ORIGINAL: Luchnia
I get the shipping and insurance, however I want the option to decide on the insurance. It bothers me that I can order the same item from someone else and sometimes 50% less on freight and handling. I know some will chime in and state that it is because of location. That is part of it, but not all of it. If I buy some small items that are 10 dollars, I do not want 50 dollars of insurance and handling charges.
We ship every day at the company I work for and we ship all over so I am very familiar with shipping and handling and some of the rates I see at TBM are simply outrageous and I have yet to understand why. We ship items that can weigh 50l - 100 lbs or more. We ship overnight AIR every day and also other avenues. We ship by many carriers too, so I am very aware of freight costs. Need I state that we hate dealing with freight costs at our company?
What I will state is that because of TBM's high rates of handling and shipping I have never ordered an item from your company and yet I have wanted to so many times. You have items that I have really desired to purchase, but due to shipping said no and ordered elsewhere or took some other path because of your shipping/handling cost.
Here is a good example. Not long ago I ordered some small items that I told the vendor to ''snail mail'' to me as I was in no hurry. Some vendors say ''No, we don't do that'' while others oblidge. To the first it is their loss because another company makes the sale. The items' shipping cost pennys on the dollar instead of double to triple cost for a lightweight item as in your company's case.
If your handling cost is the main problem then maybe you should re-evaluate your shipping processes and see what you need to do to get them streamlined and under control instead of passing them along to the customer. We all know fuel is getting higher and freight is too, but we must make sure we are doing our best where our customers are concerned as they keep us in business.
Can we survive with cost on freight and handling? The company I work for has been doing it for over 125 years so it can be done effectively.
Luchnia, if you can order a plane (with same dimensions) elsewhere and have it shipped for lower than the prices I posted then the company is probably discounting shipping based on their margin with the product. Please show me, with those dimensions/weight, a lower price with UPS. If you know something we don't, please share!
There are good points being made about the small boxes out to the sticks.
TBM does not do handling charges. With most of our large ESM parts we actually probably lose money but it is all considered when trying to support these planes. Please see the attached pictures of a replacement F6F Tigercat fuselage box. This box in no way took 2 minutes to make but we do not charge our customers to make this box.