PSA: Some UPS Stores will rip you off hard

[evident]

So i needed to ship an item overseas to australia and chose UPS because they offer signature confirmation and you're able to view it online (paypal requirement). Priced out the weight, dimensions, both rounded to the next whole inch/ lb, insurance, etc. the UPS website quoted me at $220.

Took it to my local UPS store on my day working from home, and they end up quoting me at $305! D: I got really suspicious, since I overestimated on the UPS website and somehow the store is still charging me more.

I called them out on it, told her i priced it out on the ups.com website and the lady behind the counter gave me a bunch of excuses saying we use the same system as ups, you forgot to include insurance, you need to pay more because it's a laptop, etc... I got pretty fed up and left.

went to the UPS Store near my work today just to see if all ups stores would charge me the same fee. nope. they charged me $205 to ship it with all the insurance and everything i priced out. the lady at this store explained to me that some UPS Stores give you an "estimate" and make you pay up front based on the "estimated shipping cost", and when you leave, they will price it out on the actual UPS website and then pocket the difference. she told me that UPS is aware and okay with this practice too it seems, for stores that don't do enough business. UPS Stores are all privately owned.

upon her telling me this, i remembered that the first lady did, estimated my shipping weight to be 8 lbs when it was 6, and she didn't even put it on the scale to begin with. :thumbsdown:


cliffs:
SOME ups stores MAY charge you more $ than what you estimate ups.com website to pad their store's profit margins

make sure you print out a quote from the ups website if you use the UPS Store or hell just do everything online. i woulda done the latter but wanted to make sure i got all my customs forms right.

 

[ahenkel]

Yea I stopped using the ups store when they wanted to charge me 40 bucks just for a box and bubble wrap.

 

[Gibson486]

I just take it to Staples when I need to ship UPS. the teen behind the counter has no incentive to rip you off.

 

[goog40]

UPS stores almost certainly will charge you more than the rate you would pay online. They are independently owned and that's how they make money.

 

[Soundmanred]

UPS Stores (as well as Mailboxes Etc and other such stores) basically add a "handling charge", like on infomercials.
$4.99 for the item plus $14.99 shipping and handling for something that shouldn't cost more than a few dollars to send. It's an easy way to add to the profits.

 

[OCGuy]

UPS Stores (as well as Mailboxes Etc and other such stores) basically add a "handling charge", like on infomercials.
$4.99 for the item plus $14.99 shipping and handling for something that shouldn't cost more than a few dollars to send. It's an easy way to add to the profits.

Well no shit, how do you think the owner makes money?

 

[OutHouse]

yea pack and ship stores are rip offs. just take it to a UPS or Fedex service center.

 

[evident]

I just take it to Staples when I need to ship UPS. the teen behind the counter has no incentive to rip you off.

I'll definitely be going to staples next time. When i lived with my parents, i used to take everything to the UPS Processing center itself since it was right down the street and they had a customer service center for picking up packages after hours and shipping things out. they kicked ass and didn't try to pull any funny business and were fast since they knew what they were doing.


oh, i forgot to add that the first store wanted to repackage my laptop as well, even though it's still in its original manufacturer's packaging.


The second store i went to offered other services such as notary, so i guess that's how they make money.

 

[CptObvious]

They give me the same BS. I never use them to ship anything, although sometimes I go there to buy packing peanuts.

 

[uli2000]

Keep in mind with carriers like UPS and FedEx, when shipping internationally, in addition to customs fees, they add brokerage fees. I once shipped something to Canada (a $30 item) and in addition to the $5 in customs duties, UPS wanted to charge the guy a $50 brokerage fee. I only shipped UPS at his request. He ended up refusing the package, it got sent back to me, and he then repaid to have my ship it USPS where he ended up not paying any duties at all.

 

[evident]

man, now that i think of it, i will only go to an official UPS or fedex processing center now. What's to stop someone at a privately owned UPS Store from ripping off the contents of the package? then there would be no recourse w/ UPS itself, no?

 

[OCGuy]

man, now that i think of it, i will only go to an official UPS or fedex processing center now. What's to stop someone at a privately owned UPS Store from ripping off the contents of the package? then there would be no recourse w/ UPS itself, no?

Whats to stop a cook from wiping his ass with your tortilla before serving you your burrito?

 

[Soundmanred]

Well no shit, how do you think the owner makes money?

That was my point... :hmm:

 

[thescreensavers]

I got to the UPS distribution warehouse, they have a UPS store built in, Best service ever.

They will re tape your boxes, offer receipts if your dropping off a box..ect, every time I been there its been a pleasure.

 

[BoomerD]

Avoid the "UPS Store" and other places that are NOT UPS itself. They're contractors who charge a fee over and above what the actual shipping cost would be if you took it directly to the UPS counter at the UPS distribution center.
Same with any "pack & ship" type of business...It's always cheaper to take the package directly to UPS or FedEx directly...but not always as convenient.

 

[wiredspider]

Had to ship a laptop for RMA at fedex, they wanted to charge $2 to add some filler paper into the box.. A newspaper only costs .75 and has more paper!

 

[rockyct]

You guys do know that the store doesn't even pay the listed rate? I worked for place that sent some stuff out UPS but no more than 10 or so packages a day and they got 70% off the quoted rate. A package that the website would quote as $10 would only cost them $3 to ship.

 

[Tsaico]

wow, didn't know that. Thanks for PSA

 

[Spike]

You guys do know that the store doesn't even pay the listed rate? I worked for place that sent some stuff out UPS but no more than 10 or so packages a day and they got 70% off the quoted rate. A package that the website would quote as $10 would only cost them $3 to ship.

70% off the site rate? You sure on that? I've worked for UPS for quite a number of years and have worked side by side with many of the account execs. I've never seen incentives that high, not even to our huge volume customers (think thousands of packages a day with specials in the 10's of thousands), no UPS store is going to come close to that type of volume. We have to make money somehow...

 

[alkemyst]

lol called a reseller "out on it"

It's called convenience vs driving your happy ass somewhere further.

 

[Spineshank]

Just never take anything there to be packed. I once was quoted $75 for a box and some peanuts. I laughed and walked out.

 

[Elganja]

99% of the time I package myself, print the label online, and go to the store to drop it off (USPS, UPS and FEDEX) It helps that I keep a ton of my boxes from previous online orders so I never need to buy new boxes (which is insanely overpriced)

I have used the UPS store once to package/ship a wheel. They had a very fair price for packing it, but packing materials were overpriced. Crazy what they charge for some folded cardboard and packing peanuts

 

[nick1985]

wow, didn't know that. Thanks for PSA

same

 

[darkewaffle]

I had the same experience once, I sold some old PC parts on ebay and I just wanted to get them out the door as fast as possible for the buyers so I packed them up nice and neat myself, priced it out on the site, and asked mum to drop them off at the place down the road (Shipping N More or something) and they ended up charging me like double what the site gave me, I was fucking floored lol, I wouldn't have been surprised to be charged more but it literally doubled.

 

[bruceb]

Biggest issue is finding the proper size box or mailing tube for what you want to ship. I had a heck of time finding boxes of the right diameter and length to fit a 42" or so long golf driver. It is easy to find tubes to fit one or two irons in, as they are short. Fairway woods take up more diameter and length. It would end up in my charging $30 (or adding into the bid price as free shipping included) since the box itself would be $4-$8 plus the shipping cost and whatever the store adds to pack it which I would only use for heavy items. For your laptop the factory box, inside an ordinary cardboard box with some peanuts / bubblewrap would be just fine.