The Video Game Critic

I am really getting annoyed by online companies who only disclose shipping charges in the invoice after you have committed to buy and completed the order. Shipping costs can be pricey and I don't want to be surprised with an inflated rate with nothing that I can do about it. If not an exact rate a general ballpark or flat standard shipping fee.

I have made a point of not buying from anyone who does not tell me the shipping in advance. I buy a lot of stuff from abroad. When I am getting stuff coming from different continents I want to know how much I am going to pay.

Of course that can also bring up some interesting results. How come a seller in Taiwan can charge me lower postage than someone from just down the road?

I am still waiting to get my Odyssey2 from Ebay (a freind ordered it for me using their CC)...I too was pretty miffed to find my $11.25 system cost $15 in shipping. The O2 is the lightest console made; I've sent this size via the post office for 8 bucks or less, but UPS ground is $15 flat for ANYTHING...of course, is it Ebay or UPS charging that rate? You'd really have to want an $2 combat cartrisge bad to pay $15 in shipping! Ebay always seems like a steal-deal until you factor in the shipping but-oh well, death,taxes and shipping fees! (my other miff is it's been over a week! How long does it TAKE to ship it that way? Via the PO it would get anywhere in the U.S.A. in less than a week- I know, my freind is in Alaska, I've sent him stuff he got in 5 days!)

And then there's the slow shippers. 

I bought my xBox on eBay four years ago.  The guy kept saying, "It's coming, it's coming," and never sent it.  Finally, about two months later (I think)--a day before the window to file a claim closed--I had to file a claim with eBay.  That actually got some results.  But, almost spitefully, it arrived in a cardboard box that had originally contained cartons of cigarettes--with *no packaging* whatsoever.  To my shock and continued amazement, it worked and still works perfectly.  I guess the UPS guys were a little more careful than I would have expected.

I was getting so worried, I had looked up the guy's phone number and was getting ready to call him at home and start hounding him for my xBox.  Glad I didn't have to do all that.