There are a few things that you should know when you purchase restaurant furniture from an online seller.

The first thing is the shipping. If you buy from a company that offers free shipping, you are still paying for the shipping. The price is built into the cost of the chair with the free shipping (an exception to this is if they are running a special sale). When I have gotten quotes from a company that shows free shipping on the chairs, I found that the overall cost was cheaper when buying the chairs at the lowest cost and then getting a shipping quote separately. Most manufacturers that I deal with only ship on pallets, the reason for this is that if you just send them in a box, there is a good chance that it will be busted up by the shippers. For this reason, I get custom quotes for every order. This saves the buyer money as the manufacturer checks with multiple shipping companies and sends me the lowest quote. It is then sent to the person requesting the quote and they can then purchase. This does take time so that someone cannot just do a fast purchase. Before sending the quote, I also make sure that the product is in stock as well. This process can take from 20 minutes with some manufacturers to 24 hours with others, so be patient.

The process is not as simple as buying from amazon or another online retail giant where they have the resources to give you a shipping cost on a small item. With furniture it is different to get the shipping cost, you need shipping pros to do that. They have to figure out what you are buying (chairs, stools, bases, tables) and how to load them best on the pallets to get you the most bang for the buck on your shipping cost. Then once they figure out what they can fit on a pallet (or more than 1 pallet), they have to figure out how much that weighs.

This is why it takes some time and why you can't be given an immediate shipping quote when buying the furniture. If someone can give you a quick quote, chances are that you may be paying too much.