Some retailers inflate costs to ship to APO addresses

Some retailers inflate costs to ship to APO addresses
By Mark Patton, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Wednesday, December 16, 2009

WIESBADEN, Germany — Overseas military customers ordering gifts online from certain retailers might get an unpleasant surprise when shipping and handling fees are tacked on at the end of the purchase.

Those same customers might be most surprised to find that retail giant Walmart had the biggest markup.

On a $120 purchase, Walmart.com charged $10.35 to ship to an APO address, compared with $2.10 to a stateside address. For most items, Amazon.com charged the same to ship to an APO address as a stateside address. And Target.com offered free shipping on a $120 purchase to an APO address.

~snip~

On Walmart.com, the company says shipping costs will be higher to APO addresses due to higher transportation costs.

“There is no higher transportation costs,” Small said. “Companies are abusing the system and making a killing.”


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=66700

Walmart is an enemy of the state.

There are lots of companies that "only" ship by UPS or FedEx, and charge a handling fee for using USPS to ship to APO/FPO postal offices (or simply refuse to). They sometimes respond well to being challanged on this, along with a promise to tell all your AD/deployed comrades and their families and take your business to their competitors. If you do have to go to another vendor, be sure to send the recalcitrant company a copy of your receipt, and an explaination of why you will not do business with them unless they change their policies.

They obviously have so much money (during a recession) that they need to discourage new customers....