$9.85 for a small flat rate box?!?!? What are they thinking??
Holy Cow!! Have you mailed a box today?
that is outrageous. i thought just the price of stamps was going up
Yep, I mailed a package today and was shocked!
So, just mail the boxes first-class (check the cost for both methods) - may take one day longer, but usually just 2-3 days.
kay is right. if you can keep the weight under 13 oz. it can go first class. i have recently mailed a clematis in a bubble mailer for under 2.00. it arrived just fine. i either try to trade for a whole bunch or one plant that i can send first class. otherwise it's not worth it to me. the lady i traded with didn't want to mail that way but i told her to let me send first. after my plant arrived in good condition then she mailed mine the same way. also just mailed some mums first class in a bubble mailer. arrived in good condition.
another option....and i mailed to tropicanna last year canna, a heliconia and a few other things in a FLAT RATE ENVELOPE. used lots of newspaper to cushion but they made it fine. we have to learn to be creative or trading is going to be a thing of the past.
i agree postae is out of this world. I bought a scale some time ago and weigh everything before I decide which way to go. I do like the postofficed free boxes though. I am not sure if its worth the savings to get a free box.
Have you priced plants at the nursery lately? I thought it would take a little bit to reach this point. but what a shock 3.99 for a 4 inch anything.
Thanks for listening
Dave
I mailed out 3 today. Two were the $9.85 boxes and the other was the smallest priority mail box (maybe 6 in. x 6 in. or something like that) and it cost me $30.20!!! I couldn't believe that. I think I will only do large trades from now on unless if its something I can't find around here and absolutely have to have!
my mail man delivered a paper to me the other day and it had the price increases on it. so I was prepared for the rate hike. it is outragious though.
If I had a steady supply of boxes I'd ship plants fed ex more than usps priority mail, cause it's cheaper.
yep prices are getting out of hand. i mailed a large flat rate box (but price stayed the same) thank goodness, it was heavy! for a secret plant swap. i too have a scale and will be using in ALOT more often now
another thing is that click and ship. i think there is a 15-20% discount on postage when you do it on line.
I mailed out a box of cannas Monday.I washed every last oz. of dirt off and trimmed the foliage down but it was still nearly ten bucks for priority. That's the reason I don't trade plants much any more. It has to be for something I really,REALLY want.
P
well the price of gas to deliver them its whats nutz 4.00 a gallon!
LOL Dori, your right. You have to bring the boxes to fed ex offices. But our mail man picks up my usps priority mail boxes at my door step daily all I have to do is leave hm a note in the box.
but I do fed ex for larger boxes, and would probably use them more if I had a steady supply of boxes like I do usps priority boxes. I'd just ship plants so that they could be delivered to fed ex on the day s I goto town which is monday and friday's most weeks.
Has anybody used DHL to shipanything? I know you have to come up with their boxes too, but I hear it's cheaper than usps priority mail.
Even though it has gotten expensive you have to weigh the cost of what you would pay retail for the same plants plus the cost of gas and time to go to the store. I recently sent water hyacinth, water lettuce and green EE, about 5 of each.
Figure the average nursery rate of 3,00 each plant and you're looking at $45.00 in plants plus gas.time vs, $9.85 shipping shipping to your door. Comes to about $.80/plant. Thr trick is to do larger trades.
You can get alot of plants in a flat rate box.
This message was edited May 14, 2008 10:29 AM
I haven't personally shipped anything with DHL, but I have been waiting on items ordered off line that were shipped DHL. One package was shipped from Alabama, went to Atlanta - then to someplace in SC - (this was all according to their 'tracking' on line) then to Kentucky - where they "promptly" put it in US MAIL for delivery to Arkansas 4 days later. It was unreal. Then one item was still on backorder and they sent it by the same method with not quite as many stops - but that time it stayed on a DHL truck all the way to the destination city and THEN they delivered it to the POST OFFICE to go out for delivery. I ended up having my son GO to the PO to pick it up to save at least 1 extra day of delivery time. I just thought this method was strange....... So, you might want to verify HOW they will deliver your package before using them.
Genna
Nice heavyweight boxes can be had for free, along with bubblewrap from any collision shop. They throw tons of the stuff away every day and are grateful for anyone wanting to take some off of their hands. I like General Motors boxes the best. They have a sticker or two on the outside and no external writing. Just peel the stickers off and you have a nice, clean box. I like boxes that headlights and foglights come in. Great size for shipping plants. Bubble wrap comes in sheets big enough to wrap a hood up in.
I also have a great relationship with the parts manager at our local GM dealership. I've 'trained' him to spot a 'good' box immediately and he has a special place he stashes them for me. There's even parts boxes that small trees can fit in easily.
As far as DHL, I've heard horror stories about live plants. The freight sits in a warehouse till there's enough on a pallet to warrant sending a truck for. Fine for soccer balls, not so fine for plants.
just mailed a priority box-17.05
I guess I need to go get friendly with the parts managers then LOL
Sounds like I don't need to use DHL either. that would mean dead plants for sure, wonder why they send it all over the country side like that. good grief.
Big diff in price dutchlady, It does pay to go fed ex. I'm gonna have to start hunting down boxes. and go look into the collision shops, they have lots around here.
You'll be quite pleased with the box quality. It may take a bit for the guys to warm up to the idea of a 'crazy plant lady who needs boxes"', but trust me, they will. Get into a routine of stopping by once a week, they'll get into the habit of remembering you....especially if you sweeten the deal with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers come summer....trust me, it works.
I've cut way back on my plant trading due to the cost of shipping. I haven't even gotten my trade lists finished this year, yet.
The last two times I sent plants by Fedex they took over a week. I know I'm a special case, since I'm in Washington State, mostly sending to Florida and the South, but it's hard to justify the cost savings when the risk of exceptionally long transits is so high for me. Priority mail is still quite fast, but with the rapidly rising costs...
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all of my extras this fall, when I usually have hundreds of plants to send out. I wish I could find people closer to me to exchange with.
Note to all: the smallest of bubble mailer used to ship for .58 - I know, I kept extra .58 stamps in my desk at work. Today when I took 5 of them with me - they were trying to charge me what amounted to over a $1.50 to ship these same envelopes (most weighing 1/2 ounce). After much "discussion" - smiling the entire time - they "figured" out a way to MAKE it what it should've been (mind you this was after checking with other postal employees who were agreeing w/the $1.50ish rate). Final rate? .62 cents. Just thought everyone should know.
Good for you, Chantell...my post office would never do the 58 cents even at the previous rates...their interpretation of the 'rules and regs' made any bubble mailer a package. I had to mail out my seed trades at a rate of $1.13, even though I was receiving packages that were paid at 58 cents...
There have been threads with the like...
I think the rates are too high, personally. I am up for creativity...
If I am looking at trading within my region, I may look at the other services to see if they would get there in the same time. I agree, going across country could be risky.
As for boxes, our local grocery store puts out their boxes for anyone...three times a week when they stock. They offer many strong, smaller boxes suitable for a limited trade to larger boxes. Hey, it is 'green' to recycle...even if it is the box...
Absolutely - re the boxes - I hit my Walmart regularly!!
As for your PO's rates...I'd be tempted to use the self serve kiosk...esp now that I know how much it should be. It was the .42 for 1st class then the additional .20 b/c it wouldn't be able to go thru their machines. The furthest went to Oregon - so I'm comfortable that the .62 should be the most unless of course the envie was over a certain weight.
The kiosk seemed like a great idea, except they never stocked it here and it was always out of service. Eventually they removed it. Once upon a time the stocked the stamp machine as well; now you're lucky to find standard postage in it. Luckily, they didn't give me any trouble the last time I sent out dozens of tomato seed bubble mailers.
With the flat rate envelopes, it's also the thickness and any variability in thickness that can affect its status as an "envelope" vs a "package." And as you've noted, some post offices are just misinterpreting the info. Mine is pretty good.
With small trades, going with first class (under 13 oz) or in a little priority box (under 1 pound still ships for under $5) works fine. I like the new larger flat rate box from the USPS. I often ship bigger boxes via UPS, because when they say 2 days or 3 days it's a guarantee, not an estimate... I've had priority boxes take nearly 2 weeks to arrive, and no response other than a "that's the way the cookie crumbles" shrug from the USPS person when I complained.
Click and ship saves you from surprises at the counter... sometimes a small adjustment can get you under 1 pound or some such. Also, printing postage online still gives you free delivery confirmation (not like UPS tracking, but still better than nothing) and does now give you a small discount on the rate.
With the Click and ship...do you need to buy special labels to use with your printer from USPS, or can these be obtained like the boxes and get them for free? I am new to this, but I would love the convenience. I still haven't gotten a scale. Do they get real picky, or could I weigh myself with and without the box to get this information?
You know, maybe you could get free labels... I haven't checked! I've just been printing them out on regular paper and using a glue stick on the back. I also use tape, for good measure, but ONLY around the edges and not covering any of the bar code, because they say that confuses their scanners. My printer ink is pretty waterproof, so I have no concerns on that account
Oh, that would be ok for how much I would use it, I am sure. I was picturing some of my boxes I received for co op plants had a label on the box with the Click and Ship on it. I just did not want to pay for a label just to get the discount to ship it that way.
If you use usps.com you can just print the labels on plain paper. I've run into a snafu though after doing it that way for years. My old debit card was a Visa card and I never had a problem with it. I switched banks last year and their debit card is a Master Card that says "debit" on the top. I've not been able to pay for postage online since. They were telling me it was a problem with the Master Cards. I wrote a few weeks ago and was assured they fixed that issue.
Now it turns out they are not accepting most debit cards, credit cards only. I don't have one! To add insult to injury, you can no longer print a label unless you pay for it online. So, now all my boxes have to be hand addressed and taken down to the post office. GRRR.
On a good note, I just mailed out an 11 pound box. On a good note, it was only going to Northern Ohio which is still in the same shipping zone so it was just under $10.
One other better thing, gas dropped .20/gallon here. LOL
The USPS site does have a widget you can download for printing labels offline.
That's strange about not taking debit cards, though. I would think there would be fewer payment issues with debit than with credit cards -- either the money is there, or it's not, and if it's not there, the transaction doesn't go through on a debit card, right? I don't get it either.
Yeah, I can tell you for sure it's a real PITA! I've been doing the online labels forever, paying online then just dropping them off or giving them to the mail carrier. Now I can't.
Oh, one thing to mention. If for some reason, the website does not accept your card and gives you and error message, always click CANCEL and not edit my card. If you click edit, thinking you made a mistake, it will charge your card every time you click edit. It just puts a hold on the money and it's freed again after 10 days to 2 weeks but it does ding your card anytime you click edit. Think that note is on the website?? Noooo.
When I try to use my debit card, it keeps telling me that the address and zip do not match the one on file. I KNOW where I live, and the bank checked it. Everything is fine.
I'll check into the widget Jill. Thanks!
WOW - a 20 cent per gallon drop in gasoline............ours has been going UP not down!!! Maybe it will "trickle" down this way,......
^_^
Genna
LOL I'll take it any way I can get it. ;)
Amen!!!
I have done some trading, but I don't think I do enough to warrant a scale and such. However, I use to have an account with Fed Ex and that was so cool. I didn't even have to package anything (computer related stuff)... I just let them know I needed a pick up and they came with boxes, tape and the whole works. And just put it on an account... I paid the bill once a month. If you have a business, you can do that.
I totally hate DHL. Every time I order anything and they say it's being shipped DHL, I cringe. I've gone round and round with them on the phone about various issues... mostly just getting the package.
The gas prices are hurting everything. I suspect that's why postage also went up, the cost of transport and delivery went up. You'll see it happen with Fed Ex and UPS eventually. As well as anything else that involves transport. I have a little old Fire Bird. It cost me like $55 to fill the tank, and it wasn't on "E". I can't imagine this going on for much longer. It's horrible.
Donna
Don't get too used to the current postal prices. They passed a law I think it was last year where the rates will automatically increase every May! At least we will get used to when it happens every year. Hang on to those forever stamps for a few years and you will get your moneys worth! LOL
Tammie
I drive a chevy venture van.. last fill up cost me $85!