Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: Banacek on August 09, 2006, 10:14:36 pm
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I should preface this by saying that my order was only $36 dollars and my Shipping was $40 more dollars. And I never got a shipping total before completing the order, of course. So I got my shipment in today, and to my surprise, the monitor bezel has as huge cut out of it. Now you can clearly tell this was made with a knife, and it's right in one of the corners. The box (although very cheap) wasn't marked or cut, so this must of happened before it was shipped.
I wonder what that $40 dollars was for?
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The $40 dollars was a "dummy tax" for ordering direct from Happ instead of Ponyboy or Divemaster. Happ rapes everybody on shipping.
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The $40 dollars was a "dummy tax" for ordering direct from Happ instead of Ponyboy or Divemaster. Happ rapes everybody on shipping.
I din't think they had bezels. I usually do order everything from ponyboy. Well that sucks...
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That $40 was for encouraging resellers to purchase in bulk and sell to people who want to buy small lots so Happ doesn't have to deal with a huge number of customers.
That's what you go over to the B/S/T thread and buy from Divemaster or Ponyboy :cheers:
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The $40 dollars was a "dummy tax" for ordering direct from Happ instead of Ponyboy or Divemaster. Happ rapes everybody on shipping.
I din't think they had bezels. I usually do order everything from ponyboy. Well that sucks...
Banacek... that really really sucks! In this hobby, you need to save all the money you can get.
Learn and move on.
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I wasn't impressed with Happs either. My experience with them proved to be completely unsatisfactory. They DO rape you on shipping. I ordered a marquee retainer and a 27" bezel. I was charged $36 alone on shipping. They claim it is because the package is considered heavy and oversized by UPS. I find this hard to believe when I was charged (I believe) $10 or $15 shipping for a Moog Prodigy (vintage synthesizer) a couple years ago. The marquee retainer was damaged (supposedly by UPS) and was sent back to Happs. I also wasn't impressed with their customer service. Not the friendliest people around. At any rate I wasn't even able to use the bezel so now I'm stuck with it. I guess I'll just have to take a bath on that. Maybe I'll sell it on ebay or something.
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Go look at their website. Part of that $40 was a "packing fee".
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Just go to B/S/T next time. Both of the guys are great. Fast, honest, and courteous. I tend to order from both to spread the wealth, but either will do you up just fine.
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I will. I just didn't think they had bezels. I didn't see them on their lists...
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I will. I just didn't think they had bezels. I didn't see them on their lists...
From Divemaster's post:
"Im running a huge HAPP sale, below is a list of most of the common happ items,I carry the ENTIRE HAPP LINE, so email me if you do not see it below for a price."
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I will. I just didn't think they had bezels. I didn't see them on their lists...
From Divemaster's post:
"Im running a huge HAPP sale, below is a list of most of the common happ items,I carry the ENTIRE HAPP LINE, so email me if you do not see it below for a price."
Thanks, at least I know now :P
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Buyer Beware. :timebomb:
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I purchased from divemaster, he does not carry the bezels or monitors. I'm probably going to order those from Happs and go pick them up myself. The gas money for the 5+ hr. round trip to the Chicago area is going to be cheaper than their shipping rates.
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Bezels and marquee retainers get an "oversize" shipping fee. Whether or not they're really oversized, I don't know, but almost any time you hear someone complain about Happ's shipping one of these two items is involved. (I made the 2 hour drive to Happ's in South Carolina to pick up my stools and bezel to avoid shipping, but this was before gas got outrageously expensive.)
There is a lot of truth to NightGod's statement, though. Happ's is a business-to-business enterprise; their fulfillment chain, ordering and customer service aren't geared toward the needs of hobbyists. For a while this seemed to be changing; they'd dropped their minimum order and started carrying hobbyist gear. I guess this didn't work out for them.
--Chris
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I order from Happ all the time and never once did I have a problem with my order or felt I was over charged for shipping... There are two key points to remember when ordering from Happ.
1) Only order when your purchases are over $100. Shipping is significantly reduced and your not paying the $10 handling charge for an order under a $100.
2) Only ship when the complete order is filled.
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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 (http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resources/prepare/oversize.html).
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).
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I wouldn't mind the shipping costs if what I go was in excellent condition and the box that it was shipped in wasn't the thickness of a piece of paper. :(
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UPDATE: So I sent an email to Happs about the damaged bezel, to which I never got a response (but that might be my email's problem). I then called Happs a few days later to get an RMA for the bezel. The woman on the phone told me that they already shipped out a replacement bezel on their dime, and that I should have it in two days! Sure enough, I had a new bezel in perfect condition two days later! I got to hand it to them, they really went over the top to fix the problem.
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I ordered a Vision Pro monitor from them. Shipping was only like $18 to LA and that sucker weighed like 40lbs.
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I ordered my coin door from happ and it was spotless. The door was 65 buck but I dont think the shipping was that much. I think it was 10 bucks or so.
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I purchased from divemaster, he does not carry the bezels or monitors.
I've checked with divemaster and he can get the monitor bezels. He quoted me $26 shipping, and that was for two bezels and a couple joysticks. And the price is still better than Happ!