Guitar shipping cost

[lerxstcat]

Well I just went to FedEx's site and got a quote to see (as I've never payed over $25 to ship a guitar that I can remember) and here's what I found:

a 50 lb. package that's 50 x 30 x 8 inches (I think a big RR case is about this size) to ship from Augusta, ME 04330 to Los Angeles, CA 90001

cost = $41.83

What are you guys doing to spend any more than that? In my estimation this is the most extreme case you should ever encounter.

edit: that's with $1000 insurance. for $2000 add ~$5 to the cost

Also for the hell of it I did the same thing from Miami, FL to Seattle, WA
result: $36.24

Sometimes Fedex is not the way to go. For example, if your guitar is more than 20 years old, they won't pay more than $500 on an insurance claim. Oh, they'll sell you insurance for as much as you want, but if there's a claim, $500 is all you get. They also have that annoying habit of leaving your package on the doorstep for anyone walking by to take. I wouldn't like refunding someone's money because Fedex left the guitar outside and a passing thief scooped it up.

All I can say is what my own experience was. I paid $40 to ship a guitar just 400 miles via UPS. If I recall correctly, there was an additional charge for rural delivery on that one. I also live in an area that, while it's a decent size metro area, is not a major hub for UPS or Fedex. In fact, though that guitar's destination was 400 miles straight east in Florida, it had to go about 500 miles straight NORTH first, to Memphis, which is a main UPS hub, before going back southeast. So the guitar actually went over 1,000 miles in several legs, because that's how their distro was set up.

Also, though I don't think any shipper will admit this, I'm sure it costs more if you're shipping from a non-hub location than if you're in or near a hub city. Try getting the cheapest airfare from Bioxi, MS to Los Angeles, then the cheapest fare from NYC to Los Angeles. You can get a cheaper ticker from NYC to L.A. every time.

This thread and the debate is a repetitive thing, happens at least once a year. Someone always throws out a lowball number and says it "never" should exceed that, then a number of people who HAVE paid more post. Then the first poster implies they're liars or missing something. If you're lucky enough to live somewhere that is central or has major distro hubs, good for you. But when you're at the counter and they say, okay, it's $45, the argument that TheTroy on the JCF says it shouldn't be that much doesn't carry much weight. Especially when there's a line of people behind you waiting to ship their shit too.

[quakana]

Sometimes Fedex is not the way to go. For example, if your guitar is more than 20 years old, they won't pay more than $500 on an insurance claim. Oh, they'll sell you insurance for as much as you want, but if there's a claim, $500 is all you get. They also have that annoying habit of leaving your package on the doorstep for anyone walking by to take. I wouldn't like refunding someone's money because Fedex left the guitar outside and a passing thief scooped it up.

Sorry to be a pain but first off, Fed-Ex does not insure and does not base shipping costs on value, they simply ask of the value and refund replacement value if there is a problem. Second, by default fed-ex requires a signature to leave a package, you have to sign a waiver as the shipper to leave w/o a sig (maybe this is just at my fed-ex kinkos location?) Third, the issues I just had with a guitar that was damaged by Fed-ex..I had to write a letter to fed-ex claims and in that letter I stated the guitar was over 20 years old and irreplaceable and the buyer got 700.00 refunded to him so I think that 500.00 dollar rule might be invalid as well, possibly just an older rule. Bottom line is that if you plug in all of the pertinent info on the shippers web page it gives you actual shipping cost...end of the guessing work!

[RacerX]

Yeah I just said 50 lbs. to show that the weight really doesn't matter in this case. The quotes I've always seen for guitars show the same price whether it weighs 15 or 50 lbs because the size of the box is so big.

Yeah but are you double-boxing? I always do, no matter the location.

[Zerberus]

I usually pay £10-£20 for a guitar to be delivered. Given the weight, I think it's acceptable. But as couriors in the UK don't seem to give a shit about "Fragile" marked boxes, I prefer to order from a shop, then pick the guitar up and take it on a bus costing a fraction of delivery. I don't like posties making not so much as a light tap on the front door at sparrow's fart expecting me to hear it from the 1st floor on the side of a huge house, then dropping the package after it's already been thrown into a van and smacking the sides of the van. I don't care if it's fucking insured. It's the hassle of getting what you want asap.

Yeah, I pay about 15€ for shipping a guitar inside of Germany, Europe I think is about 40€, not counting materials...but for most things inside Germany I´m starting to either give precise packing instructions or actually go there myself on a weekend when the train is cheap

[lerxstcat]

Sorry to be a pain but first off, Fed-Ex does not insure and does not base shipping costs on value, they simply ask of the value and refund replacement value if there is a problem. Second, by default fed-ex requires a signature to leave a package, you have to sign a waiver as the shipper to leave w/o a sig (maybe this is just at my fed-ex kinkos location?) Third, the issues I just had with a guitar that was damaged by Fed-ex..I had to write a letter to fed-ex claims and in that letter I stated the guitar was over 20 years old and irreplaceable and the buyer got 700.00 refunded to him so I think that 500.00 dollar rule might be invalid as well, possibly just an older rule. Bottom line is that if you plug in all of the pertinent info on the shippers web page it gives you actual shipping cost...end of the guessing work!

Actually, Fedex does NOT require a signature automatically, you have to request signature service, and they don't tell you that when you go there to ship either. I learned that one the hard way. That was at an actual Fedex customer counter, non a Kinkos. Maybe Kinkis had a problem and went with signature as a default, but Fedex itself does not, and when I tracked the package and it actually SAID "left on doorstep" I almost shit.
Fortunately it was a Traynor speaker cabinet, something big enough it's be hard to grab and run with as opposed to a guitar.

Now the $500 thing was brought up here about a year ago - the last time I recall one of these shipping debate threads - as a reason not to use Fedex.
If they changed it since then, that's great, but the poster quoted the actual policy that was posted on the website at the time. It might also be that you were lucky, not all employees know the rules and I'm sure once the buyer got the check they weren't getting their money back.

As far as the shipping rate plugins, you're absolutely right, both UPS and Fedex offer that and it tells you what you're looking at. Fedex is generally about 20-25% cheaper than UPS too, but there are times when it's more convenient to use UPS than Fedex. So I use whichever will be the most convenient, and charge accordingly. I post it on the acutioon, if the rate offends you, don't bid. Personally I've never let a difference of $15-$20 on shipping from what I "thought" was reasonable deter me from bidding. Why? Because I have no idea what other facto0rs in the seller's life made him arrive at that rate. If he has to buy a box, well that's life, I don't expect him to eat that. If he has to drive 50 miles to take it to a UPS depot and the Fedex depot was 75 miles, I don't expect him to drive an extra 50 miles on a round trip to save me $10 by going to Fedex instead.

Of course, depending on the item and its cost I'll ASK if the seller will use the cheaper shipper, Fedex. If they can, great. If not, I don't open an investigation, I deal with what is. Now on that Traynor cab I mentioned, when I previously bought that cab, the guy lived in the wilds of Montana, and the first UPS quote was killer, something like $85! Not that bad for a 410 cab, but I asked him if he could try Fedex. Indeed, there was no Fedex in his area.

However, he was taking a road trip that weekend to the Seattle area and had a van. So he took it to Seattle, found a Fedex depot, and shipped it to me for $37! That was about 3 years ago, but it cost less than half, going a little bit farther, but from a main shipping hub and not from Kalispell, Montana. Of course using Fedex was also a factor, it would've been about $50 via UPS from Seattle at the time.

So, 2 points: It was a LOT cheaper from a major hub; and the guy went way out of his way for me, because I was nice about it and didn't bust his chops. All I said abbout the first quote was, "wow, that's kind of high" which it was 3 years ago for the dimensions and weight of that cab.

Had I called him a ripoff I would have soured the deal, he WASN'T ripping me off, he was quoting me what the shipper in his area charged. They were probably a Mail Boxes Etc., that was before they became UPS Store, and they had a captive audience as he lived in the sticks. Hell, I've heard of MBE charging $100 to ship a Strat-sized guitar ground within the US. Now THAT is a ripoff!

So I realize that other people's circumstances are different than my own. If the shipping is too high for me on an auction, like double what I can get out of the rate machine, then I don't bid. I might email and ask if he can lower the shipping, but if not, well have a good day.

[RacerX]

Rich is right, not all FedEx employees are hard & fast on the rules.

[thetroy]

My post was not meant to say "I'm right and this is how it is" it's more like

This has always been my experience (that shipping is cheap) so I'd like to know how others can spend so much more than me.

[fett]

My post was not meant to say "I'm right and this is how it is" it's more like

This has always been my experience (that shipping is cheap) so I'd like to know how others can spend so much more than me.

I use USPS because it is close by. I tried a UPS store, 'cus they are close as well, and just didn't like the vibes.