Are there any rules and regulations shops should follow wile displaying prices for items?
I find it irritating that there is a varying percent based shipping and payment charges imposed by stores. Then there is the VAT.
Most shops doesn't make it obvious about shipping charges and advertise competition against others that include the price. What do you guys think?

p.s. or am I too much familiar with ebay/amazon type stores?

I agree that is there, and that is what i hate too .

I see item X for a site for Rs100 and get so happy because the lowest I saw it earlier was for 130.

I proceed to checkout and with all the taxes and shipping cost the Rs100 item actually becomes a Rs180 worth item.

Really bugs me :/

@sadu
We would like to respond as below;

All LHS in India can be classified into two broad categories;
1. Legal Entities (Sole Proprietorship,Partnership,Limited Liability Partnership,Private Limited Company and Public Limited Company)
2. Individuals

VAT/CST

• 
  Legal entities need to pay VAT/CST. It is preferable to show the product price inclusive of applicable Taxes in the website, which most of the LHSs are following except few.
  

Payment Charges

• Only Legal Entities can offer payment gateway, which is a prerequisite by most of the payment gateway providers.
• Large LHS offer payment gateway as only option to make payment. Due to their large volume of operation they can bear the payment charges.
• Individuals offer only Bank Transfer (NEFT) or Cash deposit option. They do not incur any charges when you do NEFT. But, for cash deposit there could be charges by the bank. It is upto them to charge you or not.
• 
  
• Small LHS like us apart from NEFT, offer payment gateway as an added option to make payment as quickly as possible. But, we can't afford the payment gateway charges. So, we have two option that is either to include it in the product price or charge it separate.  If we add the payment charge to the product price then the customers who can do NEFT also will be paying the hidden charges for the payment gateway. So, we decided to add the payment charges as separate when you use the optional payment gateway.
  

Shipping Charges

• 
  Our shipping rates transparent and available in this link http://www.vibranthobbies.com/shipping. Also, the shipping weight of the product as well total weight of the product is shown at appropriate places. You can add additional products upto the weight slab without increase in the shipping cost. We will add an feature which will show the shipping cost on the product page itself.
  
• 
  Regarding Free shipping
  Just I am reproducing a Q&A found in our FAQ page http://www.vibranthobbies.com/faq/
  Q:     Why not free shipping like other LHS ?
  A: We can honestly tell you that there's no such thing as a free lunch. When a seller offers free shipping which means the shipping cost is embedded into the product price. We know exactly how this business work but we do not prefer to work that way.
  
     To minimize the cost, the sellers offering free shipping ship the parcels via the cheapest couriers which are usually much slower
     You will finally pay more in total if you buy many items in one single order. For example, most of the express couriers charges every 500 grams and assuming the shipping charge as Rs. 80, the sellers offering free shipping include this price in the product price even though the product weight may be less than 500 gram. If you buy a product weighing 100 grams and quantity 5 numbers you will be paying Rs. 400 as hidden shipping price,  whereas you will pay only Rs. 80 when you buy from us.
  

Regarding EBAY/Amazaon
They have their own payment gateways and links with shipping companies. So, do not expect their business models with the poor LHS.

Hope, We have responded to all your queries. Please feel free to provide your comments, if any.

Regards

Partners
Vibrant Hobbies LLP
With your trust, we grow!

Note :

• We respect all LHS either small or large or individual. We have no intention to criticize any one them. Each one operates on their on ways, which they feel as appropriate

I am with gautam on this. Every LHS has its own way of displaying prices, and most of the time we as users quote the real price. As a customer we are not bothered by any increment in taxes or regulations or gateways. We care about the amount of money that is to be spent to get an item. When we say it out here and to each other it always is item cost + shipping. They might even be represented separately. What I am trying to say is that saying you are the cheapest or that you can offer for less than others while this item procurement cost, which is what as customers we all care about, is same or even more than what you quoted isn't right. It is borderline scam.
For example the genuine Imax B6 charger, which was said to be cheaper on your store, turned out to be just about 50/- less after all other charges. It was the same as ordering from the initial place. If you can calculate the tax at checkout, you can do so on the page itself and it is not a big deal. It is ideal and a proven business model to have clarity towards prices. Of course, it is a bad business model as the prices on display will go up and people will refrain to buy from you.

Edit: Free shipping
No one is asking for free lunch, I don't think you get my point. This is frustration from a bad user experience and not a cry for cheaper prices.

+1 @vibranthobbies 

Gentleman
1. The product price shown is inclusive of the applicable tax. How do you say that the tax is added on the final stage ? See the attachment.
2. The example IMAX B6 product price is Rs. 2290 + Rs. 80 through Fedex Shipping for you which totals to 2370/-. You wanted to pay through CCAvenue hence Rs 94.80/- was added. The advantage of gateway is you already got the tracking number for your order. You had the option to save that money by doing NEFT.
3. Did we claim anywhere that we are cheap ? Some customer may have told this in this forum but not us.
4. As I said, we will add a feature to show the shipping cost on the product page itself.
We respect your comments and take it positively to improve our self.

@parichya
1. Can you refer me a courier company who ships based on actual weight instead of minimum weight. For example for Firstflight the minimum weight is 250 gram. So, even your shipment is 50 gram it will be charged for the 250 gram only.
2. WHEN YOU BUY MULTIPLE QUANTITIES FROM HOBBYKING TO SAVE THE SHIPPING COST AND THEN SELL IT IN THE FORUM AS IF YOU ARE SO CHEAP THEN WHY YOU ARE NOT DOING THE SAME WHEN YOU BUY FROM LHS. YES I AM SHOUTING.

Edit : Minor editorial correction.

wait .. when did i come in the discussion ?

I was talking regarding other LHS.

VibrantHobbies is one of the good guy LHS in india.

I know you already add the taxes and shipping separately at last, which i am fine with.

I am sorry parichya !
I think you posted your reply without knowing that the OP is targeting us.

ooh ... OOOhhhhhhhh ..

Mr Sadu, Dont be H.A.R.I :giggles:

Does my way too bother you ?

I just post the price and everything else after that is AS IS. that shouldn't be an issue right ?

No issue parichya
I wanted to suggest you the method to save the shipping cost in India.
As I told earlier, everyone has the right to do the way they want.

Funny of all the other shops you should argue with me. You guys have the most detailed checkout process and apart from the ccavenue charges rest of the features are just right with vibranthobbies.com and a couple of others. By "you" I meant all the LHS people looking at this thread and not just vibranthobbies. I wish more people responded like you guys.

Yes "is cheaper" you would never say as a store owner unless it is true, so it was indeed a user who just saw your website and the price. This is how people get blindfolded. I changed my decision because of that, a user who went to your website who saw the price and left out the calculation. I didn't say I wanted it cheaper, I said I want the price right on the page. I bought the charger thinking it was cheap from your website(~300 difference in displayed price from initial store) but didn't cancel it because it was same as initial. My honest mistake. I chose FedEx Overnight shipping over free shipping or other cheaper ones because I know about the importance of shipping chargers, not because of the tracking number. I would have done the same for any other stores if they gave the option to.

I didn't know I was targeting them either. I bought from a lot of stores you see, not just a charger

Thanks for the understanding.
I was generic in my first post, but took it personally in the Reply #5 due to the IMAX B6 reference.
As I said, We will show the shipping cost on the product page itself.

Ah yes, I can also relate to how you'd feel when wrongly accused. I just used the charger purchase as an example and not the cause of this story. This has been the condition for years and I believe it is time to change.

Sure, we will be the first to change.