[Elecraft] Shipping via UPS - A Lesson Learned the Hard Way

[john at kk9a.com]

Great post Ted, I had no idea that the UPS Store marked it up that much. I
have had a FedEx account for years and after reading the comments may also
open a UPS account.

Once I had a shipment (in two boxes) from Elecraft that required a signature
so I had it delivered to a UPS store instead of my house. The UPS store
charged me ~$5 per package service fee when I pick them up.

John KK9A


KN1CBR wrote:

I just shipped some of my Elecraft gear to someone who had purchased it from
me.  The agreement was that I would ship it and they would bear the shipping
expense.  The buyer was OK with my using UPS.

 

So I packed it up and took it to "The UPS Store."  There are about 30 of
them in the Denver metro area and about a dozen in the city itself.  Before
taking the package there I looked at UPS on-line to see what insurance would
cost.  The UPS site said $1.05 per hundred dollars in excess of the $100
included in the shipping rate.  When I arrived at the UPS Store they charged
me $4.50 per $100.  That difference times the value of what I was shipping
came to well over $100.  When I questioned it (more accurately, when I
complained about it) they told me that UPS and The UPS Store are different
entities.  The latter, they said, is a network of franchises independent of
the real UPS that "works with" UPS for retail shipping and receiving.  So
what I had seen on the UPS website was what UPS charges, not the grossly
inflated premium The UPS Store charges.  OK, I asked, how can I ship this
via UPS itself?  The answer was a 90 minute round-trip drive to the nearest
real UPS terminal.

 

The UPS Store does not charge real UPS rates.  They have UPS in their name.
They use a logo indistinguishable from the UPS logo.  Their counter clerks
wear UPS Brown.  There was a standar UPS truck parked in front of the shop.
There was NOTHING visible to me in the store that indicated it wasn't a UPS
shop.  Maybe everyone on this reflector already knows about this.  Until
this morning I didn't.  

 

There's an old maxim that a happy customer tells one other person about
their experience.  An unhappy customer tells ten other people.  

 

Ted, KN1CBR