Parts Suppliers & Shipping

[jeepinbanditrider]

I ordered a drive belt for my F800 last year from MAX. Shipping was going to be 43 dollars for a 500 dollar belt In the comments I asked if they could call me about the shipping.

I got a phone call that day and I was told that the way the belt was packaged was in a large box which is where my shipping costs were coming in. Size not weight. So I asked them to remove it from the original box and roll it up into a smaller box. They said that BMW didn't recommend folding it. I told them it didn't matter I was going to pack it in my luggage as a spare part anyway.

They rolled it up into a box for me and saved me 30 dollars in shipping.

[b25bsaboy]

Shipping from the USA to Canada is a nightmare with FedEx and UPS. If we ship a $25 order to Canada, they will bang our customer $175 for customs processing and other extortion fees. Then they come back and bang us another $175, saying that the customer didn't pay the bill. It cost them very little to process the customs paperwork. The shipper enters all the information, so it is easy for FedEx and UPS to automatically process customs. But, they extort the money from the customer and the shipper. So, we only ship with USPS to Canada, and take our chances that it doesn't get lost.

Read this and boy isn't that the truth! I had something years ago shipped by UPS when they first came into Canada as I was told they were the best thing since sliced bread. The $ 30.00 item with the exchange still cost me $ 90.00 for handling and brokerage fees. I now call them the little Brown Robber Trucks and absolutely refuse to ship anything with them Bought thousands of dollars of parts from the USA and the UK from fuel tanks to tires through the parcel post and have never lost anything. The UK and USPS are miles ahead of Canada Post for service. May be in trouble for saying that.....

[jbarneshb]

I had to ship a seat to TX from CA that I was trading. I checked with UPS and it was going to be $46. USPS was going to be $44. FedEx was $18.

[kantuckid]

On large girth items(I shipped a car dash was when I learned this) FedEx usually rules. Commercial shipping contracts make some items like furniture feasible for shipping but illogical for the rest of us. If you ship much it pays to have an acct with USPS & other shippers to get online discounts but they wear you out with updating, so I've found.
My UPS story for the day: Last summer we shipped a son some of our heirloom tomatoes via UPS,KY to Birmingham,AL. We picked out six/eight really nice ones that were almost ripe but firm enough to ship & I wrapped each in foam then bubble wrap and took them to our local driver whom we meet down in our little town by calling his personal cell(nice feature for us is the same UPS driver everyday) and they go off to AL. After he doesn't get them soon I check the tracking and they show they are in Birmingham & were placed on the local truck there for his downtown loft apt delivery. They still don't come so I call UPS & they say they don't know what happened to them! I ask if the driver ate them for lunch & the girl gets testy with me. I finally gave up after a few days of trying to chase the tomatoes down & wait to file a claim. When the insurer for UPS calls me I am ask to describe the items lost. I told her they were heirloom tomatoes that had been meticulously grown, chosen & wrapped and were over $4# @ The Fresh Market in Lexington,KY produce section(the truth) and I collected almost $50 for my lost box of "maters". Time to start our seeds!!!
The electricity teacher,Bill K. I used to work with, said one day, "Mike", "you know there's tomatoes and then there's maters and the difference is huge!"

Oh, I forgot to ask-did I just read above that a drive belt for a BMW 800 cost $500!!!!!!!!!!! & $43 shipping!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bullfrog_28560]

the reason why shipping can be high on ebay is, ebay and paypal charges or gets a percentage on the sale but not on the shipping. The sellers might list the product below list but the shipping will well make up for the difference and they do not get taxed on that extra.

[lmo1131]

An old parlor joke; Which weighs more, a pound of nails, or a pound of feathers? So, which costs more to ship, a cubic foot of feathers, or a cubic foot of nails?

UPS uses a system where by ALL packages help offset the cost of shipping; it's called Dimensional Weight. "Actual Weight" is compared to "Dimensional Weight" to determine "Billable Weight". The greater of the two determines the shipping rate.

Your box of feathers obviously weighs far less than my box of nails, but they both take up the same one cubic-foot of volume; hence they both take up the same space on an aircraft/truck. UPS can't charge the same for a light item vs. a heavy one so they have devised this handy method to compensate for some of their losses.