We have bought supplies from Uline since around 2004. We were lucky enough to be grandfathered in for Free Shipping with orders over $500 (originally $300 in the early years). Today we attempted to sign in and couldn’t. We requested an email to reset the password thinking maybe we were not remembering correctly. When the email came, the second line stated that there was no account associated with that email. So we called up. We gave them the account number located on the last book they sent. The person said there was no such account and proceeded to say that Uline automatically deletes accounts if they have not been used within 3 years. The book was for winter/spring 2024-2025. After going around with this person for a few minutes, we let them set up a new account and was given an email to send in a request to get back our Free Shipping with $500. Since businesses need to hold on to records for 7 years for tax purposes, it seems more like this is just a move to take away our Free Shipping. We gave an invoice number to look up and, to no surprise, that invoice couldn’t be located.
No problem … tomorrow we will take the time to fire off the email and we will see what the response is next week. We will come back and update when we get the response.
In the meantime, we researched and found what we needed from other sources and save about $100 over Uline pricing and saved the $200 that would have been the shipping cost without the Free Shipping.
Even if Uline reinstates the Free Shipping, it’s bye bye Uline for us … not a good way to treat a customer of over 20 years by just deleting the account while you still send us books and email specials.
Yup, I used to use ULINE too but same as you, I found other sources that were cheaper.
theboxery has sizes that I need for cheaper price. Amazon sellers sometimes has better prices too.
We realized long ago that the “Free” next-day shipping made Uline just WAY too expensive. It’s been at least 6-7 years; although unless it’s recent, they’ve not stopped sending us those huge catalogs.
This is on top of the fact that I try to avoid businesses that put religious or political messaging in their advertising/promotion (except, of course, businesses that are by nature religious or political).
We stopped using Uline long before they started putting their political garbage from the Uihlein family in there waste of paper catalogs.
I imagine they work great outside of major metro areas, but where there is competition in the community, the Uline catalog is used as MSRP for other companies. We prefer Acorn on the West Coast and Dallas, Packaging Corporation of America in the Midwest, and Crown Packaging in the South/East.
Left, Right or Center if you put your religious or political garbage in your catalog, we will dump you.
Well put. I’ve also written off service companies that put religious messages on their vehicles; even if not going against my religious beliefs, it contradicts the teachings of the very religion they claim to be promoting.
Based on what ULINE charges for shipping, I’m pretty sure that it’s as much a profit center as their packaging products. On average, I’d say their quality is better than others I’ve tried, but I’ve also gotten my fair share of unglued or over-glued boxes.
This is the ONLY reason I buy limited things from ULINE. They have a warehouse about 45 minutes away and they are the best price for boxes that they keep in stock. I used to buy tape, shrink wrap, misc other things from them until I compared pricing with their shipping cost added in. I can get all those other things cheaper with free shipping on Amazon.
I used to use Uline, then I found I could get EVERYTHING cheaper.
For poly bags I now pay 1/5 of what they charge. The quality isn’t as good, but it is good enough.
The boxes are within a few cents but the other places I find them have free shipping and that makes a huge difference.
Shipping was regularly costing $55-$150
I mostly buy on Amazon now. It may cost $0.10 more a box, but I would rather pay $2.50 more for a pack of 25 then $30 more in shipping.
I stopped using Uline years ago when they started charging a fee to pick up orders at their warehouses. That’s just pure greed and a slimy way to avoid paying a couple of extra employees to attend to customers. There are two of their warehouses where I could pick up orders in my regular travels, but no more. I detest their politics but was willing to grit my teeth and buy occasionally from them, but when you want to charge me for the privilege of coming to yiou, that’s unacceptable. I find what I need mostly on eBay or the websites of established sellers I have discovered on eBay.
Used U-Line during the pandemic when we were forced to buy huge sheets of carboard, cut our own sizing. Their shipping, though fast is unbelievably expensive for those of us who have low-medium volume.
Now we just toss their catalogs.
We’ve been Royal Mailers customers for years. Ship out of Sacramento-same as U-line. Until the pandemic, used to offer free shipping and 10% off orders from returning customers. The 10% discount disappeared during COVID and never returned. Stiull offer FREE SHIPPING w/ no minimum.
Unfortunately, they run out of items quickly; can’t keep merchandise in stock or takes forever to re-stock, though they supposedly are the manufacturer(advertised but I’m doubtful.)
If they happen to have what you want, 2-day shipping (DHL) to our area. Otherwise, we buy through Amazon.
In Uline’s defense, their catalogs are massive enough to have pressed many flowers for my wife, an invaluable service. But BUY anything from them? My Lord, man, even Grainger is cheaper than Uline!
Well, we gave Uline a week to respond to our email about deleting our account and taking away our Free Shipping with $500 Order (we were grandfathered until now). We have not had a response. On the other hand, our email started getting Uline ads daily. Today, we unsubscribed.
The upside is that we have now received all of the items that we would have ordered from Uline (came from 3 different sources). Saved a couple of hundred and got free shipping from 2 of the 3 sources (the one that charged shipping still matched what would have been paid on Uline … before Uline shipping costs).
The quality of the items seems good so the only one who lost out ends up being Uline.
