I haven’t been on here in a couple years. I buy gloves, tires, unicycles, cranks, spacers, but haven’t bought anything from them lately. I’m trying to buy a couple pairs of kris holm gloves. $ 20.53 shipping for less than one pound package. Seems steep. I chat unicycle.com, I explain, they say call the warehouse. I do. Person on the phone says contract is with FedEx and, that’s it . End of conversation. Here’s what could have happened, sorry sir, you shouldnt have to pay fed ex for $20.00 or even more for usps medium flat rate box, I can ship that in a small flat rate box for under 10.00. But it didn’t. I ship things and I know what things cost. It’s not $20.00. I know i”m cheap but im also just fed up with people or companies that don’t care. Let’s hear what you think.
I get it. And I agree. If a company offers UPS and Fed Ex pricing, they should also offer USPS pricing (or whatever else is available).
$20 to ship a pair of gloves is too much, when a cheaper alternative is available.
My request is to lay out ALL of the options, and let the customer decide.
A final thought on this… This may not change any time soon, if ever. This may be out of UDCs control, for one reason or another. Their shipping prices have been high for years, to the point that our local unicycle club would combine/pool orders, so that shipping prices would be somewhat reasonable when spread across the group order.
Currently, I happily pay the shipping that is quoted, knowing that UDC is the only retailer that has what I need, and also with the knowledge that if my order for wrist-protecting gloves was canceled due to shipping costs, I would have happily paid another $10 to receive the gloves (or KH Leg Armor) I wanted.
Sometimes, only Mad4One is the only retailer that has what I need. The shipping from Italy is eye-opening, and puts the UDC shipping in perspective/context.
Also, I ride one or more of my unicycles multiple times per week, and I never see another unicycle rider. So, UDC isn’t benefiting from bulk shipping discounts from my part of the world. If I saw unicycles everywhere, I bet the shipping would be cheaper.
All of the above being said, I would love to see UDC offer a lower-priced shipping option, even if the shipping time was long (even comically longer).
100%. For a small item, such as a frame, it’s 29 euros to ship to the east coast from Italy. For a whole unicycle, I think it was 79 euros. M4O shipping is cheap.
I bought a seat post clamp on Amazon for this exact reason…free shipping. offering a low cost shipping alternative for smaller and less expensive items would be beneficial to UDC customers and I believe would drive more frequent ordering especially on impulse items. after all we all love to “spend” money on our hobby UDC could give us a reason to do so with low cost shipping on inexpensive and small items or how about free shipping on orders over a certain dollar amount .
UDC does offer free shipping for large purchases, at times. When I purchased my 27.5” muni, I received free shipping. That was a huge benefit.
UDC is a great company and we all use them and they are here for us and we all should be very grateful. Shipping costs are an issue for all industries and even for us buying used items. just look at the at the trading post threads and you will see lots of conversations trying to figure out affordable shipping options between our forum members and it is really difficult. I think another thing to keep in mind is that UDC is a small business they are not a giant business, Also Josh From UDC is on this forum I’m sure he appreciates this feedbsck.
One more thing this YouTube video is awesome and will certainly put a human face onto UDC.
Take the time to watch it.
About 8:54 unicyclist.com gets a shout out.
ok, it looks like the grip is about UDC US, but you may have heard me grip about our own shipping from UDC UK!!!
Few truths about shipping:
- There is no such thing as free shipping, the cost of shipping is taken out of the price of the goods.
- Amazon take between 30 and 35% of the price of the goods from the retailer behind them to give you their service fees… that is often all the profit!!
- Using postal is a risk and a risk that shops often wont take. It may be cheap but it is effectivley uninsured and with super slow deliveries (you get lots of complaints about), incorrect deliveries, loss and damages. We would need to charge more to cover the substancial loss we have by using it. UDC UK only use it for low value items and not to USA.
- The unicycle industry is tiny, but we play big… but when it comes to shipping you need to actually be big.
- UDC UK owns a commercial postroom, it is because of that it actually has reasonable shipping costs… but even then the cost is too much.
- Duty and Taxes must be paid when the item enters a country… normally by the customer. but we can take off the UK taxes (20%) in the cart before it shipped.
I do not know the solution, but I do know that all traders are painfully aware of the cost of shipping but we are really tied in to what we can get.
I’m not entirely sure of the solution, but UDC is definitely losing sales at the cart when (US) people see the shipping costs. Based on what we are used to seeing, it often looks like double. Adding items does not always significantly reduce the per item shipping cost as the shipping seems to ramp more than expected.
Most of my purchases the last few years have been from UDC UK. ( until the tarrifs) It has literally been cheaper to get parts in the UK and pay the shipping then getting them in the USA.
My gripe is that the shipping costs increase not by weight but by numbers of items:
You buy half a dozen parts to complete your new unicycle. Then, while you’re shopping you add 40 spoke washers to the basket. Shipping costs explode while there’s hardly any additional weight (or volume).
Other than that, I’m fine. I mean, shipping is more expensive than I like. In general. But just because the big boys sell so much stuff that they can offer free shipping while keeping the prices on the actual items low doesn’t mean that it’s possible for small and medium companies. And as has been mentioned before: while UDC is one of the big boys in the unicycling business, they are still a small fish in absolute terms.
oh… adding lots of small parts to a cart is a nightmare. Of course we can give exact weight, that is not the problem, the problem is volumised weight. The weight is calculated for DHL as L x B x W / 6000 (in cm and weight is given in kg). Then which ever is heavier, the real weight or the volumised weight is used. Now… good old programmers have problem in small things. They round to the cm!!! Then you expect us to actually put them inside the volume for a larger item… which we mostly can, but the mathamatical model can not!
Consumers are not the only ones that pay for shipping. The business you are dealing with whether on line or brick and mortar have shipping and or transportation costs to deal with. business owners experience the same anxiety and frustration about shipping costs that is being expressed here in this thread just like you the consumer. Juggling customer expectations with your need to survive as a business, take care of your employees and your family is very thin tight rope to walk.
100%
If you think your 2 person appliance delivery really costs £20 i’ve got seaside property in Kansas to sell you. Also that nice branded cardboard box your small items come in can easily cost a couple of pounds.
Depending on the business, a certain amount of delivery cost is factored into the unit markup alongside logistics, handling and packaging etc.. Unless you’re buying from a VC cash burning abomination, you’re still paying for your “free” shipping. Also, please don’t support companies that intentionally operate at a loss like that, it completely messes up everyone else!
One thing i would suggest is selling small “penny” items by the 1 is might not be the most logical move any more. Not only can it mess up the shipping calculator but also it takes a lot of additional work to count when it could be divided by weight and sold as bags of “about 100”.
Very interesting to see DHLs cubage calculation. Makes a lot of sense especially given how mass limited small delivery vehicles are…
I only gave one example of the volumizing calculation. DHL alone have 3 different ones depending on the service and destinations. (4000, 5000, and 6000), then you have different companies like Parcelforce, UPS, DPD will give different calculations for effectively the same service. If you really want to be bored stupid buy me a beer and ask me to try and explain logistics!
Don’t offer me a good time 
I figured the calculation was logical as 833kg is a reasonable max payload for most 3.5T vans. That translates into 5 cubic metres which is probably also a good max volume without crushing things or being too many stops for the driver to complete.
While sorting, trunking, etc. are going to also add cost; the vast majority of UK domestic delivery cost is going to be that van that takes the goods to your front door.
USPS is going to cheaper for smaller boxes in the US. Companies like Bikeflights are much cheaper for shipping larger bulkier bikes, wheels, frames, etc.
I’ll add to that PirateShip - I’ve been using them to print discounted shipping labels for years to ship my personal stuff.
I really know nothing about shipping in the commercial/ecommerce environment but PirateShip apparently integrates with several: Ecommerce Shipping Integrations | Pirate Ship