Has anyone here noticed massive increases in retail-customer shipping costs just in the last few days or weeks? I sent a DAC and power supply to someone in NH, from Indy, a week ago by UPS Ground, and I don’t recall what it weighed - maybe 5 pounds, tops, and it cost me $15.93. A little high, I thought, but not outrageous. Then last night I took a pair of headphones to UPS to do the same, but to a destination in Oregon. The package weighed about 4 pounds. Ground charges were almost $50. When I expressed surprise to the guy at the counter, his only reply was, “well, it’s almost 4 pounds,” like that explained it all.
So I politely declined and took it to my local post office, thinking among their many options there’d surely be something less expensive than that. Well, no. The cheapest way they had was $57.45. Rather than retrace my steps to UPS, I decided to bite the bullet and let the USPS handle it.
I just couldn’t believe it. I fully expected it to be around twenty bucks total. A little over a year ago, I traded in my P500 regenerator in a deal to get my P3, and it was massive in weight, and large and unwieldy in its box. It was a chore just to hoist onto the counter scale at UPS, and ground to Boulder was about $90, which didn’t surprise me at all. But if it costs $50 to send a 4-lb box now, that P500 would surely cost about $250 to ship today.
By the way, if the buyer of the headphones reads this (I’m not naming him here, since it’s his business, not mine), I’m absolutely not fishing for additional payment. Please don’t even think about it. I’m just using this thread to express my outrage at shipping costs, not at the deal we struck, which I should have researched before making it. But I’m afraid that for any other items in my Marketplace “garage sale” post, I’ll need to include a notice that shipping can add anything from $50-$150 to the prices I’d shown, even for the smallest things.
Although it wouldn’t cover something like a PSA regenerator (I don’t think), I find the USPS Priority Mail flat rate shipping boxes to still be reasonable if you have items that fit and aren’t over 70 lbs.
I agree, but unfortunately in this case, the headphone’s original packaging wouldn’t fit in either of the two large Priority Mail boxes. Its length was too great for the thick box, and its thickness was too great for the thin box.
Same here. UPS had an across the board price hike of 6% but they also changed the way they calc. the cost.
If the package is light but say is 1 cu. ft. then they add a hidden surcharge because the cubic weight is too small for the floor space / volume occupied. I just sent a package that I expected to be $20ish and it ended up at $60ish.
Dammer.
That sounds very much like what happened with me. The box I had that was closest to the headphones’ own packaging was from a pair of M-Audio desktop monitors - not huge, but certainly bigger than necessary. That might have driven up the cost at UPS. I know for a fact it did at the post office, because the base rate for its weight was under $30, but because they said it was “oversized,” it jumped to nearly $60.
Note too that using the UPS Store is more expensive than opening your own account direct with UPS. The UPS store ALWAYS charges a premium. I won’t go there anymore.
You also might see some discounts through some organizations you’re a part of. I think USAA has a discount for FedEx if you set up your account through their link if you’re a US veteran.
Consider using Pirateship for your shipping. There’s no fee to use it and it gives you access to USPS cubic rate shipping and provides an easy way to compare rates from a variety of shippers. They also offer very good international rates and their customer service is great, especially considering that you’re not paying any sort of membership fee (in contrast to Shipstation, for instance).