So, I’m in the JC penney home furnishings store to buy a new bed for the guest room after a buddy of mine and his 21 year old girlfriend who were house sitting busted the old one to pieces…but that a whole other story.
Anyhow, we pick out a bed we like…AKA the cheapest…and go to the guy at the cashier desk. He rings me up, $160 for the bed and $79 for delivery.
Its OK I said, I’ll pick it up myself.
Yes i know you will the guy said, the delivery charge is to have the bed shipped from our warehouse to the store.
HUH???
Whats next, you go to Safeway and buy a bag of potatos for $3.99 and they charge you another $5.00 to have em shipped from Idaho.
I bought the bed what else could I do…the missus had her heart set on it. I asked the guy why they don’t put the full price on the tag like everyone else in the world and got the stock “its not my job to make policy” answer.
What was that movie where Michael Douglas played the angry American dude pissed at the world and its daily rip offs…that was me on the drive home. My wife telling me “it was just $79” didn’t help much.
What was that movie where Michael Douglas played the angry American dude pissed at the world and its daily rip offs…that was me on the drive home. My wife telling me “it was just $79” didn’t help much.
Apparently this is all the rage. We have several vendors that think it’s a neat new trick to add “Energy sur charges”. You call and ask for a quote and you get “Oh it’s same as it ever was”. But you get the invoice and there’s an additional “Energy surcharge”. Kinda like the government’s trick of “We never raised taxes…just added 10, 000 extra “Fees””.
I think this is the way the furniture industry seems to be going. Last year I was shopping for a new living room set and as I was paying for it I had asked for some help loading it up in my truck. I was told that I couldnt take it home with me that I had to have it delivered. When I asked how much that would cost I was told 100.00. I told them to get bent. Come to find out the majority of the stores in my area had the same practice.
If there are no local options, you might as well buy the big item furniture over the internet. You’ll pay for the shipping that way also, but save 30% on the item, and that’s for big name stuff like Lexington brands, Tommy Bahama, Nautica, etc. For a matress, i bought my guest room stuff at Costco. It was the same price as local matress shops, but better quality and no shipping cost. (and no salesman!)
PM me when the new bed arrives. My wife and I are coming for a visit. You’re house sounds like fun. Um no, we’re not bringing the 3 kids. nudge, nudgeguy laugh
Hell I paid $225 tax / fuel increase ,on a $1355 airline ticket . I always like bike helmets as rip off 60 -$180 for a few oz of foam and straps , even the smallest bike shop will have 50 helmets in stock.
you bought a BED, for 160 bucks, and you’re pissed about it. even though the country that the bed came from probably had a line of toddlers glueing the thing to piece it together at a half cent wage per day, you feel disadvantaged?
i don’t like the idea of shipping either–but consumers in this country are addicted to cheap goods. so to keep costs down on the good, you’re picking up the price of shipping.
but just think about how someone in another country made it for dirt cheap, and then this 160 dollar bed travelled all across the globe to your little house, at only slightly above 200 bucks.
now, it’s quite possible though that you’ll have to buy a new one very soon due to quality–who knows–but that’s another point i guess.
you bought a BED, for 160 bucks, and you’re pissed about it. even though the country that the bed came from probably had a line of toddlers glueing the thing to piece it together at a half cent wage per day, you feel disadvantaged?
i don’t like the idea of shipping either–but consumers in this country are addicted to cheap goods. so to keep costs down on the good, you’re picking up the price of shipping.
but just think about how someone in another country made it for dirt cheap, and then this 160 dollar bed travelled all across the globe to your little house, at only slightly above 200 bucks.
now, it’s quite possible though that you’ll have to buy a new one very soon due to quality–who knows–but that’s another point i guess.
that’s not really the point.
i’d be pissed too, if i was in matt’s position - it isn’t about the total price, it’s about the deception. if something has a $100 price tag on it, you expect to pay $100 for it, or rather $100+tax. Don’t put a $100 price tag and then charge another $60 at the register. if it costs $160 from the start, fine, i’ll make my decision based on that. the ‘cost of goods’ includes the cost of transportation.
Did you catch that they’re not shipping the bed to his house? they’re just shipping it to their own store!
anytime i buy something like furniture i expect some kind “gimmick” in hidden costs–just like i expect it from a hotel. the more i spend on furniture though, the less gimmick i expect (because costs do tend to be built in on higher end furniture, at least from my experience).
it is all how one looks at it. at the end of the day, it’s not worth being upset over–it’s a 160 bed shipped from who knows where that is going to be in his house for a little over 200 bucks. frankly, i find that amazing.
did you ask if you could pick it up at the warehouse to avoid the “delivery” charge? if THAT isn’t even an option, then i completely agree with everyone saying that it should just be built into the price.
it doesn’t make any sense though. I would seriously raise an eyebrow and suspect the employee was completely BS’ing – trying to get more money out of my wallet. next time, ask to see that policy in writing, and if they can’t provide that, find a manager. hindsight is 20/20 eh…
Many states have pricing laws which require the true total price to be displayed. If the price tag said $160 but the “shipping” was not optional and you had to pay $239 to get the bed, the store could possibly have been in violation of the law. Big retailers get busted for mispricing or not properly posting actual prices in my state all the time. Not much happens to them but the Attorney General gets to issue a press release about how much he is sticking up for consumers If you’re still pissed you could report them to the state and see what happens.
Flat rate shipping in the lower 48 for your entire order, and they still make 75% of their product in America, and at prices that are competitive with the Chinese crap.
you bought a BED, for 160 bucks, and you’re pissed about it. even though the country that the bed came from probably had a line of toddlers glueing the thing to piece it together at a half cent wage per day, you feel disadvantaged?
i don’t like the idea of shipping either–but consumers in this country are addicted to cheap goods. so to keep costs down on the good, you’re picking up the price of shipping.
but just think about how someone in another country made it for dirt cheap, and then this 160 dollar bed travelled all across the globe to your little house, at only slightly above 200 bucks.
now, it’s quite possible though that you’ll have to buy a new one very soon due to quality–who knows–but that’s another point i guess.
MEEEEEAOOOOWWWW
If you’re still pissed you could report them to the state and see what happens.