i discovered a new way to ship stuff today

i bought an item from someone here and they paid $12 to send it to me. circumstances arose where i had to forward it to another member here. when i took it to the post office i was told it would be $14 to $16 depending on how fast it went. this is the same package i received with no change in weight or size. the clerk told me it would be $10.60 in a flat rate envelope.
i found it would be $10.60 for anything you can fit in the envelope, up to 75 pounds. good to know even if it did take 78 years to learn.

Might seem like over-kill, but when sending a payment for something of significance I send it in a small flat rate box. Might be a dollar more than the envelope, but they usually arrive on time or a day earlier and have tracking.
Never had one get lost or late.
Maybe the boxes can’t “slip though the cracks” 

I always ship payment or product priority so I can track. Although the post office has managed to even lose priority mail on me in the past.

I have had better luck recently with the USPS over FedEx and UPS.  The few times I have had issues, the local post master has been able to rectify the situation.   

I have not had much luck getting to talk with a person at FedEx and when I finally get a person they do not show much interest in helping.

Don't even get me started on how bad USPS is! Not just at taking way too long to ship, or sending things back and forth across the country! But having guns stolen, and then USPS refusing to pay the insurance until I got my congressman's office involved and then they finally paid up.
None of the big three are good, but I'd rather use UPS through Pirate Ship than USPS. I hate FedEx even more than USPS!

I've been using XPS Ship for many years & have shipped well over 2000 packages (no firearms) & have been very pleased with their prices & service.  There's no monthly or annual fee.

I was not aware of Pirate Ship & just now checked them out & signed up for an account.  A quick comparison indicates Pirate Ship may be a tad cheaper than XPS Ship.  We'll see.

BTW, contrary to some of the comments here on FedEx, I've exclusively used them for 20 years or so to ship all my firearms - to date just over 400, mostly rifles & some pistols.  Prior to exclusively using FedEx I had several damage claims with UPS & USPS. 

At one time I was using UPS & USPS Register Mail but have switched to FedEx based on shipping fees and on the number of damage claims I’ve had to deal with.  Each shipper has specific requirements when shipping a firearm.  USPS will ship rifles, but not handguns unless you have a Federal Firearms License and fill out the required form.  USPS shipping fees will generally be higher than FedEx or UPS, especially when the item is insured.

Depending on your choice of carriers, if a firearm is lost, stolen or damaged in transit the claim settlement process can be long and somewhat complicated.  From experience I can confirm that all three carriers, especially USPS, can be hard to deal with if an item is damaged.  If the rifle is damaged but the outer shipping box is not you’ll have an extremely hard time convincing the carrier to pay a settlement.

Wayne

This Topic was moved here from For Sale/Trade [move by] oughtsix.

Ijust recently shipped a rifle to North Dakota.  Here are the charges through Pirate Ship.