On 09/15/05 03:55 pm Dave Hinz tossed the following ingredients into the
ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

Shipping and handling charges are often a racket anyway. Several years
ago we ordered (by phone, not on line) a replacement stirrer for a
Hitachi bread machine. The S&H charge was $6 or $7, but the part came by
US Mail in a padded bag with a 57c. stamp.

Do you think monkeys are hired to process the order and ship it and
that Hitachi gets the padded envelope for free?

I sell things on eBay and other auction sites from time to time, and my
minimum shipping cost is $1.00 - yes, that might be just putting the
item into a hard paper envelope and driving it down to the post office
with a 37 cent stamp, but it's shipping _and_ handling. It's hardly a
racket - you're free to choose not to buy, after all.

When they said that S&H was $6 or $7, we assumed that it would come by
UPS or some other faster and more expensive carrier than USPS. I've paid
that much shipping (or less) for much larger, heavier items that *have*
come by UPS or FedEx.

Perce