Shipping sucks

[Steve McMahan]

I don’t know about you, but the major retailers who we buy from are getting greedy when it comes to shipping. So, I bought three items from Summit and went to checkout, and added to the $16.25 shipping charge, the lowest they offered, they were going to hit me with a handling charge of $11.99. Now my wife is an EBay seller and I had her figure the 48 US USPS charge on the parts I was buying. She said it would be $8.75 to ship USPS, 4 days to arrive. Now, I’ve noticed the same from JEGGs and a few other are even saying, buy our stuff and we’ll figure out the shipping later, so no way to comparison shop and you’re committed before you have a total.

So I thought, I’m smarter that these guys, so I change my order to pickup, in Arlington Tx, will have my sister pick it up for me and send it me herself. But, they’ve got the covered: no one but you allowed to pick it up and you have to have the actual credit card used to buy it with you.

I know I’m whining, but this sucks! $30 worth of stuff for $28 in shipping and handling? And the prices are up like 25 percent. I know for stuff that should be out there, From now on, I’m going to populate the wanted parts forum. What have been your experiences both good and bad? Maybe we can make a preferred vendor list. When you start to pay 50 percent or more for handling and shipping, the part price starts to matter less; just a thought. Steve

 

[tony-muscle]

An idea is for a few local guys to get together to buy more than $100 in parts so the shipping is free. Then the parts can be redistributed. Amazon Prime sometimes helps in getting parts delivered for free, but some specialized parts are not available in Amazon.

 

[Horsin' Around]

I cant't even remember the last time I had an order under 100.00.

 

[RD-72]

Lol....try shipping from the USA into Canada ...or Canada to USA...
shipping prices have been stupid for some time...when shipping antique 1970’s mustang parts into Canada (which are designated as duty free By the way...and have been for years) certain shippers (yes I am calling you out, FEDEX) you can add a bs international customs surcharge of around $45-$60. In my mind a a grossly inappropriate charge.
As a principles based guy, I will never use FEDEX to ship anything again...the only acceptable shipper for me as a receiver of goods from the USA is USPS priority international, or I am not buying from them as a seller.

 

[vintageman]

I hear you Steve, rates have gone up and shipping is out of hand. I just ordered something that weighed about 5 ounces, cost about $6 and shipping came out to be over $10. Total for a $6.00 adapter with taxes, shipping and handling came to over $20. I started the order on Sunday morning and it took me until this afternoon to actually commit to ordering it because of the ridicules pricing. I did order it finally because the part is really needed by a family member but I will definitely be spending a lot more time in the future looking at things like this.

Tom

 

[7173Vert]

I easily paid out $5k in shipping costs to restore my J Code Mustang. Yes, being in Canada adds at least 30% to the shipping costs from the USA and yes, FedEx is a complete ripoff for cross border shopping. PreCovid, I got a US Mailing address and then went across once in a while to pick up a bunch of packages. Saved me a few $$$. Not much in the way of choices for shipping with. You want to play, you will pay….

 

[midlife]

Shipping via USPS has gone up dramatically in the past 5 years. FedEx has raised its rates by about 50% over that time period as well.
I'm still eating shipping costs for gross orders of $100 or more, but had to charge shipping for orders less than that. That's the only change I've instituted in the past 14 years of business.

 

[Hemikiller]

Solution is simple, buy $100 in parts. I wait until I have that much in my cart and then place an order at Summit. If you need onesy-twosey stuff, then it's the local parts store.

Maybe six years ago I used to be able to ship a 1lb box anywhere in the US for $5.95 Priority Mail. Nowadays, it's $8.95. I also used to be able to buy 71-73s for $200 ~ $500 all day long, but it's not 1995 anymore.

 

[Vinnie]

I ordered a new Wilwood front disc kit from NPD. Cost me about $900. Wanna guess the shipping to Europe? It's about $300. And when it gets here I can pay an additional tax on the kit PLUS shipping which the transport company will bill me another $250 for.

 

[92GTS-R]

I don’t know about you, but the major retailers who we buy from are getting greedy when it comes to shipping. So, I bought three items from Summit and went to checkout, and added to the $16.25 shipping charge, the lowest they offered, they were going to hit me with a handling charge of $11.99. Now my wife is an EBay seller and I had her figure the 48 US USPS charge on the parts I was buying. She said it would be $8.75 to ship USPS, 4 days to arrive. Now, I’ve noticed the same from JEGGs and a few other are even saying, buy our stuff and we’ll figure out the shipping later, so no way to comparison shop and you’re committed before you have a total.

So I thought, I’m smarter that these guys, so I change my order to pickup, in Arlington Tx, will have my sister pick it up for me and send it me herself. But, they’ve got the covered: no one but you allowed to pick it up and you have to have the actual credit card used to buy it with you.

I know I’m whining, but this sucks! $30 worth of stuff for $28 in shipping and handling? And the prices are up like 25 percent. I know for stuff that should be out there, From now on, I’m going to populate the wanted parts forum. What have been your experiences both good and bad? Maybe we can make a preferred vendor list. When you start to pay 50 percent or more for handling and shipping, the part price starts to matter less; just a thought. Steve

If you think that's bad you should try owning an American car in the UK! NPD is a fortune to ship parts, so for heavy items I get parts shipped to a Florida address, parts are then put in a consolidated container and then shipped to the UK where I then face a 3 hr return drive to pick up the parts and also have to pay additional duty fees and shipping! On the other hand, Rock Auto seem very fair with their pricing and shipping, I use their fedex option as duty and taxes get pre paid. If I use the usps service the post office in the UK also charge a flat rate $30 dollar handling fee.

 

[Bluesky10]

I remember when a guy would walk into a speed or hobby shop owned by some local person, or Hot Rod chain store and buy off the shelf. Recently the last local store here closed due to on-line sales. Now they own us. I still stop by my local Autozone, Oreillys, & NAPA trying to keep them in business before I have to order spark plugs and supplies too. Shipping does affect my buying methods. Recently I have been shopping Amazon first, then ebay. Mostly Amazon due to my prime free shipping on anything, no matter the cost. However, I also spend a lot of time looking at all the car restore parts seller options. The first thing I do is look at shipping cost. If I do not like what I see, its off to another search. However, when I know I need one or more items totaling100 bucks, which is easy to do, Summit is my choice. Maybe a seller will see this thread and post shipping deals for 7173 members.

 

[piper62j]

Keep in mind, that with EBay, they have worked out a discount shipping cost due to the high volume put thru their website. I sell hundreds of wheel covers thru EBay and (for example) a one lb wheel cover cost on average $6.00 to ship anywhere in the lower 48. I will never understand why an item that weighs an ounce or two, costs the same!!! As for online stores showing overpriced shipping on small items, I believe they want to show a higher profit for their bottom line. When I ship something on my own thru Fedex, usps or ups, the rates appear very high.. IMHO

 

[Stanglover]

Lol....try shipping from the USA into Canada ...or Canada to USA...
shipping prices have been stupid for some time...when shipping antique 1970’s mustang parts into Canada (which are designated as duty free By the way...and have been for years) certain shippers (yes I am calling you out, FEDEX) you can add a bs international customs surcharge of around $45-$60. In my mind a a grossly inappropriate charge.
As a principles based guy, I will never use FEDEX to ship anything again...the only acceptable shipper for me as a receiver of goods from the USA is USPS priority international, or I am not buying from them as a seller.

I'm with you, to a point. Last year I bought an NOS rear bumper in the USA and the best shipper was Fedex, as long as I had an account. Where you need to be careful is on ground vs air freight. They will charge air freight even though you specify ground, but when I question it, they refunded the difference. Now UPS I will never use again as they STILL illegally charge import fees and duty that are often almost as much as the item purchased. I have received several checks from the lawyers class action suit.
USPS is my choice whenever possible.

 

[timachone]

I ordered a new Wilwood front disc kit from NPD. Cost me about $900. Wanna guess the shipping to Europe? It's about $300. And when it gets here I can pay an additional tax on the kit PLUS shipping which the transport company will bill me another $250 for.

I am in the same boat here, shipping costs to Germany always sucked! But in the past months they do have increased dramatically... I am happy that I am mostly done with ordering parts the big manner and that there is also rockauto for some parts. But usually we have to add on a 200 bucks order about 100 bucks extra on shipping and taxes...

 

[Steve McMahan]

Yes, I think buying the minimum is always the best practice. But I’ve noticed I tend to buy ahead of where I am in the project, just to get no shipping. I use Amazon as much as I can, and I also like Rock Auto. So far, so handling charge from them. But, it may be the place I am in the project, but I’m not finding the stuff I need On Amazon. But I’ve no complaining to do verses our friends who live abroad. You too Canada .

 

[Aris]

Same here in Finland, shipping costs to Finland always at least 100$! I also use usually RockAuto they have quite low shipping fees but they dosen't have all parts there. I have too address in Florida and I can use that for bigger parts and ship those by using sea container service.

 

[Bobby]

There is no happy medium anywhere. CJ Pony Parts has a great selection but if you order something the shipping options are ridiculous! For free shipping you can expect them to strap your order on the back of a donkey. You might see it in two weeks. Extra charge will get you one extra day sooner. If your order is incorrect or defective or whatever....meaning not your fault, you STILL have to pay return shipping! However, CJs has an awesome selection. My beef with all of them and all the shipping options is that they have been blaming Covid for their own bungling deliveries. Out of all of them, UPS has the least amount of late deliveries.

 

[71ProjectJunk]

I have never paid the extra shipping charge from CJ Pony, always use the free shipping. I get parts from CJ Pony to East Texas 1 day faster than I get them from NPD. If I order in the weekend from CJ Pony I get parts on usually get parts on Thursday, from NPD it is usually Friday.