Dr. Diffs shipping cost.

I ship almost weekly. But I have a story that will trigger you all.

I bought a pair of used racing seats on-line, with agreed-to shipping assistance prior to the sale. However... Guy was a newbee & told me to come get them once I bought them (I am in the middle of the US & he was in NY). I mentioned that it was a bit far for me to drive over, & then asked him to simply box them up & I would provide a UPS label to simplify matters. Seller says "I dont have any boxes." Now this guy was in the auto related business, and that caught me off guard that he had no idea on boxes. But I had just gotten another set of similar seats from Germany so I told him what size the boxes needed to be. He said "sorry no boxes" again. So jokingly I say "lord, what do I have to do send you my boxes?" And he said YES!

So now I am looking at providing a label, and boxes... How is that for a deal? So... $45 to ship collapsed empty boxes to NY.

Then (it gets better) I put a shipping request in to ship these 25lb seats back (in the boxes I sent!) to me. $720. Yes, seven hundred & twenty dollars. I even called UPS to confirm it was right (it was only $290 for the same items from Germany!)

It is robbery.

Then yesterday I shipped a rear spoiler to the East Coast. The shipping was $300 (large trunk spoiler but carbon & lite) and I looked over the breakdown. $98 shipping, $55 fuel surcharge, $25 admin fees, $35 location delivery fee, $50 large package fee and the rest was insurance in case UPS broke it (isn't that nice that you have to buy insurance incase their staff is careless).

Robbery. I am looking into alternatives.