Anyone here have issues with shipping and using their automation direct voucher this year?
I just went to order some parts, and after adding everything to my cart and applying the voucher (subtotal read zero dollars), the system is trying to charge me $82 in shipping fees.
If I add $100 in product to my cart (card reads $50 after the voucher) it will offer me the free shipping.
I’ve never had these issue before with the voucher in previous years. Id love to make use of it again this year, but im no paying $82 to ship $50 worth of “free” parts.
When I did our order, I had something like $92 of parts before voucher, and it wanted to charge me shipping of around $10. I was in a hurry at the time so rather than take the time to contact them, I threw a few packs of zip ties in the cart to get it up to $100 and get the free shipping. Better to get something we’d use for basically the same total cost.
I’d reach out to them before you order and see what they say.
I was hoping not to have to do that, and will likely just order something off amazon instead that will work.
The last time I reached out to their customer service, the experience was less than stellar. They shipped us a defective pneumatic cylinder, and told us that if we wanted a replacement, we had to pay to ship the defective one back to them first.
Shipping methods • Best Way (2-day delivery) * - We use a mix of FedEx services that allow
us to make delivery within 2 business days (or less, depending on destina- tion), for in-stock items. This method is free on orders over $49, and $10 flat
fee for orders $49 and under
Maybe you had some part that was under the LTL shipping method which is different. Or you accidentally requested another shipping choice (I hate Amazon always prodding you to do something wrong! I hope AD isn’t that bad.)
• LTL - Certain items and orders must ship out less-than-trailer load (LTL).
Items shipping LTL directly from an AutomationDirect warehouse or from
one of our vendor-shipped suppliers will be shipped via FedEx Freight
Priority. Any order with an LTL item will automatically be converted to ship
out LTL. In order for items to ship separately from the LTL item, you must
place separate orders. For any LTL order, additional charges may apply for
residential deliveries as well as those needing a liftgate. The customer is
responsible for contacting the carrier prior to delivery to make arrange- ments for time or day specific deliveries. The customer will also assume
responsibility of any additional charges on redelivery of shipments where
FedEx attempts delivery and delivery cannot be made due to consignee.
For transit times from our Cumming, GA location, visit:
FedEx Transit Time Map. at FedEx | System Down
The only options for shipping I am offered is from FedEx, and they are either $82 or $89 (worth noting that I’m in Canada, so that is likely why I’m not seeing an option for $10 flat rate shipping).
Trying to pickup a couple of these limit switches from them. The second I go from 7 in my cart ($41 subtotal, $91 worth of product), to 8 in my cart ($54 subtotal, $104 worth of product) and get that subtotal above $50, I get the option for free shipping.
So it definitely seems to be that unless you’re PAYING for $50+ worth of product, you no longer get free shipping.
Right. The $50 free product costs $10 shipping if that’s all you order. I didn’t realize there was such a penalty for Canadian. You’re about as close to Georgia as most of the teams and pay dearly for a border crossing that I didn’t know could be that expensive (I’ve only gone in a car or bus).
Which is admittedly still a better deal than the Clippard $20 voucher, which gets you approximately 1 “free” black tank, if you’re willing to pay ~$20 to ship it (last time I looked anyway). Sigh.
Sorry for the late reply on this (apparently my google alert for Automation Direct related CD posts stopped working).
First off - as mentioned in the voucher instructions - the $50 voucher can NOT be used to pay for shipping or taxes. And, as Brian states above, our free 2-day shipping only kicks in when the paid product total is over $49. So with the $50 voucher applied, teams would have to have $99 worth of product on a voucher order to get the free shipping. But that free 2-day shipping promise does apply to both US and Canadian shipments, unless the shipment is LTL (rare for FRC teams).
Orders under $49 that ship to US addresses incur a $10 flat-rate shipping charge. And this is also “2-day shipping” - unless the shipment is LTL (rare for FRC teams).
Orders under $49 that are shipping to Canada will be charged at the rates our carrier sets - I’m shocked at how high they are in this situation - and I was able to verify similar shipping fees for other part numbers (in the shopping cart) and other Canadian addresses. This does seem to represent a change to our shipping policies vs past years - I’m not sure when the policy change was implemented.
In some cases - depending on the products - there can also be duties and import fees when we ship products to Canada - these are usually based on the particular product and/or the country-of-origin of the product. But in Brian’s case here, there are no duties or import fees.
Given these high shipping fees for orders under $49 shipping to Canada, I would expect our free 2-day shipping (with the paid portion of the order over $49) to be popular with Canadian teams. I don’t really see any other realistic options.
Chip
Chip McDaniel
Educational Specialist
Automation Direct