Fran, another thing you need to keep in mind. Most sellers, probably have some sort of deal set up with their shipping company of choice to get a decent deal on shipping prices.
So you order 10 items. they can see what it will fit in, and offer you a final price on the total cost shipping and all, You say ok and get it.
Oh gee, 3 items are out of stock... so. what do we do?
Ship the 7 items, and THEN when the other 3 come in, ship them again, and pay shipping charges AGAIN.. and the COD handling charges, potentially AGAIN, losing money on an already incredibly tight ROI model to begin with. or worse, have to make multiple, secondary shipments as the parts trickle in, eating further into profits.
OR, they can just bill YOU each time they ship the item, so YOU get stuck paying an extra 8 dollars for each item that ships. now you just spent an extra 16 dollars to get all your stuff. or 40 dollars because they were bulkier bike parts, or whatever.
Even if they did it COD, YOU still would have pay the shipping fees AND the COD fees on EACH ITEM as it shows up.
Many companies are shying away from COD because of the fraud out there. Unfortunately and I don't understand HOW this can happen, but money orders, can be forged, and they won't know for 90 days, so they say. That would basically put it on the shipping company to eat the bill. THEY don't want to be in the middle of a fight between you and I on an item and it's price, but THEY got stuck there because I paid THEM, .. they paid you, THEN, 2 months later the check bounced, YOU got paid, so it's THEM who lost the money. or would you be happy letting them hold your money for 120 days, just to make sure everything clears properly?
COD tells me YOU don't have the money now. If you are broke now, what magic is going to get you the money later? Why can't you use a credit card? Oh that's maxed too? Ooh, that's another huge warning sign. If you don't have the money, then why don't you have the customer pre pay so now it IS paid for, and then order it? See where this is going. NO this is NOT aimed at you, I am not taking a cheap shot at you as a person, but saying in general... this is a whole shady area here that most would rather avoid if at all possible when it comes to COD.
just saying.
aaron