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The United Parcel Service (UPS) has found a new way to eliminate competition, they are now making you pay double if you make a mistake on a package and send through a third party vendor (i.e. Mail Boxes Etc.).

Should Mailboxes eat the charges? I don't think so. UPS doesn't cut anyone any breaks, so no matter who messed it up, the shipper has to pay.

I recently tried to send a birthday present to my daughter, so I mailed the box full of presents from Mail Boxes Etc. Little did I know this would cost me more than I bargained for. It seems that I made a mistake on the zip code for the parcel. All other fields were correct.

UPS noticed my mistake the next day and was kind enough to return the package to Mail Boxes Etc. for me free of charge. Therein lies the problem. The cost for returning a package at no charge ends up costing me double the original cost, because they refuse to ship the parcel now.

Who refuses to ship the package now? I'm sure either UPS or Mailboxes would be happy to ship it for you, but you will have to pay again.

My costs have now doubled because if I wish to send my daughter a present I have to re-address the parcel and re-send it through UPS. When I contacted UPS to see of this was a mistake I was informed the following:

Thank you for your inquiry. Commercial Counters and Authorized Shipping Outlets are independently owned shipping outlets that provide service to customers shipping packages. They are not UPS owned facilities. Please note, the Authorized Shipping Outlet is responsible for all aspects of the shipment transaction; you do not deal directly with UPS. Thank you for using UPS Internet Services.

In my simple understanding of this message I am now to understand that had I used UPS directly without using an inferior second rate service, this would not have cost me double.

That is not the case, you would still have to pay. UPS is famous for bad customer service, overcharging, goofing up, losing items, breaking things, etc. They will only admit fault if you threaten legal action. They seem to figure that if they can just keep you from trying to resolve something its cheaper than paying a claim or admitting fault.

How do the rest of you feel about this? I am quite simply outraged. I will never use UPS again. There are plenty of "customer friendly" companies out there that care about the customer and some even allow for a simple mistake in addressing occasionally.

FedEx is better, but there aren't a lot of choices.

Please let me know your thoughts and pass the word that if you like UPS, then don't use a second rate intermediary.

I don't think that Mailboxes in this case was second rate at all. If you made the mistake, they still have to pay the shipping charges to UPS, because UPS will still make Mailboxes pay. We have a shipping service in our office as a convienience to our customers. We make the customer fill out the book so if there is a mistake, we don't take a hit. We don't make a whole lot of cash with shipping, so when UPS loses or breaks something it eats up every single penny of profit and then some to try to help the customer with their claim.

Mailboxes Etc. and other services like it are there for convienience. A lot of people don't know where the UPS terminal is, or that they can even drop off a package there. I can tell you that even if you did drop it off directly at the UPS terminal you would still have to pay the shipping again.

I have been dealing with UPS for years now and they know they don't have a lot of competition. It shows in how they treat their customers. Badly.

My experience tells me that you are lucky to even get your package back. Usually it would end up in their land of lost packages in Atlanta. If you wouldn't have gotten your package back, you could expect a fight that lasts for months before you got your claim settled. That is UPS standard procedure, not Mailboxes.

The U.S. Postal Service is cheaper. Try them.

Thanks for the post. I was refering to UPS deeming Mail Boxes Etc. as second rate. I tend to think they overcharge but when you are in a hurry you may have to pay.

FedEx will definately get my business from now on.

Thanks for the reminder that I am in good company and I am not the only that thinks UPS has became too big and too unfriendly. Kind of reminds me of USPS, but at least they try to help most of the time.

I didn't expect Mail Boxes Etc. to eat the costs, I expected UPS to make allowances occasionally...but then that might get them return customers.

UPS gets gouged continually by corporate customers.

Earlier this year I ordered a desk and file cabinet through AAFES. They were shipped from the manufacturer. They arrived broken. The desk was something I could fix, and AAFES offered me a discount on it and I settled for that. The file cabinet was hopeless. The problem was that it had been incorrectly made AND inadequately packed. I went through five file cabinets before AAFES finally decided they just wouldn't charge me for any of them--donate them to charity, throw them out, whatever. I found out later that UPS was picking up the costs of the whole thing!!!! There was no way any of this was UPS's fault. The boxes weren't strong enough and the packing inadequate to protect a product that wasn't made right anyway. (The drawer glides, for example, were't put on straight, pieces didn't fit together at all, and even the strongest pieces arrived with cracks.)

I'm not surprised that UPS gouges little customers in an attempt to cater to and protect their big customers--this is a Worm Ouroboros situation. Mailboxes Etc is only useful when you have something very valuable and fragile to ship. I've sold some valuable china canisters and an antique accordion on Ebay and I told the buyers upfront that they would have to pay for packing and shipping by Mailboxes Etc. If you're shipping books or anything not breakable, you'd be crazy to go there and pay extra.