Okay, here's what's going on.
I've got my regular adventure path subscription scheduled for the end of the month here:
1x Pathfinder Adventure Path #39: The City of Seven Spears (Serpent's Skull 3 of 6) (PFRPG) Print Edition, $13.99
I thought I might as well make the shipping charges a little more worthwhile by adding in a couple flip-mats to be held until it ships, and I started the map subscription for extra savings since I wanted the forest map anyway:
1x GameMastery Flip-Mat: Theater, $11.04 (in sidecart)
1x GameMastery Flip-Mat: Forest, $10.39 (in sidecart)
Everything was fine until I added in one extra item, which I thought I might get before it sold out:
1x GameMastery Map Pack: Dungeon Chambers, $11.01 (in sidecart)
At this point, the one package (combined to save shipping costs) became two packages (with the shipping charges about doubled) but the system still wanting to delay them both to ship out on the same day, which isn't terribly useful. It also doesn't say which products will ship in which boxes, which would be useful to know too.
Now, if all four will actually be in one package with somewhat cheaper shipping, that would be ideal, but if they're going in two, what will be in each and is there any reason to hold up one of them up to ship with the regular shipment if there's no postage savings?
I'm going to be running an adventure next weekend that may need the theater mat and the dungeon maps so sending them out now wouldn't be that bad, with or without the forest mat (which as I understand is also in stock). But if the system is going to make all the packages wait till the end of the month, and if the map pack is an odd shape relative to the other three, I'd prefer just want to cancel the Dungeon Chambers map pack this month and reorder it next month when it would ship with another map pack and presumably not be as strange/expensive with shipping.
Hey Kevin, the system tries to get the cheapest shipping method possible, which sometimes means that the order is split into separate packages. What I've done is set the "Dungeon Chambers" and "Theater" maps to ship out today (please check your inbox for the confirmation email), while the "Forest" map will ship with your subscription shipment (Pathfinder #39). Please let me know if there is anything else I can help you out with!
Thanks, Liz.
If the forest map is in stock now, could you check to see if it would be cheaper or the same price to add it into today's order as well? When I added the dungeon maps last night, the price jumped from one package for 5 something to two at 9 something, but now it's at two packages at $5.82 each, which is of course over 11 total. If there's room for the forest in today's shipment without raising the cost (and conceivably making the other cheaper), please do that. I prefer to spend more money on product than postage.
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Sounds like the system is trying to use USPS Flat Rate shipping envelopes.
Two packages in that would be about $9.90 the next size up is a nice $10.85. I have had to explain that a couple of times selling things on ebay.
Of course I am just speculating. :O)
Sean
EDIT: Of course you have to add Pazio shipping staff/packaging/handling fee which doesn't sound like it raises it to much.
Thanks, Liz.
If the forest map is in stock now, could you check to see if it would be cheaper or the same price to add it into today's order as well? When I added the dungeon maps last night, the price jumped from one package for 5 something to two at 9 something, but now it's at two packages at $5.82 each, which is of course over 11 total. If there's room for the forest in today's shipment without raising the cost (and conceivably making the other cheaper), please do that. I prefer to spend more money on product than postage.
Kevin, I've gone ahead and added the Forest map to today's order as well. I've resent your confirmation email.
Okay, thanks.
Actually ended up being slightly more, but it leaves me room to slip something in with the subscription later if I think of it.
Chief Technical Officer
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Sounds like the system is trying to use USPS Flat Rate shipping envelopes.
Nope—we don't offer the USPS Flat Rate Envelopes because they're too flimsy and don't offer any protection to what's inside, and the protective envelopes we do use won't fit inside them.
What was probably going on here is that the AP volume is a book, and can thus be sent as Bound Printed Matter, while Flip-Mats and Map Packs are not bound. If the non-bound content outweighs the bound content in a package, it costs more to ship. And that's what happened when you added the last item—you tipped the scale from "mostly bound" to "mostly unbound." What you *didn't* see is that if we hadn't then split it into two, the cost of the one package would have jumped up a lot—higher than the two packages combined.
...is there any reason to hold up one of them up to ship with the regular shipment if there's no postage savings?"
Sidecarts are never finalized until the corresponding subscription shipment is finalized—until that time, they're subject to change. You could add or subtract stuff, or we might could find out that some of your upcoming subscription products are arriving earlier or later than expected. Which also means that, as contents change, there's still the potential for savings—for example, if you'd put another book into the mix, there's a good chance that the bound printed matter would have once again outweighed the non-bound material, and we could have posted it all in one package under the lower BPM rate.
Ah, the arcana of media mail. Gotcha.
If I'd known beforehand that was what was going on, I would have tried throwing a copy of Prince of Wolves into the mix, seeing if that took off any postage, but just got the email that the shipment was about to leave the warehouse.
It would be good if there were a FAQ explaining this or some sort of mail wizard thingy that was more transparent on the user end.
Otherwise I guess the moral is slip non-bound items into the orders with the heavier hardbacks.
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Chief Technical Officer
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It would be good if there were a FAQ explaining this or some sort of mail wizard thingy that was more transparent on the user end.
We've talked about it, but we think that in order to really give you the data you need, we'd have to explain *way* more to people than they really want to know... plus, even once you know what's going on, you'd still have to know the shipping weight and BPM classification of every item in the store before you could really make your decision.
Even if we boiled it down to a message shown at checkout if you've got a shipment that doesn't have quite enough BPM—something like "if you buy a book, your shipping might get cheaper"—I think it would probably create more customer service issues than the current situation. (What if the customer adds a book that's too light? What if they add something they might think is a "book" but isn't, like a map folio? What if whatever they add requires changes to the box or shipping method we were using that make it even more expensive?
I think, really, what most people want is for that kind of thing to just get out of the way, and have us pick whatever's cheapest for whatever they want to buy, which is what we do—even when it doesn't *seem* to make sense.
Otherwise I guess the moral is slip non-bound items into the orders with the heavier hardbacks.
You don't need to go that far... but you do need about an AP volume for every couple of Map Packs or Flip Mats.
And for international customers especially, adding a bunch of stuff—BPM or not—to a hardback brings up a whole other issue: the 4-pound international limit for standard mail (which is another reason we split orders a lot).