Greeting, Adam, Thanks for the advise, and you are more than welcome to contribute to the brain-storm. It is the open-mind and listening to customer feedback making us unique on technology and service. As of your recommendation on prepaid self-addressed shipping method, we are actually doing this since the beginning of BB0703 (sept-2007), please see the following quote from our web: http://www.auelectronics.com/System-PICkit2.htm "Note: If you prefer using your own shipping account/method or if you arrange a pre-paid self-addressed envelope (Fedex, UPS, USPS, DHL, etc), there is no surcharge for shipping. Please contact us for order information." Actually many PIClisters here contributed a lot on how to get the best deal from CB0703/BB0703. People's advise generate the "ICKCB0703" and "Combo0703-PP"; both are among the top 3 picks. And those are the things we will never figured it out without many inputs from you guys. Our Shipping and handling cost has been set up and unchanged for almost 1 year. While the post office increased shipping rate twice (for more than 40% average) in the past 5 month, it is actually very hard to keep our current shipping and handling fee unchanged. It will be heavily affected if the post office increase the post fee for another 30%. You calculation of 800% just simply ignored the labor fee here in the USA and assume there will be no technical support thereafter. And since there is no free lunch in USA, you got to pay every single people who works for you at least the minimal salary government regulated. Most of the industry people might already know that the technical support probably cost 10 times more than the bill of material itself. We cannot ignore the customer service no matter how. Au Group Electronics cares about our customer, for us, the capability of technical support is the key to earn business. That's why I see many people take our product and service repeatedly even though our price isn't the lowest, because they know, when they got a issue, there will be support from Au Group Electronics. Customer choose our product not just because of the good design, or just because the good quality, or just because ease of use, but also the best technical support. Some of their feedback have been posted here (including people from Australia, south Africa, etc): http://www.auelectronics.com/CustomerComments.htm Basically, we respect customers because they all have their own right to decide which product they like the best and go with the best deal they find. No doubt their decision are always right for their situation. As I told our local Adam (Field) in another PIClist email, you can use prepaid self-stamp envelop and authorize us shipping without all the necessary support documents, it will save the shipping cost and part of the handling cost, on the one piece of CB0703 deal case, you will save about US$4. Regards, Funny N. Au Group Electronics, New Bedford, MA, http://www.AuElectronics.com ----- Original Message ---- From: M. Adam Davis To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 11:35:04 AM Subject: Re: [AD]CB0703 1cent/PCB deal ends after Labor day (Sept-01-2008) Everyime I see AuElectronics I get the impression that you're in Australia! Even if you were in Australia, you can send the PCB to the US via envelope with first class mail for [AUS] $2 (assuming it's under 50g, 1.7oz, which it should be). Customs documentation can take some time if you've failed to streamline the handling process, and I could see why you might charge large S&H rates for international orders. But given that you're in the US, shipping to the US, you don't even have customs documentation to worry about, and a first class envelope with a PCB inside costs a mere $0.42 [USD]. If the envelope was an expensive envelope with your return address pre-printed then maybe the shipping and packaging would cost $1. This leaves $7 for handling. You are doubtless aware that a lot of people are unhappy with EBay sellers and other sellers who count S&H as a profit source, and for that reason you might want to take action now and charge a flat handling fee, and estimate the actual postage rather than simplifying it as a flat rate for everyone. Most people would suspect a business of this practice when S&H is 800% greater than the cost of the product they're buying, even on sale. Most places now simply charge postage, and build the handling fee into the product cost - and customers appear to appreciate that. Far be it from me to tell you how to run your business, of course - I would not be surprised if your S&H costs were actually $8 for a small PCB - I've known many businesses with expensive and/or inefficient shipping departments. As you grow you may want to look into optimizing that - it's obvious that Mike went so far as to place the product in his cart before canceling the order, and therefore you've already lost one customer due to what he felt were extraordinary S&H costs. You're lucky he decided to bring it up with you - most customers will simply leave without telling you why they didn't buy your product. Perhaps you could offer this PCB for free (given that $0.01 is close to free) if customers send a SASE - then handling would be next to nothing - you receive the SASE, place the PCB inside, seal it and send it. It would take at most 1 minute per order, and you wouldn't have to worry about verifying and transfering funds, writing addresses, paying postage, etc. You could also still charge a penny, and they could send it in their order envelope. This would be exactly the same as your current offer, unless you profit from the S&H (ie, you're selling S&H as a product, it's not merely to cover the incidental costs to fulfilling an order) -Adam On 8/15/08, Funny NYPD wrote: > Greeting Mike, > Feel sad if you feel that way. I should have marked it as "shipping and handling not included" (which seems apparently to most of the people) to make it more clear. And a US $8 shipping and handling fee is not so expensive if you count today's high cost of material (gas, paper, etc, everything seems doubled its price in the past six months) and labor fee in the US. > > And since you have to pay shipping and handling anyway, the 1 cent /PCB is definitely a good deal, and I personally feel sorry it will be ending soon. > > Plus, what you are going to receive is more than just the PCB itself, it also includes a schematic, a step by step assembly guide and a BOM form. It is actually still a good deal if you count all these service even with the shipping and handling cost. > > Funny N. > Au Group Electronics, New Bedford, MA, http://www.AuElectronics.com > > > > ----- Original Message ---- > From: Mike snyder > To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public. > Sent: Friday, August 15, 2008 9:08:06 AM > Subject: Re: [AD]CB0703 1cent/PCB deal ends after Labor day (Sept-01-2008) > > Very misleading when you charge $ 8.00 for shipping a board that > should cost approx $ 1.00 so why don't you just say that the board > costs $ 8.00? > > On 8/15/08, Funny NYPD wrote: > > The great deal on CB0703 (bare PCB for PICkit2 DIY), which is 1cent/PCB, will be end after Labor day (Sept-01-2008). > > > > Funny N. > > Au Group Electronics, New Bedford, MA, http://www.AuElectronics.com > > > > > > > > > > -- > > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > > View/change your membership options at > > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > > > > > -- > http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive > View/change your membership options at > http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist > -- EARTH DAY 2008 Tuesday April 22 Save Money * Save Oil * Save Lives * Save the Planet http://www.driveslowly.org -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist