Originally posted by flacoastie:
The price increase on the LLOM was going to happen no matter who owns the company. The prices on LEs and GLOWS has also been sneaking up over the years. Those of you that buy Harbour Lights know that a company must make a profit to stay in business. Those of you that buy from Ebay rather then a dealer will also pay a little higher. It is a way of life so we must learn to live with it.
My complaint with the price increase for the LLOM is the automatic shipping increase of a dollar based on the fact that anything under $15.00 is $5.99 shipping and anything $15.00 to $25.00 is $6.99 shipping. That is pure unadulterated profit to Lighthouse Depot. The LLOM weighs the same and is the same size going to the same destination. The shipping costs has been my one and only complaint and has kept me from buying many items from this company over the years. I grit my teeth every time I order one of their special HL pieces from them because of the shipping costs. It's not that I can't afford the costs, it is the fact that this is a corporation's way of ripping off the general public. If I buy an item that weights a pound and is a certain size and it's value is $15.00, the same shipping costs should apply to any other item that weighs a pound and is the same size even though it's value is $100.00. Remember the first $100.00 insurance is included in UPS and FEDEX shipping costs so there is no reason to have different shipping costs based on price.
This is my 2 cents worth on the subject.
Rich,
I basically agree with you on this. I often think that this is a way to maximize profits by many companies.
The other side to the equation though is that I believe that companies use it as much for simplicity as for profit. You might actually end up spending more for shipping overall if things went by weight totally.
You are correct that some shippers include insurance in the base portion of some services. In addition some shippers have many different levels of shipping some of which are based on the distance between the shipping point and the destination.
Here's where the simplicity concept comes in- some companies don't want to bother with having to figure out weight and distance for every package and have decided that by tying the S&H to the dollar amount it will cost average out over the many orders they get.
Will it bring some extra profit on some shipments- yes. On the other hand it will also end up with the actual shipping costs being more for some shipments based on the dollar amount.
The only method that totally takes any profit or loss out of the equation is for the shipping costs to be based on the actual amount and that would be extremely difficult for any company to use- we can do it between individuals but even then it wouldn't work well on most ebay sales.(although some sales will actually calculate the shipping costs by zip code and type of shipping)
Just my 2 cents worth.(not corrected for inflation)
Dennis
