I've ordered from happs in the past without any unreasonable shipping costs. But I never bought anything big, so I never got hit by
UPS's oversize charge.
I used to work at a small shop that sold a couple products for $10. We were changed >$10 shipping for next day by the shipping companies (IIRC, fedEx $19, UPS $16, airborne (now dhl) $12), so we
had to pass it directly to the costumer. They complained all the same. Some them had their own accounts, and we would ship on their accounts if they asked, but they didn't save anything, AFAICT, but those people never complained. Go figure.
Anyway, a good way to test how much was shipping is to go to the UPS (or whatever shipping company used) web site and go to the the shipping cost page for the package and
use the actually shipping weight and dimensions of the package. Do NOT guessimate (see example why), and do not use a different shipper web page.
Two examples, both UPS ground, chicago to san fransisco, 2 lb, $10 value, personal packaging, delivery to comercial:
31"x27"x10": $33.73
31"x29"x10": $61.23
Two inch difference ==> $27.50 more. This is direct from
UPS. (second example: dhl: $40.19, fedex $41.56)
So if you were charged $40 for shipping, and you bought under $100, $10 went to the extra handling fee, $30 to shipping, which in my case is
under what I would be charged (assuming your shipment was ~24"x24"x7" but under 31"x28"x10", UPS ground*). Even if you bought more than $100, that's only $6.37 in handling, not bad for $100 worth of stuff.
In my books, that's reasonable.
(*Any small change in the examples will make differences: a residential delivery adds $2.50 to the second example, and shipping from Reno NV cuts it almost in half, for instance. Please test it out for your
exact case to be able to compare to what you were charged.)
However, most people won't see reason, and still say happs is way too expensive in shipping without making the effort to see if they really are. Just by using their gut feeling on what "too much" is. (AKA "Sheet for brains".)
If UPS charges XYZ, and happs charges you XYZ, XYZ + $5, or XYZ + 10%, that's reasonable IMO. Sure it's not free, but we've been spoiled by buy.com, amazon, dell, ect. Even they are decreasing on the number of free shipping sales (or increasing prices to hide the "free" shipping costs).