brand new broken joystick :(

[severdhed]

well, about a week or so ago, i decided to redesign my control panel, along with a few other aspects of my cabinet.  I had everything figured out, made a prototype of the panel out of a scrap of wood, used a router to route a space for my trackball so i can bottom mount it in wooden panel, did the same with my home made spinner...all is good.  I was having a hard time deciding what to do for a 4way joystick.  I almost bought a magstik plus, but the reviews are too mixed, so i decided on a dedicated 4way.  i found a thread on here where someone reccomended a Betson 4way space invaders stick, because they have a longer handle and can be easily mounted in a wooden panel. 

So i ordered on Thursday night about 10pm.  It was $19.99, they wouldn't tell me how much shipping would be.  Well, being that it is was a holliday weekend, i didnt get any kind of notification until Tuesday when they emailed me saying they got my order.  On wednesday i noticed that my card still wasnt charged and i had not received any tracking info, so i emailed them back..found out it was shipping from PA ( i also live in PA) and later that day i got a tracking number.  Today(thursday) it arrived.  Found out it cost $32.07....which was a little annoying...$12 to ship a joystick about half way across Pennsylvania...what a rip off.  Anyway, when i opened it up, one of the microswitches was like smashed, there is only 1 wire terminal on it, and the plastic is broken into several pieces.  only 1 peice was in the box, so it had to be broken before it ever left the warehouse. 

I emailed them back explaining what happened, along with a pic of the broken switch.  Fortunatly they are very helpful (at least Nicole Matthews is, that is who i have been contacting).  i got a response back already ( i sent the email right before i started typing this message)  She appologized for my inconvenience and is shipping out 2 replacement switches today at no cost.

it sucks, because i really wanted to get this thing together and start using it..but i guess i can borrow a switch from my player 2 joystick to try it out.

the thing that really annoys me is the price of shipping, not just from betson, but everywhere.  That and the fact that they wont tell you how much it is till after you order it.  I recently purchased bearings and rollers for my wico trackball from arcadeshop.com, they wouldnt tell me how much shipping would be either...it was around $7, which still seemed high for all the larger the package is.  I was recently looking at a magstik plus, $26 for the stick, but with shipping it is $40.  That is just ridiculous.  my friend just sold some speakers on ebay, the box ended up weighing nearly 20lbs, shipped via ups cost $14...so why is is it so much to ship a little joystick?

oh well, i just needed to get that off my chest, im off to Lowe's to buy a new piece of MDF for my control panel.

[ChadTower]

Are you sure that's not a Nintendo stick?

[horseboy]

Are you sure that's not a Nintendo stick?

No way. No one has ever even seen a broken one. And you think they are real? It's a myff.

[hypernova]

Not sure about the business world, but on ebay, until they do something about it, the shipping charge is not "taxed" by ebay.  By "taxed," I mean they don't apply the final value fee to it.

i.e.  $1 item, $14 shipped.  LOW FVF (final value fee)
       $14 item, $1 shipped.  HIGH FVF

Much higher profit margins for a seller on ebay when you gouge on shipping.  Many times anymore, you'll see an item cost $20-$25 to ship that would normally cost $5, and for that reason, the bidding won't go too high.

It's a win win situation for the seller.  They still sell at the price they want, and get to keep more of the money.

Ebay just proves their incompetence by letting this situation slide.  They have to be losing out on hundreds of thousands, possibly a million dollars or so a year, when you're talking about all these auctions going on that employ this tactic.

[Kremmit]

Sounds like your problem is that you keep ordering one part at a time.  Shipping is just like the setup cost on your actuators- a one-piece deal is ridiculous, but do more pieces and it gets more reasonable.

[severdhed]

typically i dont order just one part at a time, but i already had everything i needed, except the 4way stick, and the bearings and rollers.  When i first built the cabinet, it was only going to have two 8way sticks and some buttons...but that changed.

[MaximRecoil]

Are you sure that's not a Nintendo stick?

[brophog]

I was recently looking at a magstik plus, $26 for the stick, but with shipping it is $40.  That is just ridiculous

I can only assume you are getting this directly from Andy.....in England....and that you haven't priced shipping over there recently.

It ain't cheap. I've never shipped anything over there under about $10, and I can't think of anything off the top of my head even that close.

[Dervacumen]

Ebay just proves their incompetence by letting this situation slide. 

They are supposed to be cracking down on this, per a note posted by Bill Cobb back in June.  Anyway, users need to report it if they want it to stop.  FYI read about it here.

As for all these other companies, it could be that depending on how the charges are listed on the invoice, the company only has to pay taxes on part of the charge.  More than likely though, it's just another profit center for them.  If they outsource their shipping and handling to another warehouse, that warehouse charges them for the service.  I'll give an example.  One employer I worked for outsourced their shipping and handling.  That outsourced warehouse charged my company $7.00 per line item for fulfillment.  If you bought three things, my company had to pay $21.00 to get that sent to you.  Insane, but it happens.

Frankly, I don't see why companies don't just build the shipping and handling cost into the cost of their products.  I'd rather see a higher price upfront; that leaves less suspicion that I'm getting screwed.

[severdhed]

i didnt realize ultimarc was based out of england, that explains the high shipping.

but still alot of companies are ripping people off.  I know they need to make money, but i would like higher priced items with normal shipping prices, it just seems more honest.  I especially dont see how they can get away with not telling you how much shipping is going to cost before you order it.  If they used normal shipping prices, it wouldnt be that big of a deal...but i guess thats how they make thier money.  If they would have told me it would cost $12 to ship a $20 joystick, i may have thought twice about buying it.

it just seems like a shady way to do business.

[brophog]

Definitely shady, but I guarantee you that these ebay types won't lose money, they'll just tack it on in another way. Ebay doesn't really want to stop this, because after all, the "savings" most get on ebay is due to the high shipping costs. If Ebay really enforced such a policy, if that is even possible, the prices would go way up and Ebay sales would go way down.

[NightGod]

Don't forget to factor in packaging materials (which costs more than you would likely think), time spent to package stuff, Ebay fees, PayPal fees. There's alot more involved in pricing out shipping than just the cost of postage.

[Kremmit]

The thing about shipping is, if you use UPS, FedEx, or DHL, it costs around $8.00 minimum, even if all you're shipping is an envelope with a single e-clip in it.  Add a box, stuffing, tape, label, invoice, and labor time to pack it up, and you've got your $12.00 easy.  You can get by cheaper on small orders with the USPS, but the tracking is lousy or non-existant, as is the insurance.  A lot of commercial vendors just aren't willing to deal with the extra hassle in order to save 3 bucks for customers that are only spending ten (of which maybet 2 is profit) in the first place.  I can't say I blame them, either.