The Midway "handling" charge

Y'all bring up a good point. One that might do well to be suggested to Midway, in fact.

(Just in case it ever comes up) I hereby place this idea in the public domain, relinquishing any rights or royalties.

It would seem to be a good idea, for a place that charges a $HANDLING_FEE for orders under $MINIMUM_AMOUNT, to link that handling fee to previous behaviour. For example, if a customer purchased $MINIMUM_AMOUNT x 3 worth of merchandise within the last 2 weeks, it would make sense to waive the handling fee, in order to avoid hard feelings. If a customer made a purchase of $MINIMUM_AMOUNT x 40, as one poster did above, it might make sense to waive handling fees for the next 4 orders that are under the minimum, no matter how long it has been since the original purchase. This would [strike]definitely[/strike] likely assuage people like the person who bought $1000 worth of stuff one week, and then had to buy a $3 item the next.

i got that same fee when i order two packs of moon clips and a Case Extractor for the clips about a week ago for my 940 and sp101 9mms

Maybe the fee is to weed out the whiners. They may figure that anyone willing to get completely out of joint over it is the kind of person that spends the day looking for an excuse to complain, and thus not someone they need to deal with.

The malcontents certainly don't seem to be having a negative impact on their business, at any rate.

I just ordered a Williams peep sight from Midway on sale for $10 off the regular price and the shipping and handling was $3.03. I donated $1+ to the NRA in the process. What's not to like?
Darryl

Paying more than you need to seems kind of silly, IMHO. Maybe some folks have money to throw away, but I kinda like to get something in return for mine. I'd rather buy from folks who don't use names like "handling fee" and add profit to shipping costs to pad their profits.

Heck, I don't like to tip either, but I'm a big tipper anyway. It's just the price of doing business.

Of course, as anybody who read the RIG grease thread knows, I ordered some of the now-discontinued RIG (and a little STOS and Krieghoff lube) and ended up spending about $80.

Folks, they're going to get their money or go out of business. What difference does it make if they charge more per item and offer free shipping or less per item and add s&h?

With the price of gas what it is, s&h is a good deal.

Oh well, I suppose I have a little too much money. Compared to a starving student maybe.

John

I have pretty much stopped buying at midwayusa.com. The practice of splitting an order, if out of one item, results in double fees and shipping costs. Because of the split orders if all items are not in stock, I'm prone to order 1, or 2 items. I still end up burned with the postage/handling fee and the 'Special order fee' ... it can easily add $13 to a $22 purchase.

Note: If I order two $22 items and midways is out of one, then they ship one with $13 added and later ship the 2nd with $13 added. This does not figure in taxes on the purchases.

I finally decided that this was an expensive way to shop. Though I gotta admit they stock a lot of product, and have always got it to me reasonably quickly.

I've taken to look elsewhere

I also do not like how Midway runs their business...

They refuse to give me their discount pricing because I do not have the word "Gun" in my business name - ironically, neither do they.

Brownell's, on the other hand, has no qualms in giving me their "industry discount" pricing, and their shipping is a lot cheaper!


P.S. I sell gun accessories.

Folks, they're going to get their money or go out of business. What difference does it make if they charge more per item and offer free shipping or less per item and add s&h?

With the price of gas what it is, s&h is a good deal.

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It's just a pricing method. MidwayUSA could roll in the s&h cost into the per unit price or they can keep it separate. You're right in your implication that MidwayUSA must recover it's shipping costs. The question is, "How?" The method they've chosen is pretty common across many retail channels. That's because it is most precise in passing in identifying shipping costs on transaction by transaction basis.

BTW, here is some info from the MidwayUSA site that is maybe pertinent to this discussion:


How do I obtain a shipping estimate?

Simply add the items that you would like to your Shopping Cart, visit the "Shopping Cart" page by clicking on the link at the top of most MidwayUSA.com pages, enter your ZIP Code into the "Get a Shipping Estimate" box and click the "Get Estimate" button.


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How much does shipping cost?

Calculating shipping charges is more complicated today than it has ever been, so we do it all for you via computer programs in our Contact Center and on our Website. Since it isn't possible to calculate Postage, Handling & Insurance until the order is complete and the computer programs run, we encourage our Customers to visit our Website or call our Contact Center to determine the total amount of their order, including shipping charges. There is never an obligation to place an order when you do this.

Special Handling Charge
MidwayUSA attempts to keep our costs as low as possible so we can give our Customers the best pricing in the Industry. Since we will accept any size order, there is a Special Handling Charge of $3.00 for all retail product orders under $25.00 and $4.00 for all dealer product orders under $40.00 to offset the additional costs associated with handling orders under these amounts.
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What options are available for shipping?

The following methods of shipment are available on our website:

UPS Ground (Delivery in 1-7 Business Days) *

UPS 2nd Day Air *

UPS Next Day Air *

UPS Saturday Delivery *

USPS Parcel Post †

USPS Media Mail†

I object to the whiners and complainers about our suppliers. I support any and all positive supporters of the Second Amendment, manufacturers, importers, distributors, big gun stores, little gun stores, mail order of supplies, components, accessories, gun shows, government supporters of 2nd amendment and ccw, hunting, competition, protection by individuals, police and military, gun magazines and websites, reloading equipment, and more. Where would we be without the above? For most of us this is a hobby, where we spent our descretionary money. There is nothing wrong with shopping around, but let's not bite the hands that feed us.
Darryl

Midway raised more for the RBKA then most, I have never had a problem with them and I do think its whining to complain about a handling charge when ordering a .99 cent bit off a mail-order place.

Would it be better if they saw that you made a large order not long ago - yes...but I am not going to whine about it...

Your Midway is very much cheaper than Midwaysuomi. ( Finland is in Finnish Suomi).
Already prices are 2 - 3 times higher.

I like Midway all the way around; not perfect, but better than driving to town. Their policies are clearly stated; guess I don't see the beef.

I object to the whiners and complainers about our suppliers. I support any and all positive supporters of the Second Amendment...

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Midway raised more for the RBKA then most, I have never had a problem with them and I do think its whining to complain about a handling charge when ordering a .99 cent bit off a mail-order place.

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Hey, actually, these guys look pretty good. From their website:

Why Shop MidwayUSA?

of all Orders Ship the Same Day

$4,142,752.35 donated by our customers

Bizrate Circle of Excellence

I like Midway, they have a good selection, pretty good prices and a neat little "wishlist" feature that I use to tell the non firearm folks in my life what I want for Christmas. Yeah, they have the small order charge, but they're up front about it.

I cross shop Midway and Brownells a lot. I like them both. If the charge bothers you that much, shop elsewhere. But Midway's a pretty good mail-order site.

And they usually have stuff you can't get anywhere else at prices generally lower than the competition.They just sent me a catalogue that was an inch thick and a 15% off email.And I havent bought anything from them in a year...

I don't mind midway at all, but I'm not married to them either - if I can find it cheaper elsewhere I'll get it from there. They have reasonable prices but on a lot of things they're not the cheapest by any means.

But Midway has ALOT of hard to find stuff, so if I have to pay 3 bucks for the convenience of knowing they have something I need which is hard to find, then I'll gladly pay it instead of spending hours searching or calling around. Plus they are very active in support of the second amendment, and as a small business owner, I certainly understand having to deal with rising costs of doing business. I can't imagine what their overhead is like - inventory, infrastructure, employee costs, insurance, advertisement, those incredible catalogs they send out - and they send one to you if you've bought $1000 worth of stuff or 2 bucks worth. So to think they're charging those fees because old man potter needs a new ferrari for his stable is crazy.

Inflated Shipping ??

Man you guys don't know what inflated shipping is , when I started building my own arrows I ordered a plastic fletching jig , vanes , and 2 tubes of fletching glue , a few dozen plastic nocks and some extremely light weight carbon inserts a order value of over $50 . Total weight on the box came in under 3 LBS and they whacked me for over $9 in shipping fees !!! At the time I was working in a shipping department and looked up the actual charges , they were less than $4 !!!

This was over a decade ago .

With Midway the most I ever paid for shipping was about $14 and that order included a new Turret press and 1,000 lead bullets "45 and 357's" plus I can't recall how much stuff , it showed up in 2 very large boxes .

Then there's their customer service which is second to non , I've had problems with new magazines , one call and they have replacements on the way NO CHARGE , NO QUESTIONS and once I ordered some shooting videos opened one case and no DVD inside once again a simple phone call and a no BS conversation and I have my video on the way without charge . O and BTW the phone calls are on a toll free 800 number something more and more businesses are getting away from .

You people are complaining about a $20 minimum , HA I am always trying to trim $20 here and there off of an order with Midway .

Business costs have risen along with the fuel to receive there products as well as to get them to you , wouldn't you rather change your shopping habits a bit and shop with people who still actually give a dang about how they treat there customers rather then being cheap and running them out of business like has done with Walmart to all of the small shops with pleasant knowledgeable people running them only to be replaced with morons and people who can't be bother to help a customer ?

My last order from Midway was a Lyman Flintlock rifle kit.(That 32" octragon barrel wieghs like 90 pounds) even with a $13.87 shipping charge It was still better than $25 cheaper that anywhere else I could find it and I got it in 3 days.

Most ebay shippers stick you.

My two favorite places to buy from are MidwayUSA and Grafs.

The only problem with Graf's free shipping is that they have a relatively small stock, and their small selection is quite often on backorder.

Midway often has stuff on backorder as well, but they tend to have lots of comparable goods I can get instead.

Midway is the cheapest based on product prices, but if the order is around a hundred bucks its often cheaper to go with Grafs. If its much more than that Midway tends to be cheaper, even counting the shipping.

Also, Midway ships fast. I bought a scope mount and some bullets the other day, about a 50 dollar order (Because Grafs didn't have the mount) and it was there two days after I placed it.

If paying a 12 dollar shipping and handling fee, which is what most of mine come out to, is too much for you, use Grafs... but honestly, you're not going to find a company as helpful, quick, cheap, and with such an extensive selection as midway. Not to mention they have a website that ISN'T a pain in the butt to use (Looking at you, Brownells).

I like Midway, and like most people, I have trouble spending so little as to run afoul of the handling charge. In fact, I find their business model to be very good.
-They require their employees to be NRA members. Most are avid shooters/hunters, etc, meaning they know their product from the lowliest grunt to the CEO.
-They promote donations to pro-gun organizations. What's one extra dollar at checkout?
-Rarely are they out of things I want, and when they are, it's back in quick.
-Incredible processing times.
-Incredible shipping times.
-Top notch customer service. I had an issue where my bank card was replaced and the security code on the back was not updated on my checkout. They phoned within a few hours and worked it out with me.
-Birthday, Christmas, and other specials via Internet. They always arrive when I'm planning on paying off my credit cards. :banghead:

This is a company that loves it's customers, and treats them as it's bread and butter. The way it should be.

I use to buy a LOT from Midway with my C&R and then I realized that Graf & Sons was consistently cheaper for the things I buy (and they accept C&R). So my advice it to set up an account with G&S and if they don't have something you're looking for, then see if Midway. It's not that I dislike Midway now....I just like G&S more.

I use to buy a LOT from Midway with my C&R and then I realized that Graf & Sons was consistently cheaper for the things I buy (and they accept C&R).

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Midway will give you dealer pricing with a C&R as well.

I love Graf but they always seem to be out of things I want.