Every time I find myself watching an infomercial they always involve different fees in their 'deals'. Sometimes there are shipping fees, which I understand. Sometimes there are processing fees, which I find harder to understand but still can. The handling fees I really have a difficult time with. I would think that those can be included in the processing part of the fee. Why is it there are so many different fees? Are they valid or a way to throw on more money?
I think it depends on how they do it. For example ive seen $30 items list for 2 dollars with a $28 shipping and handling fee. Thats obviously BS to get listed higher than competitors. Other times i see things like "free, just pay seperate shipping and handling". which to me means "these are so cheap that we include the price in the shipping fee and still make money!" lastly, there are legitimate shipping and handling fee's, noone moves things across the country for free.
It's one of those things that seems a lot like they are just grabbing more money because they can. Shipping fee's is completely normal but other than that I don't think there should be any other fee's. You also see this a lot when booking various types of tickets online. You get 'handling fee's' 'processing fee's' etc. Just looks like companies grab money wherever they can. I refuse to shop at places that charge additional and unnecessary fees.
I believe the 'handling fees' are monies paid to people to box and ship goods. They are just one piece to the cog that gets an item to your home. Unfortunately, 'handling fees' and other charges can increase the final cost of a product making it more fiscally responsible to just drive to a store and pick it up.
The shipping and handling fees can vary from company to company. You may have a product that is actually handled and the extra money goes for that. Then you have others that use that as just another tactic to make more money and just pin as a cost of the shipping.
These different fees' sole purpose is to charge you more lol. Processing fee involves the paperwork and the data entries needed to get your product off to the air. Handling fee is for well, handling your stuff like moving it from one storage to another. Some companies actually charge an extra delivery fee other than shipping fee.
I think that all these things are supposed to be included in the shipping fee and to add more fees is unethical. When I sell an item on eBay, I charge one shipping fee for the postage and the padded envelopes I have to buy to ship the order out. I don't charge for the forms I fill out or for my two mile walk to the post office. All that should be part of the shipping charge. It's also obnoxious when infomercials say that you get a second item free and then the shipping charges cost as much as buying a second item.
The processing fee makes sense, but I don't understand the "handling fee" as well. I think that it's a scam that just takes away more money from you. Over here, our local post office charges your parcel for "handling and storage fees" but it's obvious that they just want more money from you. The charges don't make sense at all.
I think it's to help offset the price of what ever "buy one get one free deals", plus to pay for the people that are on the phones taking the orders. They do have to pay people to make address labels. To be honest, if I see something I want that is on TV, I can almost always find it at Walmart. They don't have the buy one get one free offers or the extra attachments or what ever is the offer, but you can get what you want without paying the shipping and processing fees.
