WTF, Lulu?
So, y'all know how much I love Planet of the Apes. And this guy has just self-published a book outlining his take on the timeline of the movies and TV shows as a trade paperback through Lulu.com, and I figured, okay, what the heck, I'd buy a copy; price is $29.95, plus shipping.
When I went to check out, Lulu ever so thoughtfully took me straight to "enter your credit card" information; I had to click on a thingy to see what shipping charges I was going to be assessed. Holy crap! Lulu had defaulted to "standard shipping" to Canada, which is US$74.26. That's nuts for one trade paperback.
Now, yes, I could have chosen other options. Here are the choices Lulu offers:
* Ground: US$16.43
* Economy: US$29.44 (with a note that "Lulu does not recommend this shipping method")
* Standard: US$74.26
* Express: US$84.50
* Super Fast - Ships Next Day Overnight Delivery: US$99.26
* Super Mega Fast - Ships Today Overnight Delivery: US$134.50
I canceled my order; oh, perhaps if they'd defaulted to ground (overpriced but not obscene), maybe I'd have gone through with it. But this is just freakin' ridiculous.
The Robert J. Sawyer Web Site
Posted by Rob on Monday, December 08, 2008
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5 comments
5 Comments:
I think for "Standard Shipping" the author brings it to your house in person, in a limo.
What in heaven's name are they printing on? Heavy card stock? Wow.
From the shipping rates I'd say it was chiseled in stone.
When I bought my CD player a bit back I had it shipped overnight to Calgary. It was packed in it's original wooden shipping crate, 60 pounds, came from Massachusetts, and cost $200 via FedEx.
WTF? is an understatement for LuLu's mind boggling shipping rates.
I sort of understand why Lulu books are generally more expensive. The company doesn't print large quantities of books like the big publishers do because it's POD. So they have higher prices. However, I checked and the author for this book jacked up the price for this book by almost $20 USD. That's absolutely insane!
And I'm calling B.S. on the shipping. That makes no sense to me. I've shipped stuff to Canada before and it was never THAT expensive. That's crazier than the price of the book itself...
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