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When Shipping Costs More than the Product

MrConsumer is always on the lookout for a deal on iPhone accessories for an Apple-loving friend.

This crazy low-priced email deal for a dock good for either the Apple 4S or 5S looked like a steal:

$5 dock

Clicking through, yep, it’s really $5. But, only if you scroll down toward the bottom of the page once you are on the seller’s website, do you see the catch:

*MOUSE PRINT:

$5 dock

If you happened not to scroll down to see that shipping was $7 extra per dock, and just clicked “buy this deal,” you would not have known the real total cost of your purchase until you went to redeem the voucher this company sends out.

*MOUSE PRINT:

$5 dock order form

Nowhere on the order form does it inform the customer of the $7 shipping charge. Is it any wonder that the shipping cost is not well-disclosed? After all, a $7 shipping fee for a $5 item kills the deal.

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Holy Sheets: Paper Towel Size Madness

Have you shopped for paper towels lately? It seems that these paper manufacturers have conspired to confuse customers by putting crazy size comparisons on each package.

Four rolls of this is equal to eight rolls of that. Eight “giant” rolls are equal to 12 “regular” rolls. Six “mega” rolls are equal to eight regular rolls, but six “big” rolls are also equal to eight regular rolls, and six “huge” rolls are equal to 15 regular ones. Twelve “giant” rolls are equal 18 regular rolls, but 12 “big” rolls are equal to only 16 regular ones.

Doesn’t this drive you crazy? Why don’t they simply say in big letters (as opposed to the tiny print they use now ) exactly how many sheets are on each roll so you know what you are really buying.

*MOUSE PRINT:

sheets

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Sprint Student Free (?) for All

Best Buy recently sent out an email making an astonishing offer on cell service for students:

Sprint student offer

They are providing a year of free service. That means free unlimited calls, texts, and 1 gig of data ($10 extra for unlimited data). What a deal!

It says however, “with purchase of phone at Student Activated price.” What’s that?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Sprint student prices

The prices being charged by Best Buy for the phones appear to be full price, the same as what Sprint itself would charge. In some cases, the price appears to be $50 higher than buying from Sprint directly. The benefit for the student, however, is a free year of service, without having to sign a two-year contract.

So is this a good deal? The less expensive of the two Sprint plans that the student is required to sign up for is $70 a month (plus fees and taxes) if he/she had to pay for it. So that is $840 saved for the year, but the student is paying full price or slightly more for the phone. On the other hand, if the student were to get a fancy phone free from Sprint during a promotion, he or she would have to pay that $840 for service. So it appears that the student could save a little by taking advantage of the student offer, but not hundreds and hundreds of dollars.

Presumably in year two, the phone might be able to be added onto a family plan at discounted monthly rates, and then the savings would increase (or maybe just get onto a family plan to start with to save).

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