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New FedEx pick-up fees
This is not directly an ebay issue, but since many sellers use FedEx as an integral part of selling on ebay it seems relevant: Many of us have used FedEx's pick-up service for years- we liked that it was a free service provided as part of the regular delivery routes. As many of you are aware, FedEx started charging a fee for these pick-ups in mid-August - typically starting at 15$ or more per pick up, depending on the number and size of your packages. And while I do think 15$ is kind of steep just for grabbing a small box off my porch, I'm actually not here to complain about the fee itself. The problem is, they didn't actually provide a clear and readily apparent disclosure of the change until sometime in October. Which means if you're like me, between August 18th (when the charges went into effect) and October, you probably scheduled pickups through your FedEx account using the same workflow as always, and at no point during that process were you presented with any notice or disclosure indicating that new pickup fees would apply, or what those fees would be. The interface and process were visually and functionally identical to what they had been prior to this policy change, giving no reason to believe any charges would be incurred. Thus, we were not afforded the opportunity to make an informed decision or to consent to the charges. We didn't find out about it until we got our Invoice, and SURPRISE, you owe 100$ for pick-ups you thought were free! I've seen similar complaints out there on Reddit and so on, in which people say FedEx has argued that the new fee structure was published elsewhere on its website, however it is not reasonable to expect that customers will routinely search the back pages of FedEx's site for fee changes every time they use a familiar service. The obligation to provide obvious and transparent notice rests with FedEx- not the customer- and such notice should have appeared directly within the scheduling interface where the customer’s decision is being made.
If you have been hit with these hidden charges, I encourage you to call FedEx billing and dispute them. I did that and they reversed the charges immediately -almost 100$ worth- no questions asked. That indicates to me that they're probably getting A LOT of these calls, and aren't even trying to fight them because they know they were wrong. I hope this tip will be helpful for some of you!
