Whats up with Fedex putting holds on my credit card?

[tboo]

2 weeks ago i ship a package via fedex ground. i go to their local office & charge the shipment to my card-it was $15.27. The next day I check my CC account & find that they charged my CC $15.00 the day I shipped & $15.27 the next day(the day I checked my CC). I call fedex & the guy has me fax my receipt over & after 10 days the $15.00 hold on my card is dropped. I figure someone screwed up & that was all. Yesterday I ship again via fedex ground-total was $5.09. Again I charge it. Later on Monday I see they put a hold of $20.00 on my card. I call up again & the lady tells me that is a new thing they just started doing & it was just a hold & it would drop off in 10 days. Today I checked my CC & see they charged an additional $5.09(the amount my receipt says)to my card. Now, i know the $20.00 will drop off in 10days, but where do they get off doing this to my card? I never authorized anything over what the receipt says. The card I use for shipping is a Paypal debit card & that money in there is literally taken away from me when they do these holds. They lady at Fedex couldnt give me a reason on why they do this-anybody know whats up?

 

[PsychoAndy]

i dont know how fedex works, but it may be that the're holding funds back for address correction purposes

 

[fr]

Hmm....well as long as it's just an authorization and not a charge...


I wouldn't make such a big deal of it unless I really needed every single $ of that credit limit.

 

[krustytheclown]

The exact same thing happened to me yesterday. I paid $4.53 with my PayPal debit card to ship an item, and there was a $20 charge immediately, and then the actual charge of $4.53 the next day. It is pretty sorry that they do that, because with PayPal, it locks those funds from being used until the 10 day period. If this is going to happen on every charge, I guess I'll have to start paying cash or shipping with USPS (which just got VERY expensive). I'm going to call FedEx about it and complain, but I assume they can't do anything about it.

 

[tboo]

Im going to call & complain as well, krustytheclown. This is B.S.-i had $50 on the card & after i left was expecting to have ~$45 left. I now have $25 left & have to wait 10 days to get my money back. I wonder if this is just with Paypal debit cards, all debit cards or debit cards & credit cards?

 

[txgixer]

Those bogus holds, authorizations, etc are suck

 

[bwass24]

I'm not at all defending FedEx--I think what they're doing stinks--but I think I can explain why they are doing it.

Unlike normal FedEx Express, FedEx ground delivery people are subcontractors. They get paid by size, weight and the number of deliveries they make. Although the price they charge you when you ship the package should be correct, the reason they put the hold on the $$$ is they don't verify the EXACT size and weight until the package gets to a FedEx transfer station. If the initial weight was 2 pounds but the actual weight is 4 pounds, then they will take the extra charge from the funds being held.

It would make sense for you guys to know the exact dimensions and weight when you ship a package so if they add charges you can dispute them.

 

[tboo]

I think I ship my packages at a Fedex transfer station-its at the local airport where the Fedex planes & trucks come in & where they load the trucks to go out. Though, fedex ground is located in another city, 15 minutes away. Around 6pm each night they ship them down to the Fedex ground terminal(which used to be an RPS building, I think).

 

[krustytheclown]

Well, I called, and the customer disservice person was useless. They told me they couldn't tell me anything until the package was delivered. I asked them what that had to do with anything. I just wanted to know why a less than $5 charge would cause a $20 pending charge in addition to the original charge. He just kept repeating that he couldn't tell me anything until the package was delivered. He then told me that they sometimes charge extra for oversized packages. The box was about the size of a CD-ROM drive, so somehow I doubt that.

As for the theory of holding funds in case the price changes, isn't that illegal? If I authorize a charge at one amount, and then they arbitrarily decide that I owe more, shouldn't they have to contact me to authorize that change? I can't see this being the case, because if you paid with cash, they wouldn't have a way to get that money back.

At any rate, it looks like I'll be paying cash at FedEx from now on. I would just use the USPS, but now that they've jacked their rates up across the board, it's not a very good option for any packages over 1 LB. A 2 LB package that used to cost $3.95 to ship Priority Mail now costs $4.90. However, the Post Office employees seem to be moving as slow as ever. I told a co-worker today that if the post office ever caught fire, I don't think any of the employees would be able to get out in time.

 

[308nato]

Originally posted by: tboo
I think I ship my packages at a Fedex transfer station-its at the local airport where the Fedex planes & trucks come in & where they load the trucks to go out. Though, fedex ground is located in another city, 15 minutes away. Around 6pm each night they ship them down to the Fedex ground terminal(which used to be an RPS building, I think).

I have the exact same situation here. They weigh them, label them, spank them and off they go. The tracking number activates around 6pm. I always pay with a card. I dropped off 5 packages yesterday. I just checked my CC account and it only shows the actual charge.

 

[jimmyhaha]

Isn't that defeat the purpose of having a Fedex a/c and print the lable on line ?

so I print a label, know the size and dimension..

my CC get charged..

Fedex give me an extra pending charge of $20 for each package coz they are NOT sure if I am cheating ?

...

Somone enlight me...

 

[Cerebus451]

It might have to do with the fact that FedEx and FedEx Ground are not entirely the same organization. FedEx Ground used to be RPS. FedEx bought out RPS and renamed it FedEx Ground to give themselves something to compete with UPS ground service. When you take your packages to a FedEx Express counter, you are not handing your package over to FedEx Ground people, but rather FedEx Express people. The $20 hold charges might be the FedEx Express people just putting a hold until the FedEx Ground people do the actual charges. The FedEx Express people measure and weigh the packages and assign the proper shipping charges. I am not sure why they would need to do a hold, but my guess is it has something to do with them not being entirely the same company.

If you guys are doing a lot of shipping with FedEx Ground, why not open an account with them? Then you just fill out the forms, put your shipper account number in and take it to the counter. You will then get a monthly bill from them for all the shipping you did that month, and you should be able to avoid the hold charges. Not sure how all the shipper accounts work, but it might solve the problem of them putting a hold on your PayPal cards.

 

[tboo]

Just an update-I shipped a package via Fed-ex ground the other day. Total cost was 22.61 I had ~$37.00 on my card. As expected they charged $20.00 immediately & the next day tried to charge $22.61 but was denied. Packge still got to its destination.