I love the efficiency of ordering from Uline—they are incredibly fast. However, I am deeply disappointed with how my recent order was fulfilled and shipped.
I literally ordered a single, small plastic sleeve of shrink bands. The item weighs under 7 oz and fits entirely in the palm of my hand. Instead of shipping it in a simple, cost-effective padded bubble mailer, it arrived using a ridiculous nesting-doll method: the shrink bands were placed inside an 8.75" x 4" x 3" box, which was then packed inside a massive 12" x 9" x 6" cardboard box purely to act as a spacer for a heavy Spring/Summer product catalog I didn't even request.
By double-boxing a tiny item to force-ship marketing materials, they artificially inflated the dimensional size tier of the package, driving up the carrier shipping cost to $9.50.
While customer service eventually offered a tiny $1.90 credit after a lot of back-and-forth, it is highly disappointing that a logistics giant forces small businesses to bear the handling costs and environmental waste of unrequested catalogs. If you are ordering small, lightweight items, expect to pay inflated box-rate shipping because they will prioritize sending you a book over shipping your item efficiently.