I need to vent. I have been dealing with the beekeeping supply places. I understand that they are extremely busy at this time of year. However their brains are off and their bodies move in reverse.
I needed to order 10 cardboard nuc boxes. Not a tough order you would think.
Supply House #1
We don't have those in stock ( I can actually understand this )
However we have the EZ nucs in stock. ( Offering the customer an alternative, very nice)
Well the boxes cost a little bit more and we can't collapse them for shipping. So you will have to pay an over sized shipping fee. ( This in addition to the higher price on the boxes ). At this point it simply got too expensive.
Supply House #2
We have them in stock. We can't ship them out of our location for at least two weeks.
Supply House #3
We have them in stock. However I don't know how to ship them flat ( this means I assemble them, this I understand and want ). So you will have to pay an over sized shipping fee. Oh yeah we are a week and half out on shipping.
Supply House #4
We have them in stock. We ship them flat ( Remember this is a good thing ). Unfortunately we can't ship them out today. However they should go out on Monday. Tuesday at the latest. ( Unfortunately they are about as far away as it can be) I went with them.
I swear it is like brains have been turned off. I had a couple of other supply houses that were simple enough to tell me they don't stock them. I can deal with that. However many of these places simply do not know how to box & ship properly. When you tell them you are placing an order to be shipped you can here the defeated sigh in some of their voices.
I realize that I am not placing an order for 400 pieces of equipment. However I remember who I refer others to and where I continue to purchase from.
Sincerely,
Brendhan
It also seems to me that beekeeping supply houses are 3X higher on freight than any non beekeeping vendor. What makes beekeeping supplies so expensive to ship? 1 lb is 1 lb. :?
I'd also like to know about shipping cost. I'm lucky that two suppliers are within two hrs of me. 99% of my stuff come from them after a drive. It's the 1% that kills me that I have to ship which makes up a 1/3 of the cost. I feel sorry for folks that are not within driving distance.
i've recently had both cardboard and eznucs shipped to me (both shipped along with a lot of other stuff). these are not easy to ship! the eznucs are 1 piece (including the cover), and can't really be folded in half...so the splayed out nuc is huge. the cardboard ones aren't much better in this regard. i'm not a shipping expert by any means, but i think they are too big to ship flat, so they get somewhat folded in a big box....a lot of wasted space (unless there are appropriate items to fill the space with). i'd be curious if anyone could figure out a cheap way to ship these in small and/or larger quantitites.
somehow, i've always known that these particular items were expensive to ship (i don't know if i read it on one of the forums, or if it was in a catalog).
in the end, however, there is only one way to get cheap shipping...truck shipments (on pallets rather than in boxes). you will need a loading dock or a forklift (and a big enough order....pool together with your friends or bee club). we find that our shipping costs (on pallets) are often as low as 10% of the ups/usps shipping in boxes.
i know a number of people who have built CNC routers....i bet with a little trial/error one could copy an unassembled cardboard nuc and use cheap/free local scrap cardboard instead of buying/shipping them.
deknow
I feel fortunate that I live close to mann lake. We have a courier up here(MN/WI) called speedee delivery and I can make an order and have it on my doorstep the next morning for 1/2 the cost of any other courier. If you MN/WI beeks did not know about this, just leave a note in your order or ask them about it.