Pretty sure I just got ripped off...(Olympus repair shipping)

[dougjgreen]

OP got hosed. Proper cost is on the order of $25-30 including insurance if someone packed it themselves, and perhaps $40-50 if someone else packed it for you.

 

[agentlossing]

Speaking of "internet ire", you just made up a bunch of stuff about USPS.

I'm not quoting anonymous "internet ire" but speaking from experience, when I recently tried to send something priority mail and the cost was going to be $47 when if the item had been a little less tall (but no larger combined volume) it would have cost $17. And that's just the most recent example. Our town's post office is the most inconsistent ever, in ways I don't need to go into here. USPS gets away with all kinds of absurd stuff.

 

[dougjgreen]

I'm not quoting anonymous "internet ire" but speaking from experience, when I recently tried to send something priority mail and the cost was going to be $47 when if the item had been a little less tall (but no larger combined volume) it would have cost $17. And that's just the most recent example. Our town's post office is the most inconsistent ever, in ways I don't need to go into here. USPS gets away with all kinds of absurd stuff.

USPS rates are clearly published. And you can certainly do the research to find out what the economical services are and what package sizes trigger much higher rates.

Personally, I am a big fan of the Regional Rate A Priority Mail box that you can only order and get postage for on line. It's big enough for most M43 cameras + 1 or two smaller lenses, and depending on where you are shipping to, it's between $7 and $11 for any weight you could realistically fit into the box (it maxes out at about 20 pounds, but you most likely couldn't cram more than 5-8 pounds worth of well-packed stuff into it. If you don't want to bother with online services, you can just use the slightly larger medium flat-rate priority mail box for about $15 anywhere in the US.

Insurance is extra, but a $1200 camera would cost about $17 to fully insure.

 

[griswoldo]

Yeah, lesson learned and thankfully passed on to the rest of us. You sent them to Olympus to interpret the shipping instructions. That is surely the most expensive solution possible, and UPS would be crazy to change anything in the Olympus specification (or they would assume liability). Thank God for lawyers and insurers!! Sorry, but thank you for sharing this experience.
I always have a few boxes from Amazon or somewhere that I could put stuff back in for re-shipping. Save that $40 "Materials and Services" charge. And I usually check the label to see how they shipped it to me - usually "UPS Ground", "FedEx Ground" or "USPS Priority".
They ship every day, to mimic them seems reasonable.

Thank you, WaltP, for your spot-on replies in this thread. This is exactly what happened, and your subsequent posts have represented my original intentions for posting about this issue perfectly. As both you and I have mentioned previously, I have only myself to blame in this scenario, but I wanted to bring this to light so others can make informed decisions about shipping their expensive equipment back to Olympus for repair. Thanks everyone.

 

[jdcope]

"The UPS Store" is not UPS. They're a third party that works with UPS. They make money by charging extra for packaging and providing extra services.

Actually, it technically is. UPS purchased "Mail Boxes Etc" years ago and rebranded them as the "UPS Store". But most of them are locally owned franchises.

 

[Clint]

Technically it is not UPS. A franchisee, in this case the owner of a store has licensed the use of the name and other trademarks in return of other benefits and obligations. Customer Service is one of those obligations.

If there is an an issue with a UPS store, go directly to the owner to air your grievance. If the grievance is not resolved to your satisfaction contact UPS at The UPS Store Customer Service

 

[WaltP]

I thought of this thread today when I was at a friends house and she showed me the moose antlers she mailed from Alaska, by simply attaching a card with her address and handing it to USPS. Just plain old bleached moose antlers; no envelope, no packaging. What a country! We are SO fortunate! Automatic focus, automatic exposure, and now the ability to have the strangest things mailed to our homes!