Fee Fees
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Discussion

Glassman

Original Poster:

24,053 posts

234 months

A Ferrari parts supplier has quoted me £180.00 for a wooden crate to transport a windscreen I'm hoping to order from them. It's listed as an 'internal use only' item which would indicate it's their property and may even get re-used.

In 26 years of being in business supplying and fitting windscreens I've never seen this. When I explained that I will collect the windscreen I was told it was to transport it from Italy (it's not a stock item).

I used to get this with TVR parts, but rather than pay the £50.00 delivery they wanted, it was better to collect on my travels and at least this way if there was any issue with the glass, I could flag it at source where others would be available (usually). 180-quid for a Ferrari parts dealer to transport an item into their own stock to make it available to me seems unnecessary.

Is this a way of fluffing up the margin? We see these kind of additions when purchasing tickets online with booking fees, venue fees and service fees? We do all the work! Even with food delivery apps, there's now a service fee there too which is added to the delivery fee and bag fee (never mind we're paying more for the convenience to start with). They might as well have a fee fee. For the same reason, I do not agree with service fees in restaurants and usually ask for them to be removed from the bill.

It is almost expected for part of an order to be itemised as carriage, but 180 quid for a 'crate' shouldn't be for me to pay. I can't pass that on to my customer (they added this to the proforma by the way) and it's not for me to absorb within the scope of the estimate I provided.

If your internal costs are such that you have to charge for them, include it in the price. By charging me for what the windscreen is transported in should be within the scope of their business offer.

Ussrcossack

814 posts

61 months

It's a bit like your previous post about showing a break down

They've broken the fees down and now you are having a query

Wacky Racer

40,195 posts

266 months

Can't see a problem, If the screen was (say) £3000 plus the £180. I would think it costs £3180 in my mind,

If they want to have the crate back (At their expense) at least it saves you chopping it up, biggrin

PoorCarCollector

205 posts

39 months


Sounds like its time to consider retirement, if you're in a financial position to do so.

You're sweating the small stuff, this never leads to happiness.