Why do some companies charge so much for shipping?

[mongomondo]

I'm sending in my 710 for the Lifesharp service and to fix some vertical bladeplay. In the warranty info Benchmade says to include $5 for return shipping. With my Zero Tolerance knife return shipping was free. Both of these are awesome and reasonable.

But others charge like $16 or more for return shipping and even charge extra if you want the knife sharpened. What's with that? I've shipped a knife before to a buyer on the exchange and it cost me only $11 and that was with tracking, insurance of $400, signature confirmation, and Priority shipping. If I can do that for $11 it doesn't seem right to charge $16 to do the same thing. And sometimes when you receive the knife the label shows they didn't need all that money to ship it.

 

[Tsujigiri]

Especially when you consider that companies like UPS give big discounts to retailers that ship a lot of merchandise. What costs you $11 will cost them less. What companies charge that much shipping, though? I haven't payed attention to what most companies charge for return shipping, since I'd never send a knife in just to get sharpened (factory sharp is not sharp).

 

[Bruno10]

I used to be a power seller on Ebay. Here's my perspective on shipping charges. A lot of companies use shipping charges to make their profits. If you look at Ebay or Amazon for example and compare the price of the same item from different sellers you'll notice a pattern. Some companies charge zero for shipping but the product costs more. Some have a crazy low price for the product but make up for it with the shipping charge. Return shipping works the same way. The company doesn't want to foot the bill for return shipping in addition to fixing the problem, or they may not want to say that they charge for sharpening or paying a person to open the package and process the problem, etc, so they just call it a shipping charge. When you come accross a company that doesn't charge return shipping and will do the fix for free, odds are they made more than enough profit from your original purchase for it to be a non-issue. Profit is the name of the game after all. Hope it helps.

 

[Thomas W]

I'm sending in my 710 for the Lifesharp service and to fix some vertical bladeplay. In the warranty info Benchmade says to include $5 for return shipping. With my Zero Tolerance knife return shipping was free. Both of these are awesome and reasonable.

But others charge like $16 or more for return shipping and even charge extra if you want the knife sharpened. What's with that?

Free is awesome, yes. It makes most everything else seem expensive.

Look, from receiving to shipping it back out, it's a process that's not cheap. I'll walk you through it.

Driver goes and picks up today's mail. There's a lot.

Package gets reviewed and delivered to the proper department.

Package is opened up, contents evaluated, and is sorted.

Contents are (in this case) sent over for sharpening. While this is happening, customers intel is logged in.

Sharpening done and sent back to Warranty.

Warranty gets contents ready to ship back to customer. Shipping invoice printed. Final intel logged.

Off to shipping. Packaged labeled, and off it goes to you the customer.

Figure it goes through 4-6 peoples hands. These peeps don't work for free, make real monies (with benefits mind you). It adds up with every hand-off. Shipping costs back are not free either.

It's a loser (money wise) for the manufacturer.

We do it for free cause we love you all, and don't mind backing up the product...for free.

Most just don't want this all to be a loser. So they charge what they think resembles more than likely a break even situation, or at least something to help out.

Personally, I would build this warranty thing into the cost of the product, and keep the love flowing, and threads like these from putting a dark cloud over my brand, but hey, that's just me.

A little perspective.

Ultimately, everyone loves free, that's why we do it.

 

[Boozoo Chavis]

It's an easy way to stick an extra 5 bucks (give or take a buck or two) in their pocket. I do my best to avoid the companies that gouge the customer on shipping.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

Personally, I would build this warranty thing into the cost of the product, and keep the love flowing, and threads like these from putting a dark cloud over my brand, but hey, that's just me.

A little perspective.

Ultimately, everyone loves free, that's why we do it.

"Pay me now or pay me later."

 

[Thomas W]

It's an easy way to stick an extra 5 bucks (give or take a buck or two) in their pocket. I do my best to avoid the companies that gouge the customer on shipping.

I guarantee you $5 doesn't come close to covering the situation.

 

[Backstopper]

There are probably as many philosophies on corporate shipping strategies as there are companies.
Benchmade and Kershaw are two shining examples of how to do customer service and I am proud that they are made in Oregon.

 

[canook]

And sometimes when you receive the knife the label shows they didn't need all that money to ship it.

This happened to me once. I paid $300 for a defective folder that had to be sent back right away. They said to include $15.00 for return shipping, totally rediculous when it should have been good before leaving the factory in the first place. It cost me $14.63 with insurance and tracking to send it back to them in California. They kept it for weeks before sending it back (without fixing it) and when they did they sent it parcel post for $4.80 with no insurance. It took 36 days to get to me! I asked for the rest of my money back but they gave me some lame excuse about the price of boxes and packing peanuts and the fact that they had to drive four blocks to the post office. No refund. Worst customer service I've ever experienced.

 

[Thomas W]

Everyone should know it's the "handling" that really adds up with all of this.

 

[mongomondo]

This happened to me once. I paid $300 for a defective folder that had to be sent back right away. They said to include $15.00 for return shipping, totally rediculous when it should have been good before leaving the factory in the first place. It cost me $14.63 with insurance and tracking to send it back to them in California. They kept it for weeks before sending it back (without fixing it) and when they did they sent it parcel post for $4.80 with no insurance. It took 36 days to get to me! I asked for the rest of my money back but they gave me some lame excuse about the price of boxes and packing peanuts and the fact that they had to drive four blocks to the post office. No refund. Worst customer service I've ever experienced.

Interesting, I have sent in 2 knives to Strider and both times they shipped it back using FedEx. What happens if your knife was lost during shipping?

 

[JTR357]

Free is awesome, yes. It makes most everything else seem expensive.

We do it for free cause we love you all, and don't mind backing up the product...for free.


Ultimately, everyone loves free, that's why we do it.

You da Man,Thomas!:thumbup:

 

[Joben]

I used to be a power seller on Ebay. Here's my perspective on shipping charges. A lot of companies use shipping charges to make their profits. If you look at Ebay or Amazon for example and compare the price of the same item from different sellers you'll notice a pattern. Some companies charge zero for shipping but the product costs more. Some have a crazy low price for the product but make up for it with the shipping charge. Return shipping works the same way. The company doesn't want to foot the bill for return shipping in addition to fixing the problem, or they may not want to say that they charge for sharpening or paying a person to open the package and process the problem, etc, so they just call it a shipping charge. When you come accross a company that doesn't charge return shipping and will do the fix for free, odds are they made more than enough profit from your original purchase for it to be a non-issue. Profit is the name of the game after all. Hope it helps.

Thank you for saving my the trouble of writing this exact same post. How on Earth did you read my mind?

Also, much respect for Thomas W's wonderful post.

 

[Tsujigiri]

Everyone should know it's the "handling" that really adds up with all of this.

What's amazing is that Kershaw offers this support on even the cheaper models. It's really something to consider when buying a knife; having the support that a company like Kershaw or ESEE offers is easily worth a little extra cost.