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I am extremely new to the stamping craze and absolutely love it. My only problem with the product is the 10% shipping and handling cost for products that are shipped to me. I understand that there are S & H costs, however, where did the 10% come from? Products such as Avon, Tupperware, etc. have a specific dollar amount attached to them. I recently ordered a set for @$42.00. By the time I add the 10% S & H and the 15% tax (I'm Cdn.) I am looking at an additional $10.50. This severely limits the products that I want to purchase. If I am ordering from Stampin up, shouldn't they be responsible for the S & H? Have a flat rate or incorporate into their prices? It would seem to me that Stampin up is making money off this. Any comments? Thanks
I receive many different catalogs, and always compare shipping to SU!. From Spiegel to Ballards etc, I find mostly that our shipping is less than others!!! Now maybe because its Canada the shipping costs more. It would be great for SU! to somehow ship it less, but its probably the governments decision( ours/yours), I dont know. I hate to pay shipping for anything, buy oh well, there arent many places that dont charge for shipping, unless the prices are exorbitant! Well, Viking.com does free shipping on orders over $25!!! and you get a fre TV( or something) too!!!
Tandra
I used to think that, but when I went to convention one year it was explained to us that the shipping is covering a lot of other stuff like all of their generous hostess benefits and free stamp sets to demos and so on and so forth....
ugh! I know. I also abhore the 10% shipping fee. Think about this, if you prchase the markers...you'd have to pay $12 in shipping! for a box of markers!?!?!
I thought as a demo that Demo orders would have a lower shipping cost, but they don't. I was also a demo for another direct sales company (PartyLite) and they had a flat shipping fee of only $4.50 for demo orders. No matter how much was ordered. And those big 3 wick candles weigh about 9 lbs!
Anyhooooo-I too wish they would reduce their shipping costs. I am going to email them about that right now and reccommend that you do also. I believe you can by going to the SU! website.
Creative Director - My Favorite Things Dirty Dozen Alumni
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Shipping and Handling is a charge that most companies have to charge in order to stay in business. The warehouses, employees and machinery are very expensive I would gather and if they are making money on it, they are paying their employees with part of it. It is annoying to have to pay "stamp money" toward stamp sets, but HEY I do it... because I love Stampin Up! Whether they let us know they are charging us for it by charging 10% or adding it to the cost of stamp sets is irrelevant. They need to charge us shipping, because UPS does not deliver for free. They also need to pay their famous men in brown (have you shipped something recently, it's not cheap).
Anyway.... if you love free shipping, order NOW. There is free shipping until the end of December. I know I will be taking advantage of that one! AND, in January I will order for SAB and pay shipping again.
My friend and I were talking about this very thing today Cause I also sell Mary Kay I was questioning also how can MK charge a flate rate of 7.50 for S&H no matter if the order is 25.00 or 1,200.00 It does seem odd that we have to pay so much more But after the discussion with friend we came to the conclusion that we are sure it does cost more for the stamps to be delivered than Face and body products ... But then it goes back to I heard some where that SU has to charge us for S&H cause of the workers actually having to pick product off the shelf s ( I guess ) But my thought still goes back to MK how do they do that and still keep it a flate rate at 7.50 no matter what the size order ??? I would also like to have someone explain to us a little more in detail from what they understand the reasons to be ??? I also figure with the discount from SU and after paying S&H and taxes I am only ahead 4% Of course this is off My personal orders where as I do make the whole % from a hostess ws ... would be nice if SU would give us demos a higher % off when placing personal orders just to off set and make more of a saving off the product and not so much on taxes and the S&H
cause with MK it is a higher % and still flate rate for s&h
Just wondering this today also Please understand I am in no way complaining Just wondering
thanks for any input
Dawn
I've been a loyal SU! customer for three years now, and the shipping fee never bothered me. UPS is not cheap -- you're paying for that guarantee of good service. The candle store where I work part-time here at school ships domestically with UPS at customer request, and we charge a flat rate of $10 per box, which accomodates most purchases. SU! is a company, and as a business they want to turn a profit. Money for overhead costs like payroll and warehouse maintenance (not to mention all those great freebies like hostess and SAB sets) has to come from somewhere. You'd rather they raise their stamp prices instead of charging the 10% sliding scale shipping fee?
__________________ Rachel Proud SU! demo and Sci-Fi Geek!
My Stampin' Up! blog "I'm a time traveler -- I point and laugh at archaeologists." 10th Doctor, "Silence in the Library"
If it makes you feel any better, I sell for another company (whose products are VERY pricey to begin with) and they charge 20% shipping - at least on APO orders - but I have seen their shipping for in the states too, even though it's a $ amount, it still comes out about the same as I have had things shipped there too.
I reallly hadn't thought too much about it. Just about any home based business you buy from will have a shipping/handling charge. It's not free for them to have UPS take our stuff to us...
But just think, the WHOLE rest of the year we have free shipping/handling on orders over $50. How awesome is that. That'll save you $5....
My beef is more that something can cost a lot to purchase, but be really light, so the cost to ship is no where NEAR the 10% of the order. But I always figured that sometimes that would be the case, and sometimes you would order something that is not that expensive, but really HEAVY and eventually it would all even out.
SU does also make as many shipments as required to get you your items as soon as possible (with backorders, etc.), and doesn't require you to pay extra in shipping. Depending on the number of backordered items (although THANKFULLY that is decreasing now), that's a lot more picking and packaging and shipping that they aren't charging extra for.
Some companies will not send anything out until your entire order is available (just ordered some CD calendar cases, and one of the items was backordered... they gave me the option of deleting the backordered item and reordering it later, or waiting a few extra weeks for my order).
I am also Canadian...and paying the 10% S&H and the 14% PST & GST on top of that, then having to pick up my own order?? I admit disturbs me. If I'm going to pay $10 on a $100 order of 2 stamp sets that I KNOW can be shipped via Canada Post for $8 insured ($6 for next day service, insured, in the same city), well IMO that's better service - at least I don't have to drive across town. To be truthful, knowing the 10% S&H is there just makes me spend less on stamps. :(
I am also Canadian, and I talked about this with my upline when I signed up. She said that when she signed up 2 1/2 years ago when SU first came to canada, S&H was 15%. They have actually brought it down to 10% and are eating the true cost to them.
I also had an order of other product come from the US last month, and it was shipped with Fed Ex. I received a bokerage bill because Fed Ex used a brokarage company to collect the gst. $6 tax turmed into $48 by the time they started charging all kinds of brokarage fees....I now think we get off really good with 10%
My thing is I could understand the 10% if the orders were all being shipped to the individual customers who ordered them. But, when the orders are all part of a workshop and get shipped to ONE person, I think it should be figured differently. Maybe on the total sales or something. However, I figure if SU wants to charge 10%, knowing it cuts into the amount people spend on their orders, then they must get enough business for it not to matter to them how us customers feel about it. Therefore, I will just spend what I can afford INCLUDING shipping & handling and if that means fewer stamp sets, then it means fewer stamp sets and less business for SU from me.
The way I look at it is they can either charge the 10% for S&H or they can lower the price of S&H and raise the prices of the products. They've determined what they need to collect to turn a profit. Either way the stamps (and lots of other products) are both high quality and still cheaper than LSS prices. When I first starting purchasing SU several years ago I thought the 10% was high, but after comparing prices I got over it. JMO
sweetandsour - just curious - why do you have to drive across town?????
If I ordered $150 woth of paper I would get about 34 packs!! DO you know how much that would weigh!!! It would cost me $15, but SU would actually lose on that order. I once shipped some baby clothes to my SIL and it was $25! my guess is that those boxes would be about the same weight! the actual shipping cost is not all you are paying for. the people who pick and process need to get paid.thats what the Handling portion of the fee is.
I know things are more complicated in canada. the tax system is different.....but that is not SU's fault...they cant help what amount of tax is charged.
Free shipping is here for a while....jump on the boat........buy it all now and fret no more about it!
sweetandsour - just curious - why do you have to drive across town?????
I ordered through a party. I don't know if it's different if I order it direct from the demo - is it? The hostess said that I have to pick up my order myself, even though she's a 2 car family and we are not, and she lives 30 mins away from me.
If I continue buying from SU (depends if I get my Oct 23rd ordered Stampin' Spots before 2005), you bet I'll be looking for the closest demo to me!
I would think that delivering the items is part of the hostess' duties. Afterall the customers orders are what got her FREE products! IMO you should not have had to drive across town to pick up your stuff.
any party I have EVER been to including the ones my demo puts on they have ALWAYS delivered my stuff TO ME!! I think that is how it is suppose to work anyway. I deliver mine the day or day after they come usually. Our UPS guy come late in afternoon. As for shipping I figure that they need to pay their workers, pay for a building, boxes, tape, and "filler" to buy to get your stamp sets to you without damage. There are a lot of companies that do charge more than that and there are some that charge a flat fee.
First of all, if you want something delivered to your house, you more than likely will have to pay shipping unless there's a special or something. Secondly, if you take, for example, the Travel Time set (I just opened the catalog and picked one), it sells for $28.95, so that would be $2.90 for shipping (and I can tell you it would cost more than that to send it from my house to yours). It's a set of 9 stamps, so if you divide the cost, it's $3.53 per stamp. Can you get a stamp for that price anywhere else AND have it delivered to your door? I know I can't.
I just had a Tupperware catalog party - shipping was 10%. This week I have a Tastefully Simple party - shipping is 10%. I have a customer in my stamp club that lives at a distance. It costs me much more than 10% to mail her order each month. But still cheaper than the gas to drive that distance! I'm sure SU has lost lots of money on shipping this year with all the backorders. Plus with the free shipping now! Most catalogs charge over 10% shipping. Those few direct sales companies that charge less, are making it up by increased prices for their products. People selling stamps on eBay are charging way over 10% for shipping. Bottom line - 10% shipping is reasonable in my opinion.
Have you ever ordered or looked at overstock.com? ANY order is $2.95 for S&H regardless of how bulky and heavy or how light. I don't know how they do that either!!!
Shipping boxes can be soooo expensive. For those of you who are complaining about SU and it's shipping rates please wait a few weeks and when you are sending out your holiday goodies please keep tabs on how much you spend. You will be amazed! We send out packages regularly to different parts of the country ( and now to Hawaii from NC - thanks for moving grandma! ) so I know the cost of shipping things. Even sending US Postal is expensive. And not as reliable.
It all works out in the wash people. Let's not focus on one little bitty thing. Like Lisa Lisa said, SU sometimes looses money on heavy objects and makes money on lighter objects. Besides, how can this be an issue now - FREE SHIPPING for the rest of the year!!!!! :lol:
__________________ "Nothin' could be finer than to be in Carolina in the mornin'!"
I am not sure what all companies do because I rarely purchase from a lot of others but I do know that Creative Memories has somehow been able to forgo charging extremely hight shipping fees. As a consultant if your order is less than $800 you pay $15 for shipping. Over $800 it is free. It is up to the consultant if they pass this fee onto the customer or not. I charged 5% in Hawaii because at the time they did not give free shipping to our orders (now they do). Now I am no longer a consultant and my CMC does not charge shipping.
As for other companies - I do think they make some money off the shipping. For them to say they are doing it to cover costs of processing is understandable but on the other hand how much does it really cost for some wood and rubber when it is mass produced? I am sure that overall it does not cost them 10% to actually mail the boxes. But I figure the real expence is the handling.....
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Shelley
The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.
Tupperware charges 10%
Discovery Toys charges 11% (last I checked)
Shipping & Handling also covers the packing supplies and the salaries of the workers to pack it up.
All of these companies need some way for the demonstrators to easily figure the S&H costs. A percentage is easy. Someone once complained to me that they should charge by weight. Well, wouldn't that be a HUGE inconvenience if the demo had to look up then add up the weights of every single item on an order? Some people order 20 items!
Some items are heavier than others, yes. But in the end, it all evens out. Take for instance my last Tupperware order. Sure, it's plastic and generally pretty light, but this time there were heavy frying pan, roasting pan and casserole pan, and the shipping cost the same. Those boxes were very heavy. And to compare Tupperware with Stampin' Up!, I've gotten boxes from both on the same day. Usually the Tupperware box is 2 times the size of the SU box, but the SU box is twice as heavy. The carriers (FedEx & UPS) don't only charge by weight, but also by dimension.
Oh shipping is high these days but I think that there are different rates for businesses who us "brown" all the time - not sure just guessing otherwise how could CM not charge for shipping? Those albums and paper weigh a ton!!
__________________
Shelley
The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.
I can certainly sympathize with the high shipping. It seems know matter who you order from you are going to pay a shipping fee. Think about how much you spend in a day going from store to store looking for an item. Gas is not cheep! And what about your time? We are always wanting more time. There has to be a price put on your that as well. The best solution to not paying 10% for shipping is to order now. You have until December 31 to receive free shipping from SU!! What an amazing offer. So, call up your demo and stock up! Or, if you don't have a demo give me a email and I will be sure to hook you up.
On top of S&H some of our states, like Texas, tax the shipping and handling. So then I pay an extra 8.25% at the end of the order. I have to be careful about ordering online from a business with a storefront in Texas, (ie: Walmart or JoAnn's) because they will add that sales tax on right at the end, after they've calculated shipping. I'm better off just buying it in person. But if I order from an out of state company, no tax. Even with these fees, I feel the individual cost of all the stamps in the stamp set seems reasonable. Plus, I can't go to a store front to get them
I couldnt agree more with Novell, If I am paying for the high shipping, I do think it should be delivered directly to my home. I too spend less on their product or tend to buy from other stores to offset the cost.
I really dont think the post is no way complaining about the shipping at least my post was not intended to be Just wondering Thats all !!! and with all the great posts here on this subject I am sure we can pass the tid bits onto our customers that ask this question also... I Love everything about SU! they offer many perks for everyone from Hostess- to being a demo I for one have never seen such a web site like SU! for us demos that keeps us up todate and with daily posts of new ideas and a libary full of projects Just looking at SU web site can take a few hours even a few days to absorb all the info it has ... I guess if any of you that are demos that would like to voice an opinion I think It would be awesome to tell SU directly through email to DS or even post a idea or suggestion on your monthly survey .. Perks to SU! I believe are to be as follows
shipping SU! Bags with every order
stampin techniques with every order
free shipping on all hostess benifits
FREE money to spend which also has free shipping on products
usually a promotion every month
Not to mention
reasonable prices on product
also lets not forget the commisson cks we also recieve which add to our %'s
also Great rewards Which are also FREE shipping
I also think a perk is to be able to run our business the way we want to and and tons of resources to help you
No pressure of set sales for one order ( example we can place a very small order to a lage one with no mininum amount and have all orders count towards your quota for the quarter. also to be able to have the whole quarter the make your quota ...
and lets not forget to mention all the GREAT demo friends we have made from convention to help share the creative side of SU .. I mean really how many ways can we do our Make up/ use tupperwear/ and ect....
I love everything about SU! and when we really stop and think of all SU does do for us I think 10% for shipping is really not much and thinks its fair that the 10% applies to everyone from a hostess - demonstrator .... cause it would not be fair if ONE person had to pay and the rest did not .. I Know myself that I would not want to have to pay S&H and not anyone else for an order ... Ok with that said How can viking ship for free every day with a min of 25.00 order do that own part of UPS or something ?? and get orders so fast usually within 1 day for me in Michigan ... I think the question of the shipping is a question we will all face at one time or another and I am thankful that we have sites like this to ask such questions to help us with such questions we may get from our customers and or our selfs... Just my thoughts
rubber hugs
Dawn
Loving SU!
Illinois also apparently makes you pay tax on the S&H. This really makes me mad and I don't enjoy paying an extra $10-$20 on top of my order for both the S&H and tax. I do not understand how you can pay tax on a SERVICE (which is what S&H is). SU should consider that in their decision about how much to charge for S&H.
And if my S&H is going for my "rewards", I guess I am really not earning anything by having a party.
I hate to pay shipping and tax. That is why I love Amazon. Anything over $25 free shipping. Plus they are also pretty competitive with prices. DH actually will buy tires from out of state and pay shipping instead of buying them locally and paying tax.
I think CTMH only charges like 7.5% for shipping. I may be wrong because the demo I buy from pays the shipping for me turning in an order.
[quote="photocropper"]I am not sure what all companies do because I rarely purchase from a lot of others but I do know that Creative Memories has somehow been able to forgo charging extremely hight shipping fees. As a consultant if your order is less than $800 you pay $15 for shipping. Over $800 it is free. It is up to the consultant if they pass this fee onto the customer or not.
The thing is the shipping with CM is $15 (if the order is less than $800) whether it is a $3.50 sticker pack or 5 albums, or an order that comes to $775, now they are also about to start adding an addition $6 charge if the order is less than $100, additionally CMC's have to pay for the hostess benefits that are passed on to the hostess of a party, they also pay for the bags orders are delivered in, the catalogs (no one ever charges people for these) and for the extra thank you gift whether it is a promotion or not...I think that is the difference on why shipping is lower, the consultant has to pay the difference. I don't like ahving to pay 10% on a SU order either but I am happy knowing that my demo doesn;t ahve to pay for the extra goodies I get out of her pocket either...SU runs much better promotions than CM does also...
__________________ My avatar is my adorable niece, she makes me smile, thought she might make you smile too!!
The tax on S&H has nothing to do with SU this is a state by state code of some sort .. because every state is different ... IAlso dont understand your post at the end gwtw ??? about the S&H rewards and not worth having a party ??? what do you mean ?? having ws is ALWAYS worth it to me ... this ups my totals and then I do reap the benfits from Great rewards and if you dont place an order at the ws then your not out anything but still get Great rewards benifits with out S&H??? please help me understand your post more clearly girlie :-)
xoxoox
Dawn
I realize that that s/h is for "shipping" AND "handling". Doesn't really bother me because the shipping is usually terrific. What I don't understand is how can they tax the s/h? I didn't think that a service was taxable. I would expect the subtotal to be taxed, and then the 10% s/h of the subtotal to added. It doesn't add to much, but it still bothers me every time.
I don't know if this is a companywide policy or just something my demo does, but when you book a party, the hostess of the party you were attending gets free shipping on whatever she orders at your party. When my coworkers and I have stamping parties, we do it in the conference room at the office and have all the orders sent to us at work. The hostess sorts everything out at lunchtime on the day the order arrives.
I figure I'm doing pretty well if I can get a 10-lb box shipped via UPS to my doorstep for less than $10! I've been "Clean Sweeping" my house lately and selling some items on eBay, and I can tell you that the amount we pay SU! is definitely comparable to (and in some cases less than) what postage and packing supplies alone set you back when mailing a package. This is why many sellers (including me) charge a small handling fee on top of postage. Those padded envelopes and other packing stuff aren't free -- not to mention the gas used to get to the post office, etc. Does SU! have a Canadian manufacturing center in addition to their Utah HQ? If not, well, it's only natural to have to pay more because everything is being shipped internationally and SU! has no control over that.
Anyway, this thread seems to be in danger of getting as contentious as the political ones from a few weeks ago! :(
__________________ Rachel Proud SU! demo and Sci-Fi Geek!
My Stampin' Up! blog "I'm a time traveler -- I point and laugh at archaeologists." 10th Doctor, "Silence in the Library"
I can certainly sympathize with the high shipping. It seems know matter who you order from you are going to pay a shipping fee. Think about how much you spend in a day going from store to store looking for an item. Gas is not cheep! And what about your time? We are always wanting more time. There has to be a price put on your that as well. The best solution to not paying 10% for shipping is to order now. You have until December 31 to receive free shipping from SU!! What an amazing offer. So, call up your demo and stock up! Or, if you don't have a demo give me a email and I will be sure to hook you up.
Hope everyone has a great day.
Chris
I live maybe 25 miles from Wilde-Ideas. It kills me to pay for shipping from a "local" company, but with gas at $2 a gallon, I spend less to order on line than to go there.
By the way, UPS has a rate hike going into effect in January. As oil goes up, so does ALL shipping -- not just products like these but on your groceries (trucks to the stores), everything. It is just built into the margin. Just like CM's "free shipping." They are getting theirs off the top.
The state's that tax S & H are determined by your state legislature. Evidently, your elected officials have decided to raise revenue in this manner. This is NOT SU's fault. Unfortunetly, you are paying taxes on S & H from any mail order company that charges S&H.
The way to handle this is to go to your legislature. Many grass root efforts have changed the way government bodies do business. Good luck. I can see why you are frustrated!
O.K... as for tax on S/H, each state has different tax laws. SU has to follow those laws. For those of us like me, who live in TX, we have to pay the tax on the S/H. Other state's laws do not require that tax. The 10% S/H is added on after tax is calculated. I know it may be aggravating, but you can always move . As for the 10%, it is not for just shipping. The "H" stands for handling. SU has to pay their employees who pick the orders, package them, answer phones, ect. They also have to pay for the Hostess Benefits, Demonstrator Free Stamp Sets, etc. I personally don't see how they can cover all of it with just a 10% charge (but I don't want to pay more). I also happen to be the daughter of one of those FABULOUS "men in brown" and I don't mind giving him some business. Those guys work their butts of and don't get paind enough for it. SU has to be one of the best companies I have ever been associated with.
Sorry for any confusion but from all the posts, people are stating that the S&H also helps pay for our "rewards" in addition to all the other "handling" places this money goes to. So, in essence, it appears we are helping pay for our rewards per what the others have stated.
And I am not upset with SU with having to pay tax on the S&H since it is a state by state thing, but SU should start realizing what we stampers are paying for fees beyond our products. :lol:
I have been on a quest to discover the ins and outs of SU shipping. I have always been very curious about it myself.
One thing I do know is that SU loses money every year on shipping. I know that SU has unique shipping needs, because *normally* you will get your package within 7 business days. This is extraordinary, and I haven't encountered this anywhere else in the direct sales world. I know I had a candle party and the order took 3 1/2 weeks to arrive, and I was assured by my consultant that this was within normal shipping parameters.
I know that when you are at a workshop you can order just a couple of ink pads and pay less than a buck for shipping, rather than a $3.95 flat fee.
I know that SU *normally* has the most efficient shipping and handling system I have ever seen. I have visited their distribution center and it works like a well-oiled machine. They are always looking out for ways to streamline the process to get those orders out as quickly as possible.
I still don't know why the 10% flat fee, and how much UPS charges them, and more details, but when I find out, I will share!
__________________
Milette
The dreamers of the day are dangerous people,For they dream their dreams with open eyes,And make them come true.- D.H. Lawrence
10% Shipping & Handling
