Silk Road forums
Discussion => Silk Road discussion => Topic started by: xx138xx on September 14, 2012, 01:32 am
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Let me start off by stating I personally have to ship computer parts, electronics, and other legit goods multiple times a week. Sometimes first class, sometimes priority. Packaging material can add up price wise when I have to use peanuts, foam, bubble wrap, anti static bags, eggcrate cartons, and even vaccum sealed mylar for some delicate items. So I have a pretty clear idea how shipping and packaging costs go.
Recently I've seen a lot of feedback stating people are being charged for priority and receiving via first class. In addition, while browsing for items I wanted, I've put the breaks on several purchases after seeing what some of these people are trying to pull with their shipping charges. It's one thing to try and recoup some of your costs as a vendor for packaging and such, but baiting customers with low low prices then gouging them on shipping is just piss poor business. One vendor was even trying to charge $10 for shipping 5 god damn pills.
I can completely understand a vendor wanting to ship weed only via priority so the smell has less chance to permeate the packaging in transit, but forcing people to have to pay for priority on things that doesn't carry that same concern is kind of a dick move. First class and a dcn would suffice in those cases and not attract as much heat as someone showing up at the post office every day with nothing but priority mail. Legit looking fronts tend to have a variety of mail. Not just steady stream of premium rate postage constantly.
So to sum up my rant, quit fronting about your shipping costs. Most of us with a brain can look up the cost of a priority flat rate box, figure in the cost of some packing stuffs, and tell when you're trying to get one over on us. Several vendors, mainly the pill guys, have lost a few hundred dollars in potential sales from just myself due to your weak ass game. By tacking on those ridiculous shipping charges you make it way more viable to source my shit locally just to not reward you for being trifling.
And no, I'm not saying everyone is doing it, I just chose not to call people out individually as all of you can browse through and see the ones I'm reffering to.
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I really have not looked at others shipping costs but I do know about shipping on SR.
Mine is based on the cost to ship an item ($3) The cost of the box, tape, bubble wrap, etc ($2) so $5 to ship domestic for a single item.
However, SR has a little bug.. If I list shipping at $5 and the person puts in a quantity of 5 then it is still $5 to ship even though my $3 postage cost just jumped to $4.95
However, if the person shipping is using a flat rate box as many vendors do it is around $6 to ship before they include the cost of bags, vacuum sealing, tape, stealth packaging, and the time to drive it some place to drop it off. It is not like shipping computer parts, we can not leave it in our mail box or ask the postman "Hay, can you stop by I have several drug shipments I need you to pick up" Many of us drive upwards of 30 miles to drop packages off at different locations so as not to give away where we are.
So, depending on the pills and if they can be detected by sniffer dogs, I can see $10 in shipping. Is your safety and the safe delivery of your item not worth $10?
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I've had a similar experience when I purchased something recently, charged about $3 bucks for shipping and all I got was the product in a baggie in a letter envelope. No effort to hide it at all. It was the first bad experience I had. Such a shame because everything else has been stellar and have served as a great example for me and what I am going to strive for when I become a vendor.
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I've had a similar experience when I purchased something recently, charged about $3 bucks for shipping and all I got was the product in a baggie in a letter envelope. No effort to hide it at all. It was the first bad experience I had. Such a shame because everything else has been stellar and have served as a great example for me and what I am going to strive for when I become a vendor.
I hope you rated him down for that and posted about it in the comment to let other buyers know.
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I've had a similar experience when I purchased something recently, charged about $3 bucks for shipping and all I got was the product in a baggie in a letter envelope. No effort to hide it at all. It was the first bad experience I had. Such a shame because everything else has been stellar and have served as a great example for me and what I am going to strive for when I become a vendor.
I hope you rated him down for that and posted about it in the comment to let other buyers know.
I did. I was even fair and only left a 4/5 rating cause the only thing off was packaging. But yeah, I counted my lucky stars that it didn't get intercepted. It was a great lesson in what not to do.
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I actually make the drive to the post office myself each day. Some of the things I ship out run afoul of encryption export rules, so I know about having to be stealthy. If it's costing $10 to ship 5 pills then you need to rethink your logistics. While the driving distance issue I can empathize with, I feel that part should be included into the product pricing. Otherwise it is just like buying an airline ticket for a sale price and then getting nickle and dimed to death afterwards.
And for what it's worth, most drug dogs are not trained to smell pharmas. There is a gigantic grey market for meds coming in from Mexico and Canada involving senior citizens that the feds turn a blind eye too. If they tried going after mail order pharmas they'd be locking up peoples grandmas, which does not interest them as they can't be milked by the system for probation and court fees like the youth can. They also have the protection of the AARP and it's voting block powers. If you hear about someone getting busted by a k9 with pharmas in their pocket or in their car, they most likely had handled it, or its container, with other contraband on their hands or proximity. I've personally had 10 methadones, some percs, and some xanax in my car last time I got traffic stopped and the dog never even sniffed me twice. The only thing between them and the dog was the prescription bottles.
I guess this highlights one of the downsides of SR. Some of us with info on how to help others get their logistical costs down have no real way to pass this on to people who might benefit from it due to everyone wanting to stay protected and anonymous. And posting said info in the forums for everyone to see would give lurking LEO access to the info as well.
I guess all this did come across as being a rant, but I'll explain why. Recently I've been getting some really, really debilitating migraines. I'm not sure if they are due to a head injury I suffered while deployed but I was looking for something to hold me over until I could get back to the doctor for testing to find out whats going on.
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I recently made a purchase that charged me over $11.00 for Priority shipping. They did have it shipped out within hours of my order and the product I ordered is one that not many reliable vendors offer. If it shows up tomorrow, I will be glad to pay the extra five or so dollars for the quick shipping and receiving. This place isn't perfect but it's hard for me to complain.
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I have seen vendors offer both types of shipping, but charge an exorbitant amount of money for the faster method. They would then claim that Priority mail would get packaged and shipped every day, within 24 hours of ordering, while only shipping First Class mail 2 days a week. So the customer thinks they are paying for faster shipping, and faster order processing time.
Kind of like Amazon Prime--you pay for a premium shipping service called Amazon Prime, and you get faster shipping on everything Amazon has in stock.
Of course, straight up overcharging for no other reason is entirely dishonest, and is a detriment to the SR system and community.
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I'll gladly pay $10 shipping if the packaging is super stealthy. I have received stuff that not only must have been expensive but super time consuming. I can't even imagine what goes into getting hundreds of shipments ready day after day. I'll pay for piece of mind.
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Couldn't agree more. I haven't yet avoided business with someone just because of shipping, but when I'm seeing 8-10 bucks for First Class shipping it's obnoxious. If you want to be competitive, be honest about it and don't try to tack on charges at the end of the order. It reminds me of those sellers on Amazon that sell products for $0.01 but then ship it for 5 bucks...really lame and dumb.
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I've had a similar experience when I purchased something recently, charged about $3 bucks for shipping and all I got was the product in a baggie in a letter envelope. No effort to hide it at all. It was the first bad experience I had. Such a shame because everything else has been stellar and have served as a great example for me and what I am going to strive for when I become a vendor.
Yeah, I think that's grounds for a 2/5 or 3/5, especially if it was something that had a smell. I haven't had such bad luck, but I also am very careful to check reviews pretty thoroughly before I buy from anyone: it doesn't matter how good or exclusive their product is if they don't know how to ship properly.
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Some people take the piss, especially when they only ship domestic but whack on a large charge. How long till we see the $0.99 items with $50 shipping?
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I've had a similar experience when I purchased something recently, charged about $3 bucks for shipping and all I got was the product in a baggie in a letter envelope. No effort to hide it at all. It was the first bad experience I had. Such a shame because everything else has been stellar and have served as a great example for me and what I am going to strive for when I become a vendor.
similar shit happened to me except vac sealed once but you could easily feel what it was just a regular white envelope the vendor was mwtcgreen don't know if they changed up the packaging but i'm not willing try again weed wasn't even too good(this was about 1.5-2 mos ago)
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ive noticed this as well. it seems like priority is favored for security reasons but like you said, not everything needs to be priority shipped.
sloppy packaging is especially worrying- youd think vendors would know better than to just send drugs in an envelope with no disguises whatsoever
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Is it true that Silk Roads % fee is only calculated on the item price and does not include the shipping price?
If that is true, doesn't that mean a vendor can sidestep some of the Silk Road fee by having a higher shipping price and a lower item price?
Even if that's not true, it can be a good way for a vendor to hook a buyer in with a low item price only for the real cost to be added on with the shipping price. This was happening a while ago with the Valium listings, as they're of a low price anyway and the competition was getting cut-throat.
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Is it true that Silk Roads % fee is only calculated on the item price and does not include the shipping price?
If that is true, doesn't that mean a vendor can sidestep some of the Silk Road fee by having a higher shipping price and a lower item price?
Even if that's not true, it can be a good way for a vendor to hook a buyer in with a low item price only for the real cost to be added on with the shipping price. This was happening a while ago with the Valium listings, as they're of a low price anyway and the competition was getting cut-throat.
Yes, SR does not take a % of the shipping fee.
However, SR will dump a vendor that does $0.99 with $50 shipping because it is an obvious attempt to bypass the seller fees.
So how much do you think is too much shipping? Some vendors use flat rate boxes which is $6+ once the DCN is on it. Not counting bubble wrap, tape, labels, vacuum sealing, etc. This tends to be done due to the earlier mentioned bug in SR's shipping. Takes the issues out of shipping.
What is the cost of shipping? It is far more than the cost of the stamp, anyone who has shipped as a business knows that shipping, often referred to as shipping and handling, is used to recoup the cost of the shipping related expenses.
In a standard accounting model the shipping and handling charges cover everything from the box to the employees time to package the box.
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Is it true that Silk Roads % fee is only calculated on the item price and does not include the shipping price?
If that is true, doesn't that mean a vendor can sidestep some of the Silk Road fee by having a higher shipping price and a lower item price?
Even if that's not true, it can be a good way for a vendor to hook a buyer in with a low item price only for the real cost to be added on with the shipping price. This was happening a while ago with the Valium listings, as they're of a low price anyway and the competition was getting cut-throat.
Yes, SR does not take a % of the shipping fee.
However, SR will dump a vendor that does $0.99 with $50 shipping because it is an obvious attempt to bypass the seller fees.
So how much do you think is too much shipping? Some vendors use flat rate boxes which is $6+ once the DCN is on it. Not counting bubble wrap, tape, labels, vacuum sealing, etc. This tends to be done due to the earlier mentioned bug in SR's shipping. Takes the issues out of shipping.
What is the cost of shipping? It is far more than the cost of the stamp, anyone who has shipped as a business knows that shipping, often referred to as shipping and handling, is used to recoup the cost of the shipping related expenses.
In a standard accounting model the shipping and handling charges cover everything from the box to the employees time to package the box.
I don't know if that question was directed at me? Personally, I haven't experienced excessive shipping prices from any of the vendors I've used. :)
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I have not read one post about time it takes to ship and pack.. Surely our time is worth something as well??
I offer 3 shipping options
Regular $7
Express $22 and change
Overnight $39
I think these prices are fair considering the time spent running around to do all the shipping.
my prices are the same for canada and the states
Do you think I charge too much???