tile quote question

[bhnumbers]

I *think* we've settled on a tile (again) and I found this one at a tile gallery nearby. They sent my designer the quote for our project and they are charging $350 for shipping. That shipping does not include delivery TO ME. That is the charge of shipping from the manufacturer to the gallery over in MD. I'm about 30 minutes away so either me or my contractor will still have to go pick it up.

Is that normal? It's more than 20% of the cost of the tile itself. That really seems like a huge expense that I shouldn't have to eat, but maybe I don't know how these things work. 

[ellipses84]

It depends how much tile it is. Tile is very heavy and bulky so the freight cost can be high. If you bought from a place like Lowes, they probably just build in that cost, where a dealer may not because they base it on quantity of a specific order. When giving sf costs estimates to clients I always overestimate for that, so they aren’t shocked later!

[simpsongal]

For a high end tile I think that's common. I looked at Ann Sacks in the city and remember gawking not only at the base cost but all the other adds ons like freight shipping to the city store.

[deadwing]

No one likes paying for shipping. I agree with the PP who said large box stores are more likely to incorporate the shipping cost in what they charge for the item, whereas smaller dealers just asses the shipping cost to the customer. It sucks, but what are you going to do?

Last year I had to pay $150 in shipping for my fire pit burner - also to be delivered to the local dealer where I had to pick it up. It wasn't even heavy! But it was a couple of big awkward boxes. They may have shipped on a pallet to the dealer.