UPS is telling me over $100 to ship 1 seat.

Anyone else have experience shipping seats?

thanks,
dr

Greyhound.

If the girth of the box is over 108" it gets expensive, and if it is more than 130" you're spending big bucks.

I've shipped a Recaro seat to LA frm San Jose for $30-50 (don't quite remember) via FedX ground. Distance also determines cost. I packed it in a cut down clothes box you can buy at packing stores.

measure your box before you take it in and make sure you're under the magic "108" if you can. creative trimming with a utility knife. take a tape measure, and measure for the the shipper so you can show them the box is 107 3/4". i've had them round up the numbers. i had a heated discussion with one young man. eventually told him it wasn't my fault if he could'nt read a tape measure. the 1/4" can equal $50 if you're not careful. ups is my least favorite shipper.

kevin

Jim Chambers just got a seat from Renegade, maybe he will jump in here.
CCLINCAMP

Had to ship a targa top through UPS, before posting i took it into Staples UPS and they quoted me $95. Sold the targa on e-bay went to ship it and UPS said it would cost over $200. WTF!!! When they measured it the second time it was an inch larger. The diffrence between that inch was over $100. Had to go home and cut the packaging down an inch, and then since it was going Puerto Rico, and UPS failed to inform me of the documenting I needed, They shipped it back, TWICE!!!! Finally got it to its destination, after hauling this targa top to UPS several diffrent times. Not to mention UPS rates change daily.

i've seen all kinds of "tricks". not starting the tape on what would be the 0 mark(one guy held his thumb over the zero mark). not running the tape squarely around the girth. not pulling the tape tight... the list goes on. must be part of the training for " how to screw the customer". if you use a small drop ship they will add their hidden fee to the total. next time you use one ask what the shipper charges and then ask what's their cut. for small/light weight stuff priority mail is the only way to go!

kevin

Jump--
Sent a 914 stock seat from UPS Store in Portland to Las Vegas for $40. Would have been $30 if I had boxed it. I sent it "naked" with a label taped to the seat. Would have been a little cheaper if I had taken it to the local UPS terminal.
Seat came back from Renegade Hybrids in a box to my door for $26. I think UPS gives businesses a discount.

I just did a check on Greyhounds site. I guessed the weight at 50LB and the size of a box that 2 seats would fit in. The price was $51.40 for shipping from Atlanta to LA,Ca. and would only take 3 days. But must be picked up at the Bus station.

One way to get around UPS measurements and weights is to call for a pickup. Once the driver picks it up, it's in the system, and nobody ever measures or weighs it.

This tip is from my buddy who is a UPS driver. He frequently picks up stuff that he knows weighs way more than it says on the tag but he doesn't have a scale in the truck and as far as he knows it never gets sent back. He's only pissed when the package in question is breaking his back!

Another Tip: Go to a Staples store with a UPS if there is one in your area, the Prices are 10% cheaper than a UPS Store which raises the price 10% for profit.

Yes... I got screwed via airborne on seats by the dimensions.

For bulky items Greyhound. Shipped a front hood from North Dakota to Tennessee for $30. Greyhound doesn't seem to play the games that UPS does.

UPS does measure/weigh them somewhere along the line. I have the UPS bill to prove it. I mis-weighed something by 4 lbs and they billed me later for it. I also mis measured something and they billed me for it later.

The hot ticket on sending seats (nice ones).. go to a U-haul store and buy a clothes closet like mentioned above. Our seats fit perfect in them and you can eaisly cut them down if need be or stuff two seats in them on top of each other.

Oh.. Jim.. I wish you wuld have said something on the BBS about purchasing some Renegade seats.. I know of 3 for sale local to me.



B

fedex is cheaper than UPS for large items.

Maybe that's because you have a UPS account?

UPS. No account? No pickup!

Any individual can call for a pickup at their house. They charge you a few extra $$.

If they serve your area and the destination area, and you don't mind port to port, use Forward Air (forwardair.com).

Worst thing I did was buy a seat and give the seller my UPS number so I could get my slight discount on the shipping. The seller shipped it 2nd Day Air instead of ground.... OUCH!

sm

when parting out my 914 I did what anthony suggests. scheduled pickups for all the large items. I always cheated a few lbs and a few inches here and there. if you play with the numbers enough at ups.com you can see at what measurements the price jumps next at. they never did a re-measurement on me.

Yeah, I had a seat send to me once via the Greyhound bus which I thought was neat! It was so easy to drive by the station and walk to the office to pick it up. No hassle or anything like that.....and the cost was great...so cheap that I can't remember!

But when I sold my two other seats via ebay, I had a nightmare with the UPS store on how they measure and weight. I ended up with wrong shipping cost info at the first time and when I went back to drop the seats off, a different counterperson was there and wouldn't take it! It's all because these two different counterperson measure it differently! Talking about $125 bucks difference!


I learned (and experienced) thru a friend from automotive repair shop that they have their shipping contract with a shipper which spells the shipping prices very different than for someone like you walking in the shipping store.

I find that BAX and Forward Air are the one to work with. I have not send anything out thru Forward Air but have recieved my Audi sport seats which came in one piece. I'm not sure if you need a business account to work with Forward Air but I do find them price reasonable. BAX was the one that my friend set up for me to get rid of the ebay seat. They were good.

hope this helps...
j

Individuals can ship Forward Air, but take cash, they don't take plastic or checks if you don't have an account established.

At Portland airport Forward Air won't even take cash. You have to take your item to them, get a price, then go to the local Post Office and get a money order.

yeah, that's it, I knew it was something wierd. that part is a bit of a pain.

The LAX one has a Quickie Mart right around the corner where you can get a money order. Yep, that is a drawback though.

sm

Thought I would bump this for info on a seat I just shipped, $22 via FedEx ground Chicago to California.

Click to view attachment

Creative.

Good idea

Excellent packing job! That is the cheapest way to do it, and Greyhound is also the cheapest except you have to go to a station for the shipper and the receiver. Make sure you specify the insurance value because Greyhound is known to lose things

"Shipped" two seats for a BMW and 4 rims (separate "shipments") via Southwest airlines for free.

...worked in southern california , traveled back and forth a lot. So, picked up the seats from a Craig's list seller in the Los Angeles area and packed them up with boxes from U-Haul.

You'll need to ensure the weight is under 50 pounds and within the size restrictions ...but, Southwest let's you check in two items as luggage for free...so, one seat per box or two rims per box (actually, taped two boxes together that the rims came in, so just a roll of tape I had in my carry-on luggage).

A number of years ago I needed a new front hood for my 6 .
I contacted a very well respected person on Pelican and tasked
him with finding an excellent condition one.
He found one 1500 miles away and had it shipped via Greyhound.
According to him, Greyhound lost the hood and then Contacted him
Weeks later and demanded “ Storage” Charges for the time it was lost.
He told them to “shove it” and I lost My money and still had no hood..
Body Shop was waiting..
So, I got screwed and Greyhound took the fall for it although I doubt
things went down as described. How do you lose something as big as
a front hood.....???
It got worse, but that is for another thread....

Wonder how that would work if a package was picked up at home, and only have their shipping address on it?

Doesn’t work if you send it using an account. They weigh and measure it and bill you even if you already paid a lower price. The “friend” might not be looking at their added charges on their account. Same with fedex.

Don't overlook Fastenal they will ship store to store LTL at reasonable cost. Need to be fastened on a pallet or crated.

https://www.fastenal.com/en/22/3pl-(third-party-logistics)

I have used Greyhound lots of time with no issues yet.

Speedeedelivery.com is cost effective, but only covers about 5 states.

I just sold 100lbs of car parts on Ebay and shipped them in three boxes yesterday via FedEx for $110.00 after I set up a free account. So around $1 or so a lb from NY to Florida.

I’ve been using parcelmonkey.com for overseas shipping. About 1/2 to 1/3 the price of fedex. I use fedex for conus. The more you ship, the better the rate.
I never do greyhound because I’m not willing to drive an hour and a half round trip and park in a parking garage just to pickup and drop off and their customer service sucks.
Freight quote for engines and trans. You can get a quote online but if you call them and get a quote, just say “ I’m not in a rush, can you do better?” And you will usually save ~25%.

I fail to understand how a front hood, packaged, could fit in the luggage storage on a bus. I can see where the loaders would get frustrated.