Originally Posted by
ksryder
I've seen other complaints about them recently. Apparently shipbikes.com is an alternative that is getting some positive feedback, from what I can tell.
I had heard of them and once compared rates a few years ago. They were basically the same so I didn't bother this time.
But...Just did a comparison of what I paid bikeflights for the outbound shipping with a quote from Shipbikes.
Same box size and weight. Included the $5 pickup, which I wouldn't have paid for since the LBS that boxes my bike is a half a block away from a FedEx/Kinkos store and takes the box there for me as a courtesy. (As noted above, bikeflights now charges $15 for a pickup.) Same declared value of $600.
Bikeflights rate for 5 business day shipping: $78 and change.
Shipbikes' rate for 4 business day shipping: $58 and change. So realistically I would have paid $53 without the pickup.
Also noticed that shipbikes makes it abundantly clear that the drop off (or pickup) date is not included in the estimated shipping time. (See No. 1 in my OP.)
May be time for a change for me.