• 7 Posts
  • 191 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: June 7th, 2023

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  • Absolutely!

    And I’ve had companies offer me a discount on product, rather than a full refund or replacement. I always refuse and state how disappointed I am. They pretty much always follow up with a full refund or new product.

    Hell, I even ordered an indoor spin bike, complained that it used non-standard crank arms, and they refunded me $100 to replace the crank arms and pedals! Just for stating that I was unhappy with one aspect of an otherwise great purchase.


  • I’ve had Amazon listings where the title, description, specs on the box, specs on the product, and the reviews ALL had different information.

    Who creates these listings? AI?

    That said, I strongly encourage anyone who shops on Amazon to complain about issues in your reviews, and contact the seller if ANYTHING is wrong with your product. I have a 99% success rate of getting replacements or a full refund while doing this (resulting in basically a free product), even if the issue is cosmetic or a personal dislike. Just be honest.









  • But a grocery store? They’re not set up for this thing.

    Since the pandemic (4 years), nearly every grocery store is now set up to handle online ordering, picking, and either shipping or on-site pickup. Even small stores that never had online ordering had to adapt to offer it in order to stay relevant.

    But do you think these retail stores are inundated with online orders? Even in a large store like Walmart, I’m often the only person at the pick-up spot, even when their pick-up slot is “full” for that hour.

    The implementation for these stores to set up the actual website and backend for online ordering was a much larger task, and there were never any extra fees associated with them doing that; modernizing their business does have a cost, but it also generates more revenue (and profits) at the same time.

    And being they’re a few cities over

    What does being a few cities over have to do with their cost of doing business? They are in a more populated area, and have a chain of stores, owned by the largest grocery company in the country. The fact that their online shop brings them business they’d never have otherwise, customers are doing them a favour by ordering online.

    Shipping costs, which would apply to local and out of town customers, would only differ in the time it takes to make the delivery.

    it’s not incredibly unreasonable to have to pay for someone to pick it, consume a box, consume filler material, consume tape, print a label, and then mail it.

    I order stuff online all the time. Regardless of whether a place has a storefront or not, I’ve never seen excessive fees like this one. Boxes? Tape? Labels? Literally the cost of running a business, just like printing on paper receipts at a checkout or providing bags or installing security systems…

    I can only accept your argument if you can show that companies who aren’t charging extra fees would be losing money through their online ordering system.

    The fact is, grocery stores in Canada, despite offering online order since at least the pandemic, are constantly setting profit records. In the US, online grocery store market has grown significantly and is a key driver in the industry’s growth.

    We are not small retail businesses who are asking for these extra fees, so your argument makes even less sense.




  • Handling fee is revenue collected by the store. Now that they have a big pool of revenue, they pay their employees from it (the minimum wage you referred to). Read that in context of the next two paragraphs.

    WRT cashiers and stockers that was part of the existing business model. The general profit from groceries covered those expenses.

    The general profit from groceries does not cover the expense of a different business model of hiring additional employees whose sole job would be to walk around filling orders. Those additional jobs require additional revenue, which the store gets from handling fee.

    Are you implying that stores which are NOT charging a handling fee are losing money?

    Regardless of whether they have to hire extra staff to pick items, or to develop a website for online ordering, or to deliver these items in their own vehicles, that’s an expense they bulk into the cost of running their business. They would then set prices for the goods they sell based on those expenses + whatever markup they choose.

    I will point out that grocery stores have been making a record profit since COVID, and a big part of that is because of online ordering (and price-gouging🤫). We’re talking companies who don’t charge a handling fee, and some who offer free shipping.

    At the end of the day, charging a handling fee in excess of the shipping fee, then asking for a tip, is mildly infuriating.


  • i mean you’re paying for convenience.

    Out of curiosity, does Amazon charge a handling fee or ask you to tip the picker? Walmart? Sporting good stores? Pet food stores? Absolutely not.

    There are a dozen grocery stores in my area, and the most that any of them charge for a “handling fee” is $1. None ask for tips, and actually ask not to tip.

    I’m not arguing about shipping costs. But a tip on top of a handling fee is mildly infuriating.

    It would be way more convenient for me to walk to the store and buy this item, but these guys are a few cities over. I’m happy to pay for shipping, but everything else is a cash grab.


  • It is. Via the handling fee.

    No, they get at least minimum wage. The handling fee is an added fee that goes to the company. Only the tip goes “100%” to the employee, as it states.

    If the store hires people whose sole job is to walk up and down the aisles filling orders, the store has to get money to pay those people. The store gets that money by charging people the handling fee.

    Nonsense. The store pays cashiers, too, and they don’t charge a cashier fee. Or a stocking clerk fee.

    To prove it even further, they don’t offer a discount when using self-checkout.

    When I worked in a grocery store, we wouldn’t dream of asking for an additional fee or tip, even when we bagged and walked out someone’s groceries to their car. It was part of the job we were being paid to do.