On-line Stores & Sellers

Started by Expresso, July 02, 2007, 09:09:12 AM

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Brian

Oops, Chrome was auto-completing their URL with a ".com" for some reason.

Coopmv

Quote from: Brian on April 09, 2013, 11:23:19 AM
Oops, Chrome was auto-completing their URL with a ".com" for some reason.

Chrome must have a way to tell a .org or .gov from .com ...

Opus106

Since when did US AMP sellers think they were operating from mainland Europe? $14.29 to ship a single CD?! >:(
Regards,
Navneeth

Coopmv

Quote from: Opus106 on April 20, 2013, 08:13:55 AM
Since when did US AMP sellers think they were operating from mainland Europe? $14.29 to ship a single CD?! >:(

They have also learned the art of gouging ...    :D

niknala

Quote from: Opus106 on April 20, 2013, 08:13:55 AM
Since when did US AMP sellers think they were operating from mainland Europe? $14.29 to ship a single CD?! >:(

The shipping rates charged by Amazon Marketplace vendors is set by Amazon not by the vendors.

Opus106

Quote from: niknala on April 20, 2013, 12:13:09 PM
The shipping rates charged by Amazon Marketplace vendors is set by Amazon not by the vendors.

Oops, my mistake. It's only for "non-media items" that the sellers seem to have a free hand in setting the rates when shipping overseas. That said, it's still an atrocious cost!
Regards,
Navneeth

Parsifal

Quote from: Opus106 on April 20, 2013, 12:20:13 PM
Oops, my mistake. It's only for "non-media items" that the sellers seem to have a free hand in setting the rates when shipping overseas. That said, it's still an atrocious cost!

The price may be unattractive, but it may reflect the actual cost of shipment.  When I sell through amazon I normally lose money, not gain it, by their fixed shipping rate.

Opus106

Quote from: Parsifal on April 20, 2013, 02:14:28 PM
The price may be unattractive, but it may reflect the actual cost of shipment.  When I sell through amazon I normally lose money, not gain it, by their fixed shipping rate.

It may well be. My shock was primarily due to the fact that until as recently as a few weeks ago, the MP postage was $6.98 (or thereabouts).
Regards,
Navneeth

niknala

Quote from: Opus106 on April 21, 2013, 04:01:47 AM
It may well be. My shock was primarily due to the fact that until as recently as a few weeks ago, the MP postage was $6.98 (or thereabouts).

Yes, big shipping price jumps -- earlier this year the US Postal Service almost doubled the International First Class rate. 

Opus106

Quote from: niknala on April 21, 2013, 06:56:26 AM
Yes, big shipping price jumps -- earlier this year the US Postal Service almost doubled the International First Class rate. 

That explains it, then.
Regards,
Navneeth

Coopmv

Quote from: niknala on April 21, 2013, 06:56:26 AM
Yes, big shipping price jumps -- earlier this year the US Postal Service almost doubled the International First Class rate.

The USPS does not have any choice since it is on the road to bankruptcy ...

Parsifal

Quote from: Coopmv on April 21, 2013, 01:00:49 PM
The USPS does not have any choice since it is on the road to bankruptcy ...

That's off-topic here.  Maybe you should move this to your chicken-little thread, where your self-declared absolute knowledge of the global economy is more relevant.   ;D

Coopmv

Quote from: Parsifal on April 21, 2013, 02:05:36 PM
That's off-topic here.  Maybe you should move this to your chicken-little thread, where your self-declared absolute knowledge of the global economy is more relevant.   ;D

I have a good friend who is in management at the USPS and he shares his views with me after having worked there for over 30 years.  When a business is deep in the red, price increase is the natural step.  I certainly do not have very high opinion of you, along with a few others who think they are the know-it-alls when it comes to classical music.

Parsifal

On the chicken-little thread, please.

Sammy

Quote from: Coopmv on April 21, 2013, 02:26:10 PM
When a business is deep in the red, price increase is the natural step. 

Not so.  A business might be in the red because its products/services have been priced too high for the specific market.  Other reasons could include structural deficiencies, poor service, outdated technologies, inadequate product identification/advertising, etc.  I just don't see anything natural about raising prices when your business is going down.

Brian

Quote from: Sammy on April 21, 2013, 02:54:07 PM
Not so.  A business might be in the red because its products/services have been priced too high for the specific market.  Other reasons could include structural deficiencies, poor service, outdated technologies, inadequate product identification/advertising, etc.  I just don't see anything natural about raising prices when your business is going down.

Consider EMI. Their downfall over the last decade has coincided with the continual re-issues of everything possible at increasingly silly-low prices.

Parsifal

If a business has declining revenue it will normally cut costs and seek new markets.  The postal service does not have the authority to do either without authorization from Congress.  In the past few years I've been reading in the papers that Congress has denied the postal service permission to close redundant post offices, curtail delivery schedules, reduce staff, salaries or benefit and pension contributions.   And I am not sure how cutting prices could help sales, since their rates (also set by Congress) are already cheaper than their competition (USP, Fedex, etc).  It is not reasonable to expect an entity to behave like a business if it is under restrictions that no other business is subject to.

In any case, as I understand it, this stuff is not supposed to be on the music part of the forum.

DavidRoss

Quote from: Sammy on April 21, 2013, 02:54:07 PM
Not so.  A business might be in the red because its products/services have been priced too high for the specific market.  Other reasons could include structural deficiencies, poor service, outdated technologies, inadequate product identification/advertising, etc.  I just don't see anything natural about raising prices when your business is going down.
Note, however, that the US Postal Service is not a business. If it were run like a business, FedEx and UPS never would have had a chance. But it's run like a government agency, which means that incompetence, inefficiency, and waste are all but guaranteed.

How ironic that, among the thousands of things our masters in Washington D.C. do today, the postal service is one of the very few they have legal authority for. One wonders: if the feds weren't so busy trampling the Constitutional limits on their activity, would they have been able to run the postal service competently instead of running it into the ground?
"Maybe the problem most of you have ... is that you're not listening to Barbirolli." ~Sarge

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people's money." ~Margaret Thatcher

Brian

Quote from: DavidRoss on April 21, 2013, 03:15:24 PM
Note, however, that the US Postal Service is not a business. If it were run like a business, FedEx and UPS never would have had a chance. But it's run like a government agency, which means that incompetence, inefficiency, and waste are all but guaranteed.
But as Parsifal pointed out, at this point most of the inefficiency and waste that's obvious to the public is dictated by Congress. The USPS isn't run like a business because it is controlled by, in essence, a board of regents who are not interested in its commercial success.