Shipping costs- WTF

Shipping prices got out of control before the Pandemic, and then after the Pandemic, they went nuts. I was a store owner and we had a UPS account with daily pick ups and deliveries. The thing that killed me was, every day when you opened up the software, there were increases due to "fuel charges. I get that fuel is a cost of doing business, and if gas goes up, so do the shipping charges. BUT then fuel prices would drop, but the rates would not change, until they went up again. Just to show how much shipping prices went up. In the early 2000's to ship a 18" x 24" x 18" box in state (approximately 100 miles), weighing approximately 38lbs was $11.71. That same box today is over $50.00. I know prices on everything have gone up, but that is almost five fold.

I recently shipped a pair of Magnepan .7s and stands via FedEx. The delivered the stands and lost the Magnepans! After two weeks of supposed 'looking' they declared the shipment lost and I filed a claim for the value of the speakers as sold and shipping, $976.00. Surprise! When I got the check it was for $117.00 supposedly because I had not declared the value of the shipment. Which, BTW, you are not asked, nor is there any place on the online form to do so. My appeal is underway. Needless to say I will not be using FedEx again, and I encourage everyone to avoid them as well.

HTF do you lose a 5 1/2 ft tall, 2 ft wide, 6" deep box, anyway? It was clearly marked with both my and the receivers addresses, inside and out, as well as having a FedEx tracking number. FedEx has no answer. 

Covid was a great excuse for companies to raise their prices across the board.

I agree, costs are never coming back down.  The genie is out of the bottle on this one....

My favorite solution to all of this has been to use a bulk rate shipping service called Rollo. I discovered it about a year ago, and it has saved me / buyers of my used gear hundreds. It’s a startup that negotiated a bulk rate with USPS and UPS and they make money by keeping a small fraction, and passing the bulk of the savings onto consumers. No monthly fee or anything. I regularly save 20-40% off the retail rate, and it is a bonus that the user interface is miles better than the UPS and USPS.

Excellent info and everyone, thank you for sharing.