John Nall wrote:
> If someone comes into the shop and buys something, then
> they should be able to pay less than someone who has the same item
> shipped.  The difference should be the cost of  the postage, the cost
> of the materials used for packing, and the cost of the labor involved
> in packing and shipping.

Right.  In my opinion the difference is the "shipping and handling" charge.
The shipping part is the actual cost of shipping paid to the shipping
company, post office, or whatever.  The handling part is all the other stuff
that represent incurred costs that are directly due to the shipping.  Any
labor envolved in preparing the product itself should be part of the product
price.

Another way to define this is the bare product price is what you would pay
if you showed up and I just handed it to you without you taking any
additional of my time (of course then I would have to add 5% Massachusetts
sales tax unless you can show me a reseller certificate, but that's another
story).  However, if you ask me to ship something for you, whether it's
something you are buying from me or not, I have costs in addition to the
postage.

For example, I add a larger handling portion to international shipments
because it's such a pain in the butt to send stuff outside the US.  The nice
post office click and ship web site doesn't ever seem to work right for me
for international shipments.  I end up having to wait in line at the post
office and write the addresses out by hand three times.  Every time I'm
there doing that I think of all the useful things I could be doing instead
and sometimes jack up the international shipping and handling charge when I
get back to the office.

The cost of domestic shipments varies quite a bit too depending on distance.
Unfortunately PayPal only lets me put in a single shipping cost.  I thought
I had it about right until I lost money shipping a programmer to Alaska, so
I jacked up the cost when I got back.  Unfortunately that means people in
New Hampshire will pay more than needed.  There doesn't seem to be a good
answer that is accessible for a reasonable cost.  PayPal and other merchant
service companies have fancy interfaces that I'd either have to spend a lot
of time to understand and test or pay someone else to.  Either way, it's
probably a few $K to implement, and that doesn't make sense for the
relatively low volumes of stuff we sell (we are mostly a consulting
company).  I have on occasion done a partial refund of the shipping charge
when requested and I thought the request was reasonable.


******************************************************************
Embed Inc, Littleton Massachusetts, (978) 742-9014.  #1 PIC
consultant in 2004 program year.  http://www.embedinc.com/products
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist