Why do mail order make their money off of shipping?!

[Win_98]

If you order 2 thing shipping doubled,
3 thing triple shipping rate.
it ridiculous.
Im already paying 11 dollar for 1 item
I was looking to buy 5 of these
PCI modem there 4.99 each then the shipping has been jacked up to 50 dollars!!!
OUTRAGEOUS
at www.accessmicro.com (http://www.accessmicro.com)
They can kiss my a**
Either give me free shipping or pay less shipping say 10 buck
and if Im buying more about 100 worth of stuff FREE shipping***

[Gene C.]

what really gets me is when I need a 1.79 item to fix a system. and I have to pay the min. cost of 6/7 dollars. that is a ripoff if you ask me. and than you get the item and it cost 2.17 to send it ect.

but, they are in the business to make money and they do at that.

[DaveLewis]

Its really pretty simple - people shop on price only. I can sell things at a loss IF I make it up on shipping. Call UPS or the Post Office and see what they charge to ship. I'll pay a dollar or two more but not two or three times the actual cost.

[Win_98]

it a shame thought
the more you buy the more shipping you got to pay.
this only discourage you from buying more
because it cost much less for 1 item then 2 or more.
but the funny thing is
they pay the same shipping amount for
more items because most computer stuff
hardly weight anything at all you talking
1/2 lbs to 1 lbs
example
why is ground shipping for
memory so expensive 11 buck for ground
20 buck for 2nd day
it only cost them about 3.50 for these puny
boxes so they should charge 5 at most
and 10 for 2nd day
they are cheating us left and right
they are lieing about these expenses
that dont even exist at all, because there is no high overhead like retail store do.
and we are the one paying for the freaking
shipping and pay even more if something is wrong with the item

[Warthog]

This doesn't quite answer your question but gives you some idea. I asked a similar question of Dell Gear (Dell's apparel outlet). This'll give you some idea of what the cost goes towards (with this business at least). Some rip off companies raise the shipping to make extra money.

Here is the email I recieved:


"John:

Regarding your shipping charge, you are correct, it does seem high but in
reality, we loose money on every shipment of your size. We don't require a
minimum purchase for that exact reason...customers like you are interested
in just one item.

We use UPS service because the packages are trackable. Minimum charge
ranges between 3.00-4.50. We need to add in the cost of the packaging,
labor to pull and pack your item, we need to create an individual order,
individual invoice, process your credit card, (we pay 2-3% of your total to
the bank) enter your invoice into our accounting system and the confirm
that we have collected from your bank for the credit card payment, we then
need to remove it from our receivables account, etc.

As you can see, that $4.75 charge won't cover all those costs. We have
done a survey and our shipping costs are actually lower than most for
comparable items. We are not Dell, we have been hired by Dell to manage
the program for them so we don't necessarily have the ability to demand the
shipping discounts that eg: Amazon.com is able to.

I hope this helps explain our rationale. Feel free to call if you have any
questions.

Owen Halliday"


Warthog