Bob Drake's shipping cost-Too high or am I high?

Is it me & I'm just out of touch, but are Bob Drake's shipping charges out of line?

I wanted to order two parts (F-1 style stainless shock mounts & a lisc. plate light) total weight can't be more than 3 lbs. $23.00 to ship to NJ.

They say they go by average cost & not average weight.

Ticked me off enough to cancel the order. They claim that it will be to my house in 3 days. I said I don't need it in 2 days & want a cheaper way to ship. The rep. basically told me, no dice! FedEx or nothing.

Am I being a cheap skate or is this shipping practice out of line?

 

that is the way it is these days with high fuel costs, they are just covering there ***. aint right but it is the way it is lately .......

 

sounds high, but then again, I don't know which state the garden state is...

 

i just shipped a huge grill shell today fedex, for 23 bucks...the box is 2ft by 2ft by 2.5 foot...and weights a good 25-30lbs.

shipped from NJ to WIS.

even with packaging and handling, thats pretty high.

 

I think it is pretty common now.. So-cal charged me 14.00 to ship a dvd to my house from their shop. I can drive it in 4 four hours.EVILT

 

I did a 15 lb box 10x12x5 froms Drakes to Jersey on my account and it came up about $43.00 and we even get a pretty good discount, that was for a Fedex saver which is 3 days. I guess rates just **** these days.

 

Banjo -

I agree with everyone else. Rising fuel costs aside, the catalog people have found another way to rip you a new one. As much as anything though, I think its just lazy business practices. Most of the money goes to the shipping company - its just the easy way out for them.

The company I work for does the same thing. Seems like there's nothing but "overnight" mail any more - at like $12 per letter! Then when the mail arrives, it lays on someone's desk for a week before getting opened. Meanwhile, management rails on about how the employees should be looking for ways to cut expenses.

I ordered an NHRA rule book from Summit (a $10 item) and they were gonna charge me $9.95 for shipping and "handling"! WTF!? Ten bucks send a tiny booklet?

I pitched a ***** and they ended up sending it for free (But still by UP$ - what's wrong with the U.S. Mail? It would have fit easily into a regular business envelope and been sent for about a dollar. In the long run, their customers end up footing the bill.)

Just like everything else, you need to pay attention everywhere nowdays. People are plenty happy to throw your money around like it grows on trees. Especially if it makes things easy for them.

 

My big complaint about Drake is that last few times I ordered from them they didn't ship my total order at one time. Nothing was backordered and hit my Visa all at once, but came in several drops and each time it could have been put all in one box. I was charged shipping and handeling each time for each box. That didn't set well so I go to other sources any time I can. I've heard this from several others as well.
The Wizzard

 

S&H is a profit center now for a lot of companies...and in some cases they make more on that than the margin on their parts. There are still a lot of companies that charge actual shipping.

I order stuff from Drake when they have a sale...and about 2/3's is backordered and that is shipped at no charge to the customer. Otherwise I try to buy at shows.

It pays to watch the shipping though.

Charlie

 

Seems like everyone has a complaint and mine is: on June 13 I ordered a bunch of stuff for the 36, I was told they ship by Fed x to get me the parts in just a couple of days. They specificly told me if I used UPS I wouldn't get the parts till after the weekend. OK I'll pay the extra ship them Fed X because they are headlight parts and I want to drive it this weekend. Guess what, on Tuesday the 22nd I call to find out where my parts are, they haven't even shipped them yet. If I am lucky I may get them by Friday of this week. They told me they are so busy the shipping dept. can't keep up, Well they will be less busy by one customer from now on. Not only did I pay extra but I didn'r get the parts when i wanted them anyway, sorry for the rant but I guess others are wondering about the shipping practices too.

 

They do use Fedex Air when sending to the east coast, but the cost is still inflated. I ordered a set of brackets for mounting a gas tank, they sent it in a padded envelope. It does not cost $20+ bucks to ship that envelope.

My biggest complaint however is the amount of time they take to ship the stuff. My last order was an in stock item, and they didnt ship it untill a week after I called and paid for my order. They offer a same day shipping service for a fee of $15, come on, speedway ships stuff to me anytime I order the same day, and thats their normal service.

It would be interesting to see how well they follow their little shipping charge chart when it wasnt in their favor. I bet they would charge you the actual cost in that case...

 

Yeah, most companies do it. For comparison, I just gave a guy a shipping quote to send him a 235 exhaust manifold. He's in CA and I'm in NY, and shipping is $23.56. I figured for 25 lbs., which is lots more than your order. The most ***inine shipping pricing system I've ever seen goes to J.C. Whitney. The more you spend, the more the shipping is! So, a 20 lb. order that's worth $20 costs you less for shipping than a 2 lb. order that's worth $100.

 

Bob Drakes shipping system is the exact same thing.

 

Like said above, they're using the shipping as a profit tool now. $20.00 item, 14.00 shipping, make an extra $5.00 or $7.00 on the shipping, times 20,000 shipments a year. A cool extra 100K+......pays for 4 employees @ 25K a year.

 

If you buy on ebay you've gotta watch shipping there too, many are pricing the item way low, but making it up on shipping and "handling"

 

They are high.

 

Unfortunately their price grid seems to be the norm.
But according to the catalog though, you should be able to choose shipping methods
"We ship via both Fedex and UPS. Please let us know if you have a preference."

I'd reccomend finding a sorce closer to you or local swap meets...

 

There's been eBayers who've been pulling that scam for years now, I guess the catalog companies are just catching on now.

Fedex is actually very reasonable with their shipping prices and doesn't break nearly as much **** as UPS does. Some people seem to think they can tack on a 50% surcharge when they ship by Fedex and make people think that Fedex is expensive. ****s they're trying to do that ****.

On a happy note, whilst working on my '73 MB diesel, I searched the internet for some parts I was looking for (alternator, relays, motor mounts) One of the online catalog companies I found with the cheapest prices was called Drivewire.com. I was pretty freaked out to send them money but they shipped **** like the next day and any purchase over $50 (maybe it was over $100, I don't remember) had free shipping. Lowest prices AND they didn't **** you on shipping, they didn't even charge for it.

Too bad Drivewire only caters to late model **** and cars back to maybe the late 60's. If we had a company that sold hotrod parts but took care of their customers like that, they'd get a hell of a lot of business.

 

I had a cowl patch panel for my '53 F-100 shipped for $13.00 from LMC Truck... box was about 4'x2'x1' had a couple of other things in it too that added weight, probably about 20lbs total.

Ben

 

SOLUTION ...

Buy from VAPHEAD ...
Free shipping

and good prices and great service too ...

 

I shipped a falcon back gl*** to wa state. i told the customer i would not pkg it , so i went to ups and they pkg it , shipping was only about 62/63 but for them to pkg it the total bill was 112. still a bargain for something made from unobtanium.

 

I'm ***uming Vaphead is a HAMBer?

 

Company I used to work for ordered a roll of neoprene the boss just had to have. It was Next Day air shipped and weighed 68 pounds in an oversized box. I think it was almost $160 to get it there and then it sat for three days.

"Sorry Mike, but there's no money in the budget to give you a raise even though you reached all the goals we set for you."

I'm now self employed.

 

Vaphead is a HAMBer...he used to work at Streamline, always took care of shipping...Streamline (AussieSteve, another HAMBer), can tell you if they still do that.

R-

 

I really really hate to deal with Bob Drake for a lot of reasons. A few years back, their catalog said, "Everything we sell is Made in USA" but the wiper motor had the gold warning tag-'made in taiwan'. They refused to talk to me.
I bought 4 stainless steel hubcaps out of Bobs hands at a swapmeet. Got home and the first one 'popped' on my right front wheel just fine. The second hubcap was so loose it wouldnt even snap onto the SAME WHEEL. The third one popped on weakly on the SAME WHEEL and fell off as I drove away. The fourth one fit good. When I told Bob Drake,they said something was wrong with my wheel!!! To return the hubcaps, I had to call the Better Business Bureau AND pay the shipping back to them!
Bob Drake himself seems to have difficulty understanding the English language.

Idiots!! I wont buy from them anymore. and yes, their shipping costs are a ripoff

 

VAPHEAD no longer works there ...
He has opened his own shop ... screw ... Streamline ...
His new business is
Riley Automotive ... look here
http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=116248

 

Hmmmmmmmmm...Oh-kay...was not aware of that...what's he dealing in...other than T-shirts???

Does he have a store-front or is it simply mail order? Any other info will be appreciated...

R-

 

I ship everything FedEx GROUND Home Delivery. Rates are better than UPS and USPS. I can print the shipping label at home and don't have to wait in line at the FedEx center.

It seems like anything I've sold that has gone to Oregon or Washington has a high shipping cost.

As for buying from Drake. There's a solution. Buy from a Drake dealer that's closer to your state and you'll save on shipping.

I'm in SC and I buy my Drake stuff from **** Spadaro in NY. Service is fast and I don't get gang ****d on shipping from Oregon. I save money by going to the middle man. Drake makes his, **** gets his fair share and I save some $dough$. Everybody is a winner . Plus, **** always seems to know who has the parts if he doesn't and Drake is out of stock.

If Drake gave a buyer direct discount it might be a different story, but unless you're a dealer, I'm not aware of any such discount.

 

Drake has done alot for the reproduction industry, but has no idea how to keep customers happy. He should stick to making parts, I will not order from him ever again. He is usually out of stock of the parts I want and the phone guys are rude.

 

Drake,
When Drake was small and in southern California they would bend over backwards to help you. Then the big move to Oregon, so they could get out of the big taxes in California. Good move for Drake - yes! but a bad move for its customers. Their whole at***ude changed after the move, now that they had a big new buiding and getting big and bigger by the day. The new motto was take it or leave it, we're Drake and we don't need you.
At one time they changed to no back orders, free shipping for an order over $500. I had a a order of $580. great free shipping, I keep hearing out of stock order came to $479. sorry no free shipping. I canceled the order when they wouldn't be fixable on the shipping. Cruiser 49