I came across an item on e-bay a plastic building model and was astonished that their S&H charges for this item would be $19.00 Seem on the high side to me.
Aside from the S&H issue any one dealt with them?
Don, having both bought and sold on ebay there is one thing to watch out for. That is the shipping cost because many inflate the cost to insure some profit on the item they have up for bid.
Another thing you may do is to go to ebay and check his feed back. From there you may determine how good his products and his customer relations are.
Tom
IMO inflated shipping charges are a red-flag and a good reason to avoid an E-BAY Seller.
Simon Modelling CB&Q and Wabash See my slowly evolving layout on my picturetrail site http://www.picturetrail.com/simontrains and our videos at http://www.youtube.com/user/MrCrispybake?feature=mhum
It's a way for them to beat ebay out of their commission.
When ebaying I always figure the price of the shipping into my bids.
don7 wrote:I came across an item on e-bay a plastic building model and was astonished that their S&H charges for this item would be $19.00 Seem on the high side to me.Aside from the S&H issue any one dealt with them?
I rechecked their site and the shipping and handling charges are even worse than I mentioned. They ONLY use a courier who will surcharge foreign (includes Canada) an additional fee, the fee is as I remember just over $20.00, so that would make the shipping and handling costs for a light weight plastic building worth perhaps $10 to $12 a whopping $39.00.
Anyone know if the couriers services give kick backs to vendors if they exclusively use the courier service for all shipping?
Gee, that would be about a total of around $50 for the kit.
D van
Not bidding is exactly what I will do,
However, with S&H charges of $39.00 for a $10 item certainly makes me wonder about their motivation. Hard to believe that with postage rates being similar in US and Canada that they would charge Canadian purchasers such an amount. Guess they don't care to serve the Canadian market or perhaps they are oblivious to the couriers additional charges to the purchaser?
SOUNDS LIKE
we're not hearing PART of the story:
1. MOST Mail order houses only charge $9-$10 'Shipping & Handling. 10% is also a maximum.
2. If it's a special order item (not normally stocked) there is 'short margin' involved, and Inbound shipping expense - like from Walthers.
The fact if it is a building makes this very possible. Ebay? Sounds high. Sounds scarce or discontiued. Ask THEM 'why'?.
IF you don't like the service, price, or whatever, WHY are you buying from Trainz? Noone has everything. Therin lies the rub.
Buy somwhere else. WHY are you complaining to US? Next you'll be compaining about waiting too long.
WALTHERS is a Distributer. They sell to DEALERS that (1) do a lot of business with them (2) have good credit (3) not someone else trying to get a discount on an item that a competative dealer has. That is known in the trade as 'stealing' business.
Maybe you source is trying to get you a 'deal'. FIND a good Dealer. Write Walthers for their Sales Catalog. Check Caboose Hobbies on the INTERNET.
I just bought a $55 Depot for $30 + local tax, no shipping or handling by buying through a local Dealer. Buy schmart!
d van wrote:On another note.....shipping to Canada, which I do on all my auctions, can be a pain. And for a biz it may be their way of covering the cost AND extra time it takes to ship to Canada. For a biz the paperwork and effort/time may make it just not worth the effort TO THEM. Just IMHO only!
Must be a lot different for a business. I've shipped a few things up that way and the only extra thing was a quick customs form. The shipping to Canada was cheaper than to California.