I’m seeing mixed reviews— mainly that it tacks on all these fees/charges after the fact. I need to ship some stuff as cheaply as possible— but I also want it to arrive safely
Edit: link to site
So my account has been flagged for review by security and they're asking for a photo of me holding my ID. Has anyone encountered this problem using this website? I don't feel safe giving them a photo of my face and ID when i've already given them my bank infromation. For the record all I've done is made an account and I haven't been able to purchase anything.
Edit: Ok so I sent them the photo of me and my ID and nothing has happened so far and I was able to make my purchase so they seem pretty legit
2nd Edit (August 25, 2025): Still nothing has happened to my account. Pirateship seems to be legit
Videos
I've read several reviews on people saying it's good and multiple people saying it's bad because they charge you extra later on for various reasons I'm moving soon and shipping my PC setup is going to cost a arm and a leg with pirate ship prices so low I was considering it but I'm not sure if it's trust worthy. If it's not any other recommendations to have low shipping prices?
Make sure your dim and weight is correct . What a lot of people do is they put in in correct dim and weight. Every single courier service remeasure your weight and dim. If they are incorrect, they still ship but they adjust the price.
They think the weight and dimensions they plugged in was correct. So that’s why. In case you are in doubt of your dim and weight you can do take it to like fedex and ask for weight and dimensions and say you’ll create the label online. And just use private ship to create while sitting in fedex.
Now you have the most accurate dim and weight. If those are correct you’ll be fine.
I run a reshipping company and some people do do that when we have to pick stuff up and send it else where. They would complain where the adjustment in charges. That we have to tell them what their actual weight was and they would argue it’s. Not because they used a home to measure it, btw which is a good measuring tool if you are measuring big boxes.
Hope this helps
yep
hi! so i’m about to order my first second hand american girl doll from a seller on facebook marketplace and it seems the seller is using a website called PirateShip.com to ship it to me (shipping it from America to Australia). I was just wondering if pirate ship is reliable and if people use it often, or if i should be worried? sorry if this is a stupid question i just want to make sure i’m not being scammed or anything
I sent a package contains $6800 worth of computers. UPS mangled the box. UPS has agreed to pay the claim, BUT pirateship.com just need to upload my documents since they are the ones that sold the label. They are refusing to do it for some reason and chat is the only way you can get ahold of them. They just keep giving me the same runaround stock answer. So I am out the money because of pirateship.com. They are cheap yes, but you get what you pay for apparently.
I used to be really excited about Pirateship - it seemed to give better prices that the eBay shipping calculator. Just today I shipped a 30#, 20x20x20" box and the rates were identical. And Pirateship only offers Priority Mail or First Class packages, not Media Mail or alternative shippers. For private shipping it IS better that the USPS online rates. Thoughts?
EDIT - OK IT DOES HAVE MEDIA MAIL. Now I know where to look. Thanks
With my older car, I buy a lot of parts to make it nicer through guys in group chats that go to junkyards for me, they get the part, box it and I create a label for them.
I just used pirate ship for the first time, and for a 49x33x5 package weighing in at 6 pounds, through the UPS site I was quoted $102. Through pirate ship it’s $49 through UPS.
I was expecting no more than like a 6 percent discount but not 50% !?
How can this be ?
Ugh, where to even start!
I shipped and insured a package worth about $1,000 to a buyer in a state next to me. After about a week, there was no shipping update and the buyer wanted his money back. Ok, no problem, that's why he had it insured after all. After a month, I filed a claim with Pirate Ship/Shipsurance.
Now I'm about 10 days after my initial insurance claim with Shipsurance and it has been a disaster. First of all, Pirate Ship/Shipsurance has no actual phone contact to speak to a human and all their email exchanges are littered with unprofessional emojis like the monkeyface and many others. Seems like the vast majority of their back and forth is probably AI generated so there is no human interaction at all it seems to me.
Next, they asked the customer to fill out a form to determine the shipping address and all those details matched up. However, I've been told by Pirate Ship/Shipsurance that the address information did not match up. When I looked at it again, it looks like there is no actual place for an address on the survey form and they were just using the 'IP Address' of the customer as their address. I had to explain to them that IP address and physical address is not the same! Crazy!
This will surely be my last time using Pirate Ship/Shipsurance for any kind of shipping. I'd rather pay the little bit extra and have a human to talk to that doesn't use emojis in serious emails!
Shippo just capped the amount of labels you can make per month to only 30 labels/month. Wonder if there's any other shipping website like Pirateship that doesn't have a label cap without buying their "subscription plan". Mostly ship UPS and FedEx
What would you guys recommend?
I need to ship dozens of items daily within the US.
USPS seem to have good rates so.
Absolutely yes. I still print First Class labels thru ebay since there's only one tier of discounts for First Class, but Priority is cheaper thru Pirate Ship. Plus they give you access to Priority Mail Cubic and their "Simple Export Rate" which is First Class International but deeply discounted. I haven't had any issues using their labels and I'm getting hella sales to Canadian customers since I started using their Simple Export Rate.
As far as I know, only try using it for shipments which would otherwise be expensive through USPS. I'm not sure exactly how they get their competitive rates, (It's been explained to me, but I forget) but it's real. I've had a few packages now where USPS Parcel Select (through eBay) would've cost ~$28, but through Pirate Ship it was around $10.
Again, no idea how it worked out, but it did.
Enter your item's weight and dimensions into Pirate Ship ahead of time to calculate their rate vs. the USPS-via-eBay rate. If it's cheaper, I'd use Pirate Ship.
The only thing I'm unsure of if whether or not their rates change day-by-day, in which case it might be a risk.
I'm launching a clothing brand and will be fulfilling directly for now, using the Shopify platform (no 3PL until it becomes cost-effective). I'll likely be shipping 15-20 packages per month the first few months after launch. Most packages will be between 1-2 lb and I'm only selling domestically in the US for now. I've looked into Sendle, because I like the idea of offsetting our carbon footprint which is aligned with brand and product ethos. But I was trying to avoid USPS because of the lack of good shipping tracking. I had been considering UPS as my shipper because it is a higher-end experience with more tracking which means fewer CS emails to answer. I had planned on offering UPS ground, 2-3 Day and an overnight option. But now I'm seeing that I may get lower rates by using these services, even as some of them have a subscription fee, I'm wondering if it's worth using a third party shipper. I have searched this sub for this topic but haven't found anything super-similar. Thanks in advance for your input!
pirateship # shipping# nocustomerservice # avoidatallcosts
So I’ve paid thru pirate ship multiple times and on occasion I’ll pay for overnight shipment and things will get delayed. Every company I’ve felt with other wise has given a refund since they didn’t fulfill their promise. I’ve literally been flat out told to go shove it and that they DO NOT GUARANTEE ARRIVAL TIMES BO MATTER WHAT YOU SPEND!! Insane right? How can a company legally charge you for overnight shipping then have it arrive whenever it does and do nothing to compensate you since overnight was close to $200 and 2nd day which I’m still hopefull it shows up was like $75. I don’t get it. I’d never do that to my customers. It’s hurting my reputation and the difference comes out of my pocket as I refund my customers and I’m a much smaller business where this makes more of an impact to me than to them and they’re the ones complaining???
Ok here’s the literal conversation just be warned. They’re customer service is non existent and could care less if your package makes it on time but will always take your money. SCAMMMMMMMMMERS!!!
-me
“So I’ve had delivery issues with things getting delayed and really hurts my small business. I just was told we helped you once before by giving me a credit based on the fact that I didn’t get what I paid for an that your company policy is basically a big oh well then it just makes me start using shippo. I don’t expect anything just can’t understand if you pay a premium price for specific delivery before a certain time and it’s not even getting delivered today is unacceptable. I wouldn’t ever treat my customers this way and it’s like companies can sell or claim anything. Take your money and then do whatever they want. Just severely disappointed as I’m sure you would be too if this happens to you and your small business. “ -me
“Ahoy Casey! Ben had to swim to shore, but I'm here to help 👋 Firstly, I want to apologize for your late shipment. It's always disappointing to see these shipments (especially Next Day Air shipments), not arrive by their estimated delivery dates. Our rates here on Pirate Ship are super cheap. This is because of our partnership agreements with UPS and USPS. Part of this agreement states that, because we are already providing such large discounts for these shipments, UPS will not provide a delivery-date guarantee for their expedited shipments upon late delivery. Since we have educated you on this matter in the past, unfortunately, we will not be able to offer you a credit for this shipment. I'm so sorry about that 🤕 In the future, if you'd rather ship with a service that does come with that money-back guarantee, I'd suggest using USPS's "Priority Mail Express" service. This is the only service on our platform that comes with this guarantee. Again, I'm so sorry for the trouble with this, and I wish you the best of luck in your future shipping endeavors. Don't hesitate to cast us a line if you have any questions at all 🎣 We're always happy to help 💪
RegaARRRRRRds, Anthony the Off-Shore Boar” -them
“This was all sprung on me today. Don’t worry I won’t be back. This is a huge deal if I can’t supply my products to customers on time. In this case it was an order to myself I waited all day for it when I could’ve spent valuable time with my son. Thanks for not caring and showing your true colors. I see now why you’re pirates. I’ll be sure to post this on every forum I can think of. Thanks for the written communication as it’ll be an easy copy paste :). It’ll definitely hurt more than to do the right thing and take care of your loyal customers who typically use you 1-15times a week. Enjoy the honest reviews. “ -me
“Ahoy Casey! I'm sorry about the frustration with the policy UPS has implemented on the platform. We do our best to make our users aware of the policy and even point to the proper service to use if you are expecting a money back guarantee in an effort to avoid this from happening in the future. We still have this set up to be reviewed and followed up with by a manager but if you don't prefer that anymore let us know and we'll go ahead and cancel that request. Once a manager has time to review and go over this chat for you they'll reach out via email. RegARRRds, Sean the Sea Goat” -them
“Ups guarantees shipment even by time… it’s your policy not ups. It’s ok I don’t expect you’ll do the right thing I’d rather help keep as many people aware of your policy as it’s no where on your site when I go to print my labels. Shippo works just fine and I’ve never had issues there.
Bring this to a mgr or not that’s your call you’re a pirate just trying to steal my money.
ITS NOT UPS POLICY! They guarantee everything to arrrive on time! It’s your policy let’s be real. ” -me
No follow up. So now I lost all profit by paying my customer what’s right to correct their shipping issue. Shipper BE WARE!!!!!!!
What are your alls experience using the Pirate Ship website to ship rather than using eBay, Mercari’s or any other platform to ship from? Any information is appreciated!! Thank you!!
Is Pirate Ship any count? Does it actually save you money when shipping items compared to rates if you just purchased directly from usps? Just trying to save some when I ship.
I've read pro and con reviews and decided to try Pirate Ship myself. At the point where I was to pay for the label I was creating I tried one payment method which failed. I tried another, it also failed. So I contacted support. At this point, Pirate Ship has my name, address and credit card (albeit single use) information. The chatbot and/or human associate wanted a photograph of the front and back of a government-issues ID. Driver's license, etc. I put the chatbot/human on hold and rang up one of the lawyers at my office who declared that if Pirate Ship isn't a scam operation, they have personal data that can be sold to scammers. The chatbot/human assured me this is common practice for internet commerce. In decades of buying, selling and shipping items on the web, this is the first time I've ever been asked for such information.
Heard about this on the Clark Howard radio show (the watch your wallet guy). Not sure if a link is allowed, but it's literally called Pirate Ship - online software that gives small shippers a discount on UPS and USPS shipping rates. The account is free and no subscription fees. Also has integrations with WooCommerce and other platforms.
Is this too good to be true?