And you thought the oil companies were gouging

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DCBluesman

Passed Away Mar 3, 2016
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I just received an invoice on some items I had shipped to me using my UPS account. What an experience!

First, the box weighed 9.9 pounds, but UPS assessed the charge as though the package weighed 14.9 pounds, citing "Dimensional Weight Applied". So I get stuck with paying for 5 pounds of freight which did not ship.

Next, the basic freight charge was $187.80. To this, UPS added $64.79 as a "Fuel Surcharge".

Net effect?

The price estimator on the UPS website (with all of the usual disclaimers) was $131.20. My actual cost was $252.59.

Guess who closed his account.
 
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flyingmelon

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Feb 28, 2008
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Thak goodness they're not shipping me

If they are charging for dimensional weight and adding 5 lbs to a ten pound package that would make me ..... glad I have sniffed some CA fumes and can't do 2nd grade math.
 

ed4copies

Local Chapter Manager
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Mar 25, 2005
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Racine, WI, USA.
Sounds like an INTERNATIONAL transaction.

Just wait til you get their $25 bill for "agency fee" for processing the customs (oh, and the customs charge - that will come yet, too)
 

LanceD

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Houma, La, USA.
I ship fishing rods everyday through my UPS account. They go out in 3'' and 2'' pvc tubes. I calculate length x width x height and weight. Minium weight charged is for a 30# package. Rods never go more than 7 pounds. I also get charged a 5.00 surcharge because the tube is longer than 64". Then calculate insurance. A package leaving Louisiana and going to say North Carolina costs me 19.00 to 23.00 to ship.

I also get charged a fuel surcharge and a 4.00 or 5.00 surcharge for a residential delivery. I then have to fiqure in the cost of the pvc tube which adds another 4.00 to the shipping charge. My weekly ups bill is never under 150.00 and has been as high as 400.00 in a week.

Fed Ex is just slightly cheaper but I stay with UPS because of their tracking system.
The postal service is even lower but their tracking system sucks plus they broke 2 pvc tubes in half and lost twe other tubes which I still haven't settled with their insurance yet after 4 months.

At least UPS has never lost or broke a tube for me yet.
 
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Lou,
Loved DI-Mensional weight... that's how I made my living before I retired... Every package I sent had to be measured and calculated... length x width x height and divided by 166 for international (and converted to metric weights) or 294 for domestic to get "volume" weight. Airplanes only have so much space, so we had to maximize the yield for that space.

Surcharges are just a license to steal.. When I was on the stealing end.... well that was one thing.. now it another.
 

intillzah

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Jan 2, 2008
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Larned, Kansas, USA.
We deal with this poop at work too, makes the customers po'ed when they have to pay the freight on top of the part that is sometimes already too damn expensive... But in my line of work, we don't have a lot of other options...
 

Nick

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Oct 16, 2006
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Lakewood, WA, USA.
I ship quite often to the East coast for a customer of mine. I had been shipping FedEx and was paying their cheapest rate. It would take 5-6 days and cost a lot. I have switched to USPS Flat rate, much much cheaper and the order gets there in 2-3 days.With USPS the whole process can be done on line and they will come and pick up the packages.
 
M

monkeynutz

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After much forethought and careful consideration, I have determined that...

UPS SUCKS!
 

Monty

Group Buy Coordinator
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Gee....if UPS and FedEx were to merge, then we could be FedUP with shipping. :biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin::biggrin:
 

Chasper

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UPS has a little over 100 of these surcharges or "assorial" charges as they call them. Dimension weight is one of the nastiest, but they have lots of other ways to run up your bill. Some of them are applied in error and some with questionable intent.

For instance, a driver might find himself running behind and having trouble getting his deliveries completed in his allotted time. He can return to base with undelivered packages and mess up his delivery time rating, he can work overtime and get on the S list, OR he can change the address coding on a few packages and declare them rural addresses, even though they are in a city (rural and super-rural delivers get an extra time allotment and a surcharge). The shipper then gets billed an extra charge and usually never realizes it unless he audits every invoice. An entire new accounting industry has recently emerged that specializes in auditing UPS and FedEx invoices and applying for refunds on the improperly applied extra charges, they make their money by keeping a share of the refunds that they obtain. There are at least 3-4 of these services and they all seem to be doing well.
 
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An entire new accounting industry has recently emerged that specializes in auditing UPS and FedEx invoices and applying for refunds on the improperly applied extra charges, they make their money by keeping a share of the refunds that they obtain. There are at least 3-4 of these services and they all seem to be doing well.

These type of audit companies have been around for years and years.. they started out doing trucking invoices... in years past the trucking industry had "regional" tariffs, i.e., a company might be a member of the "Rocky Mountain Tariff" but ship through other regions...whose 'tariffs' might apply... as a shipper or consignee, it was near impossible to keep or know what charges could apply in the various tariffs. The audit companies typically keep 50% of the over charges as their fee.

Before de-regulation airlines also had multiple tariffs... each carrier had their own tariff, plus the interline agreement tariffs. When I was a rate clerk for a major carrier, my rate book rack was 3 feet across my desk.. I generally spent the first hour of every shift updating the tariffs.

When I left the airlines and started with a forwarding company on the west coast, I received a letter from a carrier that a particular airwaybill had been under paid. I did a quick audit on the awb and discovered it had actually been over paid. I ran an audit of the forwarding company's shipments going back one year and discovered a total of over $8,000 in overpaid air bills. Got a really nice bonus out of that little project.

Dimensional weight charges do seem unfair, but with the costs of fuels and space restrictions on planes and trucks, they have become a necessity for the carriers to stay in business.

As I said earlier, some of the "surcharges" that are applied are just licenses to steal..

And you know that UPS is now foreign owned... I think it's owned by the German Post
 
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Mikey

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Cleveland, OH, USA.
I just have to know how big the freaking box was that you got charged dimensional weight instead of just 10lbs?

i used to hate UPS, but since we get fantastic rates through my company now I either live with it or like it.

Heck, i am getting a box today of brewing supplies. 39lbs and my shipping charge was $6.99 I'm sure know I paid a lot more for the product, but it was still a bit cheaper than buying local.
 

Chasper

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These type of audit companies have been around for years and years.. they started out doing trucking invoices...
And you know that UPS is now foreign owned... I think it's owned by the German Post

You are right, they aren't new and I should have realized that. There just seems to be a new breed of logistics auditors calling on me lately, I had not run across people wanting to audit UPS invoices until a couple years ago.

It is DHL that is owned by Duetsch Post, not UPS. DHL is actually a pretty good alternative to FedEx/UPS. The trouble is that they have shut down some of their operations recently. Apparently their prices were too good.
 
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It is DHL that is owned by Duetsch Post, not UPS. DHL is actually a pretty good alternative to FedEx/UPS. The trouble is that they have shut down some of their operations recently. Apparently their prices were too good.

You're right.. I get confused in my old age about which small package company they bought.. DHL (commonly called Dewey, Huey and Louie - or stands for Documents Hopelessly Lost) was the only document courier I would trust internationally. I had Fedex, UPS, The orange Australian company - forgot their name right now - and a dozen other courier companies calling on me to get my documents, but only used DHL.

I still think UPS was either sold off or bought another company and combined operations... maybe with Emory.. I've been out of the loop for a few years and have lost track of some of the goings on in the transportation industry.

Lou,
unless they have changed the conversion factor for international dimension weights.. a package at 15 x 12 x 12 should convert to 13.01 lbs or 5.90 kgs... that's a minimum weight shipment any international market. Minimum weight is usually 10 kgs. But as I said, I've been out of the market for about 3 years, so things could have changed.
 

IPD_Mrs

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Joined
Jun 27, 2007
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Zionsville, Indiana
I just received an invoice on some items I had shipped to me using my UPS account. What an experience!

First, the box weighed 9.9 pounds, but UPS assessed the charge as though the package weighed 14.9 pounds, citing "Dimensional Weight Applied". So I get stuck with paying for 5 pounds of freight which did not ship.

Next, the basic freight charge was $187.80. To this, UPS added $64.79 as a "Fuel Surcharge".

Net effect?

The price estimator on the UPS website (with all of the usual disclaimers) was $131.20. My actual cost was $252.59.

Guess who closed his account.


Gee Lou that must of been one big box of prophylactics. (Mike's first thought)

Lou that really isn't too bad for a mail order bride. (Linda's first thought) - Then she said she was turning off her phone! :rotfl::rotfl:
 

DCBluesman

Passed Away Mar 3, 2016
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Gee Lou that must of been one big box of prophylactics. (Mike's first thought)

Lou that really isn't too bad for a mail order bride. (Linda's first thought) - Then she said she was turning off her phone! :rotfl::rotfl:

It's the #%@& blow-up doll. I knew I shouldn't have ordered the model with the pump! :cool:
 

workinforwood

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Mar 1, 2007
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Eaton Rapids, Michigan, USA.
Yep, I don't use UPS anymore...USPS is cheaper and usually faster these days.

It seems like the oil companies gouge us, but I think most of the time they don't, especially compared to most other companies. Perhaps after a storm they gouge us to cover their expenses and then some! But..they supposedly only make about 3 cents profit on a gallon of gas. They sell millions and billions of gallons though, so 3 cents would add up to major coin. Regardless the actual amount of pennies they make on a gallon, percentage wise it is a pittence compared to the percentages of most other companies. This is america, and the oil companies do have a right to make a profit, otherwise why be in business. Now, if you profit 3 cents, even 10 cents on a gallon, that's on 1/4 of a percent profit margin. You think GM would operate like that, or Walmart? How many companies are there that run their profits in the 40-60 percent range...I know there is a lot! So what is gouging? less than a percent or 50% ?
 
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