The answer displays below the question, after you click on the question
Q - How come the shipping cost that much?
The post office does not charge by the size of the part or the dollar amount of the parts in a package.
An empty flat rate box cost the same as a flat rate box filed with parts
I add approx. $2.00 to what the shipping cost me to cover all the items listed below.
This also helps cover small orders.
Without this extra charge, if you ordered $1.00 worth of parts, I would basically be paying you to order the parts.
It seems that everybody and their brother are always trying to suck money out of the small business man.
There are a number of expenses that occur on every order, however large or small the order is.
Here are some of the items that I have to recover and are included in the shipping charge.
* Bank credit card processing fees and service charges. (American Express is the worst)
* PayPal Fees. PayPal takes a percentage of the total amount you send me
* The person processing and packing the order must be paid, they don't work for free
* Postage charges for printing my own postage, shipping labels, monthly postage service charges, etc.
* Shipping tape, plastic shipping bags, shipping boxes, bubble wrap.
* Telephone company charges for internet access.
* Web site hosting charges.
* Office supplies including Computer paper, labels, pens, staples, ink jet cartridges, software upgrades, etc.
* County and state business operating charges.
Q - Will you just throw a couple small parts in a regular envelope?
Sorry, but No.
Please do not ask me to throw small parts in a regular envelope and mail them for the price of a first class stamp.
First of all, parts will not go through the USPS envelope sorting machines with parts inside
Regular envelopes are made for flat paper, not parts
Shipping cost more than just the price of the postage
See the section above "How Come shipping cost that much" for more info
Q - How do I know how much shipping will be?
There is a shipping calculator in my shopping cart that can do shipping calculations.
There is a calculator for USA addresses and for International addresses
Add something to your shopping cart and then you can use the shipping calculator.
Also see the shipping info further down this page.
Q - How come your shopping cart cannot tell me what the exact shipping charge will be on my order?
There is no way I can calculate exact shipping cost.
There are way too many variables when it comes to shipping.
I use several of the US Postal systems flat rate containers.
This means, anything that fits inside that container, can be shipped for a flat rate amount.
The main thing that affects USPS shipping is if all the parts will fit into a flat rate shipping container.
There is no way that a computer can calculate all the possible ways that parts can fit together physically inside a flat rate package.
It is not a simple matter of how much a package weighs.
Here are a few of the things that can change shipping cost.
* The package weight and shipping distance vary with every package.
* How much packing material and the weight of the box can change the weight of a package.
* Items that can be crushed or broken get packed differently than non fragile items.
* If a pile of parts does not fit physically into a flat rate postal package then it cost more to ship.
* A long skinny package with $5 worth of parts inside can cost more to ship than a short fat package with $200 worth of parts inside.
* A very long piece of circuit board will usually cost you more because I cannot use the flat rate containers.
Q - What is domestic shipping?
Domestic shipping means the United states and US territories like Puerto Rico.
Q - What is International shipping?
International shipments are any non US or non US territories addresses.
Q - What shipping methods do you use?
USPS Ground Select, Priority mail, and Express mail are the only shipping methods I use.
I do not use FedEx or UPS to ship parts
Q - Can I track a package sent to me?
I print all shipping labels via Stamps.com software
Stamps.com will email you your USPS tracking number
Q - Can I give you my UPS account number - Can you ship by UPS or FedEx?
No, Sorry.
I cancelled my UPS daily pickup several years ago because they charged me $72 a month to stop by every day
That was many years ago and UPS probably charges way more than that now for daily pickup
It was rare that a customer would choose UPS shipping on my shopping cart and so daily UPS pickup was not worth the added expense
If I want to ship a package by UPS today, I would have to go on line and schedule a pickup manually
The last time I checked, they charged almost $6 to come pick up a package and it is probably way more now
That $6 would have to get added to the customers shipping cost
The added time and labor to go on line and schedule a pickup and the additional pickup charge makes UPS very expensive and way slower than USPS priority mail.
For these reasons, I don't offer UPS or FedEx shipping
Q - How long before you ship my parts?
I ship your parts as soon as you pay for your parts.
When your credit card is run through, or the PayPal funds arrive, the package is packed up and shipped
Also see the info on this page. -
Payment methods info pageQ - What time do you take the packages to the post office?
I don't go to the post office. I have not been in a post office for several years.
I print my own shipping labels with the correct postage amount at my shop.
I am a USPS commercial shipper. A postal carrier comes to my shop to pick up the packages every day of the week except Sunday
Package pickups happen at different times each day, depending on how busy the postal carrier is that day.
Sometimes the carrier picks up the packages as early as 11 am eastern time and sometimes as late as 3 pm eastern time
Q - What are the USPS flat rate shipping containers?
See the information further down on this page about the Flat rate shipping containers.
Q - Do you have to attach a customs form to my International package?
Yes. See the information further down on this page about customs forms.
Q - Can you alter my customs form and say it is a gift or commercial sample?
No, sorry
I am registered with the US post office as a commercial shipper.
They pick up and inspect all my packages
They know that I do not send out gifts and samples all day long.
Q - How come the USPS tracking info never changes on my International package?
The USPS does not offer the same tracking information for international packages as they do for USA packages
See the info on this page about USPS tracking.
Q - My package has not arrived yet, where is it?
See the section below about delayed or lost packages and strange shipping tales.
Q - Can you send me another package while I wait for my delayed package?
No, sorry.
Your package will arrive or it will be returned to me if there is a problem.
See the section below about delayed or lost packages and strange shipping tales.
Q - How come some packages are delayed?
Please read the section below about delayed packages and some of the strange shipping tales that customers have reported to me.
Q - What are your shop hours?
The time I am at the shop varies every day
Sometimes I get here as early as 5:30 am Eastern time, but most days it is probably around 7:30 am
I usually close the shop down at 4 pm eastern time
I do come into the shop on Saturday mornings to take care of all the orders that came in Friday night
I usually pop by on Sundays for just a bit to take of any orders and so that Mondays are not so busy.
Just a reminder to those on the left coast that 4 pm eastern time is 1 pm left coast time.
So you people out west need to submit your orders the night before or very early so I can make sure they go out the same day.
Q - How do I order parts from you?
Q - Do you offer wholesale pricing?
Sorry, no
I am a retail store which means that I pay wholesale prices.
I buy parts at wholesale and sell them at retail
I cannot buy parts at wholesale and sell them at wholesale or I would not be in business very long
The large distributors I buy my parts from buy from the manufactures in huge quantities and then they sell parts at wholesale prices
I do have very good prices on many items because I do buy some items in very large quantities
You can think of my store as a corner 7-11 convenience store
You can pull in, get your goodies and be on your way very fast
I ship things out way faster than most other on line stores and that is one of the things that people love about my business
I do have a discount program that is based on your past purchases
Click here to read about my Discount Program
Q - Can I pick up my parts at your shop?
No, sorry
My shop is located on my personal property.
I do not allow people to come to my shop.
This page has more info Q - How do I know if a part is in stock?
If an item has an order button, then the part is in stock.
I remove the order button for any part that is out of stock so that it cannot be ordered.
The exception to this would be if someone orders all of the remaining items I have before I have had a chance to remove the order button.
This sort of thing can happen while I am not at my shop.
As soon as I see that an item is out of stock, I remove the order button.
Examples:
Someone orders the last 100 feet of Yellow cloth wire at 2 am in the morning.
I would not know the item was now out of stock until I get to the shop in the morning.
Or, 10 people order all the remaining quantities of a part over the course of a weekend.
I would not know the item was now out of stock until I get to the shop on Monday morning.
Q - Do you have a minimum order amount?
I do not have a minimum order amount.
If you are in a bind and need just one small resistor shipped immediately, that is not a problem.
No order is too small.
Q - What payment methods do you accept?
Q - Can you tell me what all the parts for an amp cost?
No, sorry.
The best way to do this is for you to add all the parts to the shopping cart and let it total up all the parts for you.
It can give you a shipping guestimate also.
Q - Can I send you a list of parts and then you can tell me what the total cost will be with shipping?
No, sorry, I am very busy when I am at work and I don't have time to create parts list, or add up the cost.
My shopping cart will give you a running total of all the parts.
Just add the part to the shopping cart to see the total.
Q - Can I ask you some technical questions?
No, sorry, I am very busy taking care of all the parts orders I get every day
I have an amplifier forum with over 9500 members and they are very helpful people
The guys on the amp forum are your best source for help and learning
Here is the link to my amp forum
Hoffman Amplifiers Amp ForumQ - Can I call you on the phone?
No, sorry, I do not have a business phone
All orders and correspondence happens via the internet or by email
