Ever wondered why shipping charges are sometimes so inordinately high? Check out how this lone photographic battery charger was packed for delivery.
I'd guess the shipping charges on that package were several times the value of its contents! Still, I think the person posting the video clip was wrong to blame DHL (the delivery service). They would simply have delivered the package as it was received by them. In this case, the shipper's to blame.
Of course, when "standard shipping charges" are used, that's also an opportunity for canny sellers to make a dollar. There are any number of used book vendors on Amazon.com who charge a mere 1c for a used book, plus Amazon's minimum $3.99 standard shipping charge. They send it via the Post Office for somewhere between $2 and $3, and keep the difference as their profit. I don't mind that - if they can make a living while delivering a book to me at low cost, who am I to complain? But I don't think that covers the extraordinary packaging above . . .
Peter
8 comments:
YGTBSM!!!
That was packed for an air drop. Pity about lack of parachute, could have been useful.
At about 31 seconds into the video, did I hear someone say, in English, "fucking lunatic"?
I just ordered what is essentially a big rubber band (goes on fire helmet). It came in a shoebox sized box, wrapped in bubble wrap....WTH?
Couldn't tell from whom, or from where, it was shipped, but I've had similar - but not so egregious - examples from Amazon.
I wonder if, in the frenzy of a high volume operation, such as Amazon and others, there aren't employees who either want to cost their employer unnecessary monies or damage their reputation or just simply choose to have pre-adolescent fun by seeing how stupidly one can package and ship something, and even if the stupidity is caught, it's too time consuming to correct.
I hate to criticize friends, but both Brownells and Midway are guilty of this too, where they take small items and ship them in large boxes with lots of bubble wrap. Drives me nuts but at least I get some dog toys out of it--they love the bubbles.
I know when I order leather crafting supplies, lately USPS is cheaper than anything else....
Well, there are a couple explanations for that. Although, not all that good ones.
First, you say battery charger but the shipping company sees battery so it can only be shipped by freight forwarding which handles batteries. Once in the freight system, it had to be on a pallet as everything is handled by fork truck, due to union rules.
This may be the contract method for the shipper and it is not cost effect to do a one off for a non-battery component.
This may have been a one-time export turned over to an export experienced shipper who only had palletized shipping arrangements.
What we see as waste in shipping charges many not show up for the vendor due to contracts and would show up in employee time to deviate.
Welcome to specialization.
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