Trying my luck with uShip

Arthur Dent

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Donor 9 years: 2015-2022, 2025
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Location
St Louis Area, Illinois
So I just booked my first gig on uShip. I bought a non-working Space Invaders off eBay. It's in Seneca Illinois and I am in Freeburg Illinois. Same state but still a bit of a drive. I would do it but my wife is getting a little tired of my trips for games. :D I am already driving up to Minneapolis to pick up a couple of games from Shawn over Thanksgiving and my wife and daughters are coming with only because it gives them the chance to go to the Mall of America. I was going to swing by and pick up the SI on the way back but I thought I would check out uShip and see what it was all about.

It was easy to setup a quick profile. It says I have only completed 25% but apparently that is all I need to use the site. I was able to import the item via the eBay number. I added dimensions and weight I found off a flyer and put in the originating and destination zip codes. Then people start bidding on what they will charge to pick up and deliver. The people bidding have their own profile with reviews and what type of service they are offering, i.e. balnket service, white glove, and what they are using to haul, i.e. open trailer, truck, or enclosed trailer.

They have 10 days to bid, at which time you have 24 hours to choose a carrier or pass. At any time you can accept a bid. What I found interesting is that sometimes you would receive a time sensitive bid from someone who might tell you that they will be driving though the zip you specified that day only. So if you miss the message like I did on a few then the bid is no longer valid. I had a bid for $125 that was like this. the opening bid was $600 which made me laugh but they quickly dropped to under $300 and in the last few days they have been around $150. I finally went ahead and accepted a bid for $140 which included the fees from uShip. This was a lot better than I originally expected and if everything goes smoothly I will try this again with another game I just bought off here. ;)

I post again to let you know how things go. Right now they are supposed to contact the seller to schedule pickup. Before I accepted a bid, I contacted the seller to make sure they were ok with me arranging pickup this way as I had originally told them I would be picking it up myself.
 
If you do an auction style listing on Uship is it like a binding contract? Feels like it's hard to get a quote on there without getting knee deep into a transaction and I wouldn't want to commit to buying a game if I didn't know the shipping cost before hand.
 
If you do an auction style listing on Uship is it like a binding contract? Feels like it's hard to get a quote on there without getting knee deep into a transaction and I wouldn't want to commit to buying a game if I didn't know the shipping cost before hand.

No, there is nothing binding until you click the "accept" button for one of the active bids. If you don't accept any of the bids then the listing just expires.

I just got a call from the shipper. We talked for a bit about how he grew up in Seneca and his son was going up there this week and he is going up there at the end of the week and coming back on Sunday. He said once he got back he could deliver it to me whenever it was convenient for me up though next week. I told him that Monday would probably be good but that I needed to check with my wife as she would be the one to receive it and would call him tomorrow. Seemed like a nice enough fellow.
 
So the Space Invaders was delivered last night. Unfortunately I was driving to the airport to pick up my daughter when it was delivered. The driver was very communicative and I had asked if he could deliver it Sunday night instead of Monday so I knew I was probably going to be gone when he delivered it as he told me the time he would probably arrive and he was on time.

There was only one thing I was unhappy with. The service he listed himself as providing was "blanket wrap service" so I assumed he would be blanketing the game for transport. I also assumed it would be on a trailer as that was also listed as the transport device. Turns out he just loaded it on the back of his truck which would have been fine by me. He knew the dimensions and since it was only one game I'm sure he decided not to use his trailer for just one item. But my wife told me the game was loaded on its side and just laying on some other boards in the back of his truck.

Now the game sides obviously show a lot of wear just because of the age of the game. So I can't say that any particular scuff was caused during transport, but I feel that if you list yourself as a blanket wrap service then you should follow through with that.

So I will be mentioning this on my review on the uShip website. I will mention how the shipper was polite and punctual and communicative, etc but that blanket wrap service was not provided.

Overall I think it was a good experience, and I will definitely be using uShip again, but I will have to make sure I confirm exactly what services they plan on using and what I am expecting, not just that they say they offer them.
 
I tried Uship once because STI couldn't get their truck down a country road for pickup. It was about $50 cheaper. The Uship guy picked up the machine, got 2 states away and his motor blew. So I had to arrange for another shipper to pick it up from there. It's amateur hour with Uship.
 
I have had positive experiences with u-ship. It is recommended you read all the reviews and pay attention to what the reviewers say, if someone gets one bad review then sometimes you can put it down to pickiness but several and you walk away. I have had 4 seperate shipments picked up and delivered (3 in the states and one in the UK) and all have been 100% fine. Three were the lowest quote I got and one was about $50 more then the lowest quote but the lowest quote had 4 negatives...
 
I'm trying UShip for the first time also right now. I need to transport my arcade I bought 1500 miles. So far I only have 1 bid for $550 (ouch). Over 3 days left until the end of auction. I hope I get lower bids.
 
I'm trying UShip for the first time also right now. I need to transport my arcade I bought 1500 miles. So far I only have 1 bid for $550 (ouch). Over 3 days left until the end of auction. I hope I get lower bids.

Probably better off with NAVL through a agent who knows what they're doing. I typically pay around $375 door-to-door with lift gate service on both ends. And those air ride trucks are worth it.

I tried UShip once also, but the prices were either not good enough in light of the services provided, or after a thorough look through feedback and company info there will be SOMEthing that prevents me from wanting to use them (bad/sketchy feedback, minimum wait times like 2 weeks to 2 months, etc.). Caveat emptor.
 
You'll get that kind of shit when you call NAVL direct. They fuck up on the freight classification which throws the price way off. Try one of the recommended NAVL/STI agents, you should get a way better price. I've had I think 4 games moved by them one at a time. Right at about $375 each time regardless of the distance.

NAVL just quoted me $634.50 to move a game 1500 miles. That is even more.
 
There is an interesting reality TV series on A&E called Shipping Wars which is based on uShip shippers. I caught a few episodes last year and it was pretty enlightening of the range of what happens on those kinds of deals. I think the new season is starting soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_Wars
 
There is an interesting reality TV series on A&E called Shipping Wars which is based on uShip shippers. I caught a few episodes last year and it was pretty enlightening of the range of what happens on those kinds of deals. I think the new season is starting soon.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shipping_Wars

I already had the arcade I bought listed with UShip. The auction just ended today with only 1 bid of $550. So I wasted a week waiting on bids with no good bids.
 
uship

i had a good experience on uship. i shipped a cocktail cabinet from cleveland to san diego. the guy was great ontime setup inside customers home and was very polite. i paid $350 blanket wrap service and felt it was worth the price(no damage).
 
I watch the show and there's no way in hell I'd ever use Uship!

Now, my opinion might be show biased, but that's good enough for me. I get that the show can stage things, hype drama and things, but again, not for me.

If the show hypes things up, then it's really not helping Uship because I'm sure there are others that feel the way I do from watching the show.
 
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