Shipping costs- WTF
I just need to vent. A couple days ago I tried to ship some Target speaker stands from Oregon to Ohio. I bought them from a guy in NJ and he paid $60 to ship them FedEx ground. Using the exact same box and packing materials I went to FedEx and they said to ship them to OH would be $170. So I went to UPS: $169. I went to the USPS: $180. Granted it's a large box (30" x 17" x 17") but weight was about 15 pounds and it's easy to handle. So yesterday I took the stands to the UPS store to get an estimate on them boxing them separately. $33 x 2 for the boxes and $104 x 2 for shipping. So $274. For $200 speaker stands. Obviously I'll only be able to sell them locally....
I shipped a CDP (probably 2’x1.5’x1’ and about 20 lbs) from Tacoma, WA to the Midwest vis UPS and it cost me close to $150. I couldn’t believe it! I had shipped a similar sized box down to CA and it cost me about $40 so I was expecting it to cost a bit more but definitely not that much more. Of course I listed the item price “shipped”. Won’t do that again. |
+1 @carlsbad2 I have a friend who used to own 3 UPS retail stores in the area. After he sold the stores he let me in on the secret. Every shipment they took in was marked up 2.5 times over the price you would pay if you went to straight to the customer counter at the UPS facility. Most people never questioned it. They just forked over the money. He made a bundle every year at Christmas time. And UPS had no control over what they charged. He just paid UPS a yearly flat fee to use the name/logo and to have a truck come by at the end of each day. |
The large UPS facility located about 1/4 mile from my house that I have successfully used for years just closed its customer counter, along with several other UPS facilities in the region. I just paid $200 at a UPS Store to ship a DAC to CA, largely due to the claimed value/insurance. I will for sure try something different next time. |
