<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><DIV>Those Retail Bastards! Always trying to make a profit for goods and services they provide! Boo! </DIV>
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<DIV>Donovan Arnold<BR><BR>--- On <B>Wed, 12/16/09, Tom Hansen <I><thansen@moscow.com></I></B> wrote:<BR></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px"><BR>From: Tom Hansen <thansen@moscow.com><BR>Subject: [Vision2020] Some Retailers Inflate Costs to Ship to APO Addresses<BR>To: "Moscow Vision 2020" <vision2020@moscow.com><BR>Date: Wednesday, December 16, 2009, 6:58 PM<BR><BR>
<DIV class=plainMail>Courtesy of "Stars and Stripes" (an armed forces newspaper) at:<BR><BR><A href="http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66700" target=_blank>http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66700</A><BR><BR>---------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Some retailers inflate costs to ship to APO addresses<BR>By Mark Patton, Stars and Stripes<BR>European edition, Wednesday, December 16, 2009<BR><BR><SPAN>WIESBADEN</SPAN>, Germany — Overseas military customers ordering gifts online<BR>from certain retailers might get an unpleasant surprise when shipping and<BR>handling fees are tacked on at the end of the purchase.<BR><BR>Those same customers might be most surprised to find that retail giant<BR>Walmart had the biggest markup.<BR><BR>On a $120 purchase, Walmart.com charged $10.35 to ship to an APO address,<BR>compared with $2.10 to a stateside address. For most items, Amazon.com<BR>charged the
same to ship to an APO address as a stateside address. And<BR>Target offered shipping on a $120 purchase to an APO address for less than<BR>to a stateside address.<BR><BR>Wal-Mart Inc. officials did not return calls requesting an interview.<BR>However, in an e-mailed response, spokesman Ravi Jariwala said: “In your<BR>shopping cart during the checkout process, we show an estimated shipping<BR>cost, based on our lowest-price shipping method and assuming all items in<BR>your cart are going to a single address within the contiguous United<BR>States. If you select a different shipping method, a military APO/FPO<BR>address or an address outside the contiguous United States, your actual<BR>shipping cost may be higher. We continue to work with carriers to<BR>negotiate favorable shipping rates.”<BR><BR>But Earl Small, the postmaster at Wiesbaden Army Airfield, said that the<BR>shipping and handling charges have nothing to do with the military
postal<BR>system or the U.S. Postal Service.<BR><BR>“A company can charge whatever they want,” said Small, who explained that<BR>items up to 108 inches are normally shipped at normal cost, but larger<BR>items often fall under a more expensive “balloon charge.”<BR><BR>According to Small, when companies ship to APO addresses in Europe, the<BR>order is shipped to New York, after which the Department of Defense picks<BR>up the tab to get the package to an APO address.<BR><BR>On Walmart.com, the company says shipping costs will be higher to APO<BR>addresses due to higher transportation costs.<BR><BR>“There is no higher transportation costs,” Small said. “Companies are<BR>abusing the system and making a killing.”<BR><BR>---------------------------------------------------<BR><BR>Seeya round town, Moscow.<BR><BR>Tom Hansen<BR>Moscow, Idaho<BR><BR>"The Pessimist complains about the wind, the Optimist expects it to change<BR>and the Realist
adjusts his sails."<BR><BR>- Unknown<BR><BR><BR>=======================================================<BR>List services made available by First Step Internet, <BR>serving the communities of the Palouse since 1994. <BR> <A href="http://www.fsr.net/" target=_blank>http://www.fsr.net</A> <BR> mailto:<A href="http://us.mc447.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Vision2020@moscow.com" ymailto="mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com">Vision2020@moscow.com</A><BR>=======================================================<BR></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE></td></tr></table><br>