UPS Ground shipments billed at approx. double the correct shipping price.

[mapleleafgolfco]

I've been selling golf clubs on eBay more than 20 years and recently have switched primarily to UPS Ground for shipping as the recent $15.00 surcharge USPS adds to boxes longer than 30" for Priority Mail make USPS no longer a viable option for us as this more than doubles the shipping price. In the past I have UPS Ground for just shipments more than 3 lbs such as multiple club shipments or single putter and driver shipments would would be 3 lbs and have always been billed the same as the UPS Ground shipping quote on eBay. In our case, the most expensive single club UPS Ground shipments would be $12.65 in a 5" x 5" x 48" box @ 3 lbs to eastern time zones from CA. Since changing over exclusively to UPS on April 3 when the USPS surcharge went into effect we have been getting billed an extra $12.75 on many shipments, but our box sizes, weight, etc... are not subject to extra handling charges according to UPS info. on their website. Furthermore, when I phone eBay to talk about these overcharges, UPS is not giving a specific reason for the extra $12.75 handling fees they are charging, such as, box longer than 48", girth greater than 108" etc.... today was quite frustrating as I was billed for 12 shipments and 7 of them were billed with the extra overcharge so essentially I was charged double for  7 of the shipments so as of now I'm on the hook for $89.25 more than I should be pending eBay's inquiry with UPS. I had to deal with a few other random single shipments where UPS over billed in the last couple of months and eBay took care of this by issuing me a eBay coupon, but I don't think they ever reached any sort of corrective action with UPS. After today I'm a little nervous to print anymore labels through eBay, I think I'll print at Pirate Ship and manually import tracking to eBay. My biggest shipping box is 5" x 5" x 48" so I don't see how this could trigger any extra fees, I'm sure I'm not the only seller dealing with this, if anyone has any suggestions or guidance on this subject it would be appreciated.

[mapleleafgolfco]

@partempire: You can purchase UPS labels on Pirate Ship for the same price as eBay without the ripoff, after the fact, $12.75 mystery handling fee. 

[74sunbug]

Just chiming in that I had the $12.75 surcharge too. This was on a typical 48” rectangular box. I understand tubes can get an “irregular” surcharge but no explanation given to me either for this,

[mapleleafgolfco]

Just an update on my latest UPS labels with eBay, I was billed for 4 more UPS Ground labels today and all 4 were billed at the correct original quote. I don't believe I have anymore outstanding labels with eBay so it looks like 9 out of the 23 UPS labels I purchased in April were billed incorrectly with the $12.75 extra handling fee. eBay gave me a coupon to take care of first two errors, but I'm on the hook for 7 x $12.75 = $89.25 with no further help from eBay on this shipping/billing issue. I hope they can confront UPS on these erroneous extra handling fees and get this corrected so other sellers don't get caught with these same non-valid charges.

[bksgolf]

Thank you...I just had that happen last night when a batch of my UPS label costs came due.  I had shipped 9 separate clubs and for some reason 2 of the 9 had the extra $12.75 charge. One of which was a wedge that I ship in a 38x4x4 box.  I've only been shipping clubs for two years but after 730 items shipped this is the first time I'm seeing issues...and I don't like it.  I also had FedEx charge me $480 for a label I bought for $12.25.  The box was 48x4x4 and they measured it as 48x31x17...so I'm dealing with that nightmare..all this in the span of three days.  I'm losing confidence rapidly on anything I ship now because I feel like every morning I wake up I'm going to see the profits I made the day before go poof into delivery hell.

[chini66]

@mapleleafgolfcowe feel your pain.  I am not a store but sell a lot of golf clubs and fishing rods on eBay.  The reality is that UPS and Fedex saw an opportunity with the USPS $15 surcharge and pretty much followed suit.  If there is any light at the end of the tunnel, my local post office guy who I'm friendly with said it goes until Dec 31st.  Perhaps USPS will see the drop in volume and revert back.

[mapleleafgolfco]

I hope this info. can help with anyone getting hit with these mysterious UPS $12.75 extra handling fees. Contact UPS Billing Dept. directly through the main menu of the UPS customer service number. They'll ask for an account number, eBay's account is the first 6 digits after 1Z. The billing agent can look up the shipment through the tracking number and tell you exactly why the $12.75 extra handling fee was imposed. If the reason is incorrect they will credit eBay's UPS account and you should receive the credit in your eBay account 24-48 after received by eBay.

Apparently, the last 7 extra handling fees I was charged was for the boxes being flagged as some sort of irregular box. The UPS agent asked if I had holes or ropes on my boxes. I explained no I have been using the same standard Uline rectangular corrugated boxes for 20 years. We went through each tracking number separately in order to apply the credits. The UPS agent gave me a case number when we were finished in order to verify the credits, if need be.

[rfmtm]

@mapleleafgolfco  Great glad you finally got an answer.  I am still curious where this "irregular" charge of $12.75 is spelled out in the the UPS rate charts, because I could not find it.

[deannrecto-0]

Fed ex hit me for double on some $40  packages. They are way worse.

[retro-metro]

Thank you for the info above. Unfortunately, I tried this and it did not result in UPS providing me with any information. They said the account number belonged to eBay and provided no information. They looked up the tracking but did not provide me with the amount that I was charged. I had shipped a poster for $7.36 and was charged $20.11. Again, the $12.75 over charge for a small poster tube. eBay said they had no information on what the extra charge was. I contacted UPS billing like you mentioned above but they stated they could not verify the amount that was billed to me as neither of the amounts (7.36 or 20.11)  matched what I was actually billed. They could not verify any over charge. What that tells me is that eBay could be the party over charging and passing it along as a UPS charge. Either way, something fraudulent is going on here and possibly both UPS and eBay are involved. This is an ongoing investigation that might need legal action. 

[worldwide*local*guy]

Thank you for posting about this problem! It sounds like the old "Bait and Switch"... They'll show you one price, which is the "bait", and then later on you'll get hit with a bigger price, which is "the Switch". I'm getting ready to ship a VERY large and very heavy package across the country, and the ebay shipping calculator is showing me about $95 for UPS Ground. I know that the legitimate real cost is actually about $250, and I will be buying it on PirateShip. I almost fell for the $95 dollar "bait"!

[oldmahoganyrocker]

UPS ripoff?  Me2.

Vintage posters.  Staples 30" (really 31"x3x3) mailing tubes. Always less than 2 lbs.

Today is the 5th time UPS has added ...... now wait for it ...... $12.75.  ALWAYS $12.75.

No more UPS ripoffs.  Just going back to USPS ...... as lame as they are.

[oldmahoganyrocker]

ByTheWay ...... I always ... always add an extra inch to these measurments.

32x4x4"s.

[oldmahoganyrocker]

I think that plan will eliminate eBay discounts from UPS.

That way makes it very nearly the same prices as USPS.

[michellrhode42]

Wow my surcharge I got to fight from UPS came 5 days after delivery of a long framed print Texas to Arizona ground delivery.  I initial paid 149.00 They added after delivery 1201.00 charge and took out of my ebay account. Then after lots of phone calls only returned 1050.00. So, I lost 300 on shipping for a painting I charged 70 to ship. Learned to not ship large packages through ebay. Only an estimate???????? ebay should fix this. lots of complaints on this online. Since they are taking 10 days to return a partial refund I had to borrow money for my house payment.  1200 dollars is 1/2 months salary for my teaching job. Soured me on shipping large items. I sale on ebay to try to get college money for my son since teaching salaries in the south aren't enough to pay for colleges that cost 25k to 35 k a year.  Can't wait to retire from working extra jobs to survive this economy and expenses that aging teachers face as their kids grow up. Ok I am just complaining now. LOL   Happy Holidays Folks.

[michellrhode42]

This happens on oversized boxes. Happened to me and they added 1201.00 to a long box that weighed under 30 pounds. lots of phone calls to ebay to get 1050.00 back so out over 400 to send the **bleep** painting because I had already paid 149.00.  Ebay is taking up to 10 days to return my money. That was my house payment  and 1200 is almost 1/2 of my monthly income as a teacher. I will take large boxes directly to ups or fed ex now. UPS and FEd ex can just add charges to ebay. Selling all my stuff over the next year and gradually getting away from ebay. I rather sell clothes at Penny's or Dillards to supplement my poor teacher's salary.