Can I get free shipping on bulk orders of snack vending machines?

So I’ve been looking into buying snack vending machines in bulk lately, and one thing I genuinely can’t figure out is the shipping situation.

Like some suppliers mention “free shipping” once you order multiple units, others say shipping gets negotiated separately, and then some prices look super low until you realize freight costs are hiding somewhere in the background. Apparently a lot of suppliers do negotiate bulk pricing and sometimes even free shipping on larger orders, especially for wholesale deals.

Small incident — a friend of mine almost placed an order for a couple of machines because the listing price looked amazing, then the shipping quote came later and completely ruined the deal. Ever since hearing that story I’ve been trying to understand how people actually calculate the “real” final cost.

I also did the usual late-night scroll through Alibaba Group comparing different vending machines, and honestly the listings there make comparing options pretty easy because the specs and configurations are detailed. But after a while I still couldn’t tell which suppliers genuinely include shipping perks and which ones just say “contact supplier” for everything.

So yeah… do people actually get free shipping on bulk vending machine orders, or is that mostly one of those things that sounds good until the final invoice shows up?