archery spam pet peeve

[olddogrib]

I'll admit I'm in a pretty crabby mood, what with not being able to give any credibility to anything I read or hear these days.  If this gets pulled (and probably will), so be it. To no archery supplier in particular(because many do it), I embrace America, capitalism, your right to make a dollar(hopefully many with hard work),run your business any way you want to, charge what prices and shipping rates the market will bear....however advertising "Free Shipping" in the subject line, only to be followed by..."when you spend $XX" in fine print is just false advertising and in no way endears me to your products or business.  I realize I could order a very cheap item and you'd lose money getting it to me, but it's your choice to make the claim...and whether it's accurate or not. I'm not going to be duped into spending more than I need to.  But I have moved my support to the "mom and pop" sites that don't pull this BS. Folks are fed up with fake news, don't be a contributor. Just sayin'!

[The Whittler]

Or what's worst then ordering a bag of feathers and having to pay all most as much for shipping.

 They charge a flat rate of $7.00 or more for one stick bow string, or one nock set, or one glue stick. I didn't realize shipping was so expensive.

[kevsuperg]

How bout an item on one site is 50$ + 15$ shipping or 65$ on another site with free shipping . Huh?

[KeganM]

Shipping is expensive.

[McDave]

It's getting to be more common to have that ridiculous $15 shipping charge be the last item that comes up, after you've filled out all the forms and entered your credit card information.  By that time you've invested 15-20 minutes filling out forms plus whatever time it took you to pick out your items, so even though you know you're being gouged, you're reluctant to cancel the order.

There's a lot about the 21st century I could do without, starting with replacing human beings that used to answer the phone with robots.  It's fine with an organization if some stupid robot wastes 20 minutes of my time as I work my way through a maze of options to nowhere, because they don't have to pay someone who could get me to my answer in 2 minutes or less.  Businesses that want to sell you something are beginning to realize how annoying this is and will connect you with a human being pretty quickly, but try calling a government agency or some business like PayPal that is not directly selling anything, and it's a miracle if you ever get to talk to a human being.

[Red Beastmaster]

I needed a string and feathers but waited until I went to the Baltimore shoot last week. I saved money and got to talk with the vendor face to face.

I typically go to shoots with a shopping list to avoid shipping.

[David Mitchell]

Originally posted by Red Beastmaster:
I needed a string and feathers but waited until I went to the Baltimore shoot last week. I saved money and got to talk with the vendor face to face.

I typically go to shoots with a shopping list to avoid shipping.

Yep, same here.

[Terry Green]

I hear you're concern
..and I see both sides being that I had a UPS account for years. I saw how shipping kept escalating to the point to where I was paying more for shipping than our Bowhush products were worth.

Again I understand your pain but shipping is gone absolutely outrageously costly not to mention what you get charged for shipping supplies

[M60gunner]

Hidden costs are everywhere. My son just bought himself a new grill. He wanted to change it but the "mom and pop" store wanted another $40. There prices look like the big guys that is why he went local. He learned a lesson this morning. Actually he lost more using his debit card because he got no points.
But back to OP. I make a list of stuff I need, glue, feathers, whatever and keep it for "specials" on shipping. Around here "Trad stuff" is slim pickens. I took advantage of a shipping deal yesterday as my list exceeded the minimum easily.

I gave out a couple of long bows last month.  I could have mailed them, but the shipping, the cost of a pvc tube and insurance ran me up to the price of more than a dozen Surewoods for each bow.  My wife in her wisdom said give it two days.  In two days a couple of  young guys from a nearby town stopped by.  I parted company with two longbows, but saved over $100 overall, plus there are two more trad shooters in the area.

[Chuck Jones]

It cost me an average of over $3.00 for box, label, packing paper, and tape for each order. Add to that, 20-30 minutes labor, and another 20-30 minutes to drive the 6 miles each way to the post office.

I haven't raised my shipping rates for 12 years. I loose an average of $4.00 for every order on shipping costs.

There is no such thing as "free shipping".

[Alexander Traditional]

Originally posted by M60gunner:
Hidden costs are everywhere. My son just bought himself a new grill. He wanted to change it but the "mom and pop" store wanted another $40. There prices look like the big guys that is why he went local. He learned a lesson this morning. Actually he lost more using his debit card because he got no points.
But back to OP. I make a list of stuff I need, glue, feathers, whatever and keep it for "specials" on shipping. Around here "Trad stuff" is slim pickens. I took advantage of a shipping deal yesterday as my list exceeded the minimum easily.

I do the exact same thing. I also utilize the classifieds because you usually have a savings on the product and most people ship for free. If its small eveyday stuff I love Braveheart archery. There shipping is cheap and very fast.

[Archie]

There's no such thing as free shipping, even if your grandma sticks out in her luggage and takes it to you.  Someone pays the cost, and our Trad vendors don't have fat profit margins or massive shipping channels to absorb those costs into, like Amazon.  I hate shipping costs, too, so I try to purchase multiple things at once and cut my losses.  

Or... I spend the money I would have spent on shipping on gas to drive to Kalamazoo or Compton, and buy my stuff there!!

[Charlie Lamb]

I just shipped a couple of fletchers and covered the cost of shipping myself... really took it in the shorts on that one.

[olddogrib]

As I stated, I can sympathize with the rates shippers charge and I'll defend supplier's right to charge what they want to as long as it's clear and accurate.  I just have zero tolerance anymore for thinly-veiled deceptions.  I appreciate the mods letting this stand.  I've tried to keep it objective and my only hope is we're seeing a country that's finally had enough.  The  propaganda our media gets away with feeding us would be an embarrassment to a third world country. We'd better wake up as a country and put some caveats around the First amendment or lose it. This was a no-brainer when I was growing up and you could assume most folks were generally honest. Now everybody's got an agenda...and a lot of it's an abomination!

[meathead]

I am not a big fan of shippping charges either. The one I hate the most is that e mail you get for a deal on shipping right after you place an order from someone. Seems like it happens every time I order supplies.

[Michael Arnette]

I always get my stuff from Terry and Sheila at the Nocking Point. Best prices around and good service.
 www.thenockingpiont.com

[Matty]

Maybe this will help. I've asked a couple of local guys if they've ever needed anything when I order it bumps up the total maybe to the "free shipping " rate. Or in the event it isn't free shipping you could divide up the shipping so you don't have to eat the whole thing. In some cases the shipping is kinda worth it. For me to drive to Denver to RMSG would essentially cost me an entire tank of gas ($40)and an hour in each direction. $5-$8 shipping seems like nothing in this case. I hope that helps!

[Longtoke]

This thread reminds me of a good experience I had a while back when ordering from Big Jim's bow company. I needed a single leather strike plate but didnt want to play the 6 dollar flat rate shipping for a 3 dollar strike plate.

I called them up and they were more than happy to mail me one out by envelope, 85 cents postage.  

[Captain*Kirk]

I realize postage is not "free" and it has to be passed on either in less discount or actual freight. And I'm OK with that.
But here's what gets me spitting nails...I filled up my shopping cart with arrow building stuff from one of the big online suppliers. The more I added into the cart, the higher the shipping fee. What changed? Not the box size...a box big enough to hold a dozen shafts is usually stuffed full of craft paper. Not weight...how much can three dozen feathers and 100 nocks weigh? A tube of fletching cement? UPS and Fed Ex ship boxes by size and weight; if the weight does not increase substantially and the size doesn't change, neither does the freight.Yet every item I put in the box bumped it up a couple bucks. I finally got fed up and called customer service, the CSR told me there was nothing he could do. I told him I felt they were 'punishing me' for buying more. At that point I cancelled the order, wrote some nasty feedback to their website and re-ordered from another much less popular source. Even though some items were priced higher, the freight was a fixed flat rate. I came out ahead in the end.
People aren't stupid...it IS possible to have several browser windows open at once and comparison shop. The Big Guys should take heed and quit offering phony 'sales pricing' and then try to weasel their money back with inflated freight. It smacks of snake oil salesman techniques and is a total turn-off to me.