UPS shipping costs have become outrageous

capetonian · Joined: 11 Aug 2006 Posts: 1197 Location: Florida

I recently sold a boom on ebay and shipped it via UPS. The boom unpackaged weighed about 6 pounds and packaged nearly 8 pounds. Packaged length was 62 inches long, but to save some money I put the length as 60 inches. Shipping cost changed from $22 to $17 for those 2 inches. Since I charged the buyer $20 for shipping and then spent $13 on packaging materials, I was already in a bad mood.

Today I get an invoice from UPS for another $33, $6.50 because the actual length was 62 inches, and $26.50 because the weight was 33 pounds. WTF. I sent them a check for $6.50 since it was my fault, and a letter to go and shove it about the 33 pounds. I am so tee'd off I have to vent.

With the price of gas so high I can understand that UPS is hurting, but to charge me for 33 pounds on a (less than) 8 pound item, that just makes me never want to use them again.

carl · Joined: 25 Feb 1997 Posts: 2674 Location: SF bay area

My company has UPS and Fedex accts and I deal with them alot.
If you read their oversize rules, you would have noticed that they
price all oversized 2 packages at 30lbs no matter what it weighs. This is not a receint thing, they have been doing this for years, Fedex too.
The rules are on the website.
I hear Amtrack is good for large items.

swchandler · Joined: 08 Nov 1993 Posts: 10588

Carl's absolutely right about oversize packages being charged in the form added weight, despite the fact the packages don't come close to the "charged" weight.

More recently (early March), I received an new Open Ocean board from Washington via UPS Freight, and they bumped up the actual packaged weight of 35lbs. to 140lbs. based on a fuel adjustment. It's just the way that things are done for all freight companies, including the USPS.

You think charges are steep for continental shipments, just ship something fairly long to Maui. I shipped a boom from California to Maui and the charge was over $136 via USPS. The pricing from FED-X, UPS and DHL was off the planet ($225-250). Also, to get the "bargain" price USPS was offering required a complete re-do of the packaging, because my original box was consider too large to accept.

With the price of escalating fuel these days, one can only guess where this going to go.

spyder · Joined: 24 Sep 1996 Posts: 2790 Location: oahu

yes but, any shipping company goes by Dimensional Weight, not physical weight.

LxWxH / 194 for domestic

LxWxH / 166 for int'l

this is nothing new...but watch the little tricks those freight companies play. like if you don't put in the actual physical weight, they will put in an average weight from the day's packages, or something weird like that.
best to call and get a confirmed quote from UPS, they do that but you have to do it a day ahead of shipping date. of course they are going to amp up the rates due to the fuel...watch fuel surcharges.

also, if you cheat on the dim's, they will re-dim and charge you more.

capetonian · Joined: 11 Aug 2006 Posts: 1197 Location: Florida

From now on I think I will have to rely a lot more on swap meets to sell my old gear. Ebay charged me 5.5% commission, paypal another 4% and the excess shipping costs ate up another 16% of the selling price (assuming I don't have to pay the additional $26.50 I didn't send a check for).

Even if I get one third less at a swap meet (about typical I think) than on ebay, I don't have to deal with the hassle of packaging and shipping.

KevinDo · Joined: 02 Jul 2012 Posts: 426 Location: Cabrillo Inside

amazing how these spam bots can look up these old threads!

U2U2U2 · Posted: Sat Jun 14, 2014 1:22 pm Post subject:

norcom · Joined: 16 Jun 2008 Posts: 137

MalibuGuru · Joined: 11 Nov 1993 Posts: 9300

Captonian, I just shipped a board from Oahu to Maui. Cost was $50, and board arrived a few hours after shipping air freight. The reverse would be the same, so you could look into that.

I also sold 3 booms this month to local buyers here in Ca. I would have pulled the boom head off, and the length and width would have been manageable if shipped. After reading your plight, I'm glad I waited for local buyers!

Here on mainland Amtrak it the only way to go!! Aloha to your family!

spennie · Joined: 13 Oct 1995 Posts: 975 Location: Thousand Oaks, CA

You want to talk about shipping nightmares? Try a 12' long by 35" wide by 6" thick box! Finally sold my Kona One to a guy in New Joisey. I got quotes (seriously, not making this up) of $173., $290., $432., $1,100., and $1,800.. The 1800 was from UPS Freight, which is apparently known to be nuts.

It's very difficult fo Joe Citizen to ship anything large, the shipping companies don't want to deal with you, so they make it complicated & expensive. To get the $173. quote above, I went through a national logistics company called Unishippers. It was still a royal PITA, I'd ask a simple one-line question and it would take them 4 hours to answer, but they eventually found someone to take the Kona. Then I had to open an account with Unishippers for some stupid reason before they could take my money.

With smaller stuff like sails I've been very happy with FedEx Ground, good prices & great service.