Shipping and Handling for Downloads?

Some online sellers (I will not name names, though they are not hard to find) actually charge shipping and handling fees for products you can — wait for it — download!

In September 1926, Baltimore columnist H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) wrote a column for The Evening Sun and the Chicago Daily Tribune in which he said, “No one in this world, so far as I know — and I have searched the records for years and employed agents to help me — has ever lost money by underestimating the intelligence of the great masses of the plain people.”

To anyone who might doubt this, I would remind them that in 1975 you could buy, ahem, pet rocks. Some came with a leash. After all, you wouldn’t want your pet rock to run away.

Which brings me back to shipping and handling charges for things you purchase online and download. When and where does the handling take place? Does someone watch over the eBook or music download to make sure pages and notes are not blatantly rearranged?

Darned if I know. By the way, there are no shipping and handling fees to read This Senior’s Voice. There never will be.