61 replies to this topic

[rosec]

I agree...we have digressed.....must be the Bailey's!

Sorry Gaetlan!:eek:

By the way - what supplier charges for catalogs? Unless you are getting them printed with your company name and paying for that.....

It is up to me to provide you with a cataolg so you can buy from me....

R

[Allan]

Carlson Craft requires that one purchase a catalog set in order to be allowed to place an order. Or that was what I was told when I tried to do a re-order with them. Of course, to be fair, Kathrine came on here (after the fact of me losing a customer over that policy) to say that they will accept a one-time order paid for with Credit Card.

rosec said:

By the way - what supplier charges for catalogs? Unless you are getting them printed with your company name and paying for that.....

It is up to me to provide you with a cataolg so you can buy from me....

R

[jimknecht]

a1promo said:

Where in the South do you find these apples? I have lived in GA for 43 years and never heard of them.

http://www.bighorsecreekfarm.com/

[talk2me]

It's easy to think flat rate shipping after seeing it promoted on TV. It's not always easy to take the time and expense to find the box size that works and still keep it cheap.

I did a pocket tissue order for a company with numerous locations. The supplier only ships even cases which were a higher quantity than some locations wanted. I ended up having it shipped to us and repacking and boxing. The shipping side was still worth while because I added my own drop charges, but after shopping around for box sizes the shipping side/time of the deal was "minimum wage."

[logos]

letterpe said:

Just today I questioned the shipping charges from my supplier. He said it would cost me $150.00 in shipping for my order. I called my regular transport company and asked for a quote. His quote was at $ 48.00 + taxes. I called back the supplier and advised him that I would pick-up because it cost me way less. The reply from the supplier was, no problem you can pick-up but there will be a $15.00 charge added to my invoice for shipping and handling service. Just could not believe it. Not only must we now pay for catalogues to increase their bottom line, now they are going after shipping charges. What's the world going to??? Why sell for this supplier? Do you deal at Hyline DateMinder???

You would have to look at everything the supplier brings to the table.
Suppliers do incur labor and material cost to package a product
$15.00 seems kind of high,but what else are you getting, price, service, unique product, etc...When suppliers ship they usually tack this on to the shipping cost, which they should disclose, but most don't. In any case you are going to pass this onto your customer for shipping and handling. I usually lump them together in the interest of full disclosure

[logos]

not good to work for minimum wage. What hourly value do you put on your time?

[Superemb]

You can create your own network of favorite vendors and only give those catalogs out to customers. Then work with these vendors to take off or lower handling charges. Ask for EQP pricing, free samples occasionally etc. You will now always get what you ask for but you will get anything if you do not ask. All they can say is ..NO.
Also there are many companies that pay for shipping from some companies. We pay the shipping form San Mar to us under the PSST program. SO even if you needed one shirt embroidered the shipping charge would save you about $9. We also pick up from McCrearys tees twice a day for free for our customers. Many suppliers and decorators are doing this type of stuff to help their distributors. I have always been amazed what my vendors for supplies will do when asked. This builds value for me and for them. It give them a loyal customer that will most likely earn them more money in the long term. That is what I hope for too. One hand washes the other. If you sell more shirts because your profit margin increases, then I get to decorate them and we all make more money. Just ask you favorite vendors.

[royster13]

Not all folks will know what the PSST program is......Can you please enlighten us?......Also, do you have good rates for outbound shipments and do you pass them along?....

[Superemb]

royster13 said:

Not all folks will know what the PSST program is......Can you please enlighten us?......Also, do you have good rates for outbound shipments and do you pass them along?....

Psst is a program that about 8 to 10 decorators in th US are doing with San Mar. When a distributor orders their garments through one of these decorators they do not have to pay shipping, not even for one shirt, or handling charges. Where it says shipping method they click on PSST, then it will show the decorators they have set up for PSST with and they click on that and it is that easy.
The decorator pays alot of money each week to be a part of the program but they also get many little extra things like a certain amount of credit towards replacing rejects. We already did that but now I do not have to pay for many of them or the shipping. Plus a credit for sample which I have lots of samples for Distributors to borrow to show their customers if they are close by. Another plus for us is every order comes in a separate box so we do not have to separate them into different orders which saves us labor and less possibilities for mistakes, So 3 times a week we have our own truck from San Mar come with all the orders form the different distributors.
It is supposed to increase orders to San Mar for people wanting to get free shipping or not gang their orders, and it is supposed to bring up new customers and the orders already by PO.
SO far I pay more then I get in return but I have only had the program since February. Each month more customers use it as we explain it to them. McCrearys Tees we just pick the orders up saving the Shipping fees.
For our outgoing shipping we get a small discount but not a huge amount. After seeing the bill each month where they add fuel charges, residential shipping, chnges in zipcodes and a hundred other little htings UPS finds to charge extra for I think we lose. But UPS is still the best thing going from eveything else we have tried. We do ship by post office for some people too and for drop shipping to military bases.

[djoctagone]

Pack Separate, Ship Together

[djoctagone]

Superemb said:

For our outgoing shipping we get a small discount but not a huge amount. After seeing the bill each month where they add fuel charges, residential shipping, chnges in zipcodes and a hundred other little htings UPS finds to charge extra for I think we lose.

Why do you allow yourself to lose money?

Why are you billed monthly instead of weekly?

Why are you being assessed residential shipping charges after you prepare the shipment?

Why are you changing ZIP codes?

Answer these questions, and put policies in place to deal with these instances, and freight can become a small profit center for you.

[Superemb]

<<<Why do you allow yourself to lose money?>>>> Choose your battles and win the war.

<<<Why are you billed monthly instead of weekly?>> My mistake I should have said weekly but it may as well be monthly as we bill the day the order goes out, not a week later. So that is really a non issue

Why are you being assessed residential shipping charges after you prepare the shipment?
Because many Distributors work out of their home or ship to home businesses but do not tell us that.

<<<Why are you changing ZIP codes?>>>> Because they give us ship to addresses that are incorrect sometimes. Last week the computer told us it was not a valid address. We called the customer and she said it was correct, to ship it. So we did and they charged us, I think it was $10 for each of the 7 boxes. We did charge the customer for that charge but most times if we go back and charge customers for additional charges later it seems to cause more bad will then it is worth it to me. So I have a limit on what I will pass on to the customer. Also there is cost in invoicing these charges too. Billing $1.70 for fuel charges to an account and having it cost me $4.93 to do that is not making me money, it is actually costing me more money. It also is keeping my customer from selling more shirts and giving me more business with the time it takes to explain it to them. We do enter the correct info into the computer once we see there is a discrepancy and contact the customer for their records. If it is the customers business that is actually residential I just let that go,....they know they work from home....and make sure we have it as residential in our computer for the next order.Then the next shipments will be charged correctly. Sometimes there may be a weight to measurements issue, but not often.
We work for the long haul. We like to have our customers for years, not just the one order.
The fuel charges UPS adds on and now they also add extra for places that are further out of the city. UPS will not add it when we ship and we only get these charges on the bill long after we have billed the order.

<<<Answer these questions, and put policies in place to deal with these instances, and freight can become a small profit center for you.>>>> That is why so many vendors put a handling charge on shipping UPS. Which is what we were talking about.

[Allan]

You can go to battle with your shipping company about the invalid addresses and win most of the time. I would never pay a fee without inquiring why it is invalid. I have had managers drive the location and prove that it fits the address I gave them. They like to hide behind the USPS database of addresses and I have told them that to follow that business plan is to lose money. I told them that I will be shipping with FedEx next time. (And I have switched all my shipping to FedEx because UPS's CS sucked big time in a situation that mattered to me.

Superemb said:

<<<Why do you allow yourself to lose money?>>>> Choose your battles and win the war.

<<<Why are you billed monthly instead of weekly?>> My mistake I should have said weekly but it may as well be monthly as we bill the day the order goes out, not a week later. So that is really a non issue

Why are you being assessed residential shipping charges after you prepare the shipment?
Because many Distributors work out of their home or ship to home businesses but do not tell us that.

<<<Why are you changing ZIP codes?>>>> Because they give us ship to addresses that are incorrect sometimes. Last week the computer told us it was not a valid address. We called the customer and she said it was correct, to ship it. So we did and they charged us, I think it was $10 for each of the 7 boxes. We did charge the customer for that charge but most times if we go back and charge customers for additional charges later it seems to cause more bad will then it is worth it to me. So I have a limit on what I will pass on to the customer. Also there is cost in invoicing these charges too. Billing $1.70 for fuel charges to an account and having it cost me $4.93 to do that is not making me money, it is actually costing me more money. It also is keeping my customer from selling more shirts and giving me more business with the time it takes to explain it to them. We do enter the correct info into the computer once we see there is a discrepancy and contact the customer for their records. If it is the customers business that is actually residential I just let that go,....they know they work from home....and make sure we have it as residential in our computer for the next order.Then the next shipments will be charged correctly. Sometimes there may be a weight to measurements issue, but not often.
We work for the long haul. We like to have our customers for years, not just the one order.
The fuel charges UPS adds on and now they also add extra for places that are further out of the city. UPS will not add it when we ship and we only get these charges on the bill long after we have billed the order.

<<<Answer these questions, and put policies in place to deal with these instances, and freight can become a small profit center for you.>>>> That is why so many vendors put a handling charge on shipping UPS. Which is what we were talking about.

[Superemb]

Allan said:

You can go to battle with your shipping company about the invalid addresses and win most of the time. I would never pay a fee without inquiring why it is invalid. I have had managers drive the location and prove that it fits the address I gave them. They like to hide behind the USPS database of addresses and I have told them that to follow that business plan is to lose money. I told them that I will be shipping with FedEx next time. (And I have switched all my shipping to FedEx because UPS's CS sucked big time in a situation that mattered to me.

We tried changing to Fed Ex and had way too many problems. I had one order going to LA from Phoenix and it was to a restaurant in the middle of LA. The Fed ex guy kept saying they were closed. They are open form 6 am until 10 pm 7 days a week and it took him 5 days to get his order. After 3 months I had 7 or 8 brokers that told me not to ship with Fed ex no matter what the savings were because there were so many problems with deliveries and the shape of the boxes and tracking. I really wanted to stay with Fed Ex because they gave me a much larger discount which helped everyone but missing event dates because Fed Ex was not delivering on time was not good at all. Showing the customer we shipped them on time did not make them feel any better. So I reluctantly went back to UPS. I guess If I had the time to drive to a location to prove I am right and then battle over the phone for extended periods of time to recover $5 to $10 I could. I would not let one of my employees do it. The less they drive anywhere on my time the less liability issues I will have if they get in an accident.
I see how you stand up for yourself and that is good.
I have enough to stand up for with so many other things here. If it is a flagrant thing UPS charges, then I will have my shipping manager address it.
All in all I do not know any one or any company that never makes a mistake. I know UPS "gets" me sometimes but like I said. I choose my battles and will not spend $20 in time, liability and gas to prove a point unless the point will save me money in the future which this would not. They will still do it again later. I have gone all the way to the top when they changed my drop off and pick up times. I did win that battle.

[djoctagone]

Superemb said:

many Distributors work out of their home or ship to home businesses but do not tell us that.

If that's the case, ship every package as if it's going to a residential address. UPS.com will adjust the rate as you print the waybill and thus, you'll know what amount to invoice for.

Chances are, most distributors won't know if you're charging residential rate versus commercial rate.

If it ends up going to a commercial address, you get billed at a lower rate and you pocket the additional profit.

With regards to fuel surcharges, you only need to check UPS' surcharge rates 12 times a year:

http://www.ups.com/c..._surcharge.html

Thus, you can more readily determine what a fuel surcharge will be before UPS even comes to pick up your outgoing shipments.

[Superemb]

Thanks for your thoughts an advice. I appreciate them

[djoctagone]

Distributors should be aware of residential surcharges, period.

Not only do residential addresses incur additional charges from small parcel carriers (other than USPS), but you also run the risk of the driver not being able to deliver as scheduled due to signature requirements and/or perceived safety of the area (it's usually the driver's discretion whether or not to leave a shipment on a front step, etc.--even if the shipper opts to waive the signature requirement).

Given those factors, distributors should be inquiring each and every time they get a shipping address whether it's residential or commercial. (Hint: parcel carriers typically deem that the destination is commercial if an entrance to the building is used solely for customers to enter through. If it also serves as the entryway to one's house, it's a residential address.)

I take the time to determine whether or not addresses that my vendors drop ship to are residential or not. If it is residential, I add a field in the address in all caps: RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS.

Do this and you'll earn respect from your suppliers.

[Pionus]

Anyone knows who else offers free shiping on samples besides Leed's? That is so helpful here on Maui. Thanks!

[djoctagone]

Most apparel wholesalers offer free freight on orders over a certain amount (although I'm not sure about Hawaii).

Seeing that it costs about the same for me to return $20 in samples for credit as it does to return $200 in samples for credit, I often order additional retail brand items to get free outbound freight.

Besides, since it's expected that I have 30 days or so to return the samples, I have time to show the other garments to other customers.

[ProPrinters]

UPS and FedEx keep jacking up shipping. What can people do, yes some suppliers on clothing offer free shipping, but when you order heavier items or have a proprietary item that you need to ship 1500 miles it does add up.