Wednesday, 16 December 2009
Walmart Over-charging Overseas Military Customers on Shipping
Man this ticks me off, it seems some large retailers inflate costs to ship to APO addresses. Walmart is the worst offender and should be ashamed of themselves for this. APO stands for Army Postal System and is the part of the U.S. Military Postal Service.
Overseas military customers ordering gifts online from certain retailers might get an unpleasant surprise when shipping and handling fees are tacked on at the end of the purchase.
Those same customers might be most surprised to find that retail giant Walmart had the biggest markup.
On a $120 purchase, Walmart.com charged $10.35 to ship to an APO address, compared with $2.10 to a stateside address. For most items, Amazon.com charged the same to ship to an APO address as a stateside address. And Target.com offered free shipping on a $120 purchase to an APO address.
That's not the worst of it...
Earl Small, the postmaster at Wiesbaden Army Airfield, said that the shipping and handling charges have nothing to do with the military postal system or the U.S. Postal Service.
“A company can charge whatever they want,” said Small, who explained that items up to 108 inches are normally shipped at normal cost, but larger items often fall under a more expensive “balloon charge.”
According to Small, when companies ship to APO addresses, the order is shipped to New York, after which the Department of Defense picks up the tab to get the package to an APO address.
On Walmart.com, the company says shipping costs will be higher to APO addresses due to higher transportation costs.
“There is no higher transportation costs,” Small said. “Companies are abusing the system and making a killing.”
Oh great, now we will probably get a Postal Czar.
A quick note about our sponsors sinusfresh.com who are the official e-commerce site for SinoFresh Nasal Spray. They never over-charge military personnel. Military personnel get free shipping on orders of 3 or more!
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