A couple days ago, I posted a response to a question from Diane about affordable shipping for breakables, and I’d like to post a follow up to my original note (which probably got buried at the bottom of the topic and was therefore not read by most of y’all :o)
Short recap: I greatly prefer UPS Ground over Priority Mail, as it’s usually substantially less expensive, includes free shipping insurance, and — best of all — they don’t quibble and moan on the rare occasions that someone files a claim.
Case in point: It’s currently 10:15 pm Wednesday evening, June 4, in California. At 8:30 pm on Monday, June 2, I received a note from a buyer, stating that a bowl I had shipped to him arrived with a teeny tiny fleabite chip on the rim. He also stated that there was NO DAMAGE to the package. The bowl was included in a box that also had 4 large mugs inside, everything was well-wrapped and padded, and I was quite certain the bowl had no defects when I packaged it.
I wrote back and requested his phone number, which I needed for the UPS claim form. I received his phone number early Tuesday afternoon, and went straight to the UPS website to fill out the claim form. It took less than 5 minutes to file the UPS damage report online, including uploading .pdf copies of my original listing and my PayPal transaction for shipping the package.
Within 2 hours, I had a response that the claim had been approved and that UPS did not need to pick up the bowl to inspect it. They approved the refund of the buyer’s purchase price for the bowl, plus the ENTIRE cost of shipping the original package.
Just before 10 p.m. tonight, I received a note from UPS to let me know that my refund check has been mailed and should be received within the next few days. With that information in hand, I refunded the cost of the bowl and prorated shipping charges to my buyer, just over 48 hours from the time he originally contacted me about the problem.
Amazing.
Compare this experience to dealing with the Postal Service: USPS makes you drive to the post office and stand in line to submit hard-copy forms, and you have to wait up to 90 days while they process the claim and make a decision. Follow up calls are almost always required, plus unreasonable amounts of documentation. They don’t accept PayPal receipts as proof of purchasing postage or proof of mailing, and they love to argue about whether or not an item was already broken before it was packaged, and/or about whether they ever received the package to begin with.
I’ve been a high-volume shipper – domestically and internationally — with the Postal Service for 12+ years, and have NEVER been paid by them on any claim, whether it was for damage to an insured package, total and permanent loss of insured packages (they lost several packages to Canada in the past year, plus several others that were shipped to US addresses), or for failure to meet their guaranteed delivery date on Express Mail (they temporarily misplaced 17 of my Express Mail packages for more than a week last December, causing huge amounts of holiday angst for me and my customers).
OK, enough babbling. IMO, if you’re not using UPS, you’re missing out on great service and low rates. UPS offers discounts of up to 31% off their on demand and retail rates if you pay your shipping charges through PayPal. If you haven’t signed up for the discount, you should do so: it’s free. Here’s the info link from my previous note:
http://pages.ebay.com/ups/home.html
Cheers,
Victoria
This was going to be a question for Gary, but I thought it might be more interesting to open a discussion if anyone is interested.
I’ve been playing catch-up all week, juggling realtors, attorneys, and raccoon infestation specialists from 300 miles away. My mom’s house has a family of 5 raccoons in the rafters, and they have to be removed before I can sell the house. The little buggers need to be trapped live and relocated, and every company that does that sort of thing places only ONE trap, so this could take weeks to accomplish … aaack! I have to make another trip up there next week, which at least means some good junk store shopping and perhaps the San Jose Flea Market as well.
Thursday, May 1 - Weekly trip to Rosedale Goodwill, spent $107.70. Dishes, glassware, serving pieces, doodads, and six old brass pencil sharpeners, in the shape of a globe, a cowboy boot, a piano, and a couple others. 