Shipping and handling charges

[Agility Mom]

I just ordered a bottle of Bee Go  - or whatever it is called - and only noticed as I sent the order to BeeCommerce that there was a $2.50 handling charge plus a $6.86 shipping charge for one $14.95 bottle of the stuff. This feels like a ripoff to me. Sometimes I think the seller makes more money on the shipping etc. than on the product sale. When I look at how much it actually costs a company to ship something I ordered, I often have paid much more than it actually cost them. Before I order anything again, I'll be comparing those extra charges.

[Lesli]

I've been co-owner of a company that sold educational materials--CDs and videos--by mail. In our case, S&H was handled together: there were fixed costs for the packing materials and the time to prep the package, etc. Postage was based on weight, so we figured a per-item type of charge that approximated the usual amount. (It would be too labor intensive to charge actual shipping cost, so we averaged, and made some money or lost some, depending on the actual order.)

I don't object to a "handling" charge when the company sells by mail AND at an outlet; for instance, I can pick up stuff at Dadant, so I don't want the time and materials involved in packing to be included in the cost, since I'm not asking them to do that. But shipping should be a close approximation of the real cost, plus or minus a reasonable amout.

Your handling sounds a bit high, and your shipping pretty darn high. Do you know what the actual shipping cost was? (To me, $1.50 would be plenty to cover them time and materials to prep for shipping a single small bottle.)

The other possibility is that this is how they encourage people to make a larger (and therefore, more efficient, in time and materials) order.

How do others feel about their vendors? I can drive to Dadant, but they don't have all the things I want, and I'm interested in others' experience.

[Agility Mom]

I haven't received it yet but I will be checking it out. Unfortunately, I have to drive 3 hours to get to a bee supply place. I think I'll have to consolidate all my orders and get my stuff when I'm traveling in that direction. I suppose that I could look on the high charges as saving the cost of gas for driving that distance.

[Lesli]

I haven't received it yet but I will be checking it out. Unfortunately, I have to drive 3 hours to get to a bee supply place. I think I'll have to consolidate all my orders and get my stuff when I'm traveling in that direction. I suppose that I could look on the high charges as saving the cost of gas for driving that distance.

Dadant is about 40 miles from me, much closer. BUT they're open only on weekdays, until 5. That means I have to leave work early to get there before they close. Yeah, and pay for gas. When I need extra hive parts, and shipping would have been $40, I drove.    Darn, those things are expensive to ship!

The nucs I bought this summer had a $30 shipping charge; the actual amount was about $26, so I thought that was reasonable.

I think this is hardest on those of us just starting out. We don't always know what we'll need, so it's hard to "buy ahead." And dang, but they just don't sell this stuff at Walmart!

By the way, apparently, Sears used to sell beekeeping stuff, including bees and queens. Not too surprising, given their catalog business and catering to rural communities, I guess. Cool thing though.