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UPS (19
Articles)
8 Jun 2003 ;) Peggy Hamill (http://www.midcoast.com/~peggy) |
| KeyWords: SHIPPING |
| We shipped our bikes UPS from Maine
to Ca and back with good success, but I do have some advice.
The bikes traveled to Ca on UPS Ground
transportation and arrived in good shape in 7 days. We used our
local UPS Store (As opposed to the UPS center). I would advise using the UPS center if you can, as the Store charges a
surcharge, and more for insurance, although they claim that their
insurance is better.
UPS Stores are retail outlets bought up by UPS.
Many were old Mailboxes etc outlets. We found that they did not
really offer the prices or service that UPS
advertises on the website. (As we did not use a true UPS Center I am not sure what they would offer.) We
were confused by the name, and thought that we were dealing directly
with UPS, but found in the pricing that we were
not.
Our experience in SHIPPING the bikes home was
even more frustrating. We could not find the UPS
center in San Francisco, so we went to another UPS
Store. Again, we were charged extra for the extra service, and then
the bikes were not shipped UPS ground, but
something called Associated Global, I believe. The bikes arrived in
good shape 11 days after we dropped them off!!! (UPS advertises that
they will arrive quicker, but by using the UPS
STORE, somehow we were no longer with UPS.)
We had to deal directly with the store for all of our problems,
etc, and this particular store was less than helpful. But the bikes
arrived in good shape.
Next time, I would go to the UPS center
directly, and I would ship the bikes home by dropping them off at a
bike shop and paying them to do the job. IT was too hard to find the
boxes, find the UPS outlet, and get the boxes to
the outlet, all away from home and without a car. And the particular
UPS Store that we found charged at least $50 more
that I believe the UPS website advertised as their
rate, so we could have paid that to the bike shop instead, who
probably would have used UPS directly.
|
| 29 Dec 2000 mike hufffaker (http://www.yahoo.com/~mhuffaker) |
| KeyWords: Usa-west, SHIPPING |
| UPS "lost" my bike for 3 weeks.
I had a bike in the Performance case with 3 addresses on the
outside. It was shipped back to my home here in Phoenix from
Washington State. It sat in the UPS facility here
for 3 weeks. I called daily and raised a lot of cain only to find it
had been leaning against the wall in the facility.
|
| 13 Aug 2000 Chuck Anderson (see sig)
|
| KeyWords: SHIPPING, FEDEX, Usa, Trailer, Box |
| Unless you want a real hassle. They have instituted new
codes for packaging, and what they will allow.
I needed to ship a Burley trailer the other day, so I fit it
tidily into a bike box and went to UPS to ship it.
It was packed nice and snug so things would not be jostled around
inside the box.
My experience at UPS ended up being as if I was
trying to sneak it onto a domestic air flight.
They asked if it was bike. No. It's a bike trailer.
Isn't that like a bike, ... a frame ... ... wheels. ... Let me
get my supervisor.
The supervisor asked me to open the box. When I protested, saying
that I'd shipped bikes before with no problems, she got testy and
said, I don't care what you did 5 years ago. Take it somewhere else.
[bit**!] (And that's what I should've done right then and there, but
I really didn't know where else to go - the US Post Service is
usually more expensive.)
So rather meekly, I cajoled her into giving me another chance and
letting me try to accommodate her new packaging guidelines. She
started tearing the box apart and said the wheels were not packed
properly (I'd even removed the quick release skewers so they
wouldn't poke through), and insisted that I package the wheels in a
separate box with packing material all around and between them. Then
she insisted I put protective cardboard around the reflectors so
they wouldn't break. I now had the whole trailer and wheels outside
of the box. I asked her to tally up the projected cost and it came
out to $40 for the two packages.
I repaired the box, with just the trailer in it now, and went to
a packing store to get another box big enough for the wheels ... ...
for six more dollars. I asked the clerk if there was an alternative
SHIPPING method and she told me about FEDEX ground. They've recently contracted RPS to do
ground SHIPPING for them, to compete directly with
UPS. It was getting late in the day, and I just
wanted to get that DAMN TRAILER SHIPPED!!! I decided to give it a
whirl anyway, and tried the FEDEX office.
I received plain and simple, courteous service there. They
weighed the box (now, without the wheels in it) and told me that
they didn't think they could ship the wheels separately, outside the
box. I must put them in the box. I hurriedly opened the box, ... one
more time, forced the wheels back in snugly, and taped it up (it was
after 4PM and the driver was there - wanting to leave ... now!)
Still, he waited for me, and held the box shut while I taped it (my
tidy packing job was now somewhat of a mess).
Total cost? $24 and change.
I'm never going to UPS again, ... fargin'
eyesholes! I suggest anyone reading this do the same, and also check
out the FEDEX ground site before SHIPPING a bicycle (or trailer). Consider an
alternative to UPS. They now want bicycles double
boxed, and will open and inspect your packaging job.
Try: http://www.fedex.com/us/ground/
[I sure am glad that I gave FEDEX a try instead
of returning to UPS. Yeah!]
**********************************************
Chuck Anderson
• Boulder, CO CycleTourist at http://www.CycleTourist.com
worldnet.att.net
Tolerance is recognizing that other people have
different ideals and needs than you. Compromise is acting on that
knowledge.
***********************************************************
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| 31 Mar 2000 Steve Bailey (http://www.optonline.net/~sbmtbike)
|
| KeyWords: New york, Santa fe, SHIPPING, Usa-east |
| On the other hand...
I've shipped bikes to and from Long Island, NY and Santa Fe, NM
(5 days each) on about 30 or so occasions, always via UPS. Only once did I have a problem when they lost my
ProFlex for a couple of day's. It showed up a day late with a
complete SHIPPING refund. Never any damage to
bikes, ProFlex, Klein, Miyata, Cannondale...All insured to the max
at $2500 or so.
I'm very careful how I pack, having learned much - the info about
how to pack a bike is on a web site another post gave. I once bent a
wheel skewer (my fault), and have seen damage to the box, but have
no concerns about UPS, even after reading other
posts from former UPS employee's. I would NEVER use
the US Postal Service. They cannot even get my mail right, much less
trusting them to an insured $2500 bike.
Hmm........
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| 29 Mar 2000 Mark (http://www.hotmail.com/~mark754) |
| KeyWords: SHIPPING, Packing,
Usps, Mail, Postal, Parcel |
| Found on: rec.bicycles.misc
I recently shipped a bike I sold on ebay. US Postal service has
size limitations (a typical bike SHIPPING carton is
over their limit), but UPS (as in United Parcel
Service) doesn't and they ship bikes all the time. SHIPPING from CA to MI ran about $35, with a transit
time of about a week. Go to a local bike shop and get an old SHIPPING carton that was designed for the size bike
you'll be SHIPPING. You'll need to remove the front
wheel and pedals. Use lots of insulation when packing (bubble wrap,
foam sheeting, etc.).
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| 21 Feb 2000 Jim Teshima (http://www.vcss.k12.ca.us/~teshimaj)
|
| KeyWords: Case, Box, Damage, Insurance. SHIPPING |
| Found on: http://www.phred.org/~touring
Lastly, if you ship your bike UPS in a hard
case, you might want to put the hard case into a card board box. An
used cardboard bike box will do. Why? If the hard case is damaged,
UPS considers the hard case packaging and will not
cover the cost. SHIPPING your hard case in a
cardboard box also insures your hard case along with your bike.
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20 Feb 2000 Jim Foreman (http://www.compuserve.com/~jimfore )
Website: http://www.jimforeman.com/
|
| KeyWords: Boxes, Cases, SHIPPING |
| Found on: http://www.phred.org/~touring
A lady in Ca who was coming to our club's Grand Tour
shipped her bike to me via UPS in a hard case. I
have no idea what they charged her coming this way but when I took
it to them for the return, they charged me $15 for special handling
because it was over 32 wide when laid flat and would not stand up.
They said that packages which would not fit on their conveyor belt
had to be moved around by hand, thus the special handing charge. I
had shipped bikes in factory boxes several times and since they
would stand on edge, I was never charged extra. I called the UPS Customer Service Department later that day and was
told the same thing, which also applied to any package longer than
72. She said that service was available on any package on request
and it was indicated with a yellow and black striped tape around it.
They may also require special handing on items they feel might be
damaged by their normal method of automated handing. Jim
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| 20 Feb 2000 Bud Jorgensen (http://www.CycleCanada.com/~sweep)
|
| KeyWords: Customs, Insurance, Canada, Boxes,
Case, SHIPPING |
| Found on: http://www.phred.org/~touring
If you are SHIPPING across national borders,
remember the bike will need to clear customs. Be sure to speak with
the shipper on valuing the bike for customs purposes versus
insurance purposes. If I recall correctly, if value for customs was
under a certain amount (I think $700 Canadian) there was no duty. If
you value it over that amount you'll have to pay duty plus G.S.T,
and you won't get your bike until you pay it. I am sure you can get
the duty and G.S.T. refunded but it would be a hassel. Also, allow
lots of time for customs clearance.
|
| 20 Feb 2000 Alex Wetmore (http://www.phred.org/~alex) |
| KeyWords: Continental bus, Boxes, Usa,
Insurance, SHIPPING |
| Found on: http://www.phred.org/~touring
On Sun, 20 Feb 2000 MBray wrote: My pricing experience with UPS. I sent my sister a Schwinn AeroDyne from Nebraska
to Texas. UPS was rediculous in the pricing. I
wound up sending it via Continental Bus and the price was approx 1/3
the price. Insurance was only a couple of dollars. [trimmed]
Try the bus lines. Saved me about $125 (American).
Was your box over the UPS maximum size? This can
add a lot of cost. When I sold my Trek 520 the past fall I sent it
in two boxes (one for bike, one for wheels) and the SHIPPING cost total was about $20. This was WA state
to CA. I've shipped boxes in one bike across the country (NC to WA
and PA to WA) for about $35 UPS ground or $50 FEDEX 2-day.
If you keep the size under the maximums for either company then
pricing is based just on weight. Most boxed bikes are in the 40-50lb
weight.
alex
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| 19 Feb 2000 Joe & Carolyn Stafford
(http://www.aol.com/~PAbyCycle) |
| KeyWords: Damage, Packing, Maine, Kansas, SHIPPING, USA-East |
| Found on: http://www.phred.org/~touring
Shipping bikes ahead by UPS is a practical
solution which I've used in the past. If you send them to a local
bike shop in Bar Harbor, ME you will have a couple of advantages.
Provided you have contacted them in advance, they will be able to
receive your bike(s) as a usual delivery item. Hotels (or B&B's)
may not be accustomed or prepared for it. For a fee, the shop can
assemble the bike for you in advance AND check and repair any SHIPPING damage. More importantly, the return SHIPPING is not likely to go smoothly out of a hotel.
Who's going to prepare and pay the UPS charge?
We once shipped our bikes (via 3-day orange label) to a shop in
Kansas City, KS to arrive on a Thursday so we could cycle over the
weekend. They got lost and never showed until Monday. We told the
bike shop to refuse the shipment since we couldn't use them. There
was some handling damage which UPS paid for without
a hassle. All other pre-shipping experiences went well. Lesson
learned: allow extra SHIPPING days.
Be sure you know how to pack a bike (or get your LBS to do it for
you). By the time you pay several small charges, you may have the
cost of an airline fee.
I don't have the LBS contact info for Bar Harbor, ME. There's at
least one shop (was) that rents MT bikes. Shop(s) may be seasonal.
Joe Stafford Dallastown, PA
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| 19 Feb 2000 Andrejs Ozolins (http://www.ithaca.edu/~aozolins) |
| KeyWords: UPS, Hotel, SHIPPING, Usa, Maine, USA-East |
| Found on: Touring Cyclists List
Scott Nicol asked: Does anyone have experience SHIPPING bikes to hotels? How about a local bike
shop?
There's a bike shop in Bar Harbor that has done this in the past.
The Can-Am Wheelers tour participants have had a shop there receive
and prep their bikes. That's undoubtedly the best place to ship to
in that area.
Andrejs Ithaca, NY
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| 2 Aug 1999 Mark Phillip Livingood (http://www.flash.net/~livngood) |
| KeyWords: Tandems, Livingood, Atlanta,
Georgia, Danzas, SHIPPING |
| Ship it via DANZAS. They have a special rate
worked out with Santana Tandems Inc. (and no, it doesn't matter what
type of tandem your SHIPPING or to where) that
should allow you to get your tandem to its destination in 5 to 10
days for about $78.00. We've used them before and have been very
pleased with the service. It helps if you can find a bike shop at
both ends of the shipment to make pick-ups and drop-off easier.
Call DANZAS at 1-800-426-5962 and request the special Santana
Roadmaster rate #4353.
--
Mark & Debbie Livingood...
Near Atlanta, Georgia USA _~0 _ 0 -\<,-\<, ( )-/---/- ( ) Tandem
Club of America -- Are you a member? http://www.mindspring.com/~strauss/tca.html
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| 18 Aug 1998 Bob Immler (http://www.sover.net/~roamic) |
| KeyWords: Kalispell, Glacier, Adventure,
Performance, Case, SHIPPING, boxes, USA, Montana,
USA-West |
| Just got back from riding 200 miles of the Great Divide
Ride.
Went with 5 other fellows, but since we flew into Kalispell and I
didn't know when, if ever, I'd be in that area again, I flew out 2
days early to ride into Glacier National Park.
I used Adventure cycling's deal to fly my bike free from
Hartford, CT to Kalispell, MT.
Flight was to arrive at 1, but was delayed one hour. Still I had
the bike assembled in about 20 minutes and was on the road by 3 pm.
No problems.
Everyone else used UPS.
Four of the other 5 bikes arrived fine on Monday, they flew in on
Tuesday and we were to begin riding on Wednesday.
Except one of the bikes didn't arrive till Friday!
It was shipped to Minnesota instead of Montana. My friend assumed
he'd goofed on the Zip code or something. But the zip code was
entered correctly. Apparently someone at UPS just
goofed.
My friend wasn't as aggressive as I would have been.
I wanted to get on the phone and point out that I frequently use
their next day letter service. If I get it to UPS
by 6pm in a small VT town, they can get it anywhere in the US by
10:30 am the next day. I would have DEMANDED that they ship the bike
to me by air IMMEDIATELY.
Anyway, I was very pleased with the airline's service, but very
disappointed with UPS's performance.
They've offered to refund his SHIPPING fee, I've
told him to send them the receipt for the bike he rented and demand
that they reimburse him for that amount.
[ more on airline
snipped - GF ]
Bob Immler
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| 7 Jul 1998 Chris Love (http://www.mcs.net/~love) |
| KeyWords: Box, SHIPPING,
Chicago,Colorado,USA, USA-Mid |
| I used UPS to ship my bike from Chicago to
Colorado and back for Ride the Rockies this year (1998). The box
suffered some abuse, but all of the contents arrived with no damage.
The tracking via the UPS website was convenient as
well...about 4 days out, 4 days back.
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| 31 Jul 1997 William Joye (http://www.head-cfa.harvard.edu/~joye)
|
| KeyWords: Box, Damage, SHIPPING |
| I've had mixed results with UPS.
I've shipped 6 bikes via UPS in the past 3 years.
For the record, one lost (sat on a truck for several days), 1 minor
damage (box damaged bad, bike minor scratches), and the rest arrived
in good shape.
Aside, at the same time I shipped some kitchen stuff, including a
box with a frying pan. It arrived totally destroyed. Do you have any
idea how hard it is to totally flatten a frying pan? They must of
run over it several times to make sure it was dead....
--
Bill Joye
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| 28 Apr 1997 Bob Hoey (http://www.email.mot.com/~lrh010) |
| KeyWords: Wenatchee, Boxes, Case, SHIPPING, Damage |
| Two years ago, I planned to take my family on
vacation to visit my brother and his family in Wenatchee, Washington
(in the center of the state). I had a local bike shop, pack my road
bike for SHIPPING via UPS to my
brother's house. I did not see the box they used before they sent it
off. The bike arrived on time, but with some holes punched in the
box. My brother did not see any "crush zones" on the box, so he
thought it looked OK. We opened the box when I arrived with my wife
and kids a week later, and noticed that the computer wire was
broken, there was a gouge and dent in the down tube and the rear
wheel had a new flat spot on the rim, even though the tire was not
deflated.
Since I was on vacation with a lot of things planned with both
families, I wasn't about to sacrifice that time to wait for a UPS rep to come inspect the bike. I could see being
tied up for two days for that to happen: day one, make the call; day
2, wait for the rep to show up. I did call my local bike shop, who
packed the bike to let him know what happened to the bike. Since he
is the shipper, he would have to officially make the claim. I went
on with the vacation, got the wheel repaired ($62.00), and went to
Mail Boxes, Etc. to ship the bike back home. I used the same box and
added foam pipe insulation to the tubes to keep them apart. Mail
Boxes Etc. then filled the box with foam "peanuts" so that nothing
inside would move around.
When I received the bike at home, there were more holes in the
box, but most of the "peanuts" and all of the parts were still
inside. The bike was in the same condition as when I and Mail Boxes,
Etc. packed it.
So far, I had spent over $100 in SHIPPING and
$62.50 for repairs. I got an estimate to restore the down tube
($35.00) and replace the computer ($45.00). I then had to get a UPS rep to inspect the bike and the box before they
would accept the claim. Because the UPS rep had
inspected the bike/box AFTER Mail Boxes, Etc. had shipped it, Mail
Boxes, Etc. was now the "official" shipper and would submit my claim
for me. The claim would then be paid to them, and they would write a
check to me. This is exactly what happened although the process took
about seven or so months to transpire. Throughout the entire time,
everyone I dealt with at UPS and Mail Boxes, Etc.
was professional and helpful in every way they could be, giving me
phone numbers, pager numbers, returning calls, etc. It was just
messy to start with and some sort of office move at Mail Boxes, Etc.
stalled things for a while.
The Next Time: Since renting a bike is pretty iffy about what
kind of bike you can get or even if you can rent one at all, I will
still try to take my own bike with me. I may rent a hard case or buy
one of the commercial cardboard bike SHIPPING
boxes. Either one of those choices looks like a bargain compared
what I spent and what I got for it the first time. I will pack the
bike myself and will know what it looks like when the carrier (UPS,
FEDEX, etc.) picks it up. If I use a cardboard box,
I'll use the pipe insulation and "peanuts." Someone I know will be
at the other end to receive and sign for it.
Hope this long story helps anyone contemplating SHIPPING their bike.
Bob Hoey
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| 12 Aug 1996 Mark Panitz (http://www.eis.calstate.edu/~mpanitz)
|
| KeyWords: Seattle, Tandem, Box, Usa-West,
Damage, SHIPPING |
Hi, I work at UPS and the above is
true. I see one traveling bike every month or so addressed to a
Seattle bike shop. I guess bike shops see ya as a future customer if
something on yer bike is vibrated out of whack in the UPS 18 wheeler. I've never seen an externally damaged
UPS shipped bike but I recommend to all folks a
layer of bubble wrap inside.
Tape those corners well. The big
damage items I see at UPS are the over 90 pound
packages. No bikes that weight and if there were your thighs would
be huge! I still haven't seen a tandem bike box. Although maybe I
did see it and thought it was a table. Cheers, Jon.
|
| 25 Jun 1996 M Dolenga (http://www.cornell.edu/~mpd4) |
| KeyWords: Box, Case, Damage, SHIPPING |
| Put it into a cardboard box. UPS
will not insure the outermost layer, so if that means your hard
shell case, you're screwed if they damage it. Love how they operate,
eh?
Mike
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| 31 May 1996 Chris Saulnier (http://www.ix.netcom.com/~saulnier)
|
| KeyWords: Box, Packing, Insurance, SHIPPING, Colorado, Aspen, damage, USA-West |
| You might want to look into SHIPPING
your bike. Last year I had UPS ship my bike to
Aspen, CO. I picked up a new bike box at my local shop for free and
used lots of tape and packing. The SHIPPING charges
(including insurance) was about $25 each way. This saved the hassle
of getting the box to the airport and dealing the airport folks.
Everything was great going out, but for the return trip I reused
the same box and probably didn't take as much care in packing. My
Trek 990 had a ding in the down tube when it got home. After my
initial ranting and raving, I called UPS, filled
out a few forms, an adjuster came to my house, and they cut me a
check for a new frame and labor. It was a painless process.
I'm not implying every bike will be crushed by UPS but it is comforting to know that they stand by
their service if something goes wrong.
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