Shipping and Handling

[VeronicaLodge]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TN

Hi, not sure if this is the right place to put this but here goes.

When you quote "estimated freight charges" to a customer do you have to specifically say "and handling" if handling charges are included? or does "freight" include in its definition all things that make up freight charges such as shipping, handling, postal etc charges?

We have a form that says freight charges and a customer screaming that we have to put "and handling" by law. I can not find a law that requires this and obviously he didn't provide me with one either, but I want to make sure.

Any experts in this area?

THANKS!

 

[acmb05]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TN

Hi, not sure if this is the right place to put this but here goes.

When you quote "estimated freight charges" to a customer do you have to specifically say "and handling" if handling charges are included? or does "freight" include in its definition all things that make up freight charges such as shipping, handling, postal etc charges?

We have a form that says freight charges and a customer screaming that we have to put "and handling" by law. I can not find a law that requires this and obviously he didn't provide me with one either, but I want to make sure.

Any experts in this area?

THANKS!

I am by no means an expert, however you can not charge a handling fee unless you say there is one. If you only state you are charging shipping the you can only charge what the service charges you to ship it.

I never charged a handling charge so I never came upon this problem.

 

[Hot Topic]

Postage - what the post office charges you to mail the package.

Handling - what you charge for the box, tube, padded envelope, etc., that you bought to put the item in. You can also figure in the cost of insulating the item against breakage via bubble pack or peanuts.

If you're going to absorb the cost of the above, don't make mention of handling charges.

I worked for almost 11 years in mail order sales. Sometimes, people would ignore the postage and handling charges and "guesstimate" the postage. Instead of going in a padded envelope with a machine produced label, I put the item in a plain mailing envelope, wrote out the address by hand, slapped a couple of stamps on it and sent it off.