ALLIED ELECTRONICS Fort Worth, Texas 76118 U.S.A. Faulty Materials - Outrageous Associated Costs Fort Worth, Texas

I ordered 10 diodes for a total of 50 cents. The handling was $5 and shipping was $12.26. What makes them a Ripoff is how they calculate and notify you of the shipping charges.

When you go through the order process you see your total for the items ordered and the $5 handling fee, the shipping fee shows as pending. If they cannot come up with the correct shipping charges they should notify you of that cost before placing the order, but they don't. You're next notification from the company is that the items are shipped and they show you your total.

As consumers we should probably be more vigilant when a company can't notify you of the correct shipping charges at the time you place your order online. But they could also be more proactive and let you review your order prior to shipping.

Allied uses UPS (most likely).  UPS Ground currently charges $10.97 for delivery to a residential address in Pennsylvania (from Texas) for a 1 lb package (the minimum billable weight).  USPS is also fairly expensive, since they charge by zone.  The Allied guys are used to large orders, and their smallest box is probably fairly large.  You should have just bought the fuse locally.  For future reference, Digi-key and Mouser Electronics both use fairly small boxes and allow USPS priority mail for shipping (which is about $5).  They also don't charge handling fees.