Shippin Wheels

[speedhop]

Has anyone shipped rims? I have to ship some rims and don't know how much it's going to cost and who is not going to damage them...

Who did you use?
How much did it cost?
How did you box it?

Any input would be appreciated, thanks guys/gals.

[euroshark]

I used FedEx the last two times and I will never use them again... Use UPS or DHL.

For the 16x7/8 Alpinas it cost around $30 per wheel. They were boxed individually and I used extra cardboard on both sides as protection.

For the 17x8 Style 5s it was around $36 a wheel, same method as above.

I would recommend, from working in a tire shop for 3.5 years, that if you can ship with tires on the wheels, do it. Instead of boxing the wheels, you just cut out flat panels of cardboard (circles or octagons) and cover the face and back of the wheel with a couple layers, and tape it like it's going out of style. Better protection for the wheel, and only a bit more money.

[Kristuphir]

I would recommend, from working in a tire shop for 3.5 years, that if you can ship with tires on the wheels, do it. Instead of boxing the wheels, you just cut out flat panels of cardboard (circles or octagons) and cover the face and back of the wheel with a couple layers, and tape it like it's going out of style. Better protection for the wheel, and only a bit more money.

I did that last year with a set of throwing stars through UPS, and wound up with months' worth of angry wasted time, three throwing stars, several unauthorized charges to my credit card, and no $1100 sale, and reimbursement for half of what I was promised. This is after talking to 10 or so different UPS reps, most of whom ran me around and one of whom hung up on me when she didn't feel like dealing with my problem. They still have no idea what happened to Wheel 4, which was taped to Wheel 3 with an entire roll of duct tape. I did it this way because I'd seen it done this way before, but I would go with boxes AND tires. or sell local.

[Digitalwave]

Ship to a business address, it's about half the price of shipping to a residence.

[speedhop]

I did that last year with a set of throwing stars through UPS, and wound up with months' worth of angry wasted time, three throwing stars, several unauthorized charges to my credit card, and no $1100 sale, and reimbursement for half of what I was promised. This is after talking to 10 or so different UPS reps, most of whom ran me around and one of whom hung up on me when she didn't feel like dealing with my problem. They still have no idea what happened to Wheel 4, which was taped to Wheel 3 with an entire roll of duct tape. I did it this way because I'd seen it done this way before, but I would go with boxes AND tires. or sell local.

holy crap there are some ugly stories out there...i've heard bad things about UPS and FedEx....so i guess it's kind of a crap shoot :roll:

[Rigmaster]

You guys kill me when you say "UPS sucks" or "Fedex sucks" or whatever. I'm sure we've all had bad experiences with one or more of the major shipping companies- and you can be assured that they ALL screw up shipments on a daily basis. The best thing you can do is to protect your interests when shipping anything.

That means:

1- pack it like it's gonna be handled by gorillas who hate cardboard boxes, 'cause that's pretty much what's gonna happen. Also, if you read the fine print on the shipping label for all of these companies- they all leave themselves a convenient way out of paying for damage if THEY determine "insufficient packaging". Just pack it well and don't give them that loophole.

2- pay the extra $$ for INSURANCE, especially for wheels, or anything more than $100 or so. They all claim to have automatic insurance for items up to $100, but you are usually in a better position when it comes time for a claim IF you have purchased insurance.

3- put an address label on and IN each box, especially when you tape or strap 2 or more boxes together. What do you suppose happens with a box that gets separated from the main box or has the tracking label scraped or rubbed off??? It goes to the "found shipment center" where they try to figure out where it's supposed to go. They can and will open the box looking for an invoice/packing slip, etc. You have a much better chance of the package getting to the right recipient if you include an address label inside the box.

4- if you can avoid it, DON'T use a storefront shipping store (Pak Mail, UPS Store, etc) unless you want to pay extra for the shipment. Stores like this almost always charge a premium on top of the retail "counter" rates for each shipping company. Print the label using the shipping company website- some will even let you pay for it on your credit card online- then drop it off at an actual COMPANY OWNED location- Fedex/Kinko's, UPS shipping terminal, DHL shipping terminal, etc.

Shipping wheels with tires on them is much more expensive than just the wheels in boxes- unless the buyer is paying you good $$ for the tires, you're better off having them dismounted and shipping just the wheels in boxes. Most shipping companies have a surcharge of $5-10 per package for items not fully contained in cardboard- this would include wheels with tires sticking out, or bare tires.

I usually ship 1 wheel per box with extra cardboard on the front side of the wheel- then tape 2 boxes together with tons of tape (as previously mentioned). So, you have 2 boxes with a total of 4 wheels.

I've found Fedex Ground to be reliable and cheap, YMMV.
I use fedex.com to print labels + pay for shipments, then drop them off at fedex or fedex kinko's.

Bret.

[Jscotty]

Ship your stuff on the BUS.

One little known fact that many people do not utilize is shipping stuff on the Greyhound bus. That is about the cheapest and most reliable way to ship something large and heavy yet it isn't big enough to be considered as "freight".

I bought a set of Cragar centerlines, a pair of heads, and a bunch of other misc. nick-knacks for the GN and it cost me only $62 to ship them from Florida back to DC. They do terminal to terminal shipping so you would have to get the package to the bus station and the recipient would have to go to their local bus station to pick it up.. but pound for pound it remarkably cheaper to do it that way. And given certain distance limits, sometimes they can do same day shipping.

[euroshark]

Good point about Greyhound, it's a good way to go.

And I say FedEx sucks because every time I have used them they take longer than UPS seems to, and they dropped and bent (badly I might add) three out of four of the Alpinas I sold, and then refused to accept the insurance claim, infuriating the buyer and basically ruining my reputation with him and some others on the Roadfly E24 forum.

[Kristuphir]

I wouldn't have even mentioned the shipper if this hadn't been the third time they and I have had a little "disagreement." I'm pretty sure they're all the same and yeah, they really, really do hate your package - all you have to do is walk by a random delivery truck being loaded or unloaded by its driver to see that. And all of them employ the least intelligent and/or least interested customer service reps for when something does go wrong.

And x1 for insurance...if I hadn't had it, I would've gotten nothing out of them, instead of just half of what they promised...;)

[Jscotty]

I'm sure we've all had bad experiences with one or more of the major shipping companies- and you can be assured that they ALL screw up shipments on a daily basis.
Bret.

If thats the case then fed-ex screwed up on me every single day in one week. Granted mistakes happen in large companies like that but one thing that I found very inexcuseable was when Fed-Ex would not deliever the package out to my office which was way out in the boonies 5 years ago. I think fed ex uses independent contractors and on this particular day, I think that the guy didnt want make the trip out there for just one small package. So I called them up to see what was going on and the customer service rep said, "Hmmm.. I see that your package went on the truck every day last week but it was not delivered." and so the guy finally shows up later on that day with a bad attitude. He says, "I don't know what your problem is! You shouldn't be so uptight about getting this package!" and I was stunned.. like WTF did that come from?

Later I thought about it and realized that this guy got pissed off at me calling the company because he apparently wasn't expecting me to come looking for what appeared to be something unimportant. He probably looked at the address and then the "blandness" of this empty container that I ordered and said to himself, "Oh, mr. scotty won't be looking for this anytime soon."

[e34john]

I did it once, I got regular moving boxes and then i went to home depot and got some polystyrene insulation, its like 7 bucks for a 4x8 sheet and just lined the inside of the boxes with that and another layer of carboard. and like everyone else said a lot of tape, I used the paper tape with the string reinforcement, like 6 bucks for a roll that I still have 3 years later.

[Tom@POLIZEI]

I'm a fan of Greyhound. I've shipped and received a few bumpers with them. Haven't tried it for wheels yet though.

[Jean]

Don't forget the insurance is BS unless THEY package it. I've shipped something before and paid for insrance, package got damaged and UPS wouldn't pay for anything because I packaged it...I ended up getting the damaged package shipped back to me, refunded the buyer - s/h.

keep that in mind.

[MikeE30325i]

damn, shipping companies tend to have lots of problems, and grudges against them.

[Kristuphir]

damn, shipping companies tend to have lots of problems, and grudges against them.

Yeah, that's what happens when you get so big you can't be bothered to hire quality people or pay attention to basic customer service...but don't get me started on modern customer service.

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