into a padded mailer and would have cost no more than $3.00 to ship

I get this line quiet often by prospective Canadian buyers when selling on eBay..don't worry I'm not picking at you but buyers on eBay who try to cut their shipping cost through dishonesty.

I package the item, take it to the shipper, have it weighed, then look up shipping charges based on location and weight but many Canadians try to tell me I can have it shipped for a fraction of the stated cost..

Your statement may be true for the item you tried to purchase but a camera or other large item does not fit in a mailer or box too small (what the buyer wants) to protect the item with padding..then...to top it off, in order for me to get paypal seller protection I now have to ship Fed Ex with tracking since even post office express mail only tracks to the border and not to your front door. This adds extra shipping cost on my end...and possibly duties on your end..

 

[froyd]

Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate

Smaller Amzon retailers are more at the mercy of Amazon.com than you may imagine. Even shipping fees are pre-determined at certain levels of service. These small guys are left to playing games not so much to fool consumers (what's the point? it's way too easy to back out of a sale when the grand total is revealed) as much as to "work" the Amazon system. If you add the $0.70 of the roll of film to the $4 shipping, you probably end up with a figure very close to the going market price for that film.

As usual, if it sounds like too much of a good deal...

 

[srtiwari]

Of course, you can.
I just want to be clear that I am not accusing the store of anything besides poor marketing strategy. I don't even know how much control the seller has, since these might have to do with amazon policies.
Here is the link...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/selle...h_ship_3?asin=B0000WM2K4&seller=ALUMRVS5CHL96

 

[Ranchu]

Hmm. Amazon pockets half the shipping charge, that does sound like fraud to me.

"When you place an order, Amazon charges your credit card, not the seller. Amazon also charges you a shipping charge, which does not go towards shipping - that is probably illegal as fraud. Amazon does give a paltry shipping allowance to the seller, usually $2.50 to $5.00, which is normally only half of what they charge you, the customer."

http://gcsetodegree.blogspot.com/2007/07/i-hate-amazon.html

 

[Ranchu]

Lol.

"However, there may be times when the credit a seller is given for a Marketplace order will be above and beyond what is actually paid for postage. Shipping costs are an inherent feature in any mail-order service, and we hope that you will understand."

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/selle...h_ship_3?asin=B0000WM2K4&seller=ALUMRVS5CHL96

They're implying it's the seller who gets the extra, but the wording leaves out the difference between their charges and what they give the seller.

"We hope that you will understand."

Ya, I think I do. You're thieves.

 

[trojancast]

I agree with previous posts. I have had good luck with freestylephoto.biz great film at reasonable prices.

 

[dfoo]

... I now have to ship Fed Ex with tracking since even post office express mail only tracks to the border and not to your front door. This adds extra shipping cost on my end...and possibly duties on your end..

Not true. USPS priority international to Canada tracks right to the door through canadapost.ca.

 

[dfoo]

I agree with previous posts. I have had good luck with freestylephoto.biz great film at reasonable prices.

I like freestyle. But I object very much to their additional "handling fee" when shipping to Canada.