idea: bulk shipping

[gusl]

Ordering things overseas can be expensive due to large shipping fees. I shouldn't have to pay US$20 for shipping a trivially small (but fragile) item across the ocean. ( I suspect that part of the problem is that they use price tables, and the pricing is therefore not dynamic enough... and sellers prefer to err on the side of too expensive. Competition is not perfect. )

There should be a way to merge paths more, both on the company side and on the customer side. Surely, Etymotic has other customers in the Netherlands ordering within a day or two of me.

If I order things from different US companies at the same time, they should all ship to a central place where all the shipments are merged into one package, which in turn gets shipped to me. Surely, such a service must exist! But as it is, I have to rely on (less reliable) friends, annoying them in the process.

Large-scale operations, and especially delivery companies like UPS have their systems for taking advantage of bulking, but AFAIK such a process is not easily available to individual customers. If we don't organize ourselves, we have to accept their static price tables.

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By the way, why is it still not possible for me to call the WWW-Hotline when I am on the street and need information that is only online?

e.g.:
* what's so and so's phone number?
* how do I get to XXX street from where I am now?
* what do the news say about this riot / traffic jam / weather?
* how do you say that in German?

Comments

[hermesbrain.livejournal.com]

the primary reason that this doesn't exist is probably that it makes the consolidator responsible for customs / declarations -- which means that each package would have to be opened and inspected -- the shipper would be responsible for conceled illegal drug shipments, and such.

Also, it would be facilitative for fraudulent transactions, bypassing most companies overseas shipping screens against fraud, and as such, would probably be quickly blacklisted due to high risk by many merchants and / or credit card processors.

Great concept, but probably impractical due to fraud issues.