The UPS Store prices are crazy!

dobyman

dobyman

Turntable Addict
I had to ship an item I sold on the bay, and although it was in the original box and packing, I thought I would be a nice guy and put it in another box to save the original from labels and damage.
I went the UPS store and got an 18x18x18 box and they charged me $8.50 plus tax. I was stunned but I figured, oh well. Then I thought of the U-Haul store a few blocks away.
Same size box, $1.35! :banana: Over $7.00 less for the same box? I brought the UPS box back for a refund. Guess I have a new box store.
Just wanted to vent and maybe save someone else a few bucks. :thmbsp:
 
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Great tip as I am going to be shipping a pair of speakers without the original box. I will have to pay enough to ship so if I can save on the box that will be great.
 
dobyman said:
I had to ship an item I sold on the bay, and although it was in the original box and packing, I thought I would be a nice guy and put it in another box to save the original from labels and damage.
I went the UPS store and got an 18x18x18 box and they charged me $8.50 plus tax. I was stunned but I figured, oh well. Then I thought of the U-Haul store a few blocks away.
Same size box, $1.35! :banana: Over $7.00 less for the same box? I brought the UPS box back for a refund. Guess I have a new box store.
Just wanted to vent and maybe save someone else a few bucks. :thmbsp:
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The same box cost $16.50 where I am at in Alaska at the UPS store and $6.50 at the U-Haul store go figure huh.




REGARDS SNOW
 
Our local U-Haul has the shipping/strapping tape cheaper than the local Walmart too. Much stronger than that clear tape for heavier items.
 
For what little it's worth...

UPS is selling double wall shipping boxes with a breaking point of 200 pounds per square inch. It's entirely possible that the U-Haul store has cheaper boxes, but I doubt they're as high quality. The boxes the UPS Store sells and uses are rated to survive the UPS shipping environment.

I'm not saying this to talk up the UPS store, because I work there, I say this because the boxes/items we hear about being broken are 98% of the time not the boxes we use to pack things.
 
I never step foot in the stores - found them to be horribly over priced.

Another great place to buy shipping materials are the dollar stores. Lots of times they have boxes, padded envelopes, bubble wrap and tape for a fraction of the cost of "pro stores". Just picked up some shoe box sized boxes at our local dollar store for $.50 each.

Majority if not all shipping damage I've ever seen hasn't been because of the quality of the shipping materials but by how the materials were used and the item wrapped - usually wrapped without much thought or common sense.
 
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vinyldavid said:
For what little it's worth...

UPS is selling double wall shipping boxes with a breaking point of 200 pounds per square inch. It's entirely possible that the U-Haul store has cheaper boxes, but I doubt they're as high quality. The boxes the UPS Store sells and uses are rated to survive the UPS shipping environment.

I'm not saying this to talk up the UPS store, because I work there, I say this because the boxes/items we hear about being broken are 98% of the time not the boxes we use to pack things.
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Not a chance the U-Haul boxes are as good or better than the UPS store ones I have bought and compared both and besides it does not matter UPS would destroy items no matter how well there packed and then deny the insurance claim. Out of 3 items I have shipped via UPS all were destroyed. The last thing I shipped was an item that had literally been around the world in Germany, Japan, Iraq without a scratch and one trip to California via UPS was all it took to destroy it and it was double boxed with 6" inches of sheet foam to hep protect it. Out of thousands of items shipped USPS not a "single" one has ever been damaged.
 
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jsisk said:
+1

I own a mail order business and all of our boxes and packing supplies come from U-Line. The only thing we don't get from them is our packing peanuts. We buy them from a local company due to shipping charges.
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Sweet - now marked as a favorite - good looking supplies and digging those prices.
 
There was (now out of business) a UPS Store not far from my home. I needed a box, so I took a ride to the store. When I asked the guy at the counter for the dimensions I needed he told me the list is on the back wall. I had to walk over UPS product to get there. The owner of the store was a slob. I walked out. UPS shipping is overpriced as well.
 
The problem with ULine is that you have to buy in bulk. If you don't need 10 boxes the money you save per unit is lost.
 
I have bought several boxes from Uline in various sizes that I use quite a bit, and it is really cheap, but yes, you have to buy in bulk, but if you ship a lot, it pays off.
And as far as UPS store versus U-haul, the U-haul boxes state right on the box that they meet UPS, FedEx and USPS shipping standards. And U-Haul does sell double wall boxes too, but they are a little more money. Yesterday I had to ship an item and I bought a 18x18x28 double wall U-Haul box for $5.45. At UPS store it would have been over double that, if not triple.
And I agree that UPS shipping rates are outrageous too. The only time I ever ship UPS is if someone requests it, but when they see the prices, they usually change their mind.
 
peterfranks said:
Majority if not all shipping damage I've ever seen hasn't been because of the quality of the shipping materials but by how the materials were used and the item wrapped - usually wrapped without much thought or common sense.
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This. :yes:

I'll happily use single wall boxes for certain heavy items, because by the time I've got done packing it (multiple layers of 1" Styrofoam, staggered so that the pieces support each other rather than being supported by the item and then all wrapped in industrial cling wrap, so as to form a solid unit) the box is just doing the job of a brown paper wrapper.

Heck, I'd use brown paper, except they don't like you doing that any more.
 
roberttx said:
This. :yes:

I'll happily use single wall boxes for certain heavy items, because by the time I've got done packing it (multiple layers of 1" Styrofoam, staggered so that the pieces support each other rather than being supported by the item and then all wrapped in industrial cling wrap, so as to form a solid unit) the box is just doing the job of a brown paper wrapper.

Heck, I'd use brown paper, except they don't like you doing that any more.
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Exactly, that's why I posted a question as to what adhesive to use to bond Styrofoam together. I was using hot melt glue, but it melts the styrofoam and it doesn't hold. There is a spray adhesive from Michaels, but I prefer a squeeze bottle or brush on instead of spray. Any ideas?
 
dobyman said:
Exactly, that's why I posted a question as to what adhesive to use to bond Styrofoam together. I was using hot melt glue, but it melts the styrofoam and it doesn't hold. There is a spray adhesive from Michaels, but I prefer a squeeze bottle or brush on instead of spray. Any ideas?
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Not a clue, I'm afraid. I just tape all the sections in place, as I go, then when it's done I wrap the whole thing really tight in industrial film wrap. Northing's going anywhere, but you still need some kind of outer wrapper.

Perhaps fold cardboard to fit and use the hot glue on that?
 
I don't think its too hard to rationalize that you're paying a premium for the convenience of having everything that you need right there at your finger tips.

Sent from the driver's seat or the desk at work via my Google Nexus 4
 
jsisk said:
+1

I own a mail order business and all of our boxes and packing supplies come from U-Line. The only thing we don't get from them is our packing peanuts. We buy them from a local company due to shipping charges.
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:thmbsp: i just got a pallet of 315lbs of U-line product last week, have bought from them for over 10 years.

as to what adhesive to use to bond Styrofoam together. I was using hot melt glue, but it melts the styrofoam and it doesn't hold. There is a spray adhesive from Michaels, but I prefer a squeeze bottle or brush on instead of spray. Any ideas?
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same stuff you use for surround and cone repair, Aleen's Tacky or any similar plasticized glue. It want's to be a water based glue, solvents dissolve foam quickly.
 
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