Honesty In Shipping Charges

Shipping fees - what a hassle! Find a great buy online and then get whacked with expensive shipping charges. As consumers, we are way too familiar with that unfortunate scenario. As business owners, we are empowered to provide our customers with fairly priced shipping options without profit-driven markups.

Discount web retailers hook in customers with the cheapest possible product prices and make back profits with heavily marked-up shipping costs. To us, that is a disingenuous consumer experience. We strive to fairly price our products and shipping fees in order to build a long-term relationship with our savvy, green customers. We hope you noticed our reasonable shipping fees when you place orders for natural pet products. (Have you noticed? We hope so! Send us feedback.)

Urban Leash & Treat has a simple philosophy for calculating shipping fees. Cover our costs. Here are our values and principles for shipping:

• We offer fair prices for reliable, trackable shipping options. We aim only to cover carrier charges and recover packaging costs. We have no hidden profit agenda in shipping fees. And between you and me, we think that's an unscrupulous way to make a few bucks.
• Our shipping fees are based on carrier charges plus a small markup to cover packaging materials.
• We issue refunds if the actual shipping charges are lower than your cost at checkout. Shipping fees assessed at checkout our calculated based on the weight of the purchased products. Some of our products do vary in weight (dog bones and bully sticks, especially). When those products are purchased in bulk, weight variations can affect the final cost. We don't aim to profit from shipping fees, so we are happy to refund cost savings back to our customer.
• Pet beds are shipped directly from the manufacturer. We have almost no ability to affect the carrier selection or costs for shipping pet beds. We can accommodate some pet bed shipping changes, such as requests for expedited shipping for last-minute gifts.
• Our packages and packing materials are recycled, recyclable and re-usable.
• Where possible, we re-use shipping boxes and packaging material. (We carefully check used boxes for integrity before using them in customer shipments.)
• We currently offer USPS Priority and Express shipping methods. We chose USPS because of their reasonable rates and flexible pick-up and delivery options. USPS is known to handle packages more carefully than other carriers.
• We are sometimes asked why we don't offer USPS Parcel Post as a shipping method. We have found that within the average weight range of customer packages, the Parcel Post rate is only cents cheaper than Priority with a longer delivery time. USPS Priority is the best value for your money.
• As we grow our business, our shipping costs will decrease. The best way to cultivate cheaper shipping is to participate in our business. Purchase your natural, organic and sustainable pet supplies from Urban Leash & Treat.

Happy holidays, and here's to transparency in shipping charges!