“UPS Shippers Beware”
How many times have you shipped with UPS and billed to a third party’s UPS account number?
Well did you know that if the third party doesn’t pay their bill UPS will charge it to your account?
UPS is opening accounts with no exposure to them because they have a back-up plan for collections, you, the unsuspecting shipper. And that is exactly what happened to Lucky Bucky clothing. We had a customer, Theresa Sanford of Kenterri Stables in Canada who instructed us to bill shipping to her UPS account. When she apparently didn’t pay 5 of her UPS bills, months later we started getting her charges on our account.
Kenterri’s total reversed charges are around $1000 including late fees. We pled our case with UPS Corporate asking that these questionable charges be credited and as a good faith effort Lucky Bucky would utilize UPS as its primary shipper. Dale Thompson, UPS SSR Supervisor of the UPS Mid South District offered to credit half of the Kenterri Stables charges if we would pay the other half of Kenterri Stables charges. Guess UPS only felt 50% responsible?
We declined the offer and said we would take our dispute to UPS CEO, Scott Davis only to have Dale Thompson withdraw his offer. Our request for fairness with the CEO ended up back in Dale Thompson’s office with no additional consideration except with the demand to pay Kenterri Stables’ UPS bills by the 23rd of November, 2010 or the Lucky Bucky account will be turned over for collections. Mr. Thompson referred us to the page 158 of the UPS Service Guide which states the responsibility of payment by the shipper if the consignee defaults. This warning is not on the “create a shipment” page when selecting “bill the receiver.”
Lucky Bucky Clothing’s Story
· UPS extended credit to Theresa Sanford, Lucky Bucky did not.
· UPS allowed Lucky Bucky to continue to bill to Theresa Sanford’s account when she was apparently not paying her UPS bills.
· UPS failed to warn Lucky Bucky on their online “Create a Shipment” website page that shippers are liable for 3rd party charges.
· UPS was not very forthright in making a 50% credit offer to Lucky Bucky then withdrawing it when LBC wanted to go up the UPS Corporate Chain of Command for further consideration and the complaint ended up back in Mr. Thompsons’ office again anyway. Lucky Bucky made a good faith effort to use UPS as its primary shipping vendor.
Lucky Bucky Clothing operates under the philosophy of “Treat People as You Would Be Treated.” Every one of our customers is important and we always want them to feel they are respected and treated fairly. The UPS attitude to Lucky Bucky is pay Theresa Sanford’s UPS bills by the 23rd of November, 2010 or be turned over for collections.
Lucky Bucky hopes as a result of this dispute UPS will make their third party billing policy more transparent for Businesses using the UPS shipping website. If we had been informed or warned at the time of creating a shipment online and choosing “bill the receiver,” we would not have billed to Theresa Sanford’s UPS account. Lucky Bucky didn’t extend her credit to begin with, UPS did.
How many businesses in America can simply bill you if another company defaults on their account?
Good business is when both parties understand the policies and agree to do business in a fair and ethical manner. It is such a shame to see UPS, a business that started off small, grew to be the largest shipping company in America, and then seemingly quit caring about small business.
Let us know how you feel about this unfair business practice and how many of you knew it even existed. Please pass this story on to help others.
What a horror story…..UPS…..!!!
We also discovered that some “UPS Stores” (which apparently are not affiliated with UPS) only utilized Air services when billing receiver. When a customer needed to return a heavy shipment that was defective, we gave them our shipper number as a convenience. The package arrived via 2nd day air – and cost us a bundle. Upon questioning the customer we discovered that Next Day and Second Day Air were the only options available to him. They told him at the store they could NOT do ground on the receiver’s account. Grrr. What a waste, and deception. Good revenue for them, but a real burden to us as we tried to provide good customer service in processing a return.
It’s amazing how many companies will bite off their noses to spite their face. They would have made more money by taking up your offer for future shipping. I had a similar issue with AT&T. They would rather charge me for something that was not my bill and lose my business rather than write off the bill I did not incur. Took my business elsewhere also.
I avoid using UPS. The service I have received from UPS is 2nd rate compared to Federal Express and even the US Post Office. A few years ago UPS destroyed an expensive Bicycle during shipping and refused to accept the blame. Only after several weeks of arguing with their corporate office did they agree to replace it. Terrible customer service and since that time I try at all costs to avoid using UPS.
Landon McCrary