Getting gouged on shipping
 

Ordered an aluminum automatic door bottom yesterday. It is a door sweep that when closed extends a silicone sweep to close off any opening between door and floor. 36" and maybe a couple pounds, maybe. The company is in Arizona. Trudoor dot com. As I attempt to complete the order, it prepopulates some of the costs. $19.95 for shipping "via handling fee." What is that? And then an additional $5.80 for "Home Delivery Fee". Never heard of that. They said that is what Fedex charges them. Did not see that anywhere in a brief search of Fedex site.
I surely want to buy American, from American companies. But I hate feeling that I have to be on guard all the time for this hidden fee or something being blamed on someone else... And if I am going to pay these rates, I shouldn't have to wait 7-10 days to receive it from inside the continental US, IMO.... Just like the fall of the Roman Empire, ours is surely crumbling. It sucks to be witness to the decline...

I ship a lot of small/medium packages, and there are some weird facets. Anything under a pound is easy and affordable to ship with USPS. Over a pound and it starts to lean toward UPS or FedEx. THey use some strange calculations that consider both the weight and the size. So something that's 36" might be in a box that's 40 or 42 inches long, even if it was 4oz it's still going to cost a bit because of the dimensions. My biz doesnt ship with them enough to get decent discounts with UPS or FedEx, but larger operations that use them probably prefer one over the other. Both of them charge extra for shipping to residential addresses if the shipper primarily delivers to businesses.

So I hate to say it, but all of that is "normal" these days. I don't like it, but it's status quo.

Ross, Trudoor stuff is available on Amazon. If you are a Prime member (I am) shipping is free.

The hazmat charges are what I get pissed about
When ordering components for shotshells primers and powder involve a hazmat surcharge. But why is the surcharge from one vendor $19 and another vendor $37. Price gouging for sure.
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Check out pirateship.com. You will get much better rates than what you are getting now.
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