Deliveries

So... I've delivered a fair number of chins over the past year, and some people think the delivery fee is fine, others are horrified.  So let me explain..

While there's a few people that want local delivery, most people want delivery cause they're umpteen hours away.  That's the idea, they don't want to spend an entire day between driving here and driving back home... and I get it.  But that doesn't mean delivery is going to be $20...

So take this one person today, for example.  They asked me, do they have to come here to pick up a chin, or do we deliver?  So I told em, we deliver for a fee.  So she gave me the address and I looked it up... about 3-4 hours away... $139 delivery fee.  They said, too much.  They asked, ok, what if they met met a bit closer, maybe a half hour away from their home, would that make it cheaper?  Well sure, but not by much.  Figured it out, it would bring down delivery to $110.  They said, still too much, the chin's only $175.

So I told em, if they want it cheaper, the cheaper option is for them to drive the 6 hour roundtrip and come pick up the chin.  Then it's their gas, their time spent getting the chin.

Because here's the thing.  I'm not trying to be an ass, and I'm not trying to get oodles of money out of people.  But it's at least, absolute minimum, a 6 hour roundtrip.  Which will more likely turn into an 8 hour roundtrip with traffic, construction, and so on.... so an entire day wasted making all of $175 on a chin.  As most of you know, I'm typically behind on orders, behind on getting back to emails, and so on and so forth.  The last thing I need is to spend 6+ hours away from home when I have oodles of things to do, and make just about nothing for it.  By the time I take the actual amount made with delivery, subtract out what it will cost me in gas, I'm usually not even making minimum wage per hour.  And don't get me wrong, good homes are nice to find, but I could be at home sending out packages.  I could be doing umpteen other things... rather than driving a chin to someone.  So I'd rather not do the long deliveries ANYWAY, but if I do, I don't really care for when the people want to argue over the price.

So anyway, this person says, ok, how bout $300 for chin and delivery to the house.  Sorry, no.  Again, not trying to be a butt, however... I've learned, I need to stick up for myself and not be a doormat.  People want something, this isn't a garage sale, it isn't up for debate, the amount is what the amount is.

And in reality, the amount to their door was only $314 (which the person asked about), and