vendor shipping options

I know many of you probably don't think much about this but as a shop I am ordering parts on a constant basis. I have noticed recently that Midway and Brownells have changed their shipping options and apparently do not offer USPS Priority anymore. That may not sound like a big deal but USPS Parcel Post, First Class, and Priority are all faster than in UPS an in most cases cheaper. My normal shipping time from USPS Priority from all 50 states which means HI and AK also is 2 or 3 days. I've written both of them complaining and asking them to re think their policy and start offering USPS again, obviously for haz mat you have to go UPS or Fed Ex but that's it. I also don't care for UPS because as a company they are not gun friendly, that can be seen in the changes they have made in their shipping policies concerning firearms. I use nothing but USPS for shipping handguns and fully insured I'm spending 20.00 instead of 60.00-80.00 for overnight.

Now to my point, I'm hoping some of you will take a moment and go to the Midway and Brownells sites and ask them to go back to offering the various USPS shipping methods as a standard option. It's also a matter of economics, the more any of us in the business have to pay for shipping the more your parts are going to cost and the higher your repair bill will be.

In most cases, the USPS Flat Rate boxes are also far cheaper than any other mode of shipment for bullets, etc.

I think the problem with large suppliers like Midway is that they can't accurately estimate how much stuff will fit in a certain sized box like flat rate. With UPS they just assign a weight to each item and add it up at the checkout. I use flat rate quite often when I ship my wood products as it is significantly cheaper than UPS in most cases, as well as quicker.

well I got a note back from Midway and they have altered my acct to allow for USPS but so far all I got from Brownells is the "due to the heavy volume of business it may be some time before we can answer your question".

Really? Just today I placed an order with Brownell's and they gave me 3 shipping options: USPS Priority, UPS and FedEx. I chose USPS Priority and they sent me an e-mail confirming that my package was shipped USPS Priority.

it's been weird with them lately, the last few times they only gave me ups options and it wasn't because of haz mat. The last one I'm waiting on delivery now and all it is, is 3 front sights which would have been much cheaper and faster with usps. I ordered some parts and tools a couple weeks ago and it was the same thing. The only one that was reasonable is another one I'm waiting on with ammo in it. I normally place 5 to 10 orders a month and something has changed, it may be related to the change in their website. It kind of torques me though. I've received a couple letters from Dave Brownell thanking me for the amount of money I've spent with them but so far they have not responded to my email. I'll have to continue to use them since they have the largest inventory and alot of their pricing is better than Midway but Midways customer service has the edge.