UPS never again for me

Elliot G.

Industry Expert
Jul 22, 2010
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Fort Lauderdale, Florida
www.bendingwaveusa.com
I paid for a small rack being shipped from the Toronto area made of wood and valued for shipping at 1500 Canadian, I paid extra for two day shipping and that cost 470.00. I did that since I needed the item before Thursday.
Today I got it and the UPS driver asked me for almost 1100. He could not show me or tell me why other that he said I had to pay it or he can't leave it.
For the math challenged 25 percent ( if that is the correct tariff ) on 1500 is not 1100. I am now over one hour into the process of waiting on hold talking to someone with marbles in their mouth, repeating the entire story along with tracking numbers and now on hold again.
Customer service is such a f-ing misnomer.

For me personally I will NEVER EVER ship anything to anyone , anywhere , at anytime via UPS ever again, and even then after I am dead NO.

WTF happened to treating customers with some dignity and help? Shipping costs are ridiculous and this is their best?

Me I will demand more and pay for more for real service.
Hey UPS GO F-yourselves

sorry i needed to vent
 
That sounds crazy to me and that you were overcharged. I hope you get it straightened out……..
 
Depending on the weight, the price at UPS increases dramatically. I've experienced this myself, where i send Krell mono amps to South Korea.470€ to 1400€(air freight)

P.S over 25kg it gets expensive ..ouch
 
Last edited:
Only FedEx for me.
In Europe, a 15kg package costs €16.90, and the same package to the USA costs €165.90 today with FedEx. Regardless of which option you choose, the new customs restrictions make everything incredibly expensive.for each kilogram of weight additional 11.90€
 
I don't understand how the point of sale person shipping does not have all the VAT taxes figured out and added in. I ran into the same crap with Voxativ 8 years ago. UPS show up at your door with their had out. I don't know the shipping company has any idea how its calculated. I think its a outside government agency assigning a tax and leaving the shipping company to collect. UPS would have 0 insite into how its calculated. Its just $$$ passing through their hands. I feel the company shipoing the product should know and collect the tqx. My gut says they ignore it and pass it through to save a sale that would be lost if people knew the true cost. God forbid they may purchase locally if they knew how much the governments charged.
 
I am guessing this came in to a business address?

Rob :)
 
I paid for a small rack being shipped from the Toronto area made of wood and valued for shipping at 1500 Canadian, I paid extra for two day shipping and that cost 470.00. I did that since I needed the item before Thursday.
Today I got it and the UPS driver asked me for almost 1100. He could not show me or tell me why other that he said I had to pay it or he can't leave it.
For the math challenged 25 percent ( if that is the correct tariff ) on 1500 is not 1100. I am now over one hour into the process of waiting on hold talking to someone with marbles in their mouth, repeating the entire story along with tracking numbers and now on hold again.
Customer service is such a f-ing misnomer.

For me personally I will NEVER EVER ship anything to anyone , anywhere , at anytime via UPS ever again, and even then after I am dead NO.

WTF happened to treating customers with some dignity and help? Shipping costs are ridiculous and this is their best?

Me I will demand more and pay for more for real service.
Hey UPS GO F-yourselves

sorry i needed to vent
Same
 
I paid for a small rack being shipped from the Toronto area made of wood and valued for shipping at 1500 Canadian, I paid extra for two day shipping and that cost 470.00. I did that since I needed the item before Thursday.
Today I got it and the UPS driver asked me for almost 1100. He could not show me or tell me why other that he said I had to pay it or he can't leave it.
For the math challenged 25 percent ( if that is the correct tariff ) on 1500 is not 1100. I am now over one hour into the process of waiting on hold talking to someone with marbles in their mouth, repeating the entire story along with tracking numbers and now on hold again.
Customer service is such a f-ing misnomer.

For me personally I will NEVER EVER ship anything to anyone , anywhere , at anytime via UPS ever again, and even then after I am dead NO.

WTF happened to treating customers with some dignity and help? Shipping costs are ridiculous and this is their best?

Me I will demand more and pay for more for real service.
Hey UPS GO F-yourselves

sorry i needed to vent
Team WorldWide is a company I typically use for freight (which is most stuff these days). They are very friendly and helpful and still know what customer service means. Add to that their rates are very competitive. You might give them a shout the next time you want to ship something.
 
Team WorldWide is a company I typically use for freight (which is most stuff these days). They are very friendly and helpful and still know what customer service means. Add to that their rates are very competitive. You might give them a shout the next time you want to ship something.
I don't use UPS it was a delivery. I have used Team World Wide for years and others for international
 
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I paid for a small rack being shipped from the Toronto area made of wood and valued for shipping at 1500 Canadian, I paid extra for two day shipping and that cost 470.00. I did that since I needed the item before Thursday.
Today I got it and the UPS driver asked me for almost 1100. He could not show me or tell me why other that he said I had to pay it or he can't leave it.
For the math challenged 25 percent ( if that is the correct tariff ) on 1500 is not 1100. I am now over one hour into the process of waiting on hold talking to someone with marbles in their mouth, repeating the entire story along with tracking numbers and now on hold again.
Customer service is such a f-ing misnomer.

For me personally I will NEVER EVER ship anything to anyone , anywhere , at anytime via UPS ever again, and even then after I am dead NO.

WTF happened to treating customers with some dignity and help? Shipping costs are ridiculous and this is their best?

Me I will demand more and pay for more for real service.
Hey UPS GO F-yourselves

sorry i needed to vent
I gave you a like because it was quite a classy vent.

I, on the other hand, have nothing against UPS. I ordered a DAC recently from the Netherlands, I paid through the app and it was delivered 2 days later. They even sent a paper invoice after delivery.
IMG_4944.jpg
The problem is likely not UPS, more your government changing the tariff rules every 10 minutes. Maybe the wood was Chinese Maple and the tariff was higher for wood from the Evil Empire.

When we had Brexit in the UK it caused some problems, but they got sorted. Before Brexit I would not have had this UPS paperwork, I would have paid the VAT (sales tax) to the Dutch vendor, not the UK government on importing the product, for which the courier is the handling agent.

I have a new listening chair arriving from Copenhagen tomorrow. The vendor sent it "taxes paid", so I made only one payment to him, no extra paperwork, delivery will have taken 3 days.

I just sent a phono stage to someone, domestically in the UK. Weighed 7kg. Used ParcelForce, part of the national carrier, Royal Mail, cost about $20 US, arrived before noon the next day.

So just give it a few years, things will get better.
 
I've had recent troubles with FedEx Ground. I shipped a Townshend preamp in a flight case and they dropped it so badly that the circuit boards cracked and ripped a bunch of wires. Even though fully insured, they covered $0 and to top it off, I had to pay to have it shipped back to me. Ended up costing over $3k to fix. Townshend said it was worst shipping damage they had ever seen. Only upside is that I ended up getting it upgraded to the latest version since it wasn't much more and decided to keep it.
 
Even though fully insured, they covered $0 and to top it off, I had to pay to have it shipped back to me.

How can that be legal? I would be interested in seeing how they came up with an excuse to wiggle themselves out of that one.

Tom
 
I been having a fun time with UPS since last week. Lost package is finally delivered to my neighbors next door, yesterday The package was half open and one Stillpoint 5 was missing. When they stole the footer they left this object to have it match the original weight calculation.1752060636204.png

1752060538634.png
 
How can that be legal? I would be interested in seeing how they came up with an excuse to wiggle themselves out of that one.

Tom
Something everyone should know when they pay for “insurance” on a shipment through FedEx:

When they damage the contents, through their negligence, no matter how perfectly packed, their claims procedure is very straightforward: they will deny the claim. I assume UPS is the same.

If they lose the shipment they might pay, but don’t have personal experience with that. But I would expect the worst .
 
Something everyone should know when they pay for “insurance” on a shipment through FedEx:

When they damage the contents, through their negligence, no matter how perfectly packed, their claims procedure is very straightforward: they will deny the claim. I assume UPS is the same.

If they lose the shipment they might pay, but don’t have personal experience with that. But I would expect the worst .
What Wil says here is generally correct.
However, I have collected on a “damage claim”.
The package was severely crushed and the amplifier was nearly bent in half.
Initially they denied the claim saying that they didn’t know how it was packaged.
Fortunately I had photos of the amp being packaged.
After an almost two month ordeal they finally relented and paid the claim.
Best rule of thumb with most any shipper and insurance is:
If lost, good possibility of reimbursement
If damaged, no reimbursement.
 
Am I the only person who likes couriers? I've had the same DHL delivery guy for 10+ years, called Lens. I used to have an office about a mile away, if I was not in the office he's bring it to my home and vice versa.

Audio deliveries have never been a problem, local dealers deliver personally. My Gryphon amp was sent using a door-to-door service and he helped to get it in the house.
 
Update- as of this morning I have no update, no goods, no paperwork , I have nothing and it is part of a large install that I am doing tomorrrow.
So glad I paid extra for this :)
 
I paid for a small rack being shipped from the Toronto area made of wood and valued for shipping at 1500 Canadian, I paid extra for two day shipping and that cost 470.00. I did that since I needed the item before Thursday.
Today I got it and the UPS driver asked me for almost 1100. He could not show me or tell me why other that he said I had to pay it or he can't leave it.
For the math challenged 25 percent ( if that is the correct tariff ) on 1500 is not 1100. I am now over one hour into the process of waiting on hold talking to someone with marbles in their mouth, repeating the entire story along with tracking numbers and now on hold again.
Customer service is such a f-ing misnomer.

For me personally I will NEVER EVER ship anything to anyone , anywhere , at anytime via UPS ever again, and even then after I am dead NO.

WTF happened to treating customers with some dignity and help? Shipping costs are ridiculous and this is their best?

Me I will demand more and pay for more for real service.
Hey UPS GO F-yourselves

sorry i needed to vent
Hi
Welcome to the real world. Here in Portugal, everything that comes from outside Europe/CEE is taxes and more taxes. Interestingly, UPS and Fedex are the worst, while DHL has the best prices.
I personally work with NACEX and when it comes to shipping outside of Europe I only ship via DPD.

Atentamente
Jon
 

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