I shipped two photo lenses to Canada in a $13-and-change flat rate box. Unfortunately, it cost an extra $26+ to ship to Canada. This was a few months ago. I'll never ship anything to Canada ever again.
Not always... You need to check to make sure. On the smallest box, it's usually OK. But the larger boxes can actually be twice as much if you are not careful. Typically you need to send at least a few pounds, and also send to one of the farther zones for it to be less. Otherwise, if it is less weight and near your own zone, it can be as much as half the flat rate, just using the normal rate. They promote the flat rate as a great savings, and sometimes it can be... But they count on people just assuming it's best, which it often is not. But people using it when they shouldn't, makes them more money, which is why they promote it so much.
I disagree. No doubt, there are some who just don't understand, but not "most." The model railroading community is an older bunch, many of whom grew up before the "entitlement era." I don't think we're looking for free shipping, just a cost that is in line with the market.
what is this "entitlement era?" as long as my stuff gets here in a reasonable time it should be fine no matter what I pay. fuel prices are going up, shoot so are taxes, like I said though as long as my stuff gets here I'm a happy camper.
I'm supposedly a member of the entitlement generation and I have no expectation of free delivery. Heck, I expect delivery times on the order of weeks to months with free delivery options.
The last orders I made from woo woo woo in 2012 had USPS priority shipping of $7.55 from east coast to a west cost rural area PO box, No matter what I ordered. All orders before shipping were between $29 and $100. I went and recalculated the shipping from them now, for the same items, shipping has gone up to $8.45. Still very reasonable for coast to coast USPS. Far less then UPS and much faster.
I'm going to apologize to the Cockeyed MD company for my previous comments. After going back and doing some 'shipping cost' testing... my assumption of price based shipping is NOT correct. The shipping is calculated by the size of the items and WHICH of the boxes they will fit in. I 'requested' 8 Bluford cabooses ... each at 27.95 and the shipping was $7.50 USPS Priority (I live on the east coast). These likely would fit into a 6x6x6 Cube box. IF I request 15 of them... the shipping increased to $10.35... most likely because they would have to be shipped in a larger box. I then separately 'requested' 3 Trainworx 85' TOFC at $22.95 each. The shipping cost was $7.50 USPS Priority. Apparently they can squeeze 3 into a 6x6x6 Cube box. If I ordered 4 of them... the shipping went up to $10.35... and if I ordered 7 of them it would be $12.10. I certainly seems that these larger models can easily cost more to ship because of the constraint on which boxes to use. I don't even believe the weight is the issue with the USPS Priority boxes... whereas... with the UPS or other source the cost might be a higher due to weight.
Ken...I dont doubt what ya say...I hope ya dont doubt me. I live next door to you in Arizona !!! For those who think I am trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill....I just went to 'that website' and clicked on an item and went to check out. I choose the cheapest shipping option available... and it sure WASN'T $8.45 !!!!! Decide for yourself about the shipping and handling charges...whether they seem high or not. ** BTW...the item was well under 1 pound in weight and is a simple styrene kit. Now...I cant believe the original website in question has a checkout page that is just 'wonkers' for me !!! *Twilight Zone music playing in the background.... [TABLE] [TR] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail"] Subtotal: [/TD] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail, align: right"]$13.59 [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail"] Shipping & Handling: [/TD] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail, align: right"]$14.02 [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail"] Tax: [/TD] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail, align: right"]$0.00 [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail"] : [/TD] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail, align: right"]$0.00 [/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail"] : [/TD] [TD="class: v65-onepage-shippingcost-detail, align: right"]$0.00 [/TD] [/TR] [TR="class: v65-onepage-summary-spacer-row v65-onepage-summary-total-line-row"] [TD="class: v65-onepage-summary-total-line-cell"][/TD] [TD="class: v65-onepage-summary-spacer, bgcolor: #999999"][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD] Total: [/TD] [TD="align: right"]$27.61 [/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE] But it is still 14.00 vs 7.00 for shipping......grrrrrrrrrrr : Here is the exact same item at another etailer: 1 item(s) in cart Subtotal: $13.99 Shipping: $7.15 New Total: $21.14 It pays to shop at a TB advertiser eh ;-)
I'm thinking that whatever you are buying... although NOT a heavy item... must need an oversized box that requires a large USPS Priority box... though $22.70 is crazy high. Also... depending on where the box is going... it'll cost more if not handled by USPS all the way from the source to your doorstep (or PO Box). UPS would charge by the weight and NOT the size of the box... and in this case... being the cheaper of the two evils.
Okay... now I'm totally befuddled, bewildered and confused. I checked that website again... this time using a known Walthers building kit that I have. The kit weighs about a pound... box dims are about 12" x 8" x 1.25". This item would not fit in a 6x6x6 cube box... it would need a 13" x 9" x 2" box that usually is about $9.00 to ship. If I were to buy one of them... USPS Priority is $7.50 ... I guess vendor would lose money shipping this If I were to buy two or three... USPS Priority is $10.35 ... and probably has to go to an even larger box here too and probably loses money on shipping. If I were to buy four of them... USPS Priority is $12.10 ... This is probably a break even deal on shipping. More confounded now than at the beginning of this thread...
the USPS flat rate boxes are priced by the size of the box. The 2 major small package companies ship by weight. The $14 cost is probably UPS if you want an educated guess, since the screenies you show do not show shipping method. The $7 is probably a USPS flat rate box. There are more small package shipping options than you can imagine. I am not going to bore you all with them. And if you live off the beaten path, things can make life more difficult, such as shipping to a P.O. Box, etc. Just like driving from the boonies to civilization costs more(time involved, gas, etc), so does the shipping depending on the method shipped, and on where and what part of the country (i.e. how vast the boonies are), shipping method(USPS, UPS,FEDEX, etc). I order parts from from the east coast and the shipping is usually under $5 USPS shipped by weight, not flat rate. Once it went UPS and with their charge to a residential address, it was significantly higher. I cannot find that invoice but even I ranted then. Not much can be done after the fact though. Even those of us in the industry get "surprised" once in a while.
Well Guys , at least with us the problem lies in the interface between the USPS shipping Calculator and the Shopping Cart program. It can never seem to get the total items , total weight and box size combo correct when combining them all on a single order so that is why this disclaimer is posted on our checkout. We REFUND shipping overages of $2.00 or more back to you once your label is processed. Thank You. It seems to be the only fix for this issue. Mike
Mike: I can empathize with your problems getting your shopping cart to synch with shipping calculations. Aside from our hobby, I work very high end IT for a living internationally and was "requested" to do the interface for the family internet retail businesses. I have over 15,000 lines of programming code synching their shopping cart to FedEx and UPS and have spent hours with senior systems engineers at FedEx and UPS discussing some of the issues with their rate calculation APIs. My family's business ships 90% perishables which have a finite travel time before spoilage, and are temperature sensitive so shipping speeds are adjusted on a state by state basis seasonally. The only option to many small businesses is to stop trying to calculate shipping and just flat rate - i.e. charge every customer the same rate. I really dislike flat rate, it means close by customers have to pay more than actual costs, to cover the loss of shipping to distant customers. And because both FedEx and UPS have a base rate charge regardless of destination or weight ($7 for our company) and from the base rate they start adding on surcharges, the days of nominal shipping costs are simply not going to return, unless the retailer is willing to take a significant loss on each shipment. The best suggestion I have for people on this thread when they have questions about their shipping costs is to go to either the FedEx or UPS website, enter the Zip code of the seller, enter their Zip code, and then guesstimate the package size and weight, and then be prepared to get educated real quick on what actual shipping costs are. That is far more logical, to get an actual basis for decision if the seller is overcharging for shipping, than going from seller to seller, who might be located very different distances from the purchaser and trying to compare their respective shipping handling costs. Don't bother with USPS flat rate boxes on the USPS website, that assumes that everything fits in their boxes and that the seller can actually get a USPS pickup. As far as shipping USPS, the Post Office does a lot of TV adverts targeted to the home based occasional shipper. Our firm has been waiting over two years for the USPS to give us a commercial pickup, the USPS refuses, a situation that is typical in our area of GA. We still don't have one. And we are not going to buy a truck to haul 100 boxes a day to the post office, and then carry them by hand into the post office. I know of a LHS that was in business here for several years that never ever was able to get a USPS pickup, Mike you know who I am referring to. The TV ad tells customers that the USPS picks up for free, that might be true for the occasional package sent from some persons home, and it is what I do, as an example, when I sell privately on that well known auction site. But the USPS does not pickup 120 packages from a commercial shipper for free, it requires a commercial pickup and the Post Office does less and less of those every day. Admittedly some businesses have commercial pickups, but those are being cut back every year as the Post Office cuts back their budget. And most lengthy USPS shipments intrastate are being sent either on FedEX or UPS by the USPS anyway. In fact, UPS and FedEx now have special partnerships with USPS that has the big guys moving the packages the long distance, and the USPS making the actual short home delivery. To get that special deal, the shipper has to ship a minimum of 100-250 packages a day, depending on the value of the shipment. As many have said in this thread, FedEx / UPS ship ground / home delivery based calculations on weight only, except for odd shaped packages such as long tubes typically used for items like flex track. However that is not an absolute rule. Shipping to Hawaii and Alaska sometimes have different calculations. FedEx will handle multiple packages shipped to the same shipment calculations differently than UPS. And dependent on where in the boonies some customers live, FedEx and UPS will occasionally hand off the package to a special extra cost sub contractor for a special delivery such as in Montana and other locations - I don't mean the contractors that run the normal FedEx ground / home delivery routes. If the package has to go differently by some Express shipment for speed, then dimensional weight is the calculation used by FedEx / UPS. You can hit the FedEx/UPS computer systems for a quote and get two different quotes just a minute apart due to their very extensive complicated calculation algorithms, as the first quote might just be filling a trailer already committed so the cost is cheaper, but by the time the second quote hits the computer, that trailer is full, so a different basis is used as a new trailer comes on line. I am over simplifying here, but I hope folks get the concept. So don't be surprised if on some retailers the shipping price for the exact same item varies minutes apart or different times of the day. There is nothing wrong with the retailer's system is the customer gets slightly different quotes at different times, the retailer is trying to get the cheapest rate for the customer by getting the most accurate quote from the delivery service and is only processing the quote received from the shipper. Of course, the 800lb behemoths like Amazon will continue to tout "free shipping", they can afford to literally lose billions a year in shipping costs, as part of their marketing strategy is to absorb those loses while they run the smaller retailer out of business as the small retailer is trying to compete by absorbing the loss on shipping, and FedEx and UPS will continue to raise their rate calculation basis / fuel surcharge every year, as they have done consistently for the last six years. And as consumers like us model railroaders, whose hobby requires small demand items that will never be sold on Amazon et al, model railroaders will continue to have to pay more and more shipping charges whether they like it, or can afford it as we subsidize the absurdly cheap rates that the big box stores get from FedEx / UPS. Sorry, but there is no silver bullet. Sincerely, Bill
The item is....Micro Engineering N 60-002 Poor Boy Mine Kit The same item from 3 different etailers has 3 different shipping prices. Now...if its coming from the east coast and because of mileage to Arizona its gonna cost me twice as much for shipping....its obvious I wont be ordering anything from an etailer on the east coast. Just sayin.
It is not rocket science to figure out that it cost more to ship something a longer distance. Of course it does. And sometimes the "route" from one location to another greatly makes a difference in cost, we see that frequently to some of the more low population areas and sometimes even close by. We are in GA, TN is just to our north, but we get two very different rates to two major cities in TN that are only 150 miles apart, but almost the same distance from us. There are some western states that FedEx will cover that UPS doesn't and versa visa. I'd almost bet dollars to doughnuts that it is your location in AZ that is costing you a surcharge. PM me with your physical address, I will check the systems for you, maybe there is a wrinkle that you can use such as shipping to the business of a friend near you. At worse I can tell you if your location is the cause. Best, Bill
Mountain out of a molehill for sure. Why don't you just pick the USPS and be done.The best way to ship anything is the USPS, period end of story. It don't matter where it comes from and where it goes in the USA it costs the same to ship USPS priority medium Flat rate box $12.35. UPS charges by weight and where its going and usually takes two to four days longer. These endless threads about people whining over a few bucks need to stop. Please.
Same thing noticed here. I canceled an order for some small items from an eastern on-line e-tailer due to $11.00 shipping cost on a $20-30 order for wheels, fencing, and industrial doors. I try to find on online auction site as much as possible now
