2. misc-audio
  3. 193745-17600

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....

128x128maprik
panzrwagn's avatar
panzrwagn
594 posts
 

I recently shipped a pair of Magnepan .7s and stands via FedEx. The delivered the stands and lost the Magnepans! After two weeks of supposed 'looking' they declared the shipment lost and I filed a claim for the value of the speakers as sold and shipping, $976.00. Surprise! When I got the check it was for $117.00 supposedly because I had not declared the value of the shipment. Which, BTW, you are not asked, nor is there any place on the online form to do so. My appeal is underway. Needless to say I will not be using FedEx again, and I encourage everyone to avoid them as well.

HTF do you lose a 5 1/2 ft tall, 2 ft wide, 6" deep box, anyway? It was clearly marked with both my and the receivers addresses, inside and out, as well as having a FedEx tracking number. FedEx has no answer. 

quincy
370 posts
 

Covid was a great excuse for companies to raise their prices across the board.

I agree, costs are never coming back down.  The genie is out of the bottle on this one....

andris
1 posts
 

My favorite solution to all of this has been to use a bulk rate shipping service called Rollo. I discovered it about a year ago, and it has saved me / buyers of my used gear hundreds. It’s a startup that negotiated a bulk rate with USPS and UPS and they make money by keeping a small fraction, and passing the bulk of the savings onto consumers. No monthly fee or anything. I regularly save 20-40% off the retail rate, and it is a bonus that the user interface is miles better than the UPS and USPS.

maprik's avatar
maprik OP
24 posts
 

Excellent info and everyone, thank you for sharing. 

guscreek
46 posts
 

My first education with shipping was similar.  I found the pricing for boxes and bubble wrap ludicrous.  One of the attractions of the shipper I chose was a local drop off.  Turns out only the main shipping offices were the only place one could print the QR sourced shipping label.  Into traffic hell.  At least I could print the code myself and drop the boxes without a line at that point.  

Got my own boxes bubble wrap and tape though and saved most of my sale.  I would have lost a good third of my money just to shipping.

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