Shipping Costs

[Kerreth]

This is probably the pettiest rant I've ever had, but at least it won't be very wordy. Click for bigger screenshots.

Amazon's 2(ish)-Day Shipping Charge to Hawaii for 2 comic books:


Barnes and Noble's 2(ish)-Day Shipping charge to Hawaii for the same 2 comic books:


I don't understand shipping. At all.

[Tehwilburforce]

That's crazy. I've heard some people accuse B&N of being expensive, but after seeing this, I'd much rather get CD's and books from them. Glad that my dad get's most of his books there.

[Bear]

Ha! Now that I have the Kickstarter shipping done and planning for our shop, I can actually tell you where this discrepancy comes from. Apparently, shipping off of the mainland states is really expensive IF you don't do it right. If the shippers are really smart (for their customers sake, at least), they will know to use USPS flat rate boxes to send to Hawaii, Alaska, any of the US territories as well as military APO/FPO/DPO addresses.

Of course, some companies might just not bother setting up proper shipping and send parcels no matter what, which of course costs a LOT more. UPS, for instance, has terrible rates going to Hawaii, which is what you might be seeing here Kerreth.

Also, if the package is too large and can't fit in a large flat rate box (12"x12"x6"), the shipping will be costly no matter what. Considering what's in your cart for Amazon though, I have to say it's just laziness on part of the business that is fulfilling through Amazon. I bet you can find Amazon shipping rates fluctuate since they fulfill through thousands of different vendors, some of which are smarter than others.

[Kerreth]

I just received them today, and B&N is probably one of the smart people, as it went through USPS (but not in a Flat Rate box, though I'd imagine 2 small books in a Flat Rate box would've actually been more expensive). Which I thought they wouldn't, because on the registration form, when you type in the shipping address, there's a checkbox that says "Check this box if this is an address that can't be serviced through UPS, e.g. PO boxes," so I assumed. From what I remember from my sister ordering something from Amazon using 2-day, they used FedEx, I think, which has horrible shipping rates outside the contiguous 48 as well.

The reason I didn't just fill up the cart and try for their free shipping is because their free shipping is really slow and I'm a generally impatient person. Amazon uses this company called ParcelPool for their Hawaii shipping, which, from what I can tell, carts the package from the mainland to Hawaii, and then hands it off to USPS once it reaches Honolulu. Problem being, it usually takes at least an entire week from order date to receive it. Even worse, they use that same method with the SAME DELIVERY TIME if you pay for standard shipping, which is supposed to be faster. (I did that once and complained and they refunded it, so at least there's that.)

Some stores are weird. For example, I ordered a shirt from Hot Topic which I couldn't find in the store (I had a gift card). Their ONLY shipping option to Hawaii was 2-Day FedEx for $20+. For a shirt. However, I ordered my Mass Effect 3 CE from Microsoft Store (I ordered really late and they were the only place I could find it still in stock), and their 2-day shipping rate is a flat $10. Via UPS. For something a slight bit heavier than a shirt. So MS Store is awesome, though I suppose they make up that deficit by never selling below MSRP.

Those USPS Flat Rate boxes are the best thing ever. I used them to send all my Christmas gifts. So cheap! It's probably why they're going out of business. That said, I remember playing around with their postage calculator a lot when I packing those boxes, and their non-flat rate Priority Mail service isn't really that expensive either.

The books were both pretty good reads too, so yay.