shipping guitar UPS (oversize + overweight?)

[stratoskier]

Hi,
I was asked to provide a shipping cost estimate for a guitar I'm selling. So I went to the UPS web site, followed the link for calculating Time and Shipping Cost, and entered all the info (zip codes, weight, dimensions), etc. At the end the cheapest quote was around $70 because it only gave me the air, one day, and 2nd day rates. Apparently, an average guitar box is oversized (combined length and girth over 84"), and the weight per volume is also too high.

Now we've all shipped and received lots of guitars, so I'm wondering if they just let you off the hook on the oversized/overweight thing when you show up to ship. Even without a box, an Ibanez guitar case (~42x5x15.5) has a combined length and girth of 83", so once it's in a box there's no way to meet the sub-84" size requirement. I figured a shipping weight of about 25-lbs.: that might be a little high, but not by much.

So is this just a web site quirk, or have they recently tightened up the size requirements, or ???? Any help is appreciated.

Cheers,
Bert

[kennydoe]

i did a price quote from fedex with your dimensions from Ny to California.

Was just under $20. It would take 4 business days.

~K

[stratoskier]

Thanks for the info -- sounds like I should consider using FedEx more often.

I called UPS today and was told that the web site shipping quotes are often wrong, and there was no reason why it wouldn't give me a ground shipping rate. A guitar box falls into their "Oversize 1" size class (greater than 84", but less than 108") so they calculate the costs as if it were a higher weight. Their price was $29 including insurance to $600. A bit higher than FedEx, but definitely closer to what I'm accustomed to paying than the $70+ quoted by the web.
Bert