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Shocked by UPS shipping charge
- Thread starter Chrisk-K
- Start date
Yes it is. But.... In the scope of selling basses, if you sold a bass for $500 and you have to include shipping in the sale price, it isn't.
Yet another reason to play short scale. Mine shipped for $20.
Yeah, shipping and stocking costs matter in any industry. IMO the real thing going on here is that there is such a variety of great instruments at ridiculously low prices that the shipping seems excessive in comparison.
I will say, though, when I see someone selling a vintage axe for, say, $15K and asking for shipping on top of that it seems a little cheesy to me.
Yeah, if you ship internationally especially, you really want to sell guitars and not basses.
These are some good point. I think shipping free is a non starter on eBay where fees approach 15% (3.2 for pp and 10 for eBay).
Yes, and it sucked.
I had a 2 day priority mail package leave a sorting facility in Atlanta on Jan 9. It then disappears until Jan 15 until it shows up somewhere here in Austin. Finally gets delivered on Jan 16.
When it was obvious the package was late, USPS customer service person told me that packages get misrouted and miss scanned all the time - I should just be patient and hope it shows up. It did, but my interaction with their customer service wasn't exactly reassuring.
USPS is great as long as nothing goes wrong with the shipment. But if it does, oh my. Good luck then.
I agree. I've more than once taken things to GC and taken the hit. You probably loose a net of 10 to 15% but you get move your gear right away.
I do alot of shipping with my business and we use FedEx Ground for 99% of it. We shipped 1,800 orders last year and only had problems with 3. My advice (some of it repeat, some not):
- Set up your own account and use FedEx.com; unless you do lots of shipping you won't get discounts, but you'll pay alot less than at store locations. Print your own labels and get the stick-on envelopes for free from a FedEx center.
- To save a few more bucks, instead of having things shipped to someone's home, see if they have a commercial address, like their place of work. FedEx Ground is cheaper than FedEx Home delivery.
- Have items shipped to and held at a local FedEx or UPS center or store. It costs less than having them delivered. When the package arrives, the recipient is called or notified to pick up the item. They only hold things for 3-5 days, so you have to make sure that your buyer knows that the onus is on them to pick it up.
- See if you can find a friend with a FedEx volume account to ship it for you, and reimburse them. Its not uncommon for regular users of FedEx to save 30% or more off of standard rates.
There are big differences between sending to a business and a home too. UPS gets even worse when they pack up the box - really well done, but really expensive. I use FedEx ground, but I really made the switch because of a mix up where the local UPS store mislabeled my shipment and sent it to the wrong address. I learned very quickly that the UPS store is not the same as UPS. If the store makes a mistake like that UPS will not help you at all - the local store has to sort it out.
And don't dream of shipping a bass cab- you will ose your shirt on anything other than a LIGHT 110.
Low prices for used basses - expensive shipping - high eBay fees - high Paypal fees = no point trying to sell my less used stuff.
Yeah...that's how they get ya...I shipped my Music Man from New York to California in its hardshell case and it was over $100. And they dropped it. So that was fun.
