Bike flights or UPS directly

[DHallerman]

Originally Posted by zmudshark

There was a window when ship bikes was cheaper than bike flights. That window has closed. I have shipped multiple things through bike flights in the last few months. They have the best prices by far. I would prefer UPS over any other carrier. FedEx can’t find enough people to work for them, USPS is a mess lately.

We’ve become friends with our UPS driver, Mario. He regularly talks about how their union protects him. Things like unwanted overtime.

[jody_husky]

does anyone have experience with send bike? seems to be a new competitor for bikeflights.

a friend of mine managed to get a full rivendell clem from the US to the UK for less than $200 without being charged any tax or duty. they may have changed their website as i'm unable to get anything as low even for a bare frame now.

[Turkle]

Originally Posted by DHallerman

We’ve become friends with our UPS driver, Mario. He regularly talks about how their union protects him. Things like unwanted overtime.

My stepfather drives double and triple semis for UPS. It's the gold standard of trucking jobs, and his union makes sure both he and my family are taken care of. When you buy UPS you are supporting the best jobs in the industry, and in my experience they provide customer service to match.

[zmudshark]

Try Pirateship.com

I find their UPS rates amazingly low. They are owned by Pitney-Bowes, I think.

[NHAero]

This is totally anecdotal. We were locking our bikes last week in Asheville, and a young guy came up and told us that he and a buddy had locked their bikes to the same light pole recently and came back and found someone had added ANOTHER lock, and they had to call the FD to cut that off. I mentioned to him that I'd shipped my bike down to Asheville, and he said he drove for UPS and he would NEVER ship a bike via UPS

[paddy_boy]

I’ve never shipped a bike before but I used to work at UPS - cheapest way to ship with them (especially since u already boxed up the bike) is to take it to the nearest UPS service center & go to the customer counter. Any local driver can tell u where the nearest UPS customer counter is - usually open M-F business hours. The people who work there are usually very knowledgeable & helpful & u cut out the middleman at the UPS store, so quite a bit cheaper.

[NHAero]

Originally Posted by paddy_boy

I’ve never shipped a bike before but I used to work at UPS - cheapest way to ship with them (especially since u already boxed up the bike) is to take it to the nearest UPS service center & go to the customer counter. Any local driver can tell u where the nearest UPS customer counter is - usually open M-F business hours. The people who work there are usually very knowledgeable & helpful & u cut out the middleman at the UPS store, so quite a bit cheaper.

I'm fairly sure that my BikeFlights instructions specifically says to drop the package at an actual UPS Service Center, not a UPS Store.

[charliedid]

I use/work with BikeFlights all the time and I am not under the impression that going direct to UPS store saves you any $. In fact quite the opposite and I would MUCH rather deal with BikeFlights customer service should something go sideways than UPS all day long.

[Elefantino]

Don't cheap out on the insurance. Full value, plus shipping costs. Otherwise when UPS drops your prized Merckx Corsa Extra on its way to Santa Barbara and bends the frame, you'll be out of luck.

Or so I hear.

[kppolich]

www.PayPal.com/shipnow will give you all the rates to compare across all 3 major carriers. Prices better than bikeflights too in my experience.

[oldpotatoe]

Originally Posted by steveandbarb1

Just packaged up my daughters bike, providence to Nashville. Is it better to walk into a UPS store with it, or do it through bike flights? Or???

thx

Get a BikeFights acct, then walk it to the UPS store. Save some $.

Shipbikes.com which uses Fedex. Cheaper than my corporate fedex account. And it’s not UPS

I've had BF for a long time..back when it used FedEx..and the only 2 damage shipment and claims I had were when BF used FedEx...and for the first, I got the auto-DENIED...then talked to BF and got a reimbursement w/i about 2 hours after I sent over pictures.

GAD ZOOKS..Zombie thread..but still, like BF.

[Jeff N.]

Originally Posted by RobJ

Nether.

Shipbikes.com which uses Fedex. Cheaper than my corporate fedex account. And it’s not UPS


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

UPS sucks on many levels. FedEx all the way. Safer shipping, better tracking, and less expensive.

[NHAero]

Just in case some here haven't tried to use Shipbikes recently:

"Sorry for the inconvenience. We have paused our service while we transition our system over to our UPS partner.

High-fuel costs and peak surcharges are preventing us from shipping your bicycles at our usually greatly discounted rates. At this time, Shipbikes.com will only be selling our boxes online."

[kppolich]

I'll say it again because it's that easy:
http://www.paypal.com/shipnow
-Supports copy/paste of address
-Gives you all the rates from all the carriers to think about
-30 seconds from payment received to label printing if the item is purchased via regular PayPal.

[old fat man]

Originally Posted by kppolich

I'll say it again because it's that easy:
http://www.paypal.com/shipnow
-Supports copy/paste of address
-Gives you all the rates from all the carriers to think about
-30 seconds from payment received to label printing if the item is purchased via regular PayPal.

I hate the idea of supporting PayPal.