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ABF Freight - “Payment upon delivery” ?

thiggins

Well Known Member
The documents concerning the shipping of my wing kit, (due in 5 days!) says “payment due upon delivery” in a few places.
However, ABF Freight has called me for full payment already, many days before delivery.

Is this normal?

Thanks
 
Every time I have used them (4 times) they require payment before they will pick it up. So unless they have change their policy . Does seam odd. I would call the point of origin. And ask what’s up.

Hope this helps.

RD
 
Freight Carriers

The freight world is crazy hot and getting wilder. But in my experience unless you have an established Commercial account with loading dock, Forklift etc. then YES, its considered normal now to ask for C.O.D and even payment before it leaves their terminal. They are all too busy to take a chance on delivery (especially residential) to come out without payment collected first. If you are not there they can not work around you skids or risk damaging yours while trying to get the rest of their deliveries from behind yours and off the truck. In future it may be better to ask your shipper to prepay the freight and add liftgate service and residential fees etc. (Paid in advance of shipping). Don't ask me how I know, I'm in that business too.
 
This sounds a little odd...

When the freight terminal called me, they wanted a certified (bank) check, and gave me the exact amount. The driver took it with no issues at time of delivery. Asking up front seems a little odd...I agree with the other poster...call them and see what's different. However, with the way things are going now with deliveries, the whole country is in uncharted territory....Everything is up for grabs.
 
I believe it was ABF who, at least 2-3 years ago allowed for payment by calling a automated telephone line... though I think I was still able to hand the driver a check on arrival. In any event, you're still able to reject the shipment if its damaged.

After jumping through some hoops, the factory coordinates with the shipper to send you free replacements.. however, the shipper won't reimburse you for Van's crating charge.
 
I guess I can use a credit card and hope for the best. At least it gives me a little recourse.
It’s quite a bit of money…$957.00 !?! (NC)
 
The documents concerning the shipping of my wing kit, (due in 5 days!) says “payment due upon delivery” in a few places.
However, ABF Freight has called me for full payment already, many days before delivery.

Is this normal?

Thanks

I paid COD on maybe 1/2 of the kits and others paid before delivery. I guess it depends on the company
 
It is an expensive love affair, fraught with WTF's, but once you first flight it, all the buyer's remorse will dissipate into thin air.
 
When I ordered my RV-8 fuselage kit, I asked Van's Aircraft if they could ship PREPAID and they did. I provided Van's Aircraft with enough money to cover the shipping freight when I ordered the fuselage kit.

When I lived in Pennsylvania, I had a good relationship with ABF freight as I used their U-Pack service to move from Kalifornia to PA. They typically use a truck with forklift to drop off and pick up the containers. I paid a monthly storage fee for my airplane hangar stuff that was in one container till I could get my own hangar. When I got a hangar, I phoned them for deliver and they delivered the container to my hangar and actually sat it down inside the hagnar. I was able to unload in one day and phoned them that they could pick up the container whenever they wanted. Was told that they had a truck in the area and could pick up the empty container in about an hour but it did not have a forklift to load. It told them no problem as I could use the airports forklift to load them.
 
All good !

So I picked up the crates at the distribution center in Greenville, no damage at all, and saved some money. They were quite nice. I paid after I inspected the crates.
 

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I just recovered from the sticker shock of my wing kit shipping. I paid by credit card when I got the email from ABF... several days later I called to find out why it hadn't been scheduled for final delivery and they informed me that it didn't show up on the truck it was supposed to be on and they had no idea where it was. Awesome. Luckily it showed up a couple days later. :rolleyes:
 
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