Remote Customer Issues

for custom furniture and accessories from Plesums.com

Planning

Most of the time we are able to make the plans and reach an agreement by email and/or phone. If you are out of town and I need to visit before or after the sale, I charge $2 per one-way mile for my time and travel costs (e.g. if you are 30 miles away, the fee for the "house call" is $60).

If you want a large item shipped, getting an accurate shipping estimate is a challenge - I suggest you work from a "rough estimate" of size and weight. I expect it would take me about an extra day to compute the volume of each piece of wood that will be used, and from that, estimate the weight of each component. I don't want to do that calculation, nor should you want to pay me to do it, since the difference in shipping cost between a low estimated weight and a high estimated weight is probably far less than the cost of getting a better estimate.

Sales Tax

We are not required to charge sales tax on any items shipped out of state by common carrier, which may relieve a portion of the pain of shipping costs. If we deliver something to you, or if you (or a friend) pick them up in Texas, we must charge Texas sales tax.

Shipping small items

If we have the necessary packing materials, and the post office is a suitable carrier, we are glad to mail the item to you for the actual postage cost.

If the item is larger than "mailman" delivery, or we don't have suitable packaging on hand, we are glad to deliver the items to the local Mail Boxes Etc (UPS) or Kinkos (FedEx) location, so they can pack and ship at your expense.

Shipping large items

Major moving companies with "padded vans" are oriented to large shipments (one or several rooms full of furniture). A few years ago it cost about $1,000 to ship a few items from my parent's estate in New York, but additional items had little impact on the total cost. Each time I have checked, the cost of shipping one or a few items by padded van was prohibitive - I don't even bother checking any more. If you want to consider this option, feel free to contact your favorite moving company... our zip code is 78759, and it is a residential address (no loading dock).

I have occasionally used a local moving company for items too big for me to deliver. They often will give a price "per piece" or "per hour" for pick up and "padded" delivery.

When getting a delivery quote, be sure to specify whether you want

• terminal delivery (you will be called when it arrives at the local trucking terminal, and are responsible for picking it up from there). This is the lowest cost trucking option, especially if you have a residential rather than a business address,
• "tailgate" delivery (truckers consider this "normal" - they will get it to the back of the truck, but you are responsible for getting it off the truck without their help, but a $20 bill will often get some help from the driver). For a heavy item, a lift-gate truck can be specified (for an extra fee) to lower it to the ground,
• curbside delivery, sometimes called "unloading assistance" (on the ground on your property, most likely at the garage door, not the curb),
• front door delivery (inside the house, but just inside the door), or
• inside delivery (sometimes called "white glove" delivery) where the furniture is unpacked, put in place, and the packing materials removed. Needless to say, this can be very expensive.

Shipping companies are glad to give a close estimate for the cost of packing and shipping furniture if you give them the exact size and weight. But with custom furniture, it is hard to know the weight until after the item is built. A couple years ago, one highly regarded firm, Craters and Freighters, offered these examples based on size and weight of previous shipments. These numbers are a couple years old, so prices probably have risen some, and are for somebody else's shipment, but they can give you an idea:

The toybox I built cost $125 to pack and ship to New York City, but the person doing the packing struggled...when I asked why, he said that if the package were a half inch larger, it would fall into a different category, and the shipping cost would rise over $100.

If you want something unusual, shipping may be justified. If you just want a simple item, like a bookcase, someone locally can probably build it for less than my total cost when you include shipping.

In our local area, I am glad to deliver items that are too large for your car, but that fit in our minivan. If you are outside our local area, but the most logical delivery is in our van, I will provide delivery for $1 per mile (one way) for as much as I can load in the minivan. If you are local, but the item is too large for our van (for example, queen size Murphy beds don't fit, and are too heavy for me to handle alone), you are responsible for borrowing or renting a suitable vehicle, with sufficient manpower, or hiring a mover.

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