Let’s say you are ever considering selling something on eBay. You create the post, click “local pick-up only” and then wait. Several weeks. You curse (or lament, depending on how much self-control you have) the horrible people of the DFW area who don’t appreciate mid-century design and AREN’T BIDDING ON YOUR DESK.
This desk:
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| {Arne Vodder Teak Writing Desk} |
So you look into freight shipping. You hear from a store that sells and ships furniture that “X” shipping company (names changed to protect the guilty) is awesome and super reasonable, so you say in the eBay posting that you will ship with them and people can use your zip code and the dimensions of the desk to receive a free quote.
All of the sudden, ten people are watching your desk. Then there’s a bid – just one. But that’s enough. The auction is won. You’re freaking out because you’ve never shipped a desk before. What in the world have you just gotten yourself into?
You have to send the buyer an invoice. Do you have them pay you for shipping? Or the freight company directly? You make the mistake of having the buyer pay YOU for the shipping, because you’re concerned that with your crazy work schedule, you need to be the one to arrange the pick-up. The buyer pays you the amount they were quoted by “X” shipping company. There’s a few days’ delay while you wait for the e-check to clear PayPal (and you pretend like you totally understand all of this and comfortably sling around words like “e-check” and “funds” and “clear”).
You contact “X” shipping company and try to accept their quote. They fall off the face of the planet for over a week. When you pull up their website, it says it is down for maintenance but will be back on Monday. On Monday, the site is still down. On Tuesday, the site is still down. You try calling their number, only to receive a recording that tells you to use their website or send them an email. You’ve sent three emails. The recording says that you can leave a voicemail, if you want. The voicemail inbox is full.
Around this time you discover that not only does eBay take almost 10% of the sale price of the desk (which you expected), they also help themselves to 10% of the shipping cost (which you definitely did not expect). Crap.
You get a quote from another shipping company. It’s $200 more than the first. It’s pretty ridiculous for a 5 and a half hour drive from Dallas to Kansas.
You look into uShip, a website that allows you to create a posting for the item you want to ship, and then allows shippers to post bids for your business. Shipper “A” is super reasonable, and can get your desk to the buyer the next day. All you have to do is drive the desk to McKinney. So you do. You hand over the desk and some cash, and stop by BJ’s on the way home for a celebratory drink.
You send the buyer a message, letting her know that the desk is FINALLY on it’s way to her.
Then disaster strikes. You get a call from Shipper “A”. He isn’t able to make the trip to Kansas because another shipment he was also supposed to be delivering in the same trip fell through. The amount he charged you won’t cover his gas costs to take just the desk, and he’s really terribly sorry, but he just won’t be able to make the trip. He is so nice about it, you can’t really be mad, just very very upset. He brings the desk back to you and returns all your money and then a little extra for your trouble.
So you’re back to square one. You frenziedly re-post to U-Ship. You receive another bid. It’s more than the first, and more than the buyer of the desk originally paid you, but you accept it and just cover the extra yourself, because, GOODNESS GRACIOUS, you are just ready to get all of this behind you and get the */@# desk to the buyer. Pickup is scheduled for the next morning. You let the buyer know she’ll be receiving the desk soon.
While out running errands that evening, you check email on your handy-dandy iPhone, which you narrowly avoid chucking across the room in disbelief when you receive an email from Shipper “B” informing you that his dad is in the hospital with a stroke and he won’t be able to ship the desk. You aren’t even mad, just dumb-founded. You send the guy a text telling him you hope his dad recovers soon. You half-laugh-half-sob to yourself while you eat lo-mein from a dirty little Chinese restaurant (an essential part of the grieving process) and re-post to U-Ship.
Shipper “C” responds. He’s an army soldier who delivers things for people to help with gas costs. He will make the delivery for exactly the sum of money the desk-buyer paid you for shipping in the first place. He understands that you’ve been dumped three times so far, and promises that he make the delivery. Pro: he lives in Kansas, so he absolutely has to return to Kansas at some point. You accept and pay the deposit, and he calls you right away to make arrangements. Plus 1 for Shipper “C”. He stays in touch over the week to let you know exactly when he’ll be in Dallas to pick up your desk. He actually shows up. He carefully wraps the desk and loads it in his trailer. He tells you that it’s a common practice with many U-Ship shippers to use excuses like heart-attacks and strokes to get out of making shipments after the shipment has been booked. Great. Good to know. He promises to call the buyer and work out delivery time, and call you when he’s delivered it, so you can pay him online.
You feel like this is kinda-sorta-almost over, and then you worry that somehow the trailer will come un-hitched on the highway and fall over a bridge into a ravine, smashing the desk and all your hopes and dreams with it. But the desk is gone, Shipper “C” is on his way to Kansas, and you sit and wait for the phone call that will seal your doom let you know the desk arrived safely.
Finally the call arrives. It’s been delivered! It’s such an anti-climactic moment, and you stammer out a thank-you to Shipper “C” over the phone. You log into U-Ship to mark it as completed and resist the urge to leave overly-emotional feedback espousing undying gratitude, instead opting for a slightly more professional positive review.
It’s. Finally. Done.
So let’s say you hate your life and are considering taking the above journey. You enjoy losing sleep for several weeks, getting sick from stress, and constantly having to problem solve. If this sounds like a fun time, then by all means, jump in, and to help you out, here is my comprehensive guide to freight shipping:
1, Just DON’T.
2. See above.
3. If you absolutely must offer freight shipping, leave all of it up to the buyer. Make them find a shipping company, pay for it, and work out the logistics, including finding a pick-up time that works for you. Apparently this is the norm and I was just clueless. I recommend U-Ship with reservations because of the likelihood of scheduling hiccups, but if the buyer had to deal with it, it wouldn’t have bothered me at all. Another thing to know about U-Ship is that the shipping “companies” are usually just small, one-person operations that operate very differently than, say, Fed-Ex Freight (which by the way had outrageous prices).
And there you have it. My tale of woe that ended happily (for now… Just kidding, although I still need to receive feedback from the buyer, before I can count it completely finished). It’s kind of odd in a way, because it really doesn’t seem so bad now that it’s over with, and I’m almost game to try it again… I hear that’s what childbirth is like 🙂
~ Brynne
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