Am I out of line here?
 

I would like some opinions on this mail order fabric situation as to whether I am out of line in this.
I ordered a buy one get one free offer and paid the amount of postage given on the invoice. I paid via paypal. Later I got a request that I pay even more postage than I paid the first time for shipping the "free" part of the order. On the website there was no mention of additional shipping being charged for the free part. The original shipping was already half the cost of the item. I only ordered because by getting the free one that made paying that high shipping worthwhile.
Well, I challenged paying the extra shipping but they wouldn't bend on it, so I finally just cancelled my order.
Would you have expected to pay extra shipping in this situation? Was I wrong to be upset about it and to expect them to send my order for the shipping they originally charged me when I placed my order?

i call those catch 22s...like when you order on t.v. and thy tell you, you get two for the price of one, then thy charge you for both shipping and thy are`n cheap....no you weren`t out of line especially since thy didn`t mention you would have to pay separate shipping...

Personally I would have done the SAME thing you did, and I
have in the past 2 weeks done that on 2 different occasions
because what I was being charged was not what was stated
in their "ordering and shipping"policies.

I also changed my mind about ordering SEVERAL items from
Amazon because the item I was ordering was 10 of those
"purple thangs" at a cost $1.65 each and they
wanted to charge $6.28 for shipping on EACH item.

Yep, I agree that you weren't out of line. Their shipping charges weren't up front. I probably would have canceled my order too, just on principal because they didn't tell me clearly from the start what my shipping would have been.

I would have canceled too. I don't know where you ordered from or the quantity but almost every place I order from uses flat rate shipping. I can't imagine why they would ask you to pay two separate shipping charges.

i would have called them- and probably cancelled the order unless it was something i absolutely had to have----- one of the reasons i try to always shop at places that give me free shipping when i spend a certain amount---usually $35- $50 which i can always spend- then i don't have to worry about it-
i have found that some shops seem to advertise pretty good sales- and make up for it with high shipping rates- which i pretty much refuse to pay- it's not a sale if when you add in the shipping it would cost more than you can find it elsewhere....i would call customer service and talk to them personally though-to give it a chance to work something out- if that does not work though i just make note to not visit their site any more.

I did talk to them via email. We went back and forth several times before I gave up and cancelled. I don't know if I am allowed to give the name of the company on here, but it was the person in charge I was talking to as far as I understood it.

the amazon's vendors cannot budge on their shipping costs per amazon's policy. shipping charges are per item and cannot be combined. i had talked extensibly with a vendor about several items i had ordered and why they couldnt combine the shipping charges. they shipped each item in a separate package. you may however be able to order from that vendor's direct website if they have one. that is what i ended up doing.

if the vendor was not willing to compromise on the shipping charges, i would have weighed my desire to have the bogo offer and see if the shipping charges were out of line. if so, then yes i would have cancelled my order.

I agree with everyone else - I would cancel and probably wouldn't visit that site again.

As I was reading your post. I was saying to myself. Cancel the order. It the principal of it. It should have been mentioned plus shipping on the free. In the future maybe contact them about the shipping policy if not posted this is what I do now.

I think you were nicer then I would have been. I don't like deception of any kind in any form especially when it comes to my money being given to someone else.

I order a lot of stuff from Amazon and Amazon vendors. I have many vendors offer free shipping and they will combine orders. Seems like a lot of vendors just take the easy way out and say Amazon won't let me when in fact it is up to them as it takes time to combine orders and still have separate invoices for Amazon for each order. If Amazon won't let them then how do many do it?

I rarely order from Amazon, but my daughter likes them. This was an online quilting shop and my first time to try to order from them... and last. LOL

I agree you did the RIGHT thing , when ordering on line the only way to get an effective message across , particulary when it is only e-mail notifications, is by cancelling. At some point this retailer will learn its takes alot more $$ to save a reputation than it is to keep a good one by customer satisfaction.

I agree with the others and I would have cancelled the order as well. BUT, a couple of points. Someone mentioned the TV offers where you get the second item free but pay for shipping. With those, in most cases, if you ask if they are shipping both items together then you can beat them up on the 2nd shipping charge and usually get your 2fer for the advertised price. As far as Amazon - I just ordered 6 of the same items, all were shipped in 1 package and I only paid shipping on 1 package. Just some points for future orders.

I guess I was too nice, lol. I would have loved to have my order but I just couldn't see my way clear to pay that much postage for it. Maybe if I had been less nice, I would have been able to get my order after all. Oh well, lesson learned.
Recently the Deal of the Day on a different site was the 5" half hex template for less than $2.00. I wanted to get that but when I inquired about the shipping I was advised that it would still be $5. even for just that one template. So I passed on that too. I am going to try to make my own. LOL, it sucks having to be cheap.

I agree with you -- THEY were out of line. They need to fix their order page so it reflects the postage/shipping for BOTH items. Good that you cancelled it!

Very poor customer service, I would say. I would have canceled too. If they had been honest up front about the postage you could have made an informed decision about purchasing or not.

You did what I would do, unless it was a fabric I desperately needed to finish a project, and I couldn't find it anywhere else.

They should have included the 'extra' shipping in the total cost before you paid. My guess is that they were making up the cost of the 'free' one through shipping.

We're not 'cheap'; we're inventive!

at the time i was ordering this particular merchandise from amazon, i spoke with both amazon and the vendor about the shipping charges for multiple items. neither was giving in. i read amazon's policy also. i am not sure how some vendors are bypassing the shipping policies.

i was looking into ordering some books online last night coming from an online warehouse in my city that offers free shipping but they partnered with another online seller who listed shipping as $3.99 per book, no combined shipping. hmmm... i thouhgt so i didnt order. i couldnt get to the vendor offering free shippin through their own website. oh well.

YOU DONE GOOD, GIRL!! Should have all been upfront and correct on the invoice the first time around.

Reading the posts, I too have found several deceptive sellers online over the years. When it comes to fabric and books, don't mess with my wants and needs. I won't pay $6.99 for a half yard of fabric when I can get the same exact thing from another source for $4.50. When they try and sell fabric at $14.00 a yard that I know is not from a LQS, I say they can keep their stash. Quilting books out of print for $200-500? (Check out Alibris.com-search high price to lowest.) They can keep dusting off those in their book shelves.

In this day and age, with the economy the way it is, and prices on everything so high, I don't consider anything I do as "being cheap". It's called "being economically wise", and every penny I can save on shipping can go toward more important things like fabric, food, rent, bills and so on. I'm being serious here. Retailers have to make a living, and I respect that. But nothin' gets my goat faster than when I recognize that I'm being deceived or taken advantage of, such as when someone wants to come back and add "shipping costs" after already charging a big fee for that. I'm not even sure that's legal. When you order something, you enter into a legal and binding agreement to pay a merchant a specific amount for the items in your shopping cart. How do they legally justify adding to that after a sale without your consent? I'd like to know. Anyway, it wouldn't matter if the item was essential fabric to finish a project, or something like that. If they wouldn't back down, I would cancel the order, full stop, no retreat. Hit them in the pocketbook, never shop there again, and tell everyone you know what a lousy deal you would have got. Go post it on as many websites as you can find. Spread the word! Be a real B--ch about it! You know what they say about the squeaky wheel. On more than one occasion, it has netted me back the attention of the company in question, and they were sweet as sugar to me then. You don't have to do this will all problems. It can get out of hand. You don't want to be fighting all of the time. Pick your battles, the ones that are important. Or you could check out the company, write a sweet but convincing letter, and then CC it to everyone on their Board, and anyone else who is important in the company. I've done that as well.

Oh, dear! Maybe I'm showing my colors too much! As my husband says: "My wife's sweet as pie. Just don't cross her!"

Enough! Oh, Dear!

Wildyard, I would have done the same thing because they did not mention the extra shipping on the free items. However years ago I ordered a buy one get one free over the phone the add on the TV did not mention the extra shipping fee. At the end of me placing my order the person on the phone mentioned that their would be additional shipping fee on the free item. I cancled the order right then. A few minutes latter a manager called and waved the extra shipping fees.. Now if you notice on TV the buy one get one fee offers will either state "all you pay for the free item is additional shipping, or you will read it on the screen somewhere. Sorry for your fabric order it is just not right how these companies try to extra charge people.

Never describe yourself as "cheap"....what you did was perfectly sensible and I would have done the same. My Nan used to say, "watch the pennies and the pounds take care of themselves"....wise advice:)

I would have cancelled also. After I cancelled, I would have written them a letter explaining to them why they have lost a customer and assuring them that I would let all of my quilting friends know about their shipping policies and warn them about ordering from this company. If you let them know that they will lose business, they may change their policy.

I would have cancelled too...and I have noticed lately that the shipping charges are getting out of hand. It has caused me to no follow through on an order when I get to the shipping amount and thats a sad thing. Especially when the USPS seems to be going downhill at an alarming rate. And packages are taking weeks to get somewhere when it used to be days..and the packages are mangled and mauled...such a sad deal all the way around if you ask me. =(

I also have to agree with everyone. I would have canceled and I wouldn't order from them again.

I do not think you are out of line. All costs should be clearly stated before you okay the order be processed. I would have done the same thing that you did. Sometimes the shipping is so costly that you are actually paying more for it than you are for the item. If the vendor isn't upfront with the postage cost, I do not buy from that vendor.

If additional shipping was not mentioned in the offer, I don't think it was ethical for them to add the charge after the fact. Ir seems almost like false advertising.

I just had a simular experience with just a little twist. Someone on this board gave a link to a well known company that was having what seemed to be a really nice sale. I clicked on the link. I found something I could really use at a nice sale price. I bought it through PayPal. It was free shipping or so I thought . I put in all my information and never once did shipping charges come up. So knowing it was a short term sale I presumed it was a free shipping weekend. Well a couple of days later I get an email informing me that they went ahead and charged my PayPal account with the shipping charges, without my consent. The shipping charges were more than the item I was buying. If I had known the shipping charges, I would never have made the purchase. At that combined price it no longer was a good deal, more of a rip off. I tried to cancell the order. I haven't gotten anything as yet to verify where I am at on this one. Nooooo I will never buy from this company again. I have some real concerns about PayPal allowing them to increase the total without my knowledge. I didn't know that could happen, but it did.

This worries me more than the other problem. I would love to know who you were dealing with as I do a lot of on-line shopping and would NOT want this to happen to me. I'm sorry it happened to you. If I were you I would get in touch with PayPal immediatly and get the problem resolved. I would be willing to bet they can help you with this.
Good luck!

I sell angelina fibers on line and they cost the same to ship 2 or 10 packages, I always reduce shipping for more then 3 packages- always. SO yes I would have cancelled the order as well.

Too right I would have canceled too

I think you did the right thing, you can feel comfortable with yourself, that your weren't taken advantage of.

Everybody has said it, but I would have done the same thing you did. I HATE deception.....we pay enough as it is

I definitely would have cancelled too!

Sometimes the tv ads will say you have to pay the postage on "the second one" but remember, that is how all these places make money; they charge more than necessary to send it to you. Sometimes it's worth the price, sometimes not. I would have cancelled in this case also. Don't regret it; there are too many places to buy fabric and so much beautiful fabric out there just waiting.

I would have cancelled my order also. If they wanted extra shipping on the "free" item, it should have been stated on the sale site and added onto the original invoice - not added later after. Personally, it sounds sneaky and I would not have anything else to do with the company.

If there was no mention anywhere about paying additional shipping on the free item I would have done the same thing you did. On TV they always say you are responsible for paying shipping on the additional item. That wasn't right they did that especially when you pointed it out and they even had to bill you a second time.

I just talked to my DH about this, he buys and sells from time to time on ebay. He and I both agree with you. If they wanted extra shipping, it should have been clearly stated. My DH also said you might have informed ebay, they would have these sellers show the added postage and handling