Happy Thanksgiving, or What’s With the FTDNA Shipping Cost?
Years ago, I had an accounting professor who would say, “There is no such thing as free shipping.” He was right. It is always built into the cost of your product.
I received a $10 off of any product mystery gift from Family Tree DNA today and was excited to add that to the already discounted price of $89 (instead of $99) of a Family Finder test (for a relative) through the end of the year. My calculations told me that the cost, before the $5 shipping, would be $79. That would be $84, instead of the normal $104.
But when my Checkout page came up, I saw this and was dismayed:
When did the shipping go up to $9.95? I will now lose $4.95 of my extra $10 mystery award, so instead of getting $20 off, I will get $15.05 off. I could buy almost 3 gallons of milk for that $4.95. That’s a bummer.
But I’m not complaining (really, I am, because for many of us, $4.95 is nothing to sneeze at). You all should know by now that FTDNA is my favorite. And this is nothing like 23andMe’s total doubling of their price. I’m glad I am already in their stupid database.
How can it be possible that the actual shipping cost for a DNA test kit is $9.95? Did they add a chunk of gold in each little test box? Maybe they are using FedEx express or UPS 2-day. Use the US Postal Service, guys. It is ours. We need to use it and support it. I just checked on-line, and it looks like Priority Mail would be less than or equal to $5.95. Don’t mess with me.
Thing about it is that if FTDNA had just had $5 for the cost of a kit and kept the shipping at $5, I probably wouldn’t even have a problem with that. Isn’t that odd how the brain works?
So when you, dear readers, order your Family Tree DNA tests, go through a link on my page. I’m an affiliate. Maybe I can make the $4.95 back and get a few gallons of milk. Or ice cream.
If there is a way to get around this and get free shipping, please let me know. Pffffttt. I grossly dislike paying (or appearing to pay) for shipping costs.
Enough of this!
Happy Thanksgiving!
At my house, we don’t like turkey, so we have a big ol’ spiral ham with brown sugar glaze awaitin’. An’ PIE, with a capital PIE. And probably a few other things. Yum.
I love you all, and I love this cute little picture.
Diggin' Up Graves 
Sorry I didn’t see this till now, or I’d have used your link. Maybe I’ll remember to do that this week when I hope to order another FTDNA test. I’ve had several for myself and other relatives, but it’s been over a year since I’ve ordered one, and when I did it tonight (with my coupon which made my price the same as yours–I was NOT happy about the shipping price,either) I wondered if I was doing it wrong because it didn’t have me fill in info on the kit, other than order and shipping info. Is this right? I thought I remembered putting in a lot of identification when I did it before. Or do you not do that till you get the password part to go with your kit, after they receive it back from you? Thanks for any insight.
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Hmmmm. Not sure. When you say, “info on the kit,” do you mean the name of the person taking the test, their sex, the shipping address, etc.?
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Thanks, I finally got a reply from FTDNA late this afternoon and they said they show I’ve ordered it and I can now go in and change info (to my sister’s name rather than mine) at any time. I just thought last time that I filled it all in when I ordered it and I didn’t see much other than the request for the sex and the shipping address, so I was confused. I’m glad I didn’t try to order again yet, since I also got an email from FT that there was a problem with the coupons and they hoped that would be resolved soon. So I’ll probably just wait till tomorrow to order. I haven’t had time to check all my coupons anyway. I did get a $50 off of the Big Y, I think it was, but I’m not interested in doing that one. The ones I can use, I am seeing just $5, which will only offset the increase in the postage!
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