I don't like paying too much for shipping, but I understand that when you pay for shipping, the fees for credit cards/paypal/on-line payments also deducts from the shipping as well, not just the cost of the item. I also understand that charging actually shipping would create MUCH more work for the business because shipping rates change based on where one lives and how heavy items are. I think giving a generic price (as long as it is reasonably close to the actual cost) is valid. As consumers, if we get really burned on shipping, then we should just not purchase from that company again. They will eventually either change their shipping costs, or they will go out of business since others will stop using them as well.
From a different perspective:
My sister has an on-line business (selling quilting organizers) and uses Paypal. They charge $.48 on the first dollar, then take a percentage of the rest. That means that if she sells a $20.00 set and charges $5.00 to ship, she loses about $4.00 in fees, just to take an on-line payment. (Using a credit card is worse, though, because she gets charged a monthly fee, plus their "take" of the payment sent in. Since she is a small business, it is not cost-effective to take credit cards.)
So, with the cost of her materials (about $12.00), the cost of her website and domain name (about $50.00 a year), her time to cut all the organizers (about 20 minutes) the packaging (about 10 minutes), and the time to the post office (another 20 minutes or so), her profit is almost not worth the time and effort she puts into providing her organizers.
To actually ship the organizers costs around $3.50. So, when she charges $5.00 and then gets complaints, she just wants to cry. She only makes about $7.00 per item she sells for all her time and labor.