Has anyone else noticed a HUGE uptick in Fedex & UPS overcharges and back charges lately?

[siamjane8]

     Within the last 2 months we have seen across our 2 accounts and several others that we consult with and help manage, as well as other sellers that we talk to, that Fedex and UPS have upped their erroneous back charges considerably!   This is fraud and noticeable when the companies ramp this practice up to meet 1/4ly projections or goals for shareholders!

   One seller got a $1495.00 upcharge after the fact because UPS added 10" to the length of the box for no reason.....the box is a U-line standard "bicycle" box with set dimensions..... there is no way to add almost a foot to its dimensions.    (btw- adding up to 9" does NOT trigger the freight shipping surcharge so this was intentional)

    We have had 2 boxes that were standard 16x20x6 billed as overcharge due to "irregular package" for $30+ each!   What is irregular about that size cardboard box?  Here is the kicker- Fedex said that the dimensions and weight that i put in are correct and they did not change them!!!!!?????- they just added a surcharge for nothing.   

     Went through 4 different ebay agents and landed with a knowledgible American support agent that said he was originally with the fedex shipping team at ebay.   He said that the team refused to send the dispute to ebay because they get so many overcharge disputes that the team has to pick and choose because they only get so many disputes with the carriers....

    He said that the carriers use there drivers to scan and flag packages as they see fit and basically ebay takes the side of a disgruntled fedex driver over the word of a 24 year full time top rated seller.  How is that acceptable?

    We buy the labels on ebay and from ebay but ebay refuses to dispute obvious shipping mistakes and back charges on our behalf.   And refuses to make it right now because they had awarded our account a one time forgiveness back in Aug 2022.

    I asked him if ebay can make a new page to allow us to charge the buyer the additional shipping after the fact and he admitted that will never happen because that is not a good business practice and would never work........... but that is exactly what ebay is doing it its customers(sellers).

    Basically we as sellers can have no confidence in buying labels through ebay any longer- this issue was supposed to be fixed when ebay changed how they handle the payments of UPS and Fedex- now they charge upfront instead of after delivery ( This keeps the $ in ebays account for up to 3 weeks until they are billed after delivery- making a nice profit on the interest in the Float".  So now because we cant use a credit card for shipping- we lose 2% cashback ( i was willing to do that for the convenience) over the course of the year and thousands of shipments and ebay tells us to pound sand when there is an issue with the label we buy  from them.   

    I guess its back to pirateship again for everything instead of just the large packages- what a shame that ebay so stubbornly refuses to accept responsibility for the product they sell......I would prefer to just keep it all on ebay and buy my labels here but its just to risky- we no longer have any confidence that ebay is a partner or has our backs with these disputes.

[siamjane8]

   Just had another sale since the conversation with ebay....... i went directly to pirateship to purchase the label even though it was usps (they are rarely an issue). The costs are exactly the same to the penny and i dont have to worry about being back charged and run around the ringer with ebay. All info imports over from ebay and then uploads tracking to ebay so its not really a big deal.

    So sad because i really like to reward companies for doing good business- I will would be happy to use ebay labels again when they get their act together and  start protecting its customers from preditory and egregious over charges on the back end

   It should not be difficult at all- just let ups know if they dont get this under control- ebay will drop them and only sell fedex labels- and do the same to fedex- these companies need to know that they cant get away with it anymore........ but that falls on ebay to stand up to them for us.  Its time to renegotiate terms with these multi-billion dollar companies 

[wastingtime101]

I buy my UPS labels from a 3rd party and I try not to use FedEx, but anecdotally I can say I have not seen any particular uptick in complaints here on community. Pretty much the same number of reports as always, coming in waves every couple weeks as adjustments come through.

I'm seeing the usual mix of carriers applying erroneous adjustments, and sellers uninformed about packaging surcharges.

That said, as for an individual seller having issues, you're not the first I've seen talking about an uptick. I'm pretty sure it was @redlinear that recently said they were getting far more UPS adjustments than usual.

As for how a package can falsely jump in weight/dim on these adjustments, that's easy to answer. Packages piggyback on each other all the time and when 2 packages are stuck together as they pass through the scanner it will result in those erroneous adjustments. Those are the ones that are almost always found in seller's favor on dispute when carrier looks at the photos taken when the package was scanned and audited.

[redlinear]

@siamjane8 
@wastingtime101 
   Even back in the day, when we were shipping around 150 packages per day, on UPS.  We would see these adjustments.
Not often though. Especially considering the volume.
We had our own account with UPS, so it was easier to dispute (no eBay middleman, No lots of crazy forms that you don't have the info to fill out). It was just easier.
However, I was paying an employee to take care of UPS claims.  And it just wasn't worth his pay to pursue.
I was spending $100 to get $30 if all went right (But most of the time I was spending $100 to get nothing).
   I'm seeing much more "adjustments" now, especially as a percentage vs the amount we ship.
Still, I can't afford to pursue this stuff.
It's like all the recent uptick in returns and return shipping costs.... My best method to offset all of this is just to double down on listings.

[qualityrandomitems]

I even resorted to taking pictures of the box, and they STILL ripped me off.  Next, I'm going to take a video with the fedex driver to prove it.  This is class action suit in the making.

[alwaysthebest4u]

I had 5 in last month all in Texas, all I get is a lecture about DIM. Im A seller with 6000 feedback, so I don’t need a lecture on how it works. Today got $16 fedex cb on item I got another cb a month ago. Price on eBay and fedex both show $68 so only varies with discount, ebay doesn’t care.

[lesegouts]

Never use FedEx. Period.

[itflipsthrift]

Yes UPS and FedEx are charging additional charges claiming package size! this never happen before. eBay has been getting so many calls a day for this lately. I think its a scam and should be looked into by BBB. I shipped a pair of shoes in the same box many times and this never happened now they charged me an extra 3.50 last week.