Shipping should always be calculated, a site rule

[skeletonstore]

Major retail websites have been brainwashing consumers for years with fake news by suggesting shipping is free.  I get the question all the time,  would you do free shipping.  I give them the number for the USPS and tell them to ask the USPS if they will work for free and still finance all the union benefits they reward their employees. I had a customer last night ask me to reduce the shipping on a heavy product because he thought $15 was too much for Medium Flat Rate Priority.  $7 was more to his liking.  So I'm suppose to eat $7 just so he can have 50% free shipping?   It's a total lie by offering free shipping.  It's even worse that Chinese sellers can ship for free because of how their crooked government works.  I also think any listing from China should have a RED disclaimer pop up and indicate to the customer that the listing is co-sponsored by the communist party.  amazon is certainly to blame too.  They play crooked games like selling below cost and don't have to pay taxes so they can brainwash even more people into thinking shipping is free. Even they should have to add a disclaimer about how this free shipping came about,  you know like it was the result of off shore accounts and crooked backroom deals and manipulation of the marketplace and probably some good old fashion bribery if not blackmail.  A dumb consumer is a trouble maker.  Shipping is not cheap and will be going up again very soon.  Maybe they should also have a pop up that shows USPS operating expenses too.  Show their employee benefit package and compare that to the benefits Ebay sellers get.  Maybe after all that buyers would stop acting so arrogant and demanding of free things.  Nothing is free in this world,  save for the truth.  Start telling it.  

[nuvistors]

  A dumb consumer is a trouble maker.

++++++++++++++++++++

A dumb seller is also a troublemaker.

Who are you to think you can  dictate to sellers how they can ship their items ?

[nuclearomen]

shipping is not free, everyone knows this, "free shipping" (which I do all my items) again is not "free" - that cost is calculated into the total price, along with all fees, taxes, cost of item, profit. To suggest I'm "brainwashing" customers is a complete joke, ask, I'll break the entire costs of the total price down for customer. 

Where is "free" shipping getting a break? From very large ecommerce like Amazon who pay pennies on the dollar to ship because they have special subsidized shipping rates with carriers cause they ship so much product - we do not get such rates. Example - I order boxes through amazon a lot (they are cheaper with a business account then others like Uline) I just ordered last week a bundle of 25 smaller boxes the total cost was $12 and change (actually cheaper but the tax brought it to $12 and change), the item shipped FedEx and came in 2 days - it would cost me and you more then $12 just to ship the item (size/weight for this is $27 through FedEx I checked the cost) so how do you think Amazon was able to pay for the product and ship the item to me for total of $12? Because they pay near nothing to ship. 

The story of China shipping cheap you can thank US for placing that cost onto us by subsidizing their rates as well - those costs are reflected in our rate hikes over and over, every time rates go up.