When did UPS get so bloody expen$ive?

[Joe Bfstplk]

They will sell you insurance to cover the stuff they ship, but only cover loss, not damage, if they don't pack it themselves. They quoted me $110 to ship an Axe FX III to Baltimore uninsured. $205 to ship insured (for loss only). $635 to pack the factory box in bubble wrap inside of one of their boxes so the insurance also covers damage.

By way of comparison, a round trip on Southwest for 2 days before the shipped box would arrive is only $462.36 with a couple hour layover at BWI for the dude to pick up the box from me....

 

[unix-guy]

That's ludicrous!

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

Considerably cheaper to fly there with it and meet the dude at the airport....

 

[Greg Ferguson]

I noticed the rates going up a couple years ago, probably/possibly soon after the first wave of the virus.

The prices have continued to rise. I don’t think it’s even important to try to figure out the cause. Given the laws of supply and demand, something/someone else will arise from the ashes to fill a slot left open.

I dunno how the “cartage” market will change, but if we all recognize and feel that the rates are too high then someone will try to fill the intermediate gap.

 

[Rick]

It (and much of the market) has gotten ridiculous.

 

[lqdsnddist]

Those drivers need air conditioned trucks and $170k a year (with benefits)….. guess who pays for that ?

Can only imagine new car pricing if UAW gets their 46% raise

Shipping Station via PayPal is a great savings though, usually like 50% ups retail prices and you don’t need to sell through PayPal to use it, just log in and you can create labels. They also have USPS etc options

 

[walnutzz]

Shipping Station via PayPal is a great savings though, usually like 50% ups retail prices and you don’t need to sell through PayPal to use it, just log in and you can create labels. They also have USPS etc options

Didn’t know this was a thing. Thanks for the heads up.

 

[Dave Merrill]

Those drivers need air conditioned trucks and $170k a year (with benefits)….. guess who pays for that ?

Can only imagine new car pricing if UAW gets their 46% raise

Shipping Station via PayPal is a great savings though, usually like 50% ups retail prices and you don’t need to sell through PayPal to use it, just log in and you can create labels. They also have USPS etc options

Do you have to "be a business", whatever that means to use Ship Station?
Or can it be used by me as a private seller selling and shipping to some random person?

 

[Tonedeaf]

Kinda hard to answer that without getting political, so I won't.

 

[lqdsnddist]

Do you have to "be a business", whatever that means to use Ship Station?
Or can it be used by me as a private seller selling and shipping to some random person?

I’m pretty sure just as a private person. It’s way cheaper than the reverb “discounted” rates by like half

 

[Vio]

I noticed the rates going up a couple years ago, probably/possibly soon after the first wave of the virus.

The prices have continued to rise. I don’t think it’s even important to try to figure out the cause. Given the laws of supply and demand, something/someone else will arise from the ashes to fill a slot left open.

I dunno how the “cartage” market will change, but if we all recognize and feel that the rates are too high then someone will try to fill the intermediate gap.

Ah, the Virus...

 

[unix-guy]

Shipping Station via PayPal is a great savings though, usually like 50% ups retail prices and you don’t need to sell through PayPal to use it, just log in and you can create labels. They also have USPS etc options

My son ships a lot of paintball gear that he repairs and flips.

He swears by Pirate Ship:

https://www.pirateship.com/

They offer large discounts with UPS and USPS.

I haven't used them yet myself.

 

[rickboot]

I’ve used Ship Nerds, too.
www.shipnerd.com

 

[Dave Merrill]

I'm expecting a UPS delivery tomorrow, so I signed up for their free My Choice service, hoping to watch its progress.

All I can see is that the label was created and it's on its way. No other hubs it's gone through, or any progress at all.

It's that normal these days? It's been a while, but I really think I remember seeing more in-transit detail than that.

 

[unix-guy]

I'm expecting a UPS delivery tomorrow, so I signed up for their free My Choice service, hoping to watch its progress.

All I can see is that the label was created and it's on its way. No other hubs it's gone through, or any progress at all.

It's that normal these days? It's been a while, but I really think I remember seeing more in-transit detail than that.

There's usually a Shipment Details tab that you need to select to see that information.

 

[Sixstring]

When things get really tight I think we will see a lot of people stop selling gear on line and shipping things using UPS, FedEx USPS all together! Just like voting with your wallet they will feel the eventuel $$ pinch!

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

I'm expecting a UPS delivery tomorrow,

Me too....

so I signed up for their free My Choice service, hoping to watch its progress.

All I can see is that the label was created and it's on its way. No other hubs it's gone through, or any progress at all.

It's that normal these days? It's been a while, but I really think I remember seeing more in-transit detail than that.

Virtually EVERYTHING customer-service related took a hugantic, ginormous step backwards under the excuse of COVID.

(Y'all should be proud of me that I got through that sentence without using any Navy adjectives)

Probably lost 50 years worth of progress in businesses treating customers well in the last 3 years. Some stockholder somewhere is likely buying a 5th yacht off of that lurch backwards....

 

[GlennO]

I'm expecting a UPS delivery tomorrow, so I signed up for their free My Choice service, hoping to watch its progress.

All I can see is that the label was created and it's on its way. No other hubs it's gone through, or any progress at all.

It's that normal these days? It's been a while, but I really think I remember seeing more in-transit detail than that.

In my experience, no, that's not normal. I've received many UPS packages in recent months and the shipping progress details, including the intermediate checkpoints, are always available in the tracking information. There's no need for My Choice. Same for FedEx. Also, USPS tracking has improved immensely in the past couple of years.

P.S. Amazon's in-house delivery service in the past couple of years has become downright amazing, where you can often see real-time info on the delivery truck location on a map, with details about the number of stops before they come your house.

P.P.S. I had an apple phone delivered yesterday and hours before it arrived they gave me a delivery time that turned out to be accurate down to the minute.

 

[Joe Bfstplk]

In my experience, no, that's not normal. I've received many UPS packages in recent months and the shipping progress details, including the intermediate checkpoints, are always available in the tracking information. There's no need for My Choice. Same for FedEx. Also, USPS tracking has improved immensely in the past couple of years.

P.S. Amazon's in-house delivery service in the past couple of years has become downright amazing, where you can often see real-time info on the delivery truck location on a map, with details about the number of stops before they come your house.

P.P.S. I had an apple phone delivered yesterday and hours before it arrived they gave me a delivery time that turned out to be accurate down to the minute.

This is what their online tracking thingie says about my package tomorrow:

Essentially, "Sometime tomorrow."

 

[GlennO]

A few months ago they changed the interface and you now have to click on “details” to see the details.