What would you do?
 

On the Volt forum there was a guy going to toss a front license plate holder
I told him I would pay postal shipping if he’s willing (I actually need this particular style)
He said sure.

I had the weight and address and told him to put it in a post office envelope and ship no insurance.
I had gotten the rate to be under $5 from USPS in their envelope, depending on how he shipped it

He came back and said can I ship UPS and I naively said, OK as long as it isn’t too expensive and 5 minutes later got a copy of a bill for $28 to send a 7 ounce license plate holder said it was shipped.

I tried looking up what the package would cost on UPS and it looks like about $8,
Is there a way to look up what he actually spent at the UPS store since they charge for boxes and crap, plus he sent it in a box large enough to ship a desktop computer in for god knows what reason.

Ah well, lesson learned or just send him what it probably actually cost since he never asked for $16 + shipping?

If he really spent $28, it seems like he would think, maybe I should just not do it?

My wife works at a retail UPS location. If he sent it in a big box, it very likely cost him $28.

Gotta wonder WTF he was thinking, even when I’m not paying the shipping I would take a step back if they wanted $28 to ship a 7 ounce small piece of plastic.

If someone just goes to UPS and says send it, they'll getcha. A far cry from when I ship things to eliminate every last ounce of wasted weight.

Refuse the package and it will go back to him. Pay nothing. Or if it costs $28 to buy one off ebay or wherever then just keep it and know you didn't get a deal.

I wouldn't pay $28 to ship and insure a bar of gold.

Shipping is among my least favorite services. It's the only one I know of where you pay to ship something, but if you want to make sure it actually arrives and is not damaged, you have to pay extra. It's like paying for a haircut upfront, and they may or may not cut your hair, and may or may not cut it in the style you want unless you pay extra. What other business in the world charges you up front for a service that they have no obligation to even perform? Perhaps cell phone contracts?

As efficient says, refuse delivery. Both those idiots gotta learn (UPS and the dude).

I work in ecommerce, we ship boxes full of fragile heavy stuff (usually stained glass) every day. If he sent it in a box that big he is a dipstick and doesn't need to be in the business of selling stuff on the internet. It probably did cost him $28 at the UPS store.

If you want to mail something that weighs more than a pound cheap and fast and reliably you stick it in a USPS priority mail box or envelope, tracking included.

If you have something weighing less than I think 14oz stick it in a bubble mailer and ship it USPS first class. (Almost everything we ship is over a pound so I forget the cut-off for USPS first class.)



A bar of gold weighs <28 pounds and should fit inside a USPS Medium Flat Rate box which costs approx. $14 to ship anywhere in the USA.

HOWEVER,
You can only insure USPS Priority Mail (like the MFR box) up to $5000. Meanwhile, a bar of gold is worth approximately $500k at the moment. So, no, you wouldn't pay $28 to ship and insure a bar of gold, you'd have to pay way more to get it insured.

UPS sucks for small packages.
You can easily spend $20 shipping something relatively small.

Good points from all. I personally would probably accept the package and learn a lesson from it.

I would pay, and consider it a lesson learned. I would be more careful next time.

"Oh Xist?! Sorry, no, I thought you said Fist! Xist is not available! Sorry!"

I was once dispatched to pick up a single box, about the size of a box a pair of work boots comes in, which they dutifully shrink wrapped onto a pallet, and deposited into my 53' box trailer. I drove that single box to an Amazon fulfillment office (not even a full warehouse, mind you). Someone actually paid a 33,000 lb tractor-trailer combo and a driver to take a ~5lb box on a 45lb pallet several hundred miles @ ~10mpg. I actually called my dispatcher to make sure this wasn't a joke. It seriously would have been cheaper to rent me a car and pay fuel for said rental car (and I mentioned as much).

I don't drive for UPS, but I imagine this is how shipping a 7oz thing can be $28.

I believe this is an instance of "Photographs or it never occurred."

Well, darn. By that standard, it never happened.