Delivery charges - should companies charge them

edgex

vyle wrote: »

Companies can charge whatever they want for anything they want to. It's up to you whether you're going to pay it.

But you seem to be forgetting that companies need to make a profit. Why would a company sell something if they were going to end up out of pocket? They don't OWE you free postage, or anything else. You want an item and they can supply it for a certain price. If the trade isn't to your liking, look elsewhere.

at which point in what i said does it say 'companies cant make a profit'?

edgex wrote: »

this is the way i see it:


if the item is only available by delivery, they shouldnt charge for delivery
if the item is readily available in store, & is available by delivery, they can charge for delivery

go into a shop
look at item, it has a price label on it
take item to till
pay the amount shown on the price label

no extra charges for the use of the till, no extra charges for the use of the floor, walls, roof, lighting etc etc
all of those costs are already included in the shelf price

if the shop offers a delivery service, its an optional extra, so no issue with charging for that extra



if the item is only available online, so you cant go into the shop to buy it, then why should they charge extra for what isnt an optional extra?

custardy

then they make the prices higher,whats the difference?
if you arent happy then only use sites that give free postage
it makes no difference to me how they do it as i weigh up price/service

Ivory_Tinkler

edgex wrote: »

if the item is only available online, so you cant go into the shop to buy it, then why should they charge extra for what isnt an optional extra?

Why should they send it to you for free when they are going to have to pay someone to deliver it to your door? You can either shop in the shops and pay to travel there and park etc or shop online and do a few calculations on product cost/delivery cost and see which works out either more convenient or cheaper. But one thing to always remember is nothing in life is for free so if free delivery has been offered, it probably isn't free at all but the cost of the product includes a portion to cover that "free" delivery.

Jo_F

But what about those of us that cannot afford a shop? The only time I can sell direct to people face to face is when I pay to have a stall at a craft fair.

I have no option but to charge postage from the website, I have tried to keep it to a minimum, (as I have with the actual product prices) but I can't afford to give the items away.

I do offer free postage on order over a certain amount, as at that point I can usually absorb the cost myself. Even though the bigger the order the larger the fees are to Paypal.

vyle

custardy wrote: »

well then you add £6 to your starting price

I didn't realise how much postage would be for that item, because it was EVER so slightly larger than a similar item, thus putting it into the next post-size bracket. I needed to get rid of it for space, though, and it had already failed to sell at a car boot sale.

But from my experience of ebay, you get more bids and lower fees at a lower start price, than having a high starting price.

custardy

vyle wrote: »

I didn't realise how much postage would be for that item, because it was EVER so slightly larger than a similar item, thus putting it into the next post-size bracket. I needed to get rid of it for space, though, and it had already failed to sell at a car boot sale.

But from my experience of ebay, you get more bids and lower fees at a lower start price, than having a high starting price.

if you hadnt realised the price of postage then you would have lost out regardless of free P&P then

vyle

custardy wrote: »

if you hadnt realised the price of postage then you would have lost out regardless of free P&P then

True, but I was just pointing out that regardless, ebay won't let you charge more than £3 for postage on certain categories, even if it will cost more.

At least i've got the space I needed now :P

bap98189

I work for a company that sells online, and yes we charge a delivery fee. But we also have customers who drop in to pick up orders. They don't pay for delivery and why should they, we don't have to pay to deliver their stuff. Remove delivery charges and we would end up having two prices for everything.

Then what about customers in places in the Highlands? A courier costs us roughly £4.50 to most of the UK, but to anywhere north of Inverness is a minimum of £25, and Northern Ireland is similarly more expensive than the rest of the UK. Should we then have to list separate prices for all of those locations? I think not, having a delivery charge is a way of passing on the actual cost of delivering something. So long as it is clearly shown to the customer before they complete their purchase, I can see no reason why it is a bad thing.

pompeii

just ordered £29 worth of goods from Lakeland with p&p of £4.25, received an email last week to say that they were awaiting stock of some of the items, received £13 worth of the order today with a note on the invoice saying other items are no longer available, still charged £4.25 p&p, not happy. I would have cancelled order if i had been told 2/3rds of the order was unavailable.

bitemebankers

I would have cancelled order if i had been told 2/3rds of the order was unavailable.

You can still cancel.