Lugless?

[gregorys]

Right now, it looks like Lugless is probably the cheapest way to ship a pair of skis that I'd like from *way* east to me, on the left coast.

Looking for any beta from people who have used lugless!
They get both good and really bad reviews. (Seems they have a habit of claiming over-weight/size and then back-billing way after the fact. Like a couple of weeks post delivery! They have all sorts of excuses, but I don't know how much to believe the complainers or the company.)

So, what's the experience of the collective?
Is lugless a total JONG move that will get me killed, or the best thing since Kastle MX98's, or something in between?

(There are a few scattered posts here about lugless, but not many. And not a lot of detail, even when mentioned. This is an effort to get a better feel.)

[Pinned]

Everyone will back bill you if you try to pass a box off as smaller / lighter than it is. USPS will send it back to you, UPS / FedEx will just charge your card the difference. It's measured automatically so you aren't gonna cheat them - same reason you can get a return label marked as 1lb and ship back a 5lb item to an online retailer.

Lugless is just giving you bulk FedEx pricing. You can also try Pirateship or Bikeflights for UPS rates.

[gregorys]

Everyone will back bill you if you try to pass a box off as smaller / lighter than it is. USPS will send it back to you, UPS / FedEx will just charge your card the difference. It's measured automatically so you aren't gonna cheat them - same reason you can get a return label marked as 1lb and ship back a 5lb item to an online retailer.

Lugless is just giving you bulk FedEx pricing. You can also try Pirateship or Bikeflights for UPS rates.

I totally get that. I'm still not sure I believe every instance I've seen matches that the end-user screwed up. And it shouldn't take two weeks, and there should be something pretty substantial documenting it. (All which appear missing.)

All that said - I'm not looking for some excuse or explanation about what happened. Neither of us really know. But if there's more than a few mags who have used it with good results I'd feel better about trusting them, because there'd be some real-world experience data. It's not foolproof, but it's way better than the tea-leaves reading we're both doing at the moment.

So, again; Has anyone used Lugless? (Or pirateship/bikeflights) What was the experience. Anything to be aware of to save hassle?

[Pinned]

2-4 weeks to receive a corrected invoice / bill from UPS or FedEx are normal. They send a thorough invoice to the account holder (which would be Lugless in this case), you won't see that most likely. It isn't lugless, bikeflights, etc billing you for that - it is UPS or FedEx and they are passing it along. They note their measured dimensions versus stated and break down the charges on that invoice.

I run a bike brand so we ship a ton and unfortunately have dealt with all of the FedEx / UPS bullshit. They are impossible to deal with and truly maddening. If you round up your parcel size (ie: 51.25" is actually 52") you'll be fine and will not receive charges after the fact. Currently, FedEx is an absolute disaster in the PNW and we only ship UPS if going there - so my recommendation would be to skip Lugless as their UPS rates look pretty bad.

Pirateship has been the closest to my negotiated UPS rate from work - I have shipped skis, boots, and lots of other items with them no problem.

[1000-oaks]

Pirateship has some very good rates for skis, glad they're legit. Going to try them with UPS, given how much I hate USPS.