[Les Strat]

I'm waiting for the first photos of these amps with cats and/or dogs sitting on them, titled "Tyrs for Furs".

'I'm So Tyrd' from Giles Martin's 2018 remix of The Beatles' 'White Album' should sound fantastic with these new amps

 

[US Blues]

Thank God it's not hydrogen...!

 

[EricDH]

My best guess would be that Schiit might accidentally have rounded down the weight they declared with FedEx a tiny little bit with the totally accidental and unexpected outcome of getting a lower shipping rate for these monsters.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Yours might be the shuntless version.

 

[SuperRoo]

I just cancelled my order and took advantage of the cheaper single Tyr shipping rate. Schiit customer service was great. Thanks guys for the tip.

 

[oneguy]

I just cancelled my order and took advantage of the cheaper single Tyr shipping rate. Schiit customer service was great. Thanks guys for the tip.

I was able to get the price difference refunded to me. Same result just different path. I’m hoping they adjust the shipping coding so that little “gotcha” doesn’t exist.

 

[tincanear]

100lbs?! I feel cheated…

Wait, no. I figured it out: Tyr's filled with helium.

one of them has no input choke... part of a bet between Mike and Jason to see if anyone notices the asymmetry, and those that do blame it on the lack of a balance control on schiit pre-amps.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

I was able to get the price difference refunded to me. Same result just different path. I’m hoping they adjust the shipping coding so that little “gotcha” doesn’t exist.

There's nothing to adjust for them, quite frankly, be it code or otherwise.
As far as I can tell, Schiit doesn't determine shipping rates themselves. They use a 3rd party shipping retailer for that, and Schiit's checkout process simply connects to that retailer's API and shows you whatever shipping quotes that API returns to them. And that retailer, in turn, is (more or less) just relaying whatever pricing the respective shippers they retail for quote them.

So whatever price difference you got refunded was done so out of goodwill by Schiit, not because Schiit made a mistake in calculating shipping fees.

Keep in mind that they've never before had a product that's that heavy, and one that should be ordered in pairs and ships in two boxes, too. (If you order two Aegirs or two Vidars, they'll ship in one box. Something that's probably either impractical or outright impossible with Tyr, given its size and weight, or I'm sure they would have done that. It's always simpler (and thus cheaper for them) to ship one box than shipping two, be it from two separate orders or from one order that requires two boxes and thus two labels.)
In other words: I'm pretty sure they're just as surprised about (and probably just as annoyed by) this weird shipping rate effect as you are.

[ Please note: The following paragraph is NOT meant as criticism. It should go without saying that anyone should do as they please, and I would not – and will not – tell anyone otherwise. Ok? Good. ]

Personally, I don't feel it's right to ask them to have the difference refunded. I appreciate that it's your prerogative to ask for one, and I applaud Schiit that they're willing to give you one. But whatever refund you get will have to come out of their pocket, because the shipping rate they are paying when they ultimately ship your order remains the one their shipping retailer quoted when you placed your order. By asking them to refund the difference, you're essentially punishing Schiit for something they didn't screw up. Granted, a couple of dozen refunds like that probably won't even register on their bottom line, but still. It just feels a little unfair to me.

So, personally, I'm not going to ask them for a refund. I didn't check the difference in shipping rates between a single and a split order on the day I placed it. Because, frankly, why should I have – and kudos to the person who had the idea to actually check whether splitting the order even makes a difference.
Assuming the difference then was somewhat comparable to what it would be today, that would come out to about 68 bucks. That's not nothing, of course, but it amounts to just about 1.75% of the total order. Now, add to that the transaction fees Schiit incurs for the refund, Schiit's support person's wages for the time spent to read, confirm, respond to, and ultimately process that refund request, as well as the additional bookkeeping involved, you're quickly approaching something in the ballpark of 100 bucks that my refund request would cost Schiit.
100 bucks for something they didn't do. That's not nothing, either.

So I feel like, for me personally, the fact that I essentially overpaid for shipping by 68 bucks was my fault, and mine alone, because I didn't check whether splitting the order would make a difference. And by asking for a refund, I'm not just punishing Schiit for my own mistake, I would actually just be making it worse.

Hey, what can I say. I guess you can take the German out of Germany, but you can't take Germany out of the German. And I guess you can take the business owner out of his business, but you can't take the business out of the business owner. Efficiency is key to me – even if it's not my own business. Yes, I know. How very un-American of me…

But to be completely honest, I'd rather have them put that money towards the research and development of some shiny new toy for me. That way I'd benefit way more than I would from getting those 68 bucks back.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

one of them has no input choke... part of a bet between Mike and Jason to see if anyone notices the asymmetry, and those that do blame it on the lack of a balance control on schiit pre-amps.

Very good point!
But frankly, they wouldn't dare try that on me! There are a few others around here with a much higher chance for this ploy to succeed.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

I just noticed that the "Places" section is gone from schiit.com. I wanted to check whether they'd put up a time for when next Wednesday's SchiitrMeet at the Schiitr is supposed to be starting.
Does anyone know? Jason mentioned that it's planned for Wednesday, but I don't think he mentioned a specific time.

I'm contemplating whether I should go. I have a (admittedly highly speculative and almost guaranteed to be wrong) theory of what "blind listening test" this might be that they're planning on doing. And if I'm right, it would be something I'd be very interested to hear for myself.

[Edit]
…aaaaaand the Places section is back…
[/Edit]

 

[macdonjh]

For a couple of weeks one summer, probably more than ten years ago, a manatee got lost and swam around in Buffalo Bayou here on the Third Coast. He was a fixture in the local news until an army of volunteers guided him into Galveston Bay so he could swim his way back where ever he came from.

The local media named him Hugh. If you're not laughing, or groaning, write it out and then say it out loud.

 

[oneguy]

There's nothing to adjust for them, quite frankly, be it code or otherwise.
As far as I can tell, Schiit doesn't determine shipping rates themselves. They use a 3rd party shipping retailer for that, and Schiit's checkout process simply connects to that retailer's API and shows you whatever shipping quotes that API returns to them. And that retailer, in turn, is (more or less) just relaying whatever pricing the respective shippers they retail for quote them.

So whatever price difference you got refunded was done so out of goodwill by Schiit, not because Schiit made a mistake in calculating shipping fees.

Keep in mind that they've never before had a product that's that heavy, and one that should be ordered in pairs and ships in two boxes, too. (If you order two Aegirs or two Vidars, they'll ship in one box. Something that's probably either impractical or outright impossible with Tyr, given its size and weight, or I'm sure they would have done that. It's always simpler (and thus cheaper for them) to ship one box than shipping two, be it from two separate orders or from one order that requires two boxes and thus two labels.)
In other words: I'm pretty sure they're just as surprised about (and probably just as annoyed by) this weird shipping rate effect as you are.

[ Please note: The following paragraph is NOT meant as criticism. It should go without saying that anyone should do as they please, and I would not – and will not – tell anyone otherwise. Ok? Good. ]

Personally, I don't feel it's right to ask them to have the difference refunded. I appreciate that it's your prerogative to ask for one, and I applaud Schiit that they're willing to give you one. But whatever refund you get will have to come out of their pocket, because the shipping rate they are paying when they ultimately ship your order remains the one their shipping retailer quoted when you placed your order. By asking them to refund the difference, you're essentially punishing Schiit for something they didn't screw up. Granted, a couple of dozen refunds like that probably won't even register on their bottom line, but still. It just feels a little unfair to me.

So, personally, I'm not going to ask them for a refund. I didn't check the difference in shipping rates between a single and a split order on the day I placed it. Because, frankly, why should I have – and kudos to the person who had the idea to actually check whether splitting the order even makes a difference.
Assuming the difference then was somewhat comparable to what it would be today, that would come out to about 68 bucks. That's not nothing, of course, but it amounts to just about 1.75% of the total order. Now, add to that the transaction fees Schiit incurs for the refund, Schiit's support person's wages for the time spent to read, confirm, respond to, and ultimately process that refund request, as well as the additional bookkeeping involved, you're quickly approaching something in the ballpark of 100 bucks that my refund request would cost Schiit.
100 bucks for something they didn't do. That's not nothing, either.

So I feel like, for me personally, the fact that I essentially overpaid for shipping by 68 bucks was my fault, and mine alone, because I didn't check whether splitting the order would make a difference. And by asking for a refund, I'm not just punishing Schiit for my own mistake, I would actually just be making it worse.

Hey, what can I say. I guess you can take the German out of Germany, but you can't take Germany out of the German. And I guess you can take the business owner out of his business, but you can't take the business out of the business owner. Efficiency is key to me – even if it's not my own business. Yes, I know. How very un-American of me…

But to be completely honest, I'd rather have them put that money towards the research and development of some shiny new toy for me. That way I'd benefit way more than I would from getting those 68 bucks back.

When you order they ship them INDIVIDUALLY

Order 4? Guess what, 4 individual shipping labels. 12? Individual shipping labels. The cost change is linear. They didn’t pay any extra to ship 4 individual boxes because they are on one order vs 4 separate orders. The cost is the same for every box going to you. I only asked to get charged at that linear rate.

And I am sure they didn’t do this intentionally but the fact remains that it is occurring and if you want to pay the per unit cost for shipping (which is how ALL of them are shipping) then order individually.

 

[433521]

When you order they ship them INDIVIDUALLY

Order 4? Guess what, 4 individual shipping labels. 12? Individual shipping labels. The cost change is linear. They didn’t pay any extra to ship 4 individual boxes because they are on one order vs 4 separate orders. The cost is the same for every box going to you. I only asked to get charged at that linear rate.

And I am sure they didn’t do this intentionally but the fact remains that it is occurring and if you want to pay the per unit cost for shipping (which is how ALL of them are shipping) then order individually.

I could easily see a contract saying orders over 100 lbs are 2x more than under. Perfectly reasonable for workers to get at a higher rate more for harder work. Frankly 53 buckaroos each for coast to coast shocked me with the cheapness.

 

[ArmchairPhilosopher]

When you order they ship them INDIVIDUALLY

Order 4? Guess what, 4 individual shipping labels. 12? Individual shipping labels. The cost change is linear. They didn’t pay any extra to ship 4 individual boxes because they are on one order vs 4 separate orders. The cost is the same for every box going to you. I only asked to get charged at that linear rate.

And I am sure they didn’t do this intentionally but the fact remains that it is occurring and if you want to pay the per unit cost for shipping (which is how ALL of them are shipping) then order individually.

You're very sure about yourself. Good for you, I can absolutely appreciate that.
But unfortunately, even though this is the internet, any amount of confidence you throw at this doesn't make what you say any less incorrect… ;p

The number of physical labels Schiit slaps on the boxes has no direct correlation to how shipping is calculated or how it's billed to them (and ultimately to you).

Purchase two Tyrs in two separate transactions, and Schiit's shipping retailer will bill Schiit for two completely separate shipping transactions, one box/label each. That part you've got completely correct.

Purchase two Tyrs in one transaction, though, and Schiit's shipping retailer will bill Schiit for one shipping transaction that will consist of two boxes/labels, one "master" label and one additional piece that will belong to the same "master" shipment.

Wanna know how I know?
Because I can read FedEx's tracking info for my Tyrs:

Why does this little distinction matter?
Well, because it completely changes the way FedEx evaluates what you're trying to ship with them. In the first case, they see one single box of 50 lbs. Nothing outrageously heavy, nothing weird, so all is well.
And then, a little bit later, they see another single box of 50 lbs with no relation to the first one whatsoever. So, again, nothing outrageously heavy, nothing weird, so all is well.

Next, let's try to ship these two 50 lbs boxes in one single transaction. Now FedEx sees a shipment with a combined weight of 100 lbs. "Wait a sec!", they say. "That's a lot of weight! We'll charge you extra for that Schiit."
"But guys!", you say, "It's two boxes of 50 lbs each! It's the exact same work for you as if I were to ship them separately! Why do you charge me more?!"
"Well, because it's 100 lbs! And also because we're FedEx, it is well known that common sense does not apply to us, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

I hope you understand that I am not arguing against your point; shipping two separate boxes should cost the same regardless of whether they're combined into one shipment or shipped as two individual ones. It's the same weight, the same boxes, the same amount of physical work FedEx has to do to get the job done. So it makes no sense that the combined single shipment costs almost 40% more than if you were to ship them separately. To the contrary, it should be slightly cheaper, as there's slightly less organizational and financial overhead involved when you treat them as one shipment.

I'm simply saying that your intuition, as logical and as sound as I agree with you that it may be, just doesn't reflect how it actually works – and that it's not Schiit's fault that it is this way, which is why I decided against doing what you rightfully did; to ask for a refund of the difference. That's all.

What Schiit could do is to change their approach to how they send the request for the shipping quotes to their shipping retailer by treating every Tyr in your shopping cart as a separate order. But I'd be willing to bet that neither their current e-commerce implementation nor that retailer's APIs would support that out of the box and without some larger changes to the shopping cart's source code.
Another approach would be to enforce that you can ever only buy one Tyr per order. That's probably a lot easier to implement.
But I'd also bet good money that this will cause more harm than it would help because both solutions just end up being confusing as heck, and they'd have to explain why it's this weird dozens if not hundreds of times over to confused buyers when all they want to do is to buy their freaking amps, and not bother with why stuff is limited to one per order, but not one per person, and why things gets split into multiple shipments, etc.

[Edit]
And then there's the case where FedEx wakes up one day and decides to change things up a bit and charges less for a combined shipment all of a sudden than for two separate shipments. Now you're forced to play cat and mouse with them to always ensure that you're offering the cheapest shipping method to your customers. Or what if one and the same shipper decides to bill 40% more for a combined 100 lbs shipment when shipped domestically, but 10% less when shipped internationally? Then you have another edge case to plan ahead for and test on the fly in your e-commerce implementation.
[/Edit]

The way it is right now, albeit a bit dumb and seemingly unfair, is actually probably the best way to do this, and then just eat the occasional refund request because the alternative is a lot worse, or at least quite a bit more expensive.

If you want to complain about someone being a total idiot, complain to FedEx. They deserve it – on more than just one level… ;p

 

[oneguy]

You're very sure about yourself. Good for you, I can absolutely appreciate that.
But unfortunately, even though this is the internet, any amount of confidence you throw at this doesn't make what you say any less incorrect… ;p

The number of physical labels Schiit slaps on the boxes has no direct correlation to how shipping is calculated or how it's billed to them (and ultimately to you).

Purchase two Tyrs in two separate transactions, and Schiit's shipping retailer will bill Schiit for two completely separate shipping transactions, one box/label each. That part you've got completely correct.

Purchase two Tyrs in one transaction, though, and Schiit's shipping retailer will bill Schiit for one shipping transaction that will consist of two boxes/labels, one "master" label and one additional piece that will belong to the same "master" shipment.

Wanna know how I know?
Because I can read FedEx's tracking info for my Tyrs:


Why does this little distinction matter?
Well, because it completely changes the way FedEx evaluates what you're trying to ship with them. In the first case, they see one single box of 50 lbs. Nothing outrageously heavy, nothing weird, so all is well.
And then, a little bit later, they see another single box of 50 lbs with no relation to the first one whatsoever. So, again, nothing outrageously heavy, nothing weird, so all is well.

Next, let's try to ship these two 50 lbs boxes in one single transaction. Now FedEx sees a shipment with a combined weight of 100 lbs. "Wait a sec!", they say. "That's a lot of weight! We'll charge you extra for that Schiit."
"But guys!", you say, "It's two boxes of 50 lbs each! It's the exact same work for you as if I were to ship them separately! Why do you charge me more?!"
"Well, because it's 100 lbs! And also because we're FedEx, it is well known that common sense does not apply to us, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

I hope you understand that I am not arguing against your point; shipping two separate boxes should cost the same regardless of whether they're combined into one shipment or shipped as two individual ones. It's the same weight, the same boxes, the same amount of physical work FedEx has to do to get the job done. So it makes no sense that the combined single shipment costs almost 40% more than if you were to ship them separately. To the contrary, it should be slightly cheaper, as there's slightly less organizational and financial overhead involved when you treat them as one shipment.

I'm simply saying that your intuition, as logical and as sound as I agree with you that it may be, just doesn't reflect how it actually works – and that it's not Schiit's fault that it is this way, which is why I decided against doing what you rightfully did; to ask for a refund of the difference. That's all.

What Schiit could do is to change their approach to how they send the request for the shipping quotes to their shipping retailer by treating every Tyr in your shopping cart as a separate order. But I'd be willing to bet that neither their current e-commerce implementation nor that retailer's APIs would support that out of the box and without some larger changes to the shopping cart's source code.
Another approach would be to enforce that you can ever only buy one Tyr per order. That's probably a lot easier to implement.
But I'd also bet good money that this will cause more harm than it would help because both solutions just end up being confusing as heck, and they'd have to explain why it's this weird dozens if not hundreds of times over to confused buyers when all they want to do is to buy their freaking amps, and not bother with why stuff is limited to one per order, but not one per person, and why things gets split into multiple shipments, etc.

The way it is right now, albeit a bit dumb and seemingly unfair, is actually probably the best way to do this, and then just eat the occasional refund request because the alternative is a lot worse, or at least quite a bit more expensive.

If you want to complain about someone being a total idiot, complain to FedEx. They deserve it – on more than just one level… ;p

Thanks for the in depth response. I’m about to start a 10 hour drive so I only skimmed for now but my initial thoughts are: does this apply to USPS? USPS will only not ship items over 70lbs via priority mail so I don’t know if the test of the combine label theory would prove valid for 110lbs worth of amps via USPS.

I say this because I have to use USPS to get domestic shipping. FedEx and UPS will only ship here internationally.

 

[bcowen]

You're very sure about yourself. Good for you, I can absolutely appreciate that.
But unfortunately, even though this is the internet, any amount of confidence you throw at this doesn't make what you say any less incorrect… ;p

The number of physical labels Schiit slaps on the boxes has no direct correlation to how shipping is calculated or how it's billed to them (and ultimately to you).

Purchase two Tyrs in two separate transactions, and Schiit's shipping retailer will bill Schiit for two completely separate shipping transactions, one box/label each. That part you've got completely correct.

Purchase two Tyrs in one transaction, though, and Schiit's shipping retailer will bill Schiit for one shipping transaction that will consist of two boxes/labels, one "master" label and one additional piece that will belong to the same "master" shipment.

Wanna know how I know?
Because I can read FedEx's tracking info for my Tyrs:


Why does this little distinction matter?
Well, because it completely changes the way FedEx evaluates what you're trying to ship with them. In the first case, they see one single box of 50 lbs. Nothing outrageously heavy, nothing weird, so all is well.
And then, a little bit later, they see another single box of 50 lbs with no relation to the first one whatsoever. So, again, nothing outrageously heavy, nothing weird, so all is well.

Next, let's try to ship these two 50 lbs boxes in one single transaction. Now FedEx sees a shipment with a combined weight of 100 lbs. "Wait a sec!", they say. "That's a lot of weight! We'll charge you extra for that Schiit."
"But guys!", you say, "It's two boxes of 50 lbs each! It's the exact same work for you as if I were to ship them separately! Why do you charge me more?!"
"Well, because it's 100 lbs! And also because we're FedEx, it is well known that common sense does not apply to us, so… ¯\_(ツ)_/¯"

I hope you understand that I am not arguing against your point; shipping two separate boxes should cost the same regardless of whether they're combined into one shipment or shipped as two individual ones. It's the same weight, the same boxes, the same amount of physical work FedEx has to do to get the job done. So it makes no sense that the combined single shipment costs almost 40% more than if you were to ship them separately. To the contrary, it should be slightly cheaper, as there's slightly less organizational and financial overhead involved when you treat them as one shipment.

I'm simply saying that your intuition, as logical and as sound as I agree with you that it may be, just doesn't reflect how it actually works – and that it's not Schiit's fault that it is this way, which is why I decided against doing what you rightfully did; to ask for a refund of the difference. That's all.

What Schiit could do is to change their approach to how they send the request for the shipping quotes to their shipping retailer by treating every Tyr in your shopping cart as a separate order. But I'd be willing to bet that neither their current e-commerce implementation nor that retailer's APIs would support that out of the box and without some larger changes to the shopping cart's source code.
Another approach would be to enforce that you can ever only buy one Tyr per order. That's probably a lot easier to implement.
But I'd also bet good money that this will cause more harm than it would help because both solutions just end up being confusing as heck, and they'd have to explain why it's this weird dozens if not hundreds of times over to confused buyers when all they want to do is to buy their freaking amps, and not bother with why stuff is limited to one per order, but not one per person, and why things gets split into multiple shipments, etc.

[Edit]
And then there's the case where FedEx wakes up one day and decides to change things up a bit and charges less for a combined shipment all of a sudden than for two separate shipments. Now you're forced to play cat and mouse with them to always ensure that you're offering the cheapest shipping method to your customers. Or what if one and the same shipper decides to bill 40% more for a combined 100 lbs shipment when shipped domestically, but 10% less when shipped internationally? Then you have another edge case to plan ahead for and test on the fly in your e-commerce implementation.
[/Edit]

The way it is right now, albeit a bit dumb and seemingly unfair, is actually probably the best way to do this, and then just eat the occasional refund request because the alternative is a lot worse, or at least quite a bit more expensive.

If you want to complain about someone being a total idiot, complain to FedEx. They deserve it – on more than just one level… ;p

The same thing happens with LTL (Less Than Truckload) freight. If the shipment exceeds the maximum cubic capacity allotted (typically 750 cu/ft), you get hit with a density charge which is 2x - 2.5x the regular rate depending on the carrier. So if you have a shipment that takes up, say, 1000 cu/ft, you're much better to split it into two shipments on two different days and keep from getting hit with the density charge. Doesn't make logical sense, as LTL carriers primarily charge by weight (not volume), and it would obviously be far cheaper for them to haul one shipment from the delivery terminal to the delivery address than two.

The airlines figured this out a long time ago by charging way more for a direct flight than a connecting flight to the same destination. That makes almost as much sense.