The shipping rates are CRAZY.. I order parts ALL THE TIME.. and often, the shipping rates exceed the cost of the parts.!! {just kidding} The places I get my parts from charge 25.00 for a 1lb box.. I'm just a 1 man show & don't keep a lot of stock.. but THAT has changed in the last few months.. Instead of getting my parts "as needed".. I'm now ordering enough stock to do 5 pumps at a time.. I DID "find" a loop hole last week tho.. I had to order Orings for a small PFR style pump.. They would have cost me 25.00 in shipping cost, that I would have HAD TO pass on to the customer or take if off the "bottom line".. I asked the parts guy if he could/would just throw them in an envelope & ship'm USPS.?? He said, "I'll ask the shipping dept.. but no guarantees".. I got my "bubble pack" in the mail yesterday.. the pkg CLEARLY says, 1.00.!!! My invoice says 2.75.. Lol. BUT it beats the hellouta the 25.00 I woulda paid, had I not asked !!!! I tried it on another vendor & IT WORKED too.. So heres a tip for you guys>> if the parts are small.. ask them to be shipped by MAIL instead of frt carrier.. & BTW>> they make those "bubble packs" in larger sizes too..
It seems like more and more places are advertising "free" shipping and just adding in the price to the item. It is a bit ridiculous to charge $25 for a little box though.
Yup.. I see that more & more when browsing on ebay.. & whats funny is> the SAME items are posted right next to each other.. so its not like you cant "comparison shop".. That's what I was saying in my post RNR.. a SMALL box with orings.. 25.00..!!!!! a bubble pack w/ SAME orings, 1.00.. {2.75 w/ shipping & handling}
I get a bit ticked when you order something that is about the size of a ball point pen and they ship it in a box that would hold a pair of work boots. All bubble wrapped like it was going to break if dropped six inches onto a mattress and it is actually a piece of hardened steel 1/2 inch diameter and six inches long. You could run over it with a Mack truck and not hurt it.
AMEN to that Hansen.. I haven't "bought" packing material in YEARS.. Lol A 5pk of orings in 20 ft of bubble wrap.. LOL.. WITH "insurance" on the package..
& whats-up w/ the "insurance" anyway??? The insurance for shipping a repaired inj. pump costs MORE than the actual shipping cost.!!! I DID file a claim ONCE.. and I HAD TO PROVE the ACTUAL COST for a replacement pump.. It didn't matter how much I insured the package for.. they would ONLY pay out the replacement cost.. Luckily they got off their behinds & found it.. & no money changed hands.. BUT STILL.. I insure my repaired returning pumps for 1000.00.. A NEW pump would be well over THAT.. & even a reman without a core, is more than that.. But if I put anymore insurance on it.. my customers couldn't afford to SEND me work..
I see that all the time from the Cat dealer. I'll pick up 6 big boxes on a parts run. Take them to the parts room and it ends up being 2 headlight bulbs, a couple fuel injectors and a dash vent.
There is a flip side though. I order stuff from Grainger and McMaster Carr, and they shipping costs are always crazy low. McMaster is close to me, maybe 3 hours drive, but it still seems cheap. They'll ship my order in a box the size of a coffin that weighs 50lbs and I'll pay maybe $15 shipping. All UPS.
It's not just in the US that this happens. This rort has been going on in Australia for years. Parts always seem to be on the other side of the country to your location. Back in the day dealers stocked most parts but now only seem to have filters and maybe a fan belt or two. I got a seal kit for a Bosh lift pump, cost $6, freight $13.70. The package wouldn't fill the palm of my hand.
Just ordered a coupla Fuel filters, for the Dixie chopper mower, offn the innernut, wal-mart haddem, cheapest, and no shippin. They are sendin each one, individually! Go figger!
Are you working out of your home? If the shipper is charging you the actual cost, understand that UPS gouges you for home delivery. If you had a commercial address, you'd pay much less.
About insuring the package for $1,000... even if actual value is more. FedEx lost an order of mine worth $275 and didn't think much of it. I hope $1,000 makes it worth their trouble to keep up with it. Someone should answer for it, if lost. At least that's my thinking when I shipped a pump for rebuild.
Had to order a new contact switch for a Baldor motor a while back.....same crap, $25 shipping for a pack of Camels, ***? Got it on ebay for a few bux cheaper & free shipping. Ed
Hoss> yes, its worth their while to get up & look for it.. They SURELY didn't wanna pay out 1000.00!! it was lost for months.. I didn't know it until the customer contacted me.. I filed the claim & within 48 hrs it "was found".. Funny how that works..?? OH & the "Priority" 2-3 delivery is bunk too.. the small print in the "claim form" says they wont even look for it until its been 10-14 days from the scheduled del. date.!!! Bump>> I was browsing ebay 1 day & found a part that I ALWAYS PAY 100.00 for.. {75. for part & 25.shipping}.. on ebay for 68.00 w/free shipping.. I jumped all over THAT.. To bad they only had 1 or I'da bought 10.. lol
I have a customer that's sending me a pump from Oregon.. I got a Fedx notification of the shipment.. He shipped it LAST Thursday.. expected delivery date is 5/17/18.. THIS Thursday..7 DAYS!!! You wanna talk about a "slow boat".?? I ship pumps to Texas all the time & it only takes 2-3 days BY MAIL.!! I don't know what the guy paid for shipping but it wasn't worth it..
Geez TPG, you reckon you have problems. An outfit by the name of Toll LOST my brand new 1.5 ton forestry mulcher for 3 days.
hahaha.. THATS a pretty big item to lose.. I can see it now.. "I'm not movin' THAT".. "well, I'm not movin' it either".. Boss>> "customers on the phone & want to know where his mulcher is"?? Shipper>> "Gdammit.. SOMEBODY go deliver this thing"!!! hahahaha
A few years ago we assembled I think 6 new excavators for a customer. Somehow between the shop and the customer's yard (like an hour drive away), one of the 470's went missing. It was found a few days later.
Had the hour meter kept the battery charged?
I bought a used UNIMOG wheel in Canada once. They shipped it UPS. I paid $150.00 for it. Because UPS automatically insures packages for $500.00 customs grabbed it and help it ransom until I paid $52.12 duty fees. Burned my a** big time and held up my wheel a couple of weeks.
I had Customs grab an injection pump once for leaking fuel thru the box & held it 3 months.!!! & the "clean-up cost" to the customer, was no joke either.. I get my azz knawed all the time for leaking fuel.. by my local USPS.. I just tell'm, "I'm sorry"..lol I DID have a bad day "once" & had to go pick 1 up from the PO.. they WOULD NOT deliver it.. You wanna talk about getting scolded like a 5 yr old child.!!! I FINALLY had enough & said.. "WHY the hellrya yelling at me.!!!????" I didn't pack it.!!!
That leaking fuel from a pump is no joke. When I shipped my pump, I wrapped it in rags, bagged it. Wrapped the whole mess in another rag, bagged it twice. Then used rags as cushion material in the box. All this after getting as much fuel out of it. The rebuilder must have though he was getting a box of rags... except for having to sign for a $1,000 box. Pumpguysc... How about some tips for shipping pumps to be rebuilt.
While talking about shipping things yesterday I stopped buy PO to ship a sidecover off an old Yamaha to a guy in California and as I pulled into the parking lot this lady come out of the building carrying a wooden crate. I parked next to her car and happened to glance over as she was loading it in the back of her SUV. That's when I noticed the screen ends of the crate and saw things moving. A closer look and I realized what was moving, honey bees! I asked her if she was making honey and she said "No they make it I just take it from them!" Lady in Post Office told me the crate had been sitting on the shelf all morning and made for some interesting background noise. She said she likes it better when an order of baby chicks comes in she'd rather listen to them than worry about a hole in the crate of bees!
Hoss>> 90% the rotary pumps have a "side cover" AND a " fuel return connector" on them.. Its BEST to remove BOTH & turn & shake the pump until the fuel is expelled.. Turn the drive of the pump, to expel the residual fuel in the pumping circuit.. The problem w/ THAT tho is, folks forget to put the side cvr & return, back on the pump.!! EVERYBODY has kitchen trash bags.. wrap the pump in acouple of those INSTEAD of the flimsy walmart bags.. & package the pump in the box TIGHT.. Its amazing some of the pumps I get.. NO packing AT ALL.. just a pump slamming around in an empty box.!!! I have dogs & keep a box of "puppy pads" around.. Wrapping a pump in THOSE is very good for soaking up any residual fuel that might spill.. Some of you might have "Depends".. same thing.. The WORST THING I find is, wrapping the connectors in Duct Tape.. It does absolutely nothing to stop the fuel & melts on contact, leaving a mushy mess on everything..
Had a boom for a brand new crane shipped from Kentucky to Washington state. Some sections didn't come on time and no one could find the truck it was loaded on. Delivery on the crane was held up for a few weeks. When the boom finally showed up it was damaged and had to have lattices cut out and replaced. Everybody washed their hands of the deal and the customer was left on the hook to pay for the repairs on a brand new boom and then had the project jeopardized because of the late delivery. Only the truck driver knows what happened.
I'd have surely been making life unpleasant for the trucking company until the repairs were paid for or a court said they wouldn't be.
What do you guys do in a situation like this?? or better yet, an OVERNITE delivery & it doesn't show up?? Do you go back on the shipper/vendor & ask/demand they eat the shipping cost?? Like I said, when using USPS, the "fine print" says they wont look for it or pay out a claim until 10-14 days AFTER the ETA.. even tho you paid EXTRA for 2-3 day shipping.!!! which is TOTAL horse sh*t, in my book..
Good luck getting any damages from a bottom dollar freight broker. Oh, the stories I have re-powering failed equipment moves at rest areas, weigh stations, empty lots....and there was the new loader that I was the third try for the shipper after the first two hit the same bridge 2 miles from the dealer. Good money there. Not really for small stuff like inj. pumps, but I had a really good experience with Fastenal 3PL. I got 6 22.5 aluminum wheels on a pallet shipped from Michigan to Washington- $165.00 and they were GREAT at the warehouse.
TPG another freight company here is TNT which stands for Tomorrow Not Today. We all know how fast tomorrow comes around.
That's kinda like free beer, tomorrow, aint it?
Some years back sent a Head to Chapin rebuilders(cracks) off an Allis. Guy calls me after a week asking where is it? I call freight company, they had no idea what I was talking about as they had no records until I faxed a copy of the BOL. They then got on the scans. Found it four states from where should have been, crate was dropped and busted open, head was rusted severely from sitting on an open dock and they stated "Not Insured" to which I explained would be an attorney next call. Got a call from home office, asked how much for head, told them irreplaceable as off Allis Chalmers, they said buy one and bill them, I said No Way in hell. Would locate it they would pay for it and THEY would pay shipping. That was agreeable to avoid legal battle. Found one luckily at General Gear, they did pay for all and still had it sent to Chapin as was Still cracked. Five weeks beginning to end for a five day repair job.
Fastenal does real good and reasonable job as long as it fits a pallet, is packed and tied down well, and is tough enough to handle the bustle of forklifts banging them around. I read a horror story of a guy that shipped two classic car fenders strapped to a pallet. It was not a smart move. I have used them a few times.
Forty five years ago it was common that the companies larger cranes was train shipped. We had one coming to Duluth, MN from half way across Nebraska. Only half of it showed up in Duluth. 3 weeks later they found the car body and the rest of it on a siding in Duluth, Georgia. After that when we rail shipped we would sledge hammer oak wedges into the car couplers so the RR crews could not easily break up the multiple car strings. They probably cussed us but it seemed to work as the cars were always in a string after that. I have to believe some train crew may have got a a** chewing on that one. Always wondered if the railroad paid the damage claim from the contractor as a large rental crane had to be retained all that time.
Duluth MN vs Duluth GA ... that's understandable... I was handed a Ticket to Greenville SC when I was going to Greensboro, NC. Luckily, I looked closely.
I broke down a top pick container handler in Tacoma and got all the parts freighted into a Seattle forwarder who got all the pieces on a flat car destined for Miami to ship to South America. I saw the flat cars loaded in Seattle. Three weeks later the customer calls me from Miami wanting to know where the base unit was. He got the boom and top pick but not the carbody. I called the forwarder who said the railroad pull the cars out of the yard two weeks ago. Two weeks later the guy in Miami calls me a again still not having the the carbody. I called the forwarder again who calls the railroad who says it got taken out of Seattle. A week later I get another call and this time I start calling mechanics I've known through the years looking for the unit in the Seattle area. One calls me back and says to meet him in South Seattle. We met and he leads over between a couple of buildings where there was a siding and there was the missing machine. I called the forwarder and gave him an address and asked where to send all the bills. The machine was moved the next day and I never heard back from any of the players. I never dealt with rail shipping again.
UPS is about the best in my area, none others compare, as for the postal service...........................unless its not valuable and your in no hurry to ever see if, if can live without ever seeing it might be better yet, only then maybe I'd ship through them, but keeping in mind, it took them over six years to get a letter to me that was mailed from the same town I live in and quite a few times, many things never did show up, as in ever yet, but then again, six years have not yet been up on those letters, so there is hope yet I may actually see them yet. As for parts being sent through the mail.....................................good luck with that. Freight shippers....................boy it might be quicker and cheaper just to drive and go get the parts myself. Just got bottom excavator rollers shipped to me this past week, luckily I unloaded them myself and counted them before I signed anything, turns out someone dumped the pallet over and the driver had to move everything in the truck to find the last roller under another pallet. I was actually shocked he found it, quite a few times they can't and I get to reject the shipment completely and have the seller send via another shipper. I'm not sure how to rate most of the freight shippers, some can't find my place at all, even after driving by my yard 20 times a week and have done so for decades, some forget to call when I'm needed to sign and pick pallets off the truck and have to reschedule many times so I can be around to take the shipment. A few can't seem to keep track of any of my shipments, as in they lose them somewhere in their system, others still can't seem to ever get anything complete, as in parts are missing or lost and a few have put the wrong tag on the wrong customers parts, as in my name and address are right but I have clue as what the parts are who should have gotten them and who might have gotten mine by mistake. One shipper in particular seems to only hire the most stupid incompetent drivers, one who I hate with a passion, won't deliver anything to anyone after a certain time of day, he takes all his deliveries he has left and logs them in as delivered or address can't be found and then tosses the shipments into a box to be sent back to a major sorting center, states away and then throws away the paperwork, he's done this to many in my area, times over and yet he still has a job, the only thing I can think of is he's got to married to the boss's daughter or something equally stupid to keep his job. To answer the question of shipping overnight and not getting it, I used to ship overnight all the time, but I knew the guys who flew the shipments in, as in the pilots, and when I shipped overnight, I'd call them directly to make sure my parts were on board and I had no issues, when they retired I've never since shipped overnight anything from anyone, doubt I'd ever see it even days later, that is a total scam in my opinion. There are certain shippers I tell anyone shipping anything to me, they absolutely can't use them as shippers or I'll cancel the order. If I pay with a credit card, with express shipping, I have already cancelled the transaction when the parts didn't show up on time, with a credit card you can protest the charge for up to 45 days, something that is very handy when problems come up and usually gets someone's attention much faster than just calling with a complaint, trust me on this, it does work, but doubt you can ever order parts through them again with a credit card, just as a heads up, but you can threaten to cancel the transaction before actually doing it, this helps to get much faster response than just calling in a complaint of the parts not showing up on time. As for the free shipping on eBay and such internet places, it depends, I've used this option many times with mixed results, sometimes we get things fast, other times it can take months to get things via free shipping, I always ask about a specific shipping date and receiving date in writing, that helps greatly to get the stuff in a timely manner.
Any type of shipping is a crapshoot. FedEx only hires dislexic drivers......4102, 4201 S Winegar, close enough, throw it on the front porch that nobody uses and drive like nascar. Truck freight, thats something to look forward to. Call 1/2 hr away...way past delivery window, no call. So, I call them, "his last delivery was 25 miles away, 4 hours ago, driver won't answer his phone & trucks gps is turned off, ***? My best luck was with ABF and I picked it up at the treminal, one less chance for them to wreck it. Ed
I remember one time my old man needed a part ASAP so they shipped it out on the bus since the buses passed through town several times a day. I think it ended up 2 hours north of town (it was put on the bus an hour south of town). Had to wait for the next bus to bring it back south.
Whats the deal w/ the post office taking 7 days to ship a 3lb pump from Oregon to SC?? & when I went to ship it back, she told me the same thing!! I said, OH hell no.. ship it priority delivery. It cost me a couple of $ out of pocket but I'm sure my customer appreciated it..
If that has to thinking *** with the post office pump guy, how about this, my sister lived in Virginia for years, no matter what she sent us via the post office always took 13 days to get, but whatever we sent her, she got in 3 days, didn't matter if was a letter or package. She lived there for more than a decade and it never changed, if we sent it from our house, the local post office or could drop it in at our local main hub, same on her end and for her to even send it next day guaranteed............still took 13 days, now I've always wondered since the milage was the same both directions, how one way could take 10 days more than going the other way. But the upside is, she now lives back locally, about 4 hours away in the same state, both ways now take about 10 days, so its consistent at least, slow as a snail but consistent. Bumpsteer, if you think thats bad, I live on a stretch of highway that's only 10 miles long, only problem is, when they set up the gps they started in the town the highway started in, at the four way instead of at the city's edge, so nobody's address is correct the full stretch of highway 10 miles long, so when anyone looks at a gps, most address's don't have a house anywhere near it and no delivery company can seem to get a grip their gps is wrong, so most along my road have address's unknown and nobody can get anything delivered. So to offset this oversight, the county has put nice new address signs up so all anyone has to do is read the 911 address along the road, yet still nobody can handle this concept. So most small delivery package companies who travel in cargo van's drive past the same address's many times a day on our road to get to on every other road in many counties and towns yet can't find anyone on our road. Whenever any delivery person calls, I tell them to shut off their GPS and look at the road address signs, if they find my yard I know they did indeed shut off the GPS, if they have to call to ask for directions I know they didn't and got lost. As a contractor doing locates, you figure out fast how many roads have screwed up on GPS starting and ending points, making GPS useless, along with address's and directions, so its back to flags and footages from known points, such as bridges, rivers, streams, intersections, and etc.
I had a customer from Maine that was vacationing in Myrtle Beach & wanted to bring me a pump.. He ended up 3 houses away.. close but no cigar.. & the house #'s are clearly marked on mailboxes & house.{GPS} If you use a GPS to find my place, it takes you to the street BEFORE mine & puts you at a dead end.. DIRECTLY across the canal from me.. You can "see me" but you cant get there from here.. lol
We were on vacation a few years back and following the GPS, doing turn by turn instructions and not really paying attention to where we were going, we ended up on a dead end road looking out over a lake, and the GPS told us our final destination was 500 feet straight ahead. I asked my son just exactly what did you type in for an address so he told me, we looked at everything again and decided maybe we should ask for directions. When we had directions from a gas station that was nearby and we found the business we wanted to stop at and look at a piece of machinery, I asked the gal behind the desk if she knew the GPS directions were for a spot 500 feet off shore at the end of a dead end road, she laughed and said she knew all about it but forgot to tell me when she gave the address, but she added it sure saved having to deal with salesmen all the time.
Thats why i refuse anytime someone wants to give me an address. Give me the dam lat and long and Ill sure find the place. That never gets screwed up and sure doesn't change.
My rule for getting somewhere. Tell me the address. Tell me how to get there. I will punch it into my GPS and I will look at a map and try to understand it. That way if any of the above fails I still stand a reasonable chance of getting there eventually.
LOL.!!! Around here if you ask somebody for directions you get, "you know where the old so N so WAS?" "how about the old so n so?" "well, just go down here abooooout 10 miles & turn by the leanin oak tree".. "If'n you see a green dumpster, you gone to far".. NO KIDDING.. NOT a street name to be had, in a 10 minute conversation.!!! 10 minutes cuz that's how long it took'm to figure out you don't know where things "USTA be".. lol
This talking about GPS screw ups reminded me of a trip the wife and I took in West Virginia and southern Ohio a few years back with the sidecar. We wanted to see an old Covered Bridge on the back road in West Virginia got there no problem but then the we wanted to take to get to Ohio was under construction and had signs saying closed. I figured like around here even if they are doing major repairs you can get through just a bit rough. Well this time they sunk steel posts in ground and used a guard rail to close off the road. Decided it was time to fire up the GPS and find a different route. That took us over some roads past places that may have been used making the film Deliverance! Anyhow we kept going and wife says take a left in 500 yards. Sure enough there was a turn but just a single lane gravel road that had a sign saying hiking trail. Next thing wife says the GPS say take right turn in 200 feet. I stopped and looked at what was to our right. I was trying to decide if a D8 would handle the terrain or if we should opt for a D10 Cat. If there ever was a road or path there it had not been used since before the first white man had set foot on this continent! The road we had turned off was heading more or less west and I was pretty sure Ohio was in that direction so we kept on that road while keeping an ear open for the sound of dueling banjos in the distance! As far as delivery problems the last thing I had coming FedEx took an extra day and a nasty phone call From me as emailed me saying "Could Not Find Address" I explained to the "lady" that the hose has been here for over 30 years and the house number in on top of mail box with 3 inch tall number and there are no trees blocking the view of mail box and the houses are close to a quarter mile apart in this section of the road so seeing them is pretty easy. Funny thins is the next day they found the house! We'll see how good the drivers memory is because a couple hours ago I ordered new blades for my Woods mower and they a being shipped FedEx!
Here's my horror story. I live in Juneau, AK and have a primo 1992 Mercedes station wagon. The hood release handle broke. I contacted the great Mercedes shop I have used for years in Portland, OR. They had one for $16. They told me they could ship it UPS. I cringed. UPS has overpriced shipping rates to AK. The part is about the size of a bar of soap and weighs less. UPS quoted $73.50 to send it via little brown truck. I got the shop to send it in a $10 if it fits, it ships USPS box. I had the same experience with a set of floor mats that costs $93. The mats were the last business I have done with UPS.
I was trying to find a building in a big city last fall. Figured I'd try the built in navigation on my new truck. Punched in the address. Ok so we got turn by turn directions. Nice! Get to the destination and I'm at a huge sports stadium. Definitely not where I needed to be. Turned out I accidently typed in "avenue" where "street" should have gone and vice versa. I was literally on the other side of town from where I was supposed to be
I pity any delivery driver in Atlanta, who has to deliver anything to>> Martin Luther.. Lol 80% of the streets in Atlanta are named ML something or other.. MLK in abbreviations, MLK spelled out, then just ML in abbrev., then ML spelled out.. Then.. street, avenue, drive, etc behind ALL of'm..
Atlanta is famous for hundreds of "Peachtree" addresses too.
Cash Cow ! Holy Cow !!! I bought a 6 inch long piece of heavy wall pipe for $27.24. That was bad enough bbbbut the shipping was $16.59. I need it to beef up one of the pin mounts on a new, but broken manual thumb for my backhoe.
I bought a DIY guitar kit online recently. I think it was about $145. Came in a box about the size of a small suitcase. $45 for shipping. I was a bit shocked but its still about $100 cheaper than buying one at the store to hack up and bastardize lol.
Maybe been getting lucky or the sellers just do not know the costs where many of my repair parts for the Rust Bucket replacement have been coming relatively cheap and shipped free, three to five days time but still no cost to me other than running to the Post Office as too big for mail box.
I lucked out the other day on shipping. Was trying to order a 5 1/2 Vee-belt pulley for my mower deck. Found good used one on line for $15.00 and shipping was shown as $12.50 to my address. Sort of sucked but as a new one from the mower company was $65.00 before shipping I decided to go for it, saving over half the price. Then came the problem the company selling it required me to set up an "account" to order it. This is usually a simple process where you put in ship to address and create a password so you can log in and check on the shipment. Tried a few times and kept getting message saying they sent me a log-on code of some kind. But never got any emails from them. Finally decided to call them on the phone, left message and actually got a call back in a short time with a contact to call. Lady did not know why the emails were not getting to me as she had all my information. Decided to do an over the phone order. She said she could put it in a flat rate bag for $9.00, sounded good as I was saving another $3.50. Then a couple days latter I get the pulley in the mail and on the packing slip the shipping charge was $5.00! Sometimes you do get lucky! As for the "used" part the pulley looks like it had been installed and run for just enough time to wear the paint out of the groove and then removed. So for $20.00 total I got a pulley the mower outfit was asking over $65.00 for and it is not just a "will-fit" pulley it is the exact same make and casting number as the original one!
I ordered a kitchen faucet the other day cuz some of the pump house impeller bits got in the "cold" stem.. The wife picks out the most expensive one on the web.!! I get it after paying 6.00 shipping & handling.. We HATED IT.. sent it back after paying 9.98 in RETURN shipping.!! I was out at the hardware store on Friday & found a NICER ONE, CHEAPER.. lol So I picked up 2 bathroom faucets too..