Brownell's Shipping Policy

I hope I am not starting a b@#$% and complain thread here. There have been several concerning shipping charges by various suppliers. I just want to express my satisfaction with Brownell's policy.

I made an order for almost $250. The shipping was a flat $15.95. The shipping amount was not dependent on the value of the order so I must admit that shipping would have been the same if I only ordered $50 or $75 worth of merchandise. Several items were backordered. Those have since been shipped to me in two different shipments. My credit card was not charged until each shipment was made(a total of 3 charges).

I probably wouldn't have thought too much about it if it hadn't been for the two backorder shipments. I have read much here about policies of other companies and felt I should put in a good word for Brownell's.

If I haven't stirred anyone up yet, I also added a little bit for the NRA.

Historically, Brownell's has paid to ship backordered items to their customers. It can be a good deal, just pay and forget it. And that flat shipping charge covers anything that goes by standard shipping means (i.e., not by truck or dog sled). It covers shipping for long cleaning rods as well as a couple of sight screws. I've had an account with them for 40 years and look forward to many more.

Thirty something years and I do not wish to know how much I have spent there. I wish them nothing but continued success, outstanding service and I do hope they outlast me!

Keep in mind that we smaller folks don't have the volume of the bigger stores. When shipping 2lbs can range from 5.95 to 22.95 depending on the order. Ammo has to be shipped ground and we are at the mercy of FedEx and UPS as to the rate. The best solution I've found is to load up all in one shot since the bulk of the cost is all in the first pound.

I have always been happy with Brownells products and their shipping policy. I do however feel like a flat fee sometimes works for you and against you but in the end it all evens out if you do a lot of business with them. I must admit though, my go to vendor is Midway USA, and they have always done right by me as well.

Some places use UPS as the shipper with USPS as the delivery boy. This is crappy because you get tracking until your widget is nearly there. Then if the PO is in the mood it will be tomorrow for delivery. I think Midway does this, but not Brownells. Both are pretty speedy to TX. It did bug me when I though I was selecting UPS and only sort of got UPS.

Ed C

One of my pet peeves is shipping costs.

I flip out when a company has a flat shipping rate that covers everything and then they Back Order a $2.00 part and charge me $10 bucks to ship it.

There are many ways to ship things and we here at BPM do it every single day.

No reason why an outfit can't put two screws into a small padded envelope that costs all of .05 cents and put a stamp or two on it. $1.00 for shipping is fine and they can eat that if they are BO'd items.

What happens when outfit gets big is that they want to get paid for every action of their employees. So when sending out BO'D parts it costs them money to print shipping labels and package the item. Since there are so many people involved the costs add up. But micromanaging a business costs more money as you have to pay another person or complete department of people to add up all the costs you are losing on trivial actions when the salaries of the bean counters are far more than what you are losing on the actions they are monitoring.

I just received some BO'd parts for my Jeep yesterday from Vintage Air. NO charge for shipping! This is the way it should be.

They feel that it is their fault if they don't have stock, and as such the customer should not have to pay shipping again.

Midway is notorious for having not only high shipping costs, but charging those same costs for shipping your BO'd items. This is why people tend wait until they have a large order to place before buying from them. Usually there are items you really want, and some stuff that is not as important but you throw it in to avoid more shipping costs down the road.

I personally will cancel an entire order if one of the key items is BO'd. And I drop less important items that are BO'd and if the whole order gets to the point where it is only one or two items I cancel it completely.

I like outfits that use USPS Priority Mail. I got 6000 Hornady.224 cal. bullets from Mid South. Free Shipping! Weight 58 lbs! it cost them $16.00 on a $470 order. That's good business!

Randy

I like stores that give me some choice in shipping Titan is good, has USPS as an option that tends to be the cheapest. Plug for the site sponsor. I had no problem with Brownell's either. I will avoid buying where the shipping costs make no sense, or my pet peeve the "free" shipping is just the normal shipping rolled onto the price. Wonder why your fits-in-sfrb widget is $6 more than the other guy that adds shipping after. Just makes it harder to comparison shop.

An update on my order w/Brownell's. Some of the items on the order were Little Dandy rotors that I was missing. After placing the order I bought another Little Dandy from an member here, that included a #11 rotor that I had put on the order. It was too late to cancel that one item(happened to be BO but shipped before I could cancel), so when it arrived, I packed it up and returned it. Brownell's credited my card that I used to pay for the order. Yes, I paid return shipping(a little over $3) but it was my problem, not theirs.

When I get itching for an order I will make a list and note the priority items on my list.

I will open up several windows and put all the items I can on all the windows in parallel. The one with the most items of priority usually wins the order and I place it. If they're all comparable I'll go with the lowest total cost to my door step. In the old days I usually didn't have to worry about out of stock items nearly as much as of late.

I once ordered a number of items from Sinclair. Most, but not all, were shipped right away. While ordering, the nice man at Sinclair mentioned that the other items would ship later and that no shipping charges would be added. I said " well, that's nice, thank you". Then the guy said " well, it is our problem, not yours". Good people right there.

I don't like Brownell's shipping policies at all to be honest. They need to do better on their small orders and they CAN do better if they just would LISTEN to their customers. MidwayUSA did it and cut small order shipping by about half, so can Brownell's.

If I need one or two items for a 1911 that can go in first class mail, shipping is 1/3 of what it would cost to make the order with Brownell's because of their $7.95 minimum shipping charge.

That is why we can shop around. I usually don't need an item immediately, so I accumulate an order. Grafs has been my go to supplier in the past but their shipping is nothing to write home about but usually no more than others. With my C&R I get good prices from both Grafs and Brownell's.

brownell's min. shipping rate is a little high for small items like a firing pin or other small parts. but don't worry about the back ordered parts. they pay the shipping

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Lance Boyle

When I get itching for an order I will make a list and note the priority items on my list.

I will open up several windows and put all the items I can on all the windows in parallel. The one with the most items of priority usually wins the order and I place it. If they're all comparable I'll go with the lowest total cost to my door step. In the old days I usually didn't have to worry about out of stock items nearly as much as of late.

---

^ what he said
I have several wish lists with Midway and can look at them to see if I need any 'fillers' for an order. I do check out the LGS from time to time...never know what's new that I now can't live without :razz: