Fedex 2 day cheaper than surface, how is that possible

[time-to-go-hiking]

I have a package to ship from Washington state to Mississippi. this is the first time I have seen 2 day cheaper than surface. I am  wondering how this is possible. I am also worried if I choose 2 day then I get charged a higher cost after they deliver it.

anyone else ever see anything like this recently ?

[nickelsanddimes2015]

Either way there are hidden surcharges for both however I would stick with ground services. For example even though your package weighs 9.9lb the dimensional weight is going to be 12 lbs based off your measurements above so that will go up since the ebay calculator doesn't account for that at times and the peak season fee of 5.95 per package and the residential fee and whatever else they decide to throw on there. So that being said I would start with the lowest being ground so that you are close.

[time-to-go-hiking]

I might use UPS since they start out cheaper, But I do not know what their hidden fees are

[time-to-go-hiking]

May I ask how you got the dimensional weight, I would like to know how to do that !

[rfmtm]

Unfortunately, what you see ebay quote is not what you end up paying.  Plus with ebay in the middle any little problem becomes a big one.  Also FedEx has been having a rash of scanning and delivery problems compared to UPS or USPS.

Two options for UPS:

Open your own free UPS account and link it to PayPal for some decent discounts, but still ship from the UPS website where you will see a correct quote.

Open a free Pirate Ship account, which has about the best UPS discount rates you will find with an upfront accurate quoting system.  You will use their account, but no hassle like ebay for doing so.  Plus Pirate Ship integrates directly with ebay to download shipping information and then upload tracking back to ebay.

[time-to-go-hiking]

wow, I never heard of Pirate Ship, will examine them this week.

thanks !

[firesteel_surplus]

@time-to-go-hiking 

Here is my real world experience with UPS from approximately in the center of the US...

I pack and weigh everything right at my desk and print out the labels through ebay. It's about 50/50 shipments of USPS and UPS. I do a weekly recon of my payments and deductions (shipping costs) and about 75% of the time my UPS fees are right on the money. The other 25% of the time, they are a couple of bucks off one way or the other. USPS has been right at 100%.

I don't use FedEx because we don't have a dedicated store in town. I'm not sure I would use them. There were some real horror stories on here about a year ago about shipments being recharged tremendous amounts after delivery. I don't  know if they cleaned up their act. Anyway...about 90% of the time UPS Ground is cheaper than FedEx.

Mike

Firesteel Surplus

[frankienlola]

It's my experience that Ebay does calculate and give the correct label price when dimensional weight exceeds actual weight.  I've never had the additional charges  after delivery I've read horror stories about with any of them.

     There's usually a clickable link to get the formula for calculating girth, dimensional weight etc. or go right to the FedEx site. Just a heads up, I did a package last week that weighed around 9 lbs. but the dimensional weight was 26 lbs. by my calculations but the FedEx site calculator put it at 31 lbs.  Didn't matter as the shipping cost was still the same, it was a real head scratcher though.  I always bump the weight and dimensions as far as I can before shipping cost goes up and leave them there, don't know why just something I do.  I guess it's because say, a package with USPS from 5-8 oz. is the same price but I don't want a package weighing 8 oz. saying 5 oz. on the label. I'm sure their system knows this but why take the chance?

Those quotes are interesting though, but I know I'd be using UPS services for that one.

[frankienlola]

For FedEx the formula for dimensional weight is LxWxH/139 but certainly check for yourself.

So a 10lb. box measuring 18x15x15  = 4,050/139 = 29.13 lbs.(round up to 30 I believe). And of course you pay for the higher of the two. USPS and UPS (usually) use a divisor of 166. Like I said certainly check this out yourself.