John,

On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 08:41:53 -0500, John Nall wrote:

>...  
> And when dealing with reputable sellers (such as 
> Digikey, for example) one goes ahead and does the deal even without 
> knowing what the shipping is going to be, because it is  going to be 
> fair. 

Arghh!  If I remember rightly, Digikey doesn't tell you the shipping charge even when you have completed the 
order, and on one memorable occasion I was charged something like US$50 for shipping something that cost $30, 
and I didn't find out until I saw it on my credit-card statement!  Added to which they used a shipping method 
that when it arrives here *always* has VAT levied, and attracts a very heavy fee for collecting the VAT (about 
$20).  To be fair, they did refund the shipping charge when I complained about it, and said that I could have 
chosen a cheaper shipping method by *typing it in* - it's a pulldown list and I chose the one that I thought 
would be cheapest, so it's really not obvious that I could choose something not on the list (isn't that what 
pulldowns are for, to force a valid choice?).  And how am I supposed to know the details of the various 
options available in another country (expecially when they have confusing names like Global Express and Global 
Priority - which of these is the more expensive?)?

As I said, they were very fair and did refund me, but I can't help thinking that telling the buyer what they 
are going to be charged before the order is confirmed would be the right way to do it (ComputerGeeks do this, 
even for overseas orders, so it's not impossible).

> I kind of like the way Amazon.com does it, since they seem to 
> enforce a fair shipping charge on the people that sell through them, 
> even though they are little independent dealers (so far as I can tell, 
> anyway).

I think Amazon is acting as an agent, processing the order and passing on the details to the vendor, and 
sending them the money less their commission.

I know what you mean about unrealistic shipping - there seems to be a large number of sellers in Hong Kong who 
use eBay, sell gadgets for $3.99 and add $19.99 shipping, *per item*, so in this case they are just trying to 
reel people in, and the actual price is $24 (and in many cases it isn't worth it).  I don't buy from people 
like that any more!

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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