arrrgh, shipping.

[paigeoliver]

 

Sold a 23" black and white monitor, one boardset and a power board to someone for $100 and I quoted them $28 for shipping (because that is what the UPS site said the price would be if I shipped through my stepdads work account).

Well, I ended up spending another $10 on packaging materials, and then my stepdad saw how big and heavy the box was, and now he won't ship it from work, so now I have to ship it myself at the $48 rate instead (UPS is cheaper if you have an account with them).

So basically, I just took a $30 hit on that one, oh well, at least I still ended up with $70 left (which was $5 less than I was asking for the whole game (Amazing Maze) locally, and I got to keep the cabinet, controls, and wiring and stuff).

My Jack the Giantkiller crating adventure also ran over the $30 crating fee I charged, but only by a few dollars (I easily put 30+ hours into fixing, cleaning, soldering, and crating that thing, would have been more profitable just to have tossed it out and instead went into work a few extra days).

Note to any involved in either transaction (both are board members), just venting my frustration at myself here. Your items are both VERY WELL packed. I just need to learn how to better estimate shipping and packaging costs.

[TheTick]

That's (unfortunately) is why alot of people intentionally over estimate on shipping. They are not always trying to profit from shipping charges (tough there are still alot that do).

You can always give an initial "over" estimate of shipping, to cover yourself. If they prepay, fine. Otherwise finalize the sale after you have an exact shipping quote. I have heavy stuff weighed at Parcels Plus, and they are kind enough to hold the stuff there until I receive payment and am ready to ship.

I once charged someone $20 (on ebay) to ship a 15" LCD via UPS ground (like Dell would have for the same monitor). UPS wanted $9    I felt bad, so I sent it 2-day for $22    Better than getting bad feedback about shipping rape.
Won't even bother with shipping to Canada anymore. US Mail takes over 3 weeks (price is fair though). UPS is fast but their charges are a bit ridiculous. And how many frickin forms should I have to fill out!?

I've opted for tossing a couple of times. The only thing worse is garage sales. You give up a day of relaxing, so someone can barter with you for something as stupid as a dollar (but, that's like 20 minutes of long distance)

[IIOIOOIOO]

If your time isn't at a premium, I've had good experience with going down to the Post Office with a thing pre-packaged, and getting it weighed/classified. Then, it's easy to calculate the actual shipping rate.

[paigeoliver]

Update to this story. The dilweed at the UPS terminal refused the package because

They only ship picture tubes that are in their original packaging material, or ones packed by the people at the UPS store.

I argued with him, since this was a tube manufacted in 1976, yada, yada, yada.

Finally I left and went to the UPS store inside. The guy there looked at it and said they couldn't of packed it nearly as well, and he took it with no arguements at all. (The thing was basically crated, then covered with 1" foam inside a box, then that box was covered with 1" foam inside another box.)

[TheTick]

Some of the UPS customer counters around here adhere to this "All electronics must be shipped in the original manufacture's packaging."  They even open a few of my packages to check the packing. When ever they refuse to ship, it just costs me time going to another location.

If they didn't throw boxes around, they wouldn't have as many damage claims; and hence wouldn't have to enfore a moronic policy like that. How much time does it save to place the package on the conveyor vs throwing it?

[nighthawk2099]

Well... having worked for UPS (Yea, I'm the guy who use to throw the 27" TVs to the back...hehe)... They are slave drivers with their require # of boxes handled per Minute.  They showed us how to make the 'WALL' so that stuff would be tight and neat, but then they start yelling when stuff started stacking up............

[anthony691]

I keep buying cappy hard drives and have to get warranty ones sent, UPS has bought me 3 hard drives in my life They just shipped one to me that was actually twisted and wet (it didn't rain that day!?). IT IS GETTING OLD! I am sort of mad with them now. It is really annoying not being able to get ANYTHING shipped in one piece these days (sigh). That's okay, I had like 4 damage claims with them

That and I need to stop buying Quantum and Maxtor drives  

[paigeoliver]

I got an email today. The person got their package in fine condition!