The ePlast shipping calculator is completely arbitrary. Adding 1 single roll of Aluminum tape adds $500 to shipping. Adding another Policarb sheet of a different kind removes $150 from shipping again – see pics. Anybody know the best way to optimize it? Contacting their sales directly doesn’t help.
by ShelZuuz
5 Comments
I’m trying to order 20 sheets of Policarb from ePlast without paying an additional $500 in shipping over the quote for 19 sheets. The barrier between 19 and 20 is what seems to trigger the ridiculous jump in shipping, but at 19 even just another roll of tape also triggers that. This is very obviously broken because the shipping of a single sheet by itself is $430, so at the most it should be $430 extra, not $500. But really it should be $35 extra since that is the marginal difference between 18 and 19 sheets. We’re talking about putting 20″ height 700 lbs on a pallet vs. 19″ height 665 lbs here. It doesn’t require an additional pallet or stack.
I did contact their sales and ask them for direct quotes, but their direct quotes are even higher than the website. When I point that out they just lower to match their website. ePlast blame the shipping company for this, I know it’s not since I’ve worked with them before and they don’t have cliffs like this. This is a calculation error on the ePlast side having to do with uncommon volumes.
I’ve subsequently figured out that adding 1 more $90 sheet of a different kind of Policarb will lower the shipping by $150. So that helps… I guess. But otherwise I’m trying various combinations of how to split up the order to optimize shipping. Their site is quite slow so it’s taking forever to run through various options.
By chance, has anybody on this sub gone through this before and figured out the best way to optimize their shipping calculator?
r/fuckyouinparticular
I’m guessing this is due to different warehouses having minimum shipping sizes. Warehouse 1 has most of your stuff but only 2 tapes, warehouse 2 has your extra tape but has a minimum $500 shipping cost. Once you add the poly panel that warehouse 2 has though then they’ll ship the tape and panel to warehouse 1 because your order is officially big enough to take up room on *their* truck and that is cheaper than shipping them straight to you, and then warehouse 1 sends the whole order.
It’s probably a matter of truck space. Maybe they only stack so high so the 20th sheet takes another set of pallet slots. I think you just keep playing around with it. Or try to find someone to share an order with.
Are you near a Menard’s? Check prices with them. Ships to the store for free.