Free Shipping isn't Really Free

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Ok ok, so, I love Wyze, let me get that out of the way, and this isn’t so much a complaint thread as it is a cautionary tale for the folks at Wyze.

I get it, people complain about shipping costs. They don’t like seeing products that are 19.99 cost half as much to ship. I get that. But, you need to balance this out. Specifically for the more expensive items where shipping cost can be eaten or included. Currently, I was one of the first people to order the new Cordless Vacuum. It shipped with the first shipment on Aug 17th. That shipment, today was delayed again. Here is the trip this thing has taken due to FedEx “Smart” Post, which is likely the way that Wyze is dealing with “free shipping”.

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So I mean, I get it, free shipping on stuff that is maybe under 1lb, or cost less than it would cost to ship, totally cool. But when you have large items, smart post is a TERRIBLE idea. I’m not sure it’s even 3rd or 4th class mail.

I guess if you look at that shipping manifest/list and see how your shipments are handled, you can evaluate if you want to add the option to ship things with REAL shipping, not “FexEx Drops it at the Post Office for you”. I can’t imagine I’m the only person that experiences issues with shipping, and I get that it’s not in your control. But giving me the option to pay for real shipping on a product is certainly in your control.

You have to imagine that this trip wasn’t gentile on the product either, might want to think about that when/if folks report damaged goods.

Just my 2 cents. Overall Wyze is great, but I don’t like this move to free shipping on EVERYTHING. Offer paid 1st class for expensive items please. And give the option for pre-orders when they come in for different shipping speeds at the customer cost.

Thanks

Adam

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It’s worth noting, again not Wyze issue, but that delivery exception was nonsense, I’ve been here all morning :slight_smile:

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Alright, I’m not trying to pile on here, but just a heads up, you can’t file a claim against a Smart Post package. Only the SHIPPER can do that. So in my case, where they say they tried a delivery, but they clearly didn’t, I have no recourse. All I can do is hope they get it right next time they try, but why would they suddenly try to deliver it somewhere else ya know?

It’s super frustrating, for what, like 10-20 dollars saving on shipping? Offer the option to expedite shipping or at the very least ship a method the consumer has some governance over.

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Oh I’m sick of ‘Smart Post’ too. I’m in PR and my boxes go to some place in Georgia were it sits for 3-4 weeks. Regular USPS mail gets here in 3 days, maybe 7 at the peak of the pandemic slow down. This is back when they were charging S/H.

I actually checked the forums because it appears the ‘Free Shipping’ is gone again‽ Oh hell naw. image|680x500

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It does seem that bundled shipping is out. On the plus side, I added 2 items to my cart, and shipping was right around $10…instead of $10 for each.

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Its possible that the “testing” is ongoing and things are being figured out still… here is some previous info:

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The bundled pricing is NOT the problem - the supremely crappy bottom of the barrel FedEx SmartLost “service” is the problem. There are dozens of threads complaining about it.

(SmartLost was an unintentional typo!)

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So why not hijack another? :stuck_out_tongue:

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Disagree.

If you eat dog food, the problem isn’t the dog food, it’s YOU for eating it. People food is available to eat, but you are choosing dog food. Wyze is feeding customers dog food, and they don’t have to.

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Not sure what you mean? The original post above complains about SmartPost.

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You’re right. It does. TCIAR.

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It’s not gone.

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Blame amazon for everyone expecting everything ordered to your doorstep to be shipped “free”.

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Free shipping isn’t really free on Amazon either (or anywhere else – honestly, who is that naive?)

Amazon rolls the cost of shipping into every product, same as Wyze (who BTW was very upfront about it, so this isn’t even news!)

Amazon goes further to charge you a SECOND time for shipping by default. You have to go out of your way to back that off to the “free” shipping you already paid for. And don’t even get me started on the cost of shipping that is included in a Prime membership.

If you write about this situation in an Amazon review, your review won’t be approved. Compare that with this thread on Wyze.

For every business the cost of the product is expenses + profit. So whatever the business needs to pay for WILL be in the product price. Whether they break it out separately is the only difference. There is no such thing as “free” anything.

Now if this thread had been titled “FedEx Smartpost is Terrible!”, I’d be totally on board with that! Instead we get a click-bating title that has nothing to do with that. :roll_eyes:

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When I purchase from someone for the first time and it comes via FedEx Smartpost, I delete the bookmark and never shop there again.
All last year I had store credit at a site that used it and it would ship half way in 3 days and SIT for 1-3 weeks then suddenly make the other half of the trip in 12 hours. Sometimes I had other packages come through the same hub, heading to the same place and the initial packages STILL sat there while the other passed right on through. It’s like FedEx was doing it intentionally.
Tracking, delivery local and nonsmartpost FedEx has been great but if I am going to have to wait a month for “free” shipping, I’ll just buy it on Amazon for 2 bucks more and get it TOMORROW.

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Thumbs Up: Light Skin Tone on Google Android 12.0

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But from items I checked the pricing didn’t return to the ‘unbundled’ levels. Is there anyone among us who was ‘born yesterday’?

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You’re right…trying to get a good history of pricing isn’t easy with original price - shipping, followed by price increase + shipping and now presumedly price increase - shipping…hard to compare.

Looks like the price increase happened on May 18th 2021, so comparing a few prices before that, and now should give us pretty close to apples:apples. (Happy to look closer on any of these and make corrections if there are errors).

10/27/2020 - Wyze Cam 3 - $19.99 + $5.99 shipping
9/5/2021 - Wyze Cam 3 - $29.99 + $5.99 shipping (membership price $27.99)

4/17/2020 - Wyze Band - $24.99 + $6.00 shipping
9/5/2021 - Wyze Band - $24.99 + $4.99 shipping

6/23/2020 - Outdoor Starter Bundle - $49.99 + $9.99 shipping
9/5/2021 - Outdoor Starter Bundle - $49.99 + $9.99 shipping

9/22/2020 - Wyze Video Doorbell - $29.99 + $5.99 shipping (edit: pre-order pricing)
9/5/2021 - Wyze Video Doorbell - $50.99 + $5.99 shipping (Membership price $44.99)

12/1/2020 - Wyze Watch 44 - $19.99 + $6.00 shipping (shipping with extra band)
9/5/2021 - Wyze Watch 47 - $19.99 + 7.98 shipping (47 != 44)

12/3/2019 - Wyze Lock - $89.99 + $7.99 shipping
9/5/2021 - Wyze Lock - $99.99 + $7.99 shipping (membership price $89.99)

11/28/2019 - Wyze Cam Black - $19.99 + $5.99 shipping
9/5/2021 - Wyze Cam Black - $26.99 + $5.99 shipping

4/13/2021 - Wyze Floor Lamp - $29.99 + $13.99 shipping (edit: pre-order pricing)
9/5/2021 - Wyze Floor Lamp - $54.99 + ? shipping (out of stock, can’t see shipping)

2/22/2021 - Wyze Bulb Color 4pk - $34.99 + $7.99 shipping
9/5/2021 - Wyze Bulb Color 4pk - $39.99 + $7.99 shipping (membership price $36.99)

2/21/2021 - Wyze Cam v3 Spotlight Kit - $9.99 + $7.49 shipping
9/5/2021 - Wyze Cam v3 Spotlight Kit - $9.99 + $4.99 shipping

12/18/2020 - Wyze Outdoor Plug - $9.99 + $5.99 shipping
9/5/2021 - Wyze Outdoor Plug - $10.99 + $5.99 shipping (hey Wyze… this shows as $15.99 + shipping on the product detail page, but only when I’m logged in, FYI)

9/29/2020 - Wyze Headphones - $49.99 + $7.99 shipping
9/5/2020 - Wyze Headphone $59.99 + $5.99 shipping (member price $54.99)

3/24/2020 - Wyze Scale - $19.99 + $6.00 shipping
9/5/2021 - Wyze Scale - $19.99 + $11.99 shipping

Keep in mind that all of these are pre-orders, so if there was any special pricing for pre-orders, that would skew my initial price. Seems like the floor lamp had a special introductory price. Did the doorbell?

Kinda all over the place. Honestly, I expected to see more of a general increase on everything like they announced. Instead, I see some small increases, some huge increases, and some even stevens.

If no one is tracking this kind of price history in a spreadsheet we could add to, maybe we should start one…just for cuss and giggles.

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From an email dated 9/22/20…

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Thanks. I thought I remembered something there. So the Doorbell and Floorlamp had special pre-order pricing and my numbers aren’t good comparisons.

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