Shipping And Handling Fees Exposed!

One of the biggest drawbacks of shopping online is shipping and handling (S&H) charges!

All things being equal, the best way to save money when shopping online is to compare S&H costs. These fees are a combination of the fees needed to pay for shipping something and the labor involved in “handling” the shipped items. The handling portion is that which exhibits the most price differences, while shipping items tends to be about the same price for similar size weight items (what this means: you’ll pay about the same price for shipping whether you ship from the post office, or from companies like UPS or FedEx).

One of the main advantages of retail sources is that you can shop in person, and then take the item home with you. When you buy from an online vendor, however, the problem lies in the fact that there are no real standards for how companies charge for S&H. Some companies use these charges as a way of creating additional sales or distinguishing themselves from their competitors, while others use it just to make extra money at your expense (jerks). This is the real reason that you should get a firm grasp on this S&H concept.

To help you out with that, here is a list of the most common S&H pricing models out there:

Exact charge: This is when the company charges the S&H based on the exact cost that the carrier charges them to ship the item. Note: This is probably the only really honest method! It also is one of the least common because it makes billing pretty difficult (they can’t tell you what the order total is until it ships, and most customers don’t like this).

Per-pound charge: This is where the weight of the item determines the charges. This is the most common method, and it is usually a fair one (assuming the company is being honest about the items weight and what the shipping costs per pound). Sometimes the charge is based on how far away you are from the company, but this is actually uncommon. When purchasing smaller, high-ticket items, this is the way to go!

Per-dollar charge: How much you order costs determines how much you will be charged for S&H, regardless of what it is. This is a not a common model, because the cost of shipping something has nothing to do with what it costs, except in a very general sense. This method favors larger, cheaper items, but a company that uses this model is not a good place to buy your smaller, more expensive items from.

Flat charge: This is where a flat fee is charged for all orders, regardless of the weight or value of the order. What the company is trying to do with this model is discourage buyers from keeping their orders small. Go this route if you’re buying a lot from one company!

Free shipping: This is the best way to go, if you can find it! To avoid paying S&H fees, seek these kinds of companies out. Sometimes, you may be charged extra for the items you buy in order to compensate for free offers of shipping, but if a company is motivated to sell merchandise, this may not always be the case. This is how I get most of my stuff!

The bottom line: you should always find out what the S&H will be before ordering, and then decide for yourself both if it is reasonable and if the cost of the items, plus the shipping, is worth it to you. If not, and especially if the shipping charges are ridiculously high, cancel the order immediately, and tell them why you are doing it. Then they might get it through their thick skulls that Americans are getting fed up with being robbed blind when it comes to these way-too-high-and-almost-always-unnecessary charges!

If they don’t, don’t worry … they won’t be in business much longer anyway (haven’t these idiots heard that this is a buyer’s market right now)!