Planet X freight costs Say What

[Ross]

I added 2 tyres to my cart and they want US$72.72 to ship them to Oz!
Has anyone found a way of buying stuff from Planet X with reasonable freight cost?

[bychosis]

I bought a frame from them not that long ago. Like you, shocked at the prices.

I ended up using forward2me. Cost was less, but still not cheap. Their estimate was a bit lower than the final cost too.

[queequeg]

I added 2 tyres to my cart and they want US$72.72 to ship them to Oz!
Has anyone found a way of buying stuff from Planet X with reasonable freight cost?

Pretty standard for any shipping from the USA. I sent my bike frame back to the USA last month, and the cheapest rate I could get was $475! It will cost me another $250 to get it back.
Quite often the shipping cost from the USA ends up being more than the price of the item.

[RonK]

Order from the UK web site.

[march83]

The UK freight prices are the problem here:

2 tyres on their own = £14.99
a frameset on its own = £124.99
a frameset and 2 tyres = £214.99

What? Why? It's cheaper to make the 2 orders separately.

I've ordered a frame from planet X in the past and I baulked at the freight cost (which at the time was "only" £80), but at £124.99 it would take an incredible sale for their cheap frames to represent value for money. Consider also that people like Wiggle and others will ship you a frameset for free, it makes it sort of pointless to even look at the planet X options.

[g-boaf]

I added 2 tyres to my cart and they want US$72.72 to ship them to Oz!
Has anyone found a way of buying stuff from Planet X with reasonable freight cost?

Pretty standard for any shipping from the USA. I sent my bike frame back to the USA last month, and the cheapest rate I could get was $475! It will cost me another $250 to get it back.
Quite often the shipping cost from the USA ends up being more than the price of the item.

Pretty standard to the USA as well, $400 to get a frame shipped from Boulder, Colorado to Sydney.

[bychosis]

I've ordered a frame from planet X in the past and I baulked at the freight cost (which at the time was "only" £80), but at £124.99 it would take an incredible sale for their cheap frames to represent value for money. Consider also that people like Wiggle and others will ship you a frameset for free, it makes it sort of pointless to even look at the planet X options.

I looked around and found that the price of the frame + shipping that I ordered was better than other options even with free shipping.

One disadvantage of ordering via the UK website is that you then have to add VAT on top of the price. For me, ordering via UK and the forwarding company was still cheaper than direct from PlanetX without VAT.

[RonK]

We have had this discussion about the way PlanetX UK web site calculates shipping charges in previous threads. They will usually adjust the price if you contact them.

[march83]

We have had this discussion about the way PlanetX UK web site calculates shipping charges in previous threads. They will usually adjust the price if you contact them.

my googling has turned up nothing - any chance you could point me in the right direction? interested to read the previous discussions...

I feel like getting your shipping rates right is a pretty big deal. I know I just ignore the planet x sales emails these days simply because i know the shipping is outrageous.

[RonK]

Here is an example I was thinking of where the shipping price was clearly in error, pretty much as your example is, and was corrected.

Off road drop bars availability in Australia

When searching the forums, keep in mind that posts previous to the site upgrade are not indexed.

Use Google site search, for example: planetx shipping site:www.bicycles.net.au

Unless you want a particular item, e.g. a specific frame there are probably better places to shop, however I have had excellent service and warranty support from PlanetX.

[Ross]

Order from the UK web site.

That is from UK website, I wasn't aware they had a US website. I selected the currency to be US$ (other options are GBP or Euro).
Just tried adding the tyres to the cart again using GBP as the currency and it is now even DEARER for freight - £49.99 = AU$84.38
Makes no difference if I order 1 or 2 (or up to 7) tyres, same freight charge.If I order 8 tyres the freight charge goes up to £89.99

Edit: Forgot original freight charge $72.72 was US$ which works out to be just over AU$92 so second quote in pounds was actually cheaper buyt still way over the top

[Ross]

I have contacted Planet X previously regarding exorbidant freight charges and they just replied with the standard line that that's what it costs and price is set by the postal service/courier company, not them.

[Top_Bhoy]

I added 2 tyres to my cart and they want US$72.72 to ship them to Oz!
Has anyone found a way of buying stuff from Planet X with reasonable freight cost?

c r c currently have a tyre sale on so check there to see if they have what you want and pay under $10 postage.

I've recently found that some online UK places won't send certain tyres to Oz. I'm guessing the wired tyres are too bulky to post internationally at an economic cost.

[uart]

That is from UK website, I wasn't aware they had a US website. I selected the currency to be US$ (other options are GBP or Euro).
Just tried adding the tyres to the cart again using GBP as the currency and it is now even DEARER for freight - £49.99 = AU$84.38
Makes no difference if I order 1 or 2 (or up to 7) tyres, same freight charge.If I order 8 tyres the freight charge goes up to £89.99

Edit: Forgot original freight charge $72.72 was US$ which works out to be just over AU$92 so second quote in pounds was actually cheaper buyt still way over the top

Wow that is over the top.

So far the only bike stuff I've only ordered online (apart from evilbay) was from from Wiggle, and more recently from Merlin (both UK). Both gave me free shipping on orders over about 80 to 90 dollars, and delivered with tracking in about a week . A massive thumbs up to both of them, I'd recommend either.

[Ross]

Ended up ordering tyres (and a few other things) from Wiggle. Much easier and near-on as cheap - actually much cheaper if you factor in freight (Wiggle = zero freight cost).

[wqlava1]

I added 2 tyres to my cart and they want US$72.72 to ship them to Oz!
Has anyone found a way of buying stuff from Planet X with reasonable freight cost?

Pretty standard for any shipping from the USA. I sent my bike frame back to the USA last month, and the cheapest rate I could get was $475! It will cost me another $250 to get it back.
Quite often the shipping cost from the USA ends up being more than the price of the item.

For shipping bike frames (but not bikes which exceed their size limit) use MyUS.com . They just use actual box weight, not volumetric calculated weight. I had a Rawland Ravn frame weighing about 17lb in its packaging sent to Australia for USD86 from their depot in Florida. They just got it sent a day or 2 before the cyclone.

[queequeg]

I added 2 tyres to my cart and they want US$72.72 to ship them to Oz!
Has anyone found a way of buying stuff from Planet X with reasonable freight cost?

Pretty standard for any shipping from the USA. I sent my bike frame back to the USA last month, and the cheapest rate I could get was $475! It will cost me another $250 to get it back.
Quite often the shipping cost from the USA ends up being more than the price of the item.

For shipping bike frames (but not bikes which exceed their size limit) use MyUS.com . They just use actual box weight, not volumetric calculated weight. I had a Rawland Ravn frame weighing about 17lb in its packaging sent to Australia for USD86 from their depot in Florida. They just got it sent a day or 2 before the cyclone.

Just got my frame back free of charge, so winning there. Will keep myus.com in mind, as the box outbound was 5.5kg, and it was charged as though it weighed 35kg

[Ross]

It's a standard thing for freight companies to charge the volume over weight for large objects (they will use whatever one is the greatest).

But that still doesn't explain why Planet X want to charge between $72 and $92 to send 2 x 700C tyres (folding) to Australia.

[Top_Bhoy]

It's a standard thing for freight companies to charge the volume over weight for large objects (they will use whatever one is the greatest).

But that still doesn't explain why Planet X want to charge between $72 and $92 to send 2 x 700C tyres (folding) to Australia.

If Planet-X don't have an agreement with a freight company to ship overseas, if your tyres are not of the folding type, then to freight a large box to Australia from the UK containing 2 tyres would easily cost between $72 and $92. If you have ordered folding tyres, that is indeed a bit rich.

Edit: I recently ordered wired tyres from c r c and they arrived in a large, wheel sized, cardboard box.

[wqlava1]

When I choose a pair of Vittoria Voyager Hyper 700x38mm tyres (where each tyre comes in a 150mm cube box) the pair can be posted for 15 quid off their UK site. They had no cheap options about a year ago though.

[wqlava1]

When I choose a pair of Vittoria Voyager Hyper 700x38mm tyres (where each tyre comes in a 150mm cube box) the pair can be posted for 15 quid off their UK site. They had no cheap options about a year ago though.

[uart]

if your tyres are not of the folding type, then to freight a large box to Australia from the UK containing 2 tyres would easily cost between $72 and $92. If you have ordered folding tyres, that is indeed a bit rich.

Even wire bead tyres can be be packed surprisingly compactly. You can actually twist them into a "figure 8" and then fold them in half without damaging the bead. I've bought wire bead tyres online and they were packed exactly like that. Two road tyres will fit into a box about 35cmx35cmx15cm.

[Ross]

As mentioned they were folding tyres that I wanted. The tyres were about half the cost of Wiggle but I added a few other things to the cart so I got free shipping from Wiggle. The more stuff I added to PX cart (even little stuff like tyre levers) made the freight costs escalate from outrageous to obscene.

Also as previously mentioned previously the freight cost was the same for quantity of 2 and up to 7 tyres.