A part of having a ‘brick-and-mortar’ store near you is that every customer pays a bit of the ‘rent’ in every purchase. Every customer also pays the cost of shipping items to and from that storefront in the cost of the items sold. This is a cost regardless of whether repair is needed or not.

I suppose that the only way around an individual having to pay shipping charges is to spread the potential cost around. This is a common principle of insurance – a certain small cost is shared and paid by many in lieu of a higher cost that may need to be paid by a few. Would you join a ‘shipping cost sharing’ club? Everyone has the option of joining for $2 - $5 per item they buy and if they do need to ship something back for repair under warranty, the cost of shipping comes out of the club’s fund. But who is going to take on the setting up and managing of such a fund?

Of course Outlaw could choose to take on the cost, but then they would have to charge more for each item sold to cover the cost. The money has to come from somewhere, right? It seems Outlaw chooses to keep prices lower. Needing repair and spending the $54 is a letdown, but which of us would rather pay hundreds more up front somewhere else to avoid this maybe-it-will, maybe-it-won’t occurrence from happening? We who buy Outlaw equipment are saving a bundle over comparable gear from other sources, even with shipping charges for warranty repair.