Originally Posted by Mbam (Post 3910393)

Guys, let me speak up about shipping. I think most of us in this industry are in the same position.

In general the US postal service is not an option. If we just throw the parts in an envelope and send regular mail there is no tracking, no insurance and no proof of delivery.
So after we tried that a few times and had to replace “Lost” shipments at our expense we decided no more parts in envelopes sent regular mail.
Priority mail is a step up, but after you add insurance it is not that cheap, about $8.25 to ship 1 pound.
Why we don’t use Priority Mail:
• If they do lose it collecting on the insurance is a full time job
• Tracking is limited
• We have to process the shipment manually
• Our postman picks up at noon, so it is really hard to get stuff shipped the same day
Express mail costs more than UPS.

So we ship via UPS – and yes we do add a handling charge to small orders. If you go to the UPS web site you will see that the cheapest rate is in the $10-15 range for a residential delivery. For example 1 pound from here to Chicago is $13.19. There is no such thing as a $5 shipping cost with UPS.
We don’t love UPS but in general they do a good job.
Why we use UPS
• Our web site can do a pretty good job of calculating the shipping costs
• We ship a lot of packages - our UPS shipping is integrated with our order system so it is automatic at this end
• Even though it is a pain we can actually collect from UPS if they lose or damage something
• Our daily pickup is at the end of the day – so we can get stuff out the same day

I wish there was a better, less expensive way to ship, I am open to suggestions.

Originally Posted by bonesmalon (Post 3909179)

They're not alone...Monster Marine just charged me almost $14 to ship two 2 inch water pressure gauges!