This shipping can't be right

Ebuwan

Member
Joined
Sep 18, 2017
Messages
196
Hey All,

Was looking to order a couple systainers, and was given these shipping options from Systainer.store.

$106 for shipping two systainers? Something must be broken. Makes it really hard when there is Toolnut and I can order with Free Shipping.
 

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Is Toolnut selling Tanos or Festool branded Systainers?

I think pretty much all authorized Festool dealers ship Festool products for free.

My guess is Tanos doesn't subsidize (right word?) shipping like Festool does, hence the higher shipping cost.


Never mind, just noticed Toolnut is selling Tanos XXL 237 with free shipping. No idea why Systainer.store is so much higher with pricing.
 
No USPS option?

Based on extensive dealings/shipping with UPS (and others) -> they calculate shipping based on volumetric weight. Shipping something really large (the XXL Systainer) but very light gets very expensive that way. It's also possible the XXL, with packaging, exceeds UPS limits and there is an extra fee added.

And it's a 2nd day delivery option. One of the "saver" options might be cheaper.

Anyway, have you tried reaching out to systainer.store directly? [member=68900]Systainer.Store[/member]

Kind regards,
Oliver
 
The "free shipping" offered by the larger retailers is subsidized by higher shipping costs for individuals and smaller retailers.
Also, shipping large, mostly empty boxes gets you into dimensional rates that ramp up very quickly.
 
I'm with Oliver on this...USPS is usually the cheapest, there's a reason that USPS sometimes delivers packages to me that originated at UPS, FEDEX and Amazon Prime.

Ask Tim if he offers USPS service.
 
I have started to notice that shipping costs have gone up.  For example, I order coffee beans from peets.com, when I went to order a few days ago, shipping went from $5 to $8 for a bag of coffee, a 60% increase.  The $5 charge was already high, but worth it for very fresh roasted coffee.  $8 is too much, almost half the price of the coffee.

Bob
 
Hi [member=66038]Ebuwan[/member] I believe you wrote in an email to me, and I've replied and will get you a better quote on shipping, likely tomorrow.

Thank you for the tagging and confidence from a couple customers here!  I'm happy to reply and share more.

Several of you have hit the nail on the head - dimensional shipping.
That, and since I implemented shipping, I don't ship many XXLs and so my available boxes aren't optimized for it. 

Long story long...(I'm choosing to reveal some of the gory details of being an eCommerce business here).

For those that have been around a while you may recall that at Systainer Store I had Free Shipping on certain size orders.  For examples, orders over $150.  About a year ago this came to a crashing end, as the rate hikes of late 2021 and early 2022 pushed the business to the point where it wasn't making money and I had to implement a true shipping system.  That or shut down the whole business. 

I love systainers and I love serving the community and since I only sell systainers I needed to get back to profitability (or at least breaking even, so I could live to fight another day.  As the largest dealer of systainers in North America, I wanted to find a way to keep serving all of you.  That is my goal. 

Getting technical, I use Shopify, and their default shipping system was only using weight.  When I offered free shipping on larger orders, it was a bit of a hack so I didn't have to worry about calculating shipping weight or dimensions for a customer to check out.  When this became the Achilles heel of the business, I had to find and configure a smarter shipping system that used weight and dimensions based on boxes that we stock.  The system has been working well enough for about a year.  I had to do some tuning and tweaking, but have been rather pleased.  My goal is to not profit on shipping.  If I recall right, last year I think I was within 1% of collecting more funds for shipping than what it actually cost to ship. 

I know my FedEx rates are my best rates.  I know that larger tool dealers get better rates because of so much more volume.

The XXL and this particular order with 1x XXL and 1x M reveals that I'm not optimized for this "physical volume". 

There are about 20 box sizes I stock.  I have a really large box, 32" x 32" x 12", that I keep on hand.  Since implementing the shipping charges I don't ship many XXL via FedEx/UPS/USPS as they just about always hit dimensional weight.  This order with one XXL and one M pushed it into this rather large shipping box, but it is wasted space in the box, and yet the larger size charges for the size box. 

No doubt there is some optimization that can be done to get this order from Grand Rapids, MI to NJ.  I'm having my team custom quote shipping on this order and I'll get back with the customer in a day or so.  We can likely cut down a box to custom fit the XXL or maybe ship in two boxes, one the XXL and one the M.

So, I'm happy to keep serving.  Shipping can add up on some orders.  On larger orders I can do freight shipping, and if the order is large enough, think $2K or more, I can likely do free freight shipping.  Always get in touch with me for those things. 

I'm sorry [member=66038]Ebuwan[/member] for your shock.  I'll try to improve.  And I don't mind if there is a chance for you to save money and shipping by buying with Tool Nut or Woodcraft or a local dealer of Systainers.  I'd like Systainer Store to grow and ultimately I do that by serving the community well.  You could say these others dealers are my competitor, but I don't view it that way. 

Make it a great day - Sys Tim
 
Dimensional shipping is a surprise to many who think weight is how shipping costs are determined. Weight is important, but so is the size of the package. A large box packed with feathers can cost more than a very small box of rocks or a brick. I am surprised the XXL Systainer fall into dimensional shipping unless there is a tremendous amount of padding.

As for USPS shipping it is almost always more expensive unless the location is relatively close. I ship a lot of things and do use them for small packages that are light enough to fall into 1st class and might consider them for a close shipping destination. In general I have found FedEx to be the cheapest, but have been surprised by some UPS shipping rates recently and started using them.
 
Back when I was a Clearvue distributor a cyclone body which weighs a few kilos cubed out in dimensions to about 95kg for shipping.
 
The classic example of “size matters” is sea- bound shipping containers.  You pay one fee whether it weighs 30,000 pounds or 90,000 pounds for the sea voyage.

The weight does not matter on ocean going freight. But once it gets off loaded that changes. 

The trucking company needs X-amount of money for the entire load.  It does not matter that you filled the truck with empty five-gallon plastic shipping pails that weighs 4,000 pounds or if you only filled the bottom 6” of the container with steel sheets.  Either way, the trucking company needs X-amount of money.

There might be some small differential because the lighter load would consume less fuel, but basically the same cost.

One Sunday I was at Starbucks early in the morning. On the line behind me was a postal letter carrier.  I said, “Go, Amazon.com”.

The Postman smiled, “Yeah, but double overtime for working on Sundays.  Without Amazon, I would be home now.”

I could not tell if he was pleased or displeased.
 
Thanks for the explanation Tim, makes sense.  I was looking to get tanos version of mw1000 to save some money but with shipping added, unfortunately festool version from hartville makes a lot more sense
 
I've ordered quite a few things from Sys-Tim.  I live in Michigan and my Daughter lives in Grand Rapids, so if shipping was cost prohibitive, I could have her pick it up and bring it the next time she visits.  I think we've all become too accustomed to low prices and quick shipping.  Times change....and not always for the better.
 
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