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Author Topic: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....  (Read 3940 times)

Brian60

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Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« on: April 14, 2018, 11:25:10 am »

I wanted some parts from a Shapeways seller. You have to laugh, in fact I'm still rolling around the floor! The parts came to 8.76€. They are made in Holland so not as though its the other side of the world.

So the shipping charge from Holland to Spain, don't forget its only normal postage surface mail and only again the only country between Holland and Spain is France!..... Well the shipping charge was 26.40€ %% ;D ;D ;D But I could opt for 48 hour turnaround, in which case the price of the parts increased to 11.20€ but the postal charge went up to 39.60€ :o :o :o

tigertiger

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #1 on: April 14, 2018, 04:05:47 pm »

Would I be right in guessing a chunk of that postage is the customs handling/admin fee? Or would that be on top?
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Brian60

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #2 on: April 14, 2018, 04:25:02 pm »

Would I be right in guessing a chunk of that postage is the customs handling/admin fee? Or would that be on top?

No its bought within the EU for mailing to another EU country, so that shipping/mailing charges are just that, no customs charge or any other tax to add. Just straight up post office charge from one country to another. For instance if I order from a UK company the mailing charge is usually around £5 - £8 pounds and for that I get airmail delivery! I guess its just Shapeways trying to make extra cash. I'm not sure of their business plan but I think if I order from a seller than its handled like a 3rd party transaction? The seller gets Shapeways to print the stuff and mail it out??

GAZOU

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #3 on: April 14, 2018, 06:13:29 pm »

The effects of the brexit prematurely  <:( ? ? ?
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Brian60

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #4 on: April 14, 2018, 06:37:48 pm »

The effects of the brexit prematurely  <:( ? ? ?

Not for me Gazou, look left - I live in Spain not the UK so brexit wouldn't affect this transaction :-))

cos918

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #5 on: April 14, 2018, 08:38:17 pm »

brexit has nothing to do with it . Just Shapeways ripping people off on over the op prices .
Yes shapeways had cornered the market but they are new players coming in all the time . The dominance will soon be over and hopeful we will see better prices


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Neil

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #6 on: April 14, 2018, 09:19:32 pm »

what do shapeways sell...........never heard of them. %)
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carlmt

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2018, 09:43:21 pm »

Neil - Shapeways sells 3D printed items designed by 3rd party designers (such as myself).
They are a bureau for designers - a shop window if you like.  Shapeways prints the parts and sends them to the customer who has ordered through the Shapeway site and then a percentage of the part cost (not postage cost) is passed on to the designer.

I use Shapeways for the 3D parts for our kits, but these parts are not on general release, meaning that you cannot buy them from Shapeways - only I can.

Yes, the postage can be a tad eye-watering at times - and if you saw the size of some of the boxes they package the parts in it might go some way to seeing why.  The parts are certainly not heavy so it isn't a weight issue.  I think it is more a physical box size issue - they use, what at first glance might seem, un-necessarily large boxes....but when you open the box, you can see all the safety packaging that is used to protect the, sometimes, very delicate parts.

I would challenge even the most Neanderthal courier driver to break the contents!!!!

Brian60

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #8 on: April 15, 2018, 09:34:46 am »

I accept the packaging size Carl, but just how big a box would 6 liferaft pods need at 1:72nd scale? They are only 18 by 10mm each, you cold package all 6 of them inside a fag packet.

carlmt

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #9 on: April 15, 2018, 12:45:24 pm »

This is the size of box we get from Shapeways containing ONE 3D printed set of fittings for our Free Enterprise kit:





If we order 2 or more together, then the box is even bigger!

GAZOU

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #10 on: April 15, 2018, 01:14:18 pm »

A box of 6cmx8cm is easy to put in a pocket for an employee of transport. A box of 40x60 is difficult to put in the pocket O0
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RAAArtyGunner

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #11 on: April 16, 2018, 12:25:55 am »


Makes you wonder why there are moaners on here whingeing about not buying from China. Yes the 'free' postage is included in the cost, but nowhere near the costs mentioned.


Bottom line, in the main suppliers are too lazy to offer cheaper alternative methods of delivery. Those that do get my business. At this rate mail order will be a thing of the past. <:( <:( <:(
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carlmt

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #12 on: April 16, 2018, 12:35:45 am »

Makes you wonder why there are moaners on here whingeing about not buying from China. Yes the 'free' postage is included in the cost, but nowhere near the costs mentioned.


Bottom line, in the main suppliers are too lazy to offer cheaper alternative methods of delivery. Those that do get my business. At this rate mail order will be a thing of the past. <:( <:( <:(

Sometimes, "suppliers" have no choice in the cost of delivery.  As an example, we are a (very) small company and have NO clout with couriers to obtain a preferential rate for deliveries - we need to be sending dozens of parcels a week for that...and, clearly, we don't (much as we would love to, but that is life).  To deliver our FEV kit, we use Parcelforce and we pay the rate that is quoted on that day.  Yes, there are 'price comparison' sites, but I am VERY nervous about trusting a valuable cargo to a non-entity (and I have had recent experience of an almost lost kit to Denmark that was VERY difficult to resolve....). 

As for the Norland kit - that gets delivered by hand in the UK for the cost of fuel from Redditch......cant get fairer than that I would have thought......... Otherwise the delivery cost would put off most folk from buying!

tigertiger

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2018, 01:41:22 am »

It is easy to forget that usually postage actually is postage and packaging. Looking at the way @carlmt's stuff was packaged I am not that surprised. That is a triwall box, and they are not cheap.
I used to work for a motorcycle retailer that did mail order. Part of the overhead for them was the packing room (real estate), staff, machines, heat and light, before you even start with packing materials. Sellers have choices of where to swallow the overhead depending on the pricing strategy. Do you factor it into your markup, or into your post costs, or a mixture of the two.
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TomHugill

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #14 on: April 16, 2018, 07:00:12 am »

what do shapeways sell...........never heard of them. %)


I hear there's this staying called a search engine which magically reveals these mysteries....
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ballastanksian

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #15 on: April 16, 2018, 07:27:52 pm »

Shapeways? They sell keep fit videos don't they?  :}
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RAAArtyGunner

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Re: Shipping charges never fail to amuse....
« Reply #16 on: April 16, 2018, 11:52:50 pm »

Your thinking of an Illusionists magic show  {-) {-) {-)
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