Cabela's "Free Shipping" Offers

R

Roman11105

New member
Rating - 0%
0   0   0
Just bought 3000 rounds of AE 147gn 9MM from Cabela's at a great price of $11.99 per box.
Was really excited about their "free shipping" offer until I got a call from them saying they wanted another $50 to ship them.
I hadn't ordered ammo from them before, so my fault I didn't read the "fine print".
I have ordered from others like Tenda who do free ship on orders over $600.
Unlike most other retailers, Cabels's website does not calculate shipping costs and give you and option to proceed or not... it just accepts your order and you get a call asking for more dough a day of so later.
Just a heads up for those who have not bought ammo there before... I have learned my lesson.
 
Its all laid out in their shipping policy. I usually order online and pick up in store a few days later. Their website does calculate shipping fees for most goods, just not for oversize / overweight items.


SHIPPING SURCHARGES (charges in addition to the Shipping Rates shown in the table above):
1) Oversize surcharge (typically items over 36" long - e.g. most Firearms): $7.50 per item
2) Air Stage locations (as defined by Canada Post) surcharge: $30.00 per order
3) Air Stage locations surcharge for Firearm orders: $10.00 per firearm (in addition to the basic $30.00 Air Stage surcharge)
4) Overweight/Large/Bulky Items surcharge: Based on package size and/or weight additional cubing/freight fees may be applicable.

Note: while customer can choose the preferred carrier (Canada Post or UPS) during checkout, we recommend that you choose "No Preference" to allow us to determine the optimal shipping provider for your order.
AMMUNITION, POWDERS and PRIMERS:
Live ammunition, powders and primers cannot ship by air or via Canada Post; these items will be shipped via GROUND courier service. These non-postal freight charges are the customer's responsibility and will be applied to the total order cost. Both a daytime phone number and street address are required for these shipments.
 
Uh oh my ammo is in the mail.....we will see how that one turned out haha.

And I just found that order processing was extremely slow and very delayed to get any responses or tracking information.
 
If they haven't called you asking for more dough you may be ok.
Their order fulfillment process is not as good as some others, and I expect that the bad weather recently may have slowed things up.
 
Ammo went out with ups and firearm went with CP. And apparently both orders got free shipping the firearm was nr and had a small oversize fee of around 7 dollars.
 
I got a crate of 7.62x39mm 1400 rounds Russian in August from Cabela's it was free shipping, during the black friday sale I considered ordering another crate of 1500rds Chinese but this time they had a ~$50 surchage. I thought it was rather deceptive from free and did not place the order. I live approx 45min-1hr from the Barrie store. To my knowledge Canpar has not drastically changed their rates which is the same shipper which brought my ammunition in the summertime. Today I was looking at quotes on tree ladderstands which weigh in at 65-79lbs, if one is placed in my shopping cart free shipping applies, if two units are placed in my cart the extra fee message comes up. 1500 rds is less weight than 65lbs its shipped by the same courier who handles it the exact same. Their policy makes no sense at all, this all began with the basspro takeover. I know its a strategy to get people to come and pick up in store so they buy more but still for me it prevents my purchases.
 
The $11.99 price was why I didn't cancel the order. Cabela's $21.99 normal retail is above what others are charging (typically $17.99). but a really good deal at the $11.99.
I think that "philhut" may have it right... if I would have placed 3 separate orders I probably would not have exceeded their weight limits and not been charged.
This would not seem to make business sense, having 3 times the admin costs to process 3 orders, but who knows.
Beats me.
 
Roman11105 said:
The $11.99 price was why I didn't cancel the order. Cabela's $21.99 normal retail is above what others are charging (typically $17.99). but a really good deal at the $11.99.
I think that "philhut" may have it right... if I would have placed 3 separate orders I probably would not have exceeded their weight limits and not been charged.
This would not seem to make business sense, having 3 times the admin costs to process 3 orders, but who knows.
Beats me.
Click to expand...

Makes sense.. when was this sale on? Surprised they had it that cheap..
 
Actually that makes perfect sense, ask any system analysis. You are thinking linear whereas the system deals with normal shipping, over weight, free shipping, discount shipping. Know the rules, pick the one that benefits you most.
Roman11105 said:
...
I think that "philhut" may have it right... if I would have placed 3 separate orders I probably would not have exceeded their weight limits and not been charged.
This would not seem to make business sense, having 3 times the admin costs to process 3 orders, but who knows.
Beats me.
Click to expand...
 
Good point...

Why on earth would they want to do anything that benefits both them and the customer.

To a prior question, the ammo was on sale Nov.27th. I found it while wandering online.
 
So. An update to the story.
I confirmed with a friend that he did get his 1000 rounds of this ammo, and was not charged shipping.
My order ended up coming by UPS in 5 (yes 5) boxes, with 18, 18, 18, 4 and 2 individual boxes in each box. No kidding.
It seems that in order to get free shipping, Cabela's would rather you place 3 individual orders for 1000 rounds each, costing them 3 times the admin and handling, instead of just one.
Some room for improvement here.
 
After trying to place a powder order online I went to the Deerfoot mall Cabelas, walked up to CS and asked why can't they ship my powder there instead of my house so I can avoid the $200 shipping charge some are reporting. I was given a line about how they can't do it that made no friggin sense so I went to the gun till and bought 4lbs of CFE .223 & 3lbs of BLC2 for $35 each lb. I tried buying an 8lb Varget but had none in stock except the 1 lb but they were $42 each(on sale but that's still too much). So I was directed back to the customer service where I talked to an angle named Erin. She had no problem ordering the 8lbs of varget for $280 shipping included to the store for me... the only catch was the delivery date. I could be waiting a month because it's coming in with their next order.
 
I guess that it's all about who you talk to. Lucky for you that you got a good CS person... mine don't seem to care at all. Just a job for them, and I'm a pain...
That said, I have sent another email to the CS people at Cabela's, and so far they are totally ignoring me. I'm going to give it a few days, then I'll write to their CEO in the US, just to let him know how flawed their processes are and how ####ty their customer service is. I frankly couldn't care less about the $50 bucks in shipping they charged me, it just pisses me off when something is this illogical, and the CS people couldn't care less.
I'm going to re-direct my business to smaller, more client friendly people like Tenda and FOC... they always have great deals, and when you have an issue, you are typically talking to the owners.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom