Merchants give free shipping all the time in order to sell an item, especially a large box expensive item, in fact I purchased a smoker a few weeks ago free shipping, also purchased pellets same order free shipping. I received an email from them today which said that they would give me free shipping on any order that was over $50.00, if not over $50.00 I would have to pay an additional shipping charge.
Yep, I covered that above. As a promotion to entice the customer to buy more stuff, they'll provide an incentive such as free shipping above a certain total. It is effectively no different than a $10 off $100 or buy five get one free type promotion. The merchant is willing to reduce their margin in exchange for a higher volume of sales. An alternative is that above a certain order level they know their margin will more than cover shipping costs and thus make it free or included as an enticement.
The "free shipping orders over $75" type of promotion is a different creature; the seller accepts a lower margin in exchange for the buyer buying more product. That's not relevant to differentiating "free" vs "included" as its changing the quantities, amount spent per item, and other parameters.
This ebay auction is a different scenario. They created a package with the shipping cost embedded and presented it on ebay. Most likely reason it's embedded is because ebay offers no mechanism to do LTL Freight actual-cost shipping as far as I know. If you go to their website though they do have the ability to generate by-zipcode LTL Freight cost estimates. You also can buy a-la-carte via their website. Two different venues and two different product packaging paradigms. Like visiting a BBQ restaurant's operation at a BBQ festival and visiting the same restaurant's storefront. You're going to find different prices and "packages".
I suppose the reason I'm hanging onto this like a terrier with a bone is that I find it interesting when different people can look at the same set of facts and come up with different interpretations. When that happens I like to understand where the difference in underlying assumptions may be that drive the different views of the same set of facts.
I'm beginning to sense that for some there's a heavier reliance on the interpretation of the wording and less of an analytical look at the numbers. Perhaps also for some there is an interpretation/assumption that the ebay listing is some sort of bargain deal or package representing something less than retail pricing.
My focus is on the bottom line; what's my total cost. Can I get the same thing for a lower price via a different venue? Whether a package vs a la carte or whether other costs are included/free/add-on, what's the bottom line number and is it what I want to pay.
I also generally don't expect any bargains on ebay for brand new merchandise. The transaction costs are higher than selling from their own website to begin with. What ebay provides to the manufacturer is greater exposure. More potential customers. It's likely to the manufacturer's benefit to have potential customers actually go to their website to buy instead of going though ebay. Just mocking up that auction via a fee calculator, they'd pay ebay $144.8 for each sale and pay paypal another $42.29. While they'll pay a percentage to their credit card processor for sales via their own website, that $144 ebay fee would be avoided.
Anyway, if someone can clearly explain what is misleading or dishonest about that ebay advert I'm curious to learn. I've put out the Larry/Curly/Moe analogue above and would appreciate a clear explanation of why there's any difference between the three.
It's difficult for me to really consider the other point of view if nobody can explain it in simple terms or create a logical basis for that point of view. (circular reasoning doesn't count)
