shipping wheels betweeen friends/members, lessons learned

Rockcrawler

Guys, just wanted to help others learn from a recent transaction that had way to much murphy in it (Murphy's law).

Not my first rodeo, been buying and selling on line for over 15 yrs. for a while I was manufacturing hardcore jeep stuff and was usually shipping open account to other jeep guys, never got burned.

my intent is not to make either of us look like dummies.... just a few things went wrong and figured we could save someone else the heartache.

made a deal on 4 sport mounted balanced TPMS pristine with 3 k miles, agreed on a shipped price. Agreed to use paypal. Another member here

first hurdle was I sent the money in advance (they were still on the car) to close the deal..... except I left one "S" out of his account name..... I was positive I sent the funds and he was positive it did not post to his account. I was traveling, took me a few days to figure out my goof. I was humbled

Second hurdle was when I sent the funds, he was surprised that Paypal took their 3% (which is what paypal takes from the seller by default as a cost of doing business). So we discussed and agreed to go with the normal paypal default system.

A few days later he shipped, but he could not find boxes the correct size, so he paid more out of pocket to break the wheels and tires down and more to ship (ouch). It also meant I would have to spend time and money to remount and balance. I found this out after they shipped. I would've waited another week to find boxes given the choice.

once I had the tracking number, he asked me to "confirm receipt" which was new to me. Not sure if this is new in general or triggered by the dollar amount. I logged in and began to do that. Then the system asks me to verify I got the goods and they are as advertised. I was not willing to do that as it appeared I would have "compromised" my protection if something went wrong. I explained this, he said his friend told him i could just confirm anyway.... I explained I was not going to lie about it and be exposed if something went wrong. he was agitated.

so all shows up on monday instead of friday.... I'm on a biz trip but have my 18 yr old son inspect, he's on the race team and has worked in body shops so he's qualified. 3 of 4 wheels were packed with soft covering on the face and were fine. The 4th wheel had nothing soft protecting the finish and chafed on the cardboard to the point that the paint was worn to bare metal in a small spot on 3 of 5 spokes. going rate to refinish is $100 and we worked that out between us. He was going to try to file a claim with the shipper but I doubt he will succeed as the boxes were fine.


so a lot of us buy sell trade amongst ourselves..... be carefull, eyes wide open, don't overlook how the messes can happen. Mod's, if this should be moved to another forum, go for it but I thought the info would do the most good here.

Peace

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2009 silver sport, 6MT touring and nav, 8700 miles when I got it, "almost" a daily driver now... bone stock aside from tint and Gemini CBE, PC'd Rays black stardust and running 275/295 DWS rubber

twinturbonet

Thanks for that heads-up man. Sorry you went through some headaches! We live and we learn!

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kenchan

sucks. sorry to hear.

but yah, when shipping wheels/tires, one is better off using mirror sheets (thin foam sheet) on the face side (add painter's tape on spokes that protrude past the rim), then tape circular cardboards (2 layers each side) on both the face and back sides of the wheel/tire.

use packing to tape at least 4 diameter lengths. the tire treads can be exposed, but the wheels must be taped securely.
dont use bubble wrap as heat can potentially leave marks on the finish.


you might be able to buy this return packaging from tirerack. it's about $20 or so + shipping.

Rockcrawler

When I get new wheels from Raceline for the tow rig/race jeep they come with nice soft showercap type deals to protect..... there are options, just bettter to be overzealous.

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2009 silver sport, 6MT touring and nav, 8700 miles when I got it, "almost" a daily driver now... bone stock aside from tint and Gemini CBE, PC'd Rays black stardust and running 275/295 DWS rubber

kenchan

yes, new wheels without tires usually come with large shower cap looking things indeed.

but for wheel/tire package, usually they come in a box or the packaging scheme i mentioned above except stores use nylon bands/straps + packing tape so they dont slip off.

corbin09

There is an underlying cause to this problem. Packaging material and shipping is expensive so naturally shippers are going to do whatever necessary to cut costs. I know this first hand as to get my wheels shipped to the buyer in a manner I was comfortable with I had to take a 200 dollar loss on the item. I was not happy selling my Sport Rays for 720 net dollars but the amount and paypal was already agreed on, and I am a man of my word.

The moral of the story is, PRIOR to negotiating or agreeing on a price do your due-diligence on ACTUAL (not website estimated) shipping costs so that you are aware of what you are really going to have to go through to get your large item to the buyer.

It will end up saving you a lot of headache in the end.

Ubetit

Best way to ship wheels and tires.. I've never had a poblem

kenchan

That plus tape on the straps.

tjlazer

^ yep, I was just about to post that up. That is how I got my Nismo wheels.

Way cheaper and easier to ship and they do not get damaged that way. The rubber does all the packing work for ya!

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2009 370Z Monterey Blue,Nismo Conversion,RE-11's, K&N Typhoon intakes,Blue Kickplates,Homelink,FI 18" CBE,ERZ HFCs,Hotchkis sways, Swift Spec-R, EVO-R Highwing, UPREV