I placed an order to Midway today for $26.00, just some cheap scope mounts, and some cleaning stuff. No bullets, nothing heavy, they will ship it in one of their smallest boxes. It will weigh under two lbs. Shipping was $9.56. I'll admit I was a dumbass for even going ahead with my order, but that's it. Fuck you Midway

I have to empathize with your feelings... Their shipping costs seem unreasonable anymore. I've noticed they seem higher than they used to be before when they used their former shipping methods.

Try cliffsgunsmithing.com

They've got very reasonable shipping and prices are competitive considering what Midway's shipping adds up to anymore.

Let me make sure I understand. You knew the shipping would be $9.56. You went ahead and ordered then post this message.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Let me make sure I understand. You knew the shipping would be $9.56. You went ahead and ordered then post this message.

Ramrod, I admitted being a dumbass. I just wanted to let people know, and this has been on here several times before, that Midway's shipping is a ripoff. You are quite witty. BA

Yeah, and Potterfield has the balls to call their shipping fees "fair and honest".

Grafs

FREIGHT - Freight is prepaid to the 1st 48 states on regular ground service only except for target load ammo (see below). Orders shipping to AK & HI, or any customer requesting a different ship via than UPS or FedEx ground will pay actual freight & insurance. We reserve the right to ship by UPS, FedEx, commercial truck or Parcel Post. Each order will have a Non-Refundable $3.75 handling and insurance charge added, excluding AK & HI orders or any order where the customer pays actual freight & insurance. This charge is per order. If items are backordered there will NOT be another $3.75 charge.

Well at least eBay offers an alternative - but I know, we all have some problems with their policies.

Frankly, I like the incredible, in-depth inventory Midway has and their well thought out website - they offer plenty of closeout and inventory reduction deals to make up for what some think is excess shipping.

I can't seem to find a better dealer - or one that has the inventory of Midway.

I guess my view is a little different. A supplier has the right to charge what he wants for a product. I have the right to accept it or not. He can break the shipping out as Midway does now or include it in the price. But, either way the customer is paying for it. Even the suppliers that include it vary how they calculate it. Some estimate an average distance and use the weight other just take their historical shipping and distribute it. But one way or another the customer is paying the shipping. I have always found Midways "Estimated Shipping" to be very accurate. I buy from several suppliers. Heck I was raised in Grafs hometown. I simply look at the total delivered cost no matter how it's calculated and make my decision.

If I knew the deal going in and didn't like it but did it anyway then I have no reason to be angry with anyone but myself.

Just my 2 cents before morning coffee.

I recently bought a good bit of stuff from Midway, including lots of ammo boxes, which are light but bulky. There were some other odds & ends, as it is cheaper in the end to up the poundage by a couple pounds in one shipment rather than paying for two separate orders/shipments.

The box that showed up must've been about 18" x 18" x 24" or so. Pretty good sized. Total shipping on it was something like $11 and change. I thought that was quite reasonable considering the size of the box. And, I had it in two days.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Let me make sure I understand. You knew the shipping would be $9.56. You went ahead and ordered then post this message.

oi!!
let's not put larry's trash on him... shesh... larry HAS to go on those 30 days safaris!!

jeffe

What Cold Bore said, and there is a lot to be said for one stop shopping. As far as the price of shipping goes, get used to it folks, at todays escalating fuel prices, I can assure you that todays shipping costs are the cheapest they will ever be. It's a sad fact of life.
Best, Starcharvski

Another thought...

A few months back, I bought some other stuff from them. Included were some more plastic ammo boxes. When they showed up, one had a corner crushed/cracked/busted.

I sent them a polite email with a picture of the broken box. It wasn't a big deal, I was basically saying "this just happened, you might want to pack better next time". I wasn't going to send it back, as it was only something like $2.

The next morning, I had an email with an apology. Two days later, I unexpectedly had TWO new ammo boxes at my door to replace my broken one. True, not a lot of money involved, but still a very fine recovery on their end.

Sorry you had a bad experience with Midway Bill. If you should choose to order from them again, check the shipping options and for things like you ordered, Priority Mail or Parcel Post is often much cheaper. The default is for UPS ground and they have been raising prices of late.

If a guy has made enough money from his business to take 30 day safaries more power to him. Just wish I had come up with the Idea.

I have to agree about the shipping charges being out of proportion. Many boxes with Midway labels have hit here in the last year.

For this reason, I try not to make orders of less than $100 from them to spread the shipping out over the number of items. I continue to order from Midway because of their inventory.

BUT.............. my two differences with Midway policies:

1. THE #$%^&*(*&^%$#$%^&**&^%$%^& STYROFOAM PEANUTS ! Opening that box in my unheated basement in the winter w/ plenty of static electricity present. GEEZE ! I pull a box of bullets out of the styrofoam soup and engage in a MAJOR struggle to get the &^$%^&(*&%^&*^&^& white things off of the item and then my fingers ! All the while each and every piece of styrofoam floats off into the floor and has to be picked up.

2. When an item is backordered, I am charged a ridiculous fee for sending that single item. On my last order, I asked them to retract a backordered item because I did not want to pay more for the shipping than the item cost. They sent it anyway.......... a $ 8.00 item with an $8.95 shipping charge........... absolutely ridiculous and unreasonable. It is not OUR fault they are out of an item. Why penalize the people that keep them in business? They should apologize and pay the shipping charges if said items are out of stock. We are the customers................

My two shots worth...............

I have placed two orders in the last 10 days or so. The first order weighed 36 lbs and it costs $24.60 to ship. That seemed reasonable to me. The second order weighed 15.4 lbs and cost $10.25 to ship. This also seemed reasonable. I guess that shipping something with low weight and a medium weight isn't that big of a price difference for UPS to ship. I also guess that since I never ordered from Midway when they had free shipping I don't have as much to be upset about.

The fuel surcharge is a racket. An absolute lie-in-your face racket.

In truckload quantities, the transportation costs of an item run about 10 to 20 c/lb, depending on the bulk. UPS runs $1.00 per lb.

Now, they take a 20% surcharge on their cost due to fuel? They, basically, take a fuel surchare on their depreciation, their wages, their bonuses, their profit, their union dues, etc, etc.

Lots of prices will increase due to "fuel costs" in the next few months, simply because the public accepts that excuse. JMO, Dutch.

On one of my last orders from Midway the shipping was $25.26 on a package that weighed 45 pounds. I felt this was very fair. Included in that order was a box of 500 8MM Mauser cases, (Remington). When I finished loading them I was 37 cases short. I've ordered thousands of rounds of brass from them in the past, and this has never happened. In one 2 minute phone call they made it right and sent me 2, 20 round packages of the same brass at no charge Priority Mail. It arrived yesterday. I've got no problem with Midway, or their shipping charges. I think if you order small amounts you will pay a higher shipping charge than if you place large heavy orders. This seems to be true at most mail order houses. My wife shops for a lot of clothes and shoes on line and some of their shipping charges are really high. I can't complain. billt

I buy a LOT of stuff from midway and find the shipping costs very reasonable, BUT when I order, I order a lot. For example, I ordered 15 items today..everything from a ton of patches to a 44 inch 1-piece cleaning rod...order total (with ffl discount) was around $80 and shipping was $8.98 (ups ground) But considering the physical size of the order, I felt that was very fair. In my own business, I charge priority mail rates on 90% of my items, and as long as my charge is close to the actual cost, people do not complain. On the other hand, if someone in the U.K. wants a $5 part, the cost for ME to ship it is $25 minimum.
So while midway may seem high, they are fair if you order a LOT of stuff at once.
And I also like midway because even using the cheap ups ground, it only takes a day or two to get my orders from them!

I think the trick is to order a large quantity. In any case, I like Midway. Their service is great as is their selection of products. I'll pay the postage to get the stuff I want.

Just received an order I placed on Sunday...via their website. $8.36 shipping for an 8.5 lbs box.

I'll admit though...it seems like it IS cheaper to ship when ordering over the Internet...?

I frequently order the same stuff...and I seem to recall paying $11.00 or so for this awhile back.

You got surcharged because they have a $40.00 minimum order. I'm sure this was clearly stated on the invoice.
Pete

No commment pro or con from me about this but this is from Midway's web site:

Special Handling Charge
MidwayUSA attempts to keep our costs as low as possible so we can give our Customers the best pricing in the Industry. Since we will accept any size order, there is a Special Handling Charge of $3.00 for all retail product orders under $25.00 and $4.00 for all dealer product orders under $40.00 to offset the additional costs associated with handling orders under these amounts.

Yep, always order at least $40. worth.

Although Grafs does not have all of the product pictures that midway has on their website, their shipping is always $3 and change and their pricing for stuff is comparable to midway. I have been ordering from Grafs lately, used to order from Midway.

Not to get too fine a point on things, however, Grafs handling and insurance charge is now $4.75 per order.

As mentioned, Grafs does not charge for shipping on back ordered items. Midway does.

RCG

quote:

BUT.............. my two differences with Midway policies:

1. THE #$%^&*(*&^%$#$%^&**&^%$%^& STYROFOAM PEANUTS ! Opening that box in my unheated basement in the winter w/ plenty of static electricity present. GEEZE ! I pull a box of bullets out of the styrofoam soup and engage in a MAJOR struggle to get the &^$%^&(*&%^&*^&^& white things off of the item and then my fingers ! All the while each and every piece of styrofoam floats off into the floor and has to be picked up.

..

quote:

Originally posted by fireball168:
I'll admit though...it seems like it IS cheaper to ship when ordering over the Internet...?

I don't find that to be true.

On my last few orders, I get on the computer, find my stuff (make sure it's in stock cause I won't backorder anything, and if I'm close to the $40 limit, I don't want any surprises), then I let the computer figure shipping.

Then, I hang up & call them. My shipping has always been identical to what it was online.

Why do I call them instead of just placing it online? Because I can't stand the trend of people being put out of work by "automation". By calling, the girl that answers the phone can justify her job.

Maybe it's a trivial point, but I've had too many friends, and seen too many others, get replaced by a "machine".

Havn't had any trouble with Midway yet and I live close enough the shipping is fair. The last shipment cost $7.50 so wasn't bad. But I still don't believe in the $3.00 charge for a small item is right.

quote:

1. THE #$%^&*(*&^%$#$%^&**&^%$%^& STYROFOAM PEANUTS ! Opening that box in my unheated basement in the winter w/ plenty of static electricity present. GEEZE ! I pull a box of bullets out of the styrofoam soup and engage in a MAJOR struggle to get the &^$%^&(*&%^&*^&^& white things off of the item and then my fingers !

Man, have you got that right! Why they don't spend a few extra cents for static free peanuts is beyond me!

Let me see now. You ordered from Midway knowing they would load the box with those ^%$$((*&&&^#%$%^strofoam peanuts, went down into a basment filled with static electricty in the winter, pulled everything out, then want to bitch about them sticking to your fingers? Duuuuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhh way to shoot straight arrow!

I like Midway as well. I ordered on Monday and the stuff got here early Wednesday morning. Not bad for just ordinary UPS group delivery. On the other hand, I did choose not to order the one item that they were out of stock on. Once I saw the shipping break down on the web (before committing to any final order), I noticed that the backordered item, with a cost of $3 or so, would be sent in a separate shipment at the same $8 cost, I decided not to order it.

I'll just include it in my next order or buy it locally. Ordering something only makes sense if the total delivered cost of the item beats what you can get it for locally - unless it's just not available. As for shipping costs - take a look at the price of diesel next time you fill up your car. It's gotten pretty pricy!

This is getting a bit off topic, but to deal with the static, buy a can of Static Guard for clothing, spray a bit in the box when you open it and the static issue is gone....I use it on my car/truck seats too, works great so you don't get that surprise shock when you touch the door frame when getting out of the vehicle! Static Guard can be found in the laundry soap section at your local super market.

I alwayw order a lot of stuff at one time. shipping is usually about $10 or so. My last order included a reamer they did not have. I went ahead a ordered it payed for it and I got to choose how they shipped it, $1.25 regular USPS. We have options on how they ship to us, it is up to us to decide the best option for us. I usually order over the computer, never had a problem, always gets here in two days.

It isnt just Midway. Shipping costs as are fuel costs are up everywhere. It is best to order the most goods you can for the shipping rate. Cuts your overall cost significantly.

In this world of horrible customer service, I have found MidwayUSA to be one of the rare companies that has been absolutely flawless in every way.

Shipping is not bad for normal orders. All most sellers will be high on shpping for small orders.

Thats my vote FOR midway ... but I do hate the peanuts also...

geeeeeeeeeeeeeeez,I don't know about anybody else,but I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere and to order online and get the products available from midway and other suppliers shipping is to me, not that unreasonble,especially when you know he cost before you buy! It's black and and white,If you don't like the shipping charges,don't buy it...But to buy and bitch?I dunno, some people would bitch if they got hung with a new rope

It's true in both the U.S. and Canada, and God forbid if you are shipping from one to the other. It's like the PST and GST. It in no way helps you, but by God the government has to have its greedy little paws in there. The Post Ofice feels it has to get its cut also, a bigger cut each year. It's a sore point with me also, but what in hell can we do? Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Their shipping can be high and I price out the entire order between Midway, Grafs, etc. but Midway comes out with a total cost cheaper than everyone most of the time. A lot of times Midsouth is a little cheaper but they don't always have what I want.

I just looked at my last Midway order and I had 500 rounds of Starline 10mm Brass, 200 200g .40 Caliber XTPs, 200 180g .40 XTPs, 200 180g .357 XTPs, 100 158g .357 XTPs, 500 180g .40 Win TC bullets, a set of 10mm \ .40 caliber dies, a holster and some other crap and the damage was -

Postage, Handling & Insurance: $15.04

Heck that is less than the sales tax would have cost me if I bought it locally.