What is the difference between shipping and handling vs processing and handling?

Answer 1

Handling is basically finding the package and getting it ready to ship. Processing is the exact same. Companies only do that so they have an excuse to get more money.

- Actually it had to do with taxes. Some states require taxes to be collected or charged on shipping and delivery fees, but not on services. So they got rid of the shipping fees and now call it "processing and handling" in order to stop paying the shipping tax. Processing and Handlng are services which are not taxed. Most of the stuff you order off TV or catalogs is marketed/sold by one company and shipped/fulfilled by another. There may be several companies actually - the one who sells you the item and runs the commercials, another one who takes the order on the phone or internet, and a third one that warehouses the product and sends it out. So "processing" may be different from "handling" in those cases. But the bottom line is, if they don't charge you for shipping they don't have to charge tax or pay tax on it. Also I think a lot of people complain about the shipping costs, because they think it should only cost a few dollars to mail an item. But the person selling the item has to pay the actual cost of mailing it, plus the box and the tape, plus the labor of boxing it and putting labels and stamps on it, plus the warehousing expenses. It can be costly to sell cheap things on TV. So now they charge processing and handling costs, but the shipping is free!