Saving $10 Shipping

Post by **Martin Hash** » Mon May 30, 2016 6:37 am

I do my own home repairs. It could be everyone my generation does, or it be could boredom, or it could be the penny-pincer aspect of it? After 16 years, the brass hinges on the back door wore out. I paid $500 to have them replaced last time, and that wasn't going to happen again, so like every DIYer, I went to Google for help. First, brass hinges are so last century: they're super expensive, over $100 each, and I needed 4, plus they wear out. I found some ball-bearing, brass-platted hinges on the Internet for $12.06. Woohoo! I went through the “add to your cart” process but when the price came up it said “free shipping if you spend over $49.” Otherwise it was $10 for shipping. I'd only spent $48.24 That's like a call-to-action for a DIYer.

I spent a few minutes looking through the website trying to find the cheapest thing that would take me over the $49 mark. As I saw it, pay an extra dollar, save 10, no-brainer. There was a thingy for 67 cents but that wasn't enough, then I found a doorstop for 81 cents, and that $10 was going to be mine! Weirdly, the final total said, “you saved $6 in shipping,” which wasn't quite as savory, but whatever?

Hinges.jpg

A week or so later the mailman delivers a small but heavy box, and I thought, here's my $10 (maybe $6?) savings. First thing I noticed opening it up was that instead of the hinges coming 2 to a pack, these hinges had 4, so now I had 4 hinges too many. So what, their fault (maybe mine, I should have read closer?). I didn't even notice the 81 cent doo-dad wasn't in the box, I had hinges to install, and they went in perfectly, done deal, $460 saved, $10 (or maybe $6) shipping saved, and there were still hinges to spare for next time.

Saving Shipping.jpg

About a week later, UPS shows up and gives me a lightweight envelop. What could this be, I wondered? I tore it open but couldn't see anything at first, so turned over and a something-or-other slid out with an invoice for 81 cents. It dawned on me that the hinge company had spent way more than $10 UPSing me something I didn't even want so that I could save $10 (or maybe $6?). I felt kinda bad, thought maybe I should send those extra 4 hinges back, but how much would that shipping be? More than $10 that's for sure. It hurt my brain to think about it.

p.s. After all the money & effort spent on that doorstop, I thought I'd try to use it on one of my doors but it didn't work.