Just what is shipping and handling?
DRIVER'S SIDE DIATRIBEIf you look at any Monroney label (the official name of the price sheet that’s taped to the window of brand new vehicles) everything seems above board. There’s the usual listing of where the car is manufactured, what the U.S. content is, what major safety, convenience and other amenities are standard, the Manufacturer’s Suggest Retail Price (MSRP) of the vehicle and then the options and/or packages are listed under the “Options” section and then there’s a total underneath.
Not a “final” total. Nosiree Bob. It’s a sub-total. Because the next addition to the bottom line is “Shipping and Handling” or “Vehicle Prep” or any number of euphemisms for “bend over Consumer, here it comes!”
These prices vary but are generally in the neighborhood of $1,000. What the intended use is, is to pay for th
e car being shipped to the dealer and the dealer doing all the steps necessary to prepare it for delivery to the customer. Theoretically I don’t have a problem with that although thinking like the PR man I once was (which is about the only credible way of describing the “man I once was”) I could never understand why costs like that aren’t just buried in the cost of the vehicle as opposed to listed separately, giving the appearance of gouging the buyer. I sometimes play a game with myself where I look at the Shipping & Handling charge and think how far the vehicle had to travel in order to get to this point. For instance, if you’re paying a charge of $995 for Destination & Delivery but the final assembly plant is right across the street from the dealership, SpongeBob SquarePants could tell you that appears to be a hosing. But when you’re paying the same amount for a vehicle that’s shipped from Korea or deep within Europe it seems like a bargain because you can’t even ship your own rear end 5,000 miles for $995, let alone the rear-end of Kia Optima.
Why should dealer preparation be listed as the cost of a new vehicle? Is it possible for the customer to forgo the cost of vehicle prep and save a few hundred dollars that way? You have a better chance of being voted off the island than you do having that charge eliminated. Why do you think there’s such an ease of negotiation during the selling/buying process? It’s because there’s an automatic cushion of about $800 already there, and it ain’t for you! The television equivalent of “Dealer Prep” is when they’ll show some seemingly neat device like one that will cure cancer and Hodgkin’s disease for the amazingly low price of $19.95. But wait!!! As a bonus they’ll send you TWO of these wonderful devices. “Just pay extra shipping and handling.” Think they’re cutting their profits in half, Bubba? Guess again. They’re making enough money off the extra shipping and handling charges to more than compensate them for the “loss” of doubling your order.
I’ve written rants before about being nickeled and dimed to death. Examples are rife (what the hell kind of word is “rife,” anyway?) with charges like $1,000 for Pearlescent White Clearcoat Midnight Metallic Sapphire Hubba Hubba paint, or $175 for floor mats or even $75 for a special gearshift knob. I don’t know Pete, but for his sake; charge a couple of hundred dollars extra for incidentals like those mentioned, and preserve some dignity.
They (whoever “they” are) talk about the ethics of car salesmen. What do they all have in common? They sell cars. And who builds cars? Manufacturers! And how do manufacturers earn some extra money to pay off student loans? Shipping and handling. See where this is headed?
For the last time (and because I need about 100 more words to finish this piece), if the MSRP of a vehicle is $21,500, make it $23,000 and eliminate the separate listing of S&H and any other incidentals that cost under $100-$300 dollars. That way the manufactures can say that “everything is standard, there are no hidden costs (except the options).” Truth-be-told, shipping and handling never were hidden, they’re right there on the Monroney for the entire world to see. 
But I guarandamntee you that when a customer gets done negotiating a deal he thinks is fair and he’s suddenly hit with a charge of almost $1,000 he didn’t expect and was told that this is “something the factory puts on so we can’t do anything about that” the warm feeling in the customer’s leg is long gone.
But I guarandamntee you that when a customer gets done negotiating a deal he thinks is fair and he’s suddenly hit with a charge of almost $1,000 he didn’t expect and was told that this is “something the factory puts on so we can’t do anything about that” the warm feeling in the customer’s leg is long gone. If the old adage of “perception is reality” is true then the addition of Dealer Preparation/Shipping & Handling/or whatever the nomenclature is, that’s why other useless and totally non-credible descriptions are allowed to flourish, like an “honest politician.”
They’re just words, and words mean something, except in this case (and politics).
They’re just words, and words mean something, except in this case (and politics).
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