Packing Up Your Troubles

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Packing Up Your Troubles was Originally Posted on January 30, 2006 by

I still have a hard time getting companies to understand.

Hawaii is part of the US, (although some people wish it wasn’t).

When we want to buy something from your company, you need to try to accomodate us, because our money spends just as well as that from the mainland.

I go to Outpost.Com (Fry’s) and I find a good deal on a disk drive. The drive will cost me about $87 after rebates. I add it to my cart and check shipping cost, which comes out to about $9.57. When I actually start to check out, the shipping zooms up to $33.35! HUH????? So when I call Customer Service they tell me because I live out of the country (I stop him and remind him that we are one of the 50 states) and he corrects himself and says when shipping overseas, the price goes up.

I try to get him to explain why I can ship the same product for $8.10 that they charge $33.35 for and he has no answer.

I believe the answer is that Outpost (despite my emailing them often) still does not know that the Post Office has been offering flat-rate boxes for a year ot two now. Those boxes are weight independent and go for $8.10 without insurance. I know this because we use the flat rate envelopes ($4.05) and the boxes to ship coffee. They take 3-5 business days and cost the same for all 50 states.

I also know that these disk drives fit in the boxes, because I have had a friend order me drives and pack them in the boxes to ship to me.

I go out of my way to find cost-effective shipping methods for my customers. It appears as thourh Outpost does not. They reall keep showing me that they don’t want Hawaii’s business.

In the case of OfficeMax, a retail office supply store, they have a store on the opposite side of my island. If you order $50 or more, they put your items on a truck and deliver them for free. That is a 3 hour one-way trip every few days, although they do have lots of deliveries to make. THAT is what I call customer service.

I am just waiting for someone to determine that we have enough critical mass to build an electronics store here on the Kona side. I would sure support them if their deals were pretty good.

In the meantime, let me pass along this: If you hurry you can get a deal on my coffee. I have an Ebay sale going at the moment (a sale, not an auction). I’m even offering FREE SHIPPING! Take THAT Outpost!