Shipping Rates

[The_Vermonster]

I also do everything online. I have an old bathroom scale for the larger stuff and a kitchen scale for anything under 10lbs. I recently used Bikeflights to ship some bike parts. A full tandem weighing 60lbs shipped from Oregon to me was under $300 including insurance and a Bike fork shipped overnight was $60 including insurance.


Personally I find UPS to be a touch more expensive but I haven't had any issues, compared to Fedex and USPS who seem to thrive on "issues".

[campIV]

Fortunately I have a PostalAnnex+ about a mile from my house. It's usually the same two lovely ladies working and they are friendly and extremely helpful. Always happy to check for the least expensive shipping option. Anything dropped off there goes out that evening.
And on a side note, if you ship with FedEx, pray that nothing goes awry. I've had a number of issues with them lately and their customer service "help" line is the worst I've encountered with the possible exception of AT&T.

[Aldercrest]

Wouldn't you rather type it in yourself? As long as it's a regular keyboard and not a touchscreen, it takes seconds... vs. correcting the useless kid behind the counter. But year, the feet on the counter thing is BS.

[kbeefy]

UPS is at my house a couple times a week, so I usually just print a label and leave the package on the porch for my driver to pick up.


USPS is my second choice, Fed Ex a distant third. I've had more shipping issues with Fed Ex than the other two combined and then doubled.

[rltilley]

Originally Posted by Big_ern_101

Head on over to Pirate Ship for much better rates on UPS and USPS

This is what I do as well. They have accounts with USPS and UPS. Not sure about FedEx. But they get discounted rates and you can enter your info and package weight/dimensions and they will give you rates for all carriers and all shipping methods so you can choose the option that best fits what you need. Then all you do is print the label and drop off the package.

[JWA]

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

Fedex will soon be out of business. The world has moved on from the need to ship documents overnight, which was their forte, and the rest of the shipping world has copied their model now. They have few big accounts left. When I was still there Amazon was one of the biggest customers. Now they have their own fleet as we all know. And yes of course Fedex's prices are insane.

FedEx is far from being out of business however their original model of document expediting has eroded quite significantly. I work for contracted service providers for FedEx Ground and so far they're holding their own with non-account holders, aka private users.

Originally Posted by 86Scotty

I use USPS for most things but occasionally Fedex Ground, which is a deal, but it won't save the company. I wonder how much their CEO made last year while the company sunk? 100 million? 50 million?

I use USPS any time its a choice whether sending or receiving. I tend to receive nearly everything through my PO Box even when a sender claims they don't deliver to PO Boxes. This is done as its most convenient for me and in over 15 years have never lost anything due "porch pirates". My customers send payments due to the PO Box, also convenient and secure.

Just a comment here, not really adding to the solution to outrageous shipping costs.

[ScrapIron]

Originally Posted by Aldercrest

Wouldn't you rather type it in yourself? As long as it's a regular keyboard and not a touchscreen, it takes seconds... vs. correcting the useless kid behind the counter. But year, the feet on the counter thing is BS.

Actually i wouldnt and the reason being is that im paying for a service and if the package ends up lost i dont want to hear any excuse making. Where as if the kid fat fingers a number in the address and the package gets lost, fedex has to pay for that package. If i fat finger a number and the package gets lost im just SOL because fedex will 100% refuse to pay for it. I also dont use self checkout lanes at stores. They arent paying me to do their work for them.

In reality whats going on is they are trying to make it intentionally inconvenient for the consumer so that the consumer gets frustrated and starts doing the work for them for free. For instance having one checker at a register when there are ten registers with fifteen people lined up waiting to check out. Half of those people are going to move over to a self checkout and do the work for the store wage free. Im just not that guy.

I will literally leave a cart full of merchandise sitting at the checkout and walk out before i provide a multi billion dollar corporation with free labor or allow them to waste my time intentionally because they dont want to schedule or hire a sufficient number of employees to work. But thats just me... im weird about those types of things and most people probably dont even give those things that much thought.

For example, Walmart doesnt accidently forget to schedule a sufficient number of cashiers seven days a week 365 days a year. Its done intentionally because paying an employee a wage and benefits is their biggest expense as an employer. They want you using the self checkouts and doing the work of the waged employee for them. Its cheaper to pay one employee to stand at the exit and harrass customers for a receipt than it is to pay five employees to work registers.

This is where it becomes a matter of wasting "your" time intentionally by understaffing. They are profitting at your expense, that is if you place any value on your time. Meaning, you either stand in line wasting time waiting because theres only one cashier for every 20 customers, or you provide the company with free labor by using a self checkout lane. Again, im not that guy...