Shipping Costs

(410)866-1587
info@brassarts.com

We have instituted a new shipping cost policy. Shipping costs for instruments will go up considerably, and I would like to tell you why.

First, we must pass through the cost of shipping. However we get it to you, there is a cost to send it via UPS, FedEx, US Postal Service, etc. And, we always send items insured, and often send them requiring a signature, all of which adds cost to the shipment. It has always been our policy to recoup the freight costs we incur.

Second, we must also pass through the cost of the materials we use to pack your item for shipping. These materials are expensive, and always include a new, sturdy box; void fill, which is often known as "packing peanuts"; bubble wrapping; and heavy duty packing tape. Often we reuse void fill and bubble wrapping that we receive in shipment, and that does bring down our per-shipment cost on these items. Even so, the average cost per shipment on these items is several dollars. It has always been our policy to recoup the materials cost we incur.

Third, we spend time packing your shipment. In the past, we have never charged for our time to pack your items. However, a recent analysis of the time it takes to properly pack an instrument so that it arrives safely is around 20 minutes. When extended to the entire year, we realize that we have lost a considerable amount of billable time to packing instruments, somewhere between 50 and 100 billable hours in a year. And this does not take into account the amount of time we spend going to UPS, FedEx, the post office, etc. It is a new policy that we must recoup our time for preparing certain time-consuming shipments, especially for instruments.

Taking all of the above into consideration, we have decided to institute a fee of $25 whenever we pack and ship an instrument, or any item that requires a similar amount of time to package properly. This will be in addition to the costs to box and ship the item, which we will charge on every shipment. Customers can expect to pay around $10 - $15 on packing materials for instrument shipments. Smaller shipments will typically not incur these charges, but for instruments and similar large or delicate items we must recoup our time and expenses.

Does this seem unfair? Well, if you were to drive to our shop you would currently pay over $3 per gallon of gasoline, and would incur a depreciation on your vehicle of at least $.25 per mile driven. And, how much is your time worth? If you come to our shop to pick up an instrument we would never charge you for shipping, but you definitely would pay a cost to do so. Of course, you would save the expense of packing materials, but then so would we.

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