On line Chandlerys....Grrr

[ronsurf]

I wanted to buy a small item from Force4 Chandlery - it's priced at £6.95. Ideal price, but I want to find out what the postage is... To do this I have to 'register' - including my phone number and address, remembering to tick and untick boxes to avoid a deluge of junk mail. After all this I find out that postage is £5.95 (next day delivery is a tenner!!!)bringing the total to 13quid! Forget it.
Why do websites do this? why waste your time and make you register just to find out what something's going to cost?!!!
Grrrrr!

 

[fireball]

Can I point you in the direction of www.marvinmarine.co.uk where they openly publish their delivery charges - up to £9.99 it is £2.99 ...

No interest and not even a satisfied customer yet ... but like the openness of the site.

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
I want to find out what the postage is... To do this I have to 'register' - including my phone number and address, remembering to tick and untick boxes to avoid a deluge of junk mail. After all this I find out that postage is £5.95

[/ QUOTE ] Nonsense.
To do this ALL you have to do is click on "Terms and Conditions" at the bottom of the home page then scroll down to "Delivery Costs" /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Poignard]

I had to go through this rigmarole recently just to buy a few stainless steel fittings. Other firms seems able to supply things without all this registering nonsense. Same mentality as people who design forms - start with a sheet of A4 and think of questions to fill it with.

 

[Guest]

[ QUOTE ]
I had to go through this rigmarole recently just to buy a few stainless steel fittings. Other firms seems able to supply things without all this registering nonsense. Same mentality as people who design forms - start with a sheet of A4 and think of questions to fill it with.

[/ QUOTE ]

Must admit it annoys me as well - the number of sites you have to register to get any info - even the smallest bit ..... and often you get no reply from on-line forms etc.

On-line chandlers ..... I was recently annoyed that I bought an article via UK chandlers as they "had stock" ...... tried their German outlet on-line but no stock ... price about 15% cheaper......

Anyway order the item ... pay P&P based on UK to Latvia .....

















Where did it come from ?












German outlet ! With no discount or refund of differences ....

 

[Channel Ribs]

We had comments like yours a few months back and so started to price everything inc delivery, something which our customers have responded well to. Our checkout is still not as slick as we want, but the delivery aspect is an important one.

Have you sent a message to Force4? They may well listen.

What was it you were after anyway?

 

[raquet]

[ QUOTE ]
I wanted to buy a small item from Force4 Chandlery - it's priced at £6.95. Ideal price, but I want to find out what the postage is... To do this I have to 'register' - including my phone number and address, remembering to tick and untick boxes to avoid a deluge of junk mail. After all this I find out that postage is £5.95 (next day delivery is a tenner!!!)bringing the total to 13quid! Forget it.
Why do websites do this? why waste your time and make you register just to find out what something's going to cost?!!!
Grrrrr!

[/ QUOTE ]The answer is, I'm afraid, because they want your details for mailshots etc. Always remember to tick the box which says no to them contacting you with sales stuff - unless you want it of course. My answering this is probably a sackable offence!

 

[gjgm]

well, its not their fault you were only looking to buy something cheap! P+P isnt as cheap as it used to be.. try going to the post office with a small parcel these days.

 

[Sea Devil]

[ QUOTE ]
well, its not their fault you were only looking to buy something cheap! P+P isnt as cheap as it used to be.. try going to the post office with a small parcel these days.

[/ QUOTE ]
I had a go a while ago on a thread about a chandlers who charged a minimum after all the rigmarole (It is also because they can then check more detailed info on their customers buying/browsing habits) wanted a minimum postage of around £12 to France for an item that was later charged by the UK Post Office at £4 -- say the jiffy bag was tops 50p that is one hell of a charge for handling... and what is handling anyway? When you go to a shop - even a supermarket somebody handles the items without charge... really hate Internet traders who seek a profit from postage... its a form of cheating..

 

[TiggerToo]

[ QUOTE ]
[... really hate Internet traders who seek a profit from postage... its a form of cheating..

[/ QUOTE ]

Ebay sellers are doing this more and more. Beware. At least they have to advertise the P&P costs upfront

 

[gjgm]

ah, but in modern Britain you ll have to provide
1 staff for packing
5 health and safety officers
£000's of safety equipment

Still when a single stop on London Underground can cost you £4,who can afford £8 to go to the shops and back to collect it anyway.

 

[pvb]

eBay postage...

[ QUOTE ]
Ebay sellers are doing this more and more. Beware. At least they have to advertise the P&P costs upfront

[/ QUOTE ]What you're actually seeing with eBay is the postage charge increasing and the item price decreasing - this reduces the amount of commission which the seller has to pay to eBay. Most buyers appreciate this and factor in the postage charge when deciding how much to bid.

 

[richardandtracy]

Amazon postage...

Just bought a book from one of the Amazon.co.uk market place booksellers. Book cost £0.01p. Postage £2.75p. Oh well, it's a book I had once & wanted to replace after someone 'borrowed' it years ago.

Regards

Richard.

 

[Genie]

Raquet is right - the information gleaned is used for contacting details with e-mail shots and promotional uses as well as establishing a demographic on who is buying what.
On the other hand, that means that you do get mailshots that you may actually be interested in rather than meaningless dross.
A personal account is also a nice touch and makes you feel more 'connected' with the company.
There are good and bad internet traders, just like High Street retailers, so don't tar them all with the same brush.
The biggest loss of transactions for internet traders is at the point of P&P (According to our internet media consultants) so more responsible internet traders are making these costs more apparent before you get to that stage.
The costs for P&P are abit of a 'spread bet' as some may be more, but the majority will probably be less. However, you may be surprised at the cost of packaging (it's not cheap!) plus you have to (rightly) expect to pay for people picking and processing your transaction and sort/delivery to the post office or a cost to the fulfilment company handling for them.
There is also a surprising cost involved with costs per click where to 'boost' your rating in search engine results you are charged every time someone accesses (or clicks) on your site.
Internet costs are cheaper (usually) than traditional retailing, but that still means there are costs to be met.
The simple rule is to shop around, read the conditions fully before you get to the 'purchase' tab and dosn't discount conventional shops - quite often they can beat or match internet prices (esp the independents) and you have a 'real' point of contact.
Cheers
Rob

 

[Sea Devil]

[ QUOTE ]
The costs for P&P are abit of a 'spread bet' as some may be more, but the majority will probably be less. However, you may be surprised at the cost of packaging (it's not cheap!) plus you have to (rightly) expect to pay for people picking and processing your transaction and sort/delivery to the post office or a cost to the fulfilment company handling for them.
There is also a surprising cost involved with costs per click where to 'boost' your rating in search engine results you are charged every time someone accesses (or clicks) on your site.
Internet costs are cheaper (usually) than traditional retailing, but that still means there are costs to be met.


[/ QUOTE ]

I run a very modest small Internet business.. Because it makes me so cross to be ripped off on postage I work hard at making mine absolutely fair.. My P&P received v P&P charged is running for the first 5 months £5.83 in deficit & I care not a jot!

I run one small advertising program with Google costing around £20 per month and consider it good value when I look at the actual visits it generates but not wonderfully so.. the most important thing for me is that if you put in any variation of French Canals my site comes up on the first page... This forum generates about 7% of the business.

So each morning for about an hour I process and pack the orders. I take the bundle of orders down to the Post Office where I have a professional card which allows me priority or I use the automatic DIY scales and stamping... takes about 45 minutes total including walking to PO...

All very easy compared to my friend who has a shop here in la Rochelle - she is into work at 09.00 and closes 12.30... she too processes orders - talks to customers, puts the cards or cash into machines, wraps and often gift wraps her orders... Pays a large monthly rental for the shop. Pays a large rates bill as well as lighting, heating, show case decor, cleaning, maintenance.... on a morning basis she turns over less and profits less than I do...

It is incredibly easy and inexpensive to run an Internet business -it is inexpensive to set up, requires very little specialist knowledge and for all those reasons I can see no reason for excessive post and packing charges or for not turning round orders on a daily basis rather than a few days later...

 

[Stork_III]

Its even easier than that. Home page, 4th tab at top of page, the one called "Delivery". That tells all.

 

[akirk]

A lot depends upon the philosophy / business model you employ...

For some companies, there is a simple equation for p&p - very rough & ready

For some, the p&p is accurately calculated according to items bought (never totally accurate, but more accurate)

For some companies this is a marketing element to their business - spend more than x and the p&p is free - works well (e.g. Amazon et al.) This a) encourages you to up your spending above the amount you originally thought of spending, and b) encourages you to come back. The philosophy is simply one of volume driving up profits, rather than margin.

It is not an unknown philosophy amongst chandleries, however it is sometimes worth while, other times not. I had some items to buy, looked at one chandlery I have used before and some of the items were more than at another, so the second got my business - the first offered free p&p, but the price saving at the second more than paid for the p&p - that second one was actually Force4!

However, I then phoned the first to buy some footwear as they stocked it at a discount, and they advised me ref. size etc. However they then said that if I bought it over the phone they would charge p&p, while online p&p was free!

so you get a variety of approaches - if it were my business, I would offer p&p free over a certain amount, but allowing the customer to accelerate delivery for a fee... a la Amazon...

 

[Sixpence]

It isn't always that simple though . A £25-00 item bought from me ended up with a delivery price quoted to me by parcel farce at £93-00 , because it was long , not because it was heavy or bulky , it was only about four inches in diameter but nine feet long , so delivery would have been extortionate at that price . I'm still looking for someone that'll do it at a reasonable price

 

[Guest]

My package that I mentioned in my reply to Raquet ... had a strange p&p quote on it ....

Standard P&P £xx
Int. P&P £xx

Now I accept that P%P is increased internationally but latvia is EU and the price for P&P was approx. 2x the real rate. Unfortunately no-one else would supply to Latvia so I ended up paying what came out as full RRP price in the end - so no saving really. That little trick has moved me away from them. I shall now buy all from ebay - as at least =you know they up the p&p to reduce comm's to ebay ... price to buy suitably adjusted ...

 

[Rowana]

My grype with Force4 is that they want to charge me "Highlands & Islands" delivery charge. Other chandlers do not, so I NEVER use Force 4.

Mailspeed & Marinestore can deliver to me without this exhorbitant delivery charge, so they get most of my business.