To the editor: Shipping costs, email, and upgrades
Shipping and handling
BARB GOMOLSKI'S Jan. 22 column, E-Business Matters, which focused on shipping and handling charges was right on the money, but I think you ought to mention another major problem: the deceptive, deceptive practices of some companies with regard to when and how they fill orders.
My example is from Ross-Simons.com. I bought a pair of black pearl earrings and was willing to bite the bullet and pay $23 for shipping and handling for next day delivery because I needed to have them on Friday, Jan. 26. I placed my order at approximately 6:00 p.m. on Jan. 24, and I received an e-mail receipt telling me that they would ship my purchase on Jan. 25.
At checkout the Ross-Simons Web site clearly states that overnight orders received before 8:00 p.m. EST will be shipped that day, so I should have received the order on Jan. 25.
When the UPS man came and went on the morning of Jan. 26, I went to Ross-Simons.com to track my order, and, per the Web site, my order was scheduled to ship the day before (Jan. 25). I called the company to find out what happened, and they said it was ticketed to go out that day (Jan. 26) and that, yes, I would still have to pay for overnight shipping even though an order placed at 6:00 p.m. on Wednesday would not be delivered to me until Monday, Jan. 29. Overnight shipping that takes four days, for which I get to pay extra -- gee thanks.
P.S. When told my order wouldn't leave their building until Jan. 26, I cancelled the order, so I am heading to the mall on my lunch hour. Never again Ross-Simons.com and never again Ross-Simons.
Tim Greene, Norwood, Mass.
IN RESPONSE TO Barb Gomolski's column on shipping and handling charges, I'd like to offer another view. Gun Parts Corporation is the world's largest supplier of firearm parts and accessories. Our mail-order business was established 50 years ago. We recently evolved into a "click-n-mortar" company by launching www.e-gunparts.com. As with many mail-order businesses, we use the traditional "scale" to calculate shipping and handling costs (i.e., order value up to $30 = $4.95 shipping and handling; order value $30-$60 = $5.95 shipping and handling, etc.). We use the same scale for sales on our Web site as for our catalog phone orders.
I can assure Ms. Gomolski and all other visitors to our e-gunparts.com site, as well as those that order via the telephone, we are not in the business to make a profit off the shipping costs of 900-1,200 packages shipped per day. We evaluate the actual vs. billed shipping and handling charges regularly.
Although Ms. Gomolski might have noticed that she was charged an extra $1.20 in true postage, there might have been someone on the opposite coast who was billed the same $3.20 for postage that was actually $5.00. And what about the manifesting fees? The computer fees? The printer and special labels? The frame
Symantec Backup Exec 12 and Backup Exec System Recovery 8 deliver industry leading Windows data protection and system recovery. Download this whitepaper to find out the top reasons to upgrade and how to get continuous data protection and complete system recovery.
Data and system loss — from a hard drive failure, malicious attack, natural disaster, or simple human error — can happen anytime. Don’t leave your business vulnerable. Make sure you have a secure recovery strategy in place. Symantec's latest backup and system recovery technology can efficiently restore critical applications, individual emails and documents and even restore your entire system in minutes in the event of a loss.
Businesses face a growing challenge to ensure that the IT environment is properly protected. Backup Exec 12 integrates with other applications in the Symantec family of products, to complement your current data protection strategy, keep your data securely backed up and make it recoverable when you need it most.
