<p>Yesterday, my wife needed to ship Christmas packages, and went down to the major shipping company’s store. She asked if they’d get there by Christmas with the company’s ground shipping service. They told her no, there are too many packages on trucks and they won’t arrive until after Christmas, and she’d better pay for three day shipping service instead. She did, not realizing that the three day service costs 3x the cost of ground service. $106 later, the packages were on their way.</p>
<p>The location we were shipping them to is not far away. Normal delivery service, they’d arrive by Wednesday. It might take until Thursday or Friday because of the holidays. I don’t think it’s at all likely that they wouldn’t make it there until the 26th, 6 days in transit when it normally takes 2 transit days to arrive.</p>
<p>Essentially, they saw a gullible customer and took advantage of her. </p>
<p>No, I haven’t spoken to anyone yet. I think my wife and I will stop by their place after work and speak with someone. </p>
<p>The shipping company’s own website says that ground packages shipped on Monday will likely arrive anywhere in the country by Christmas. Certainly shipping a package a just a few hundred miles would arrive within that time frame as well.</p>
<p>I have taken to shipping usps priority mail for nearly everything (care pkgs, gifts) and create, pay and print for the labels online (usps.com) - it’s much easier than you think and when you have all the time to look at the options that you’d like, and the p.o. gives out boxes free - it’s alot less stress. For locations close by, the regional rate boxes are great but you do have to order them in advance from usps (no charge - they drop them at your house). Never had trouble getting things there 2-4 days later. As far as weighing goes, I’ve used the bath scale which is fine. Fedex Kinko’s always pressured me and your wife probably felt compelled to keep the line moving, maybe they are on commission?</p>
<p>If I ever really thought something would not arrive in time, I think I would just tell the recipient to expect something late (rather than pay 3X for shipping). Not ideal but that is alot of money to pay for shipping. Good luck to you and your wife in speaking with someone about this. I would print out what it says on the website and take it with you.</p>
<p>Yes, that’s part of the scam. They didn’t volunteer to tell her what the price differential was. Simply, it won’t get there with ground, and the cost for three day service is $106. Nothing that would have triggered my spouse into thinking that the three day service is a lot more money.</p>
<p>I think you’re probably out of luck. I predict that even if you go and complain, they will say that the employee just explained that delivery by Christmas isn’t guaranteed by regular ground–and it might be true that it doesn’t always make it.</p>
<p>Yes, that’s part of the scam. They didn’t volunteer to tell her what the price differential was. Simply, it won’t get there with ground, and the cost for three day service is $106. Nothing that would have triggered my spouse into thinking that the three day service is a lot more money.</p>
<p>??? Why did your wife decide to spend $106? Are you trying to say that she had no idea that she was being charged that much? Or was she told the amount, but still decided to pay?</p>
<p>Sounds like it’s your wife that you should be annoyed with. She’s a big girl, she knows the distance isn’t far, and it doesn’t take a week to go a short distance.</p>
<p>One store I like has a tendency to put up signs saying if you buy 2 the third one is free. When you check out they charge you for all 3 items. They sell groceries, clothes, electronics, drugstore items, so you usually have lots of items and may forget to double check. I always check my receipt and have caught them several times. Sure, customer service fixes mine and apologizes. But I don’t really think they change it in the system, though I complain. My point is there are many ways they can get you. You have to be an alert, diligent consumer. They don’t really care if it is fair or not.</p>
<p>They told my wife that it wouldn’t arrive until after Christmas using ground shipping, while the information on the shipping company’s website stated that a ground package shipped yesterday would arrive by Christmas anywhere in the US. What the sales clerk said was not truthful.</p>
<p>We count on others to be honest and truthful. Either “I’m not sure, let me find out” or “generally the packages will arrive by Christmas, but UPS doesn’t guarantee” would be truthful. But telling someone “it won’t arrive until after Christmas” when in fact it will arrive before Christmas is dishonest.</p>
<p>Delivery by Christmas isn’t guaranteed. Your wife wanted them to arrive before Christmas. It’s all ready Dec. 18th. Person recommended 3-day shipping to insure that packages will arrive before Dec. 15th. Wife was told price. She paid price. Story over.</p>
<p>No, person told spouse that ground service would cause the package to arrive after Christmas. That’s a lie because the UPS website says packages shipped ground yesterday would arrive by Christmas.</p>
<p>Is that EXPECTED delivery date or GUARANTEED delivery date on website?</p>
<p>Christmas is only 7 days away. Subtract weekend days and that leaves 5 days. Eliminate Christmas day and that leaves 4 days of travel time for the package. If she wanted them delivered by Dec. 24th, 3 day shipping was her best option.</p>
<p>Next time, try sending them via the post office using Priority Mail with tracking.</p>
<p>If your wife felt it was too much money, she could easily have changed her mind and shipped them at the cheaper rate with no guarantee of the packages arriving before Christmas.</p>
<p>*She asked if they’d get there by Christmas with the company’s ground shipping service. They told her no, there are too many packages on trucks and they won’t arrive until after Christmas, and she’d better pay for three day shipping service instead.
*</p>
<p>The above doesn’t ring true. “Too many pkgs on the trucks”??? Who says that a whole week before Xmas? You really can’t be certain what they told your wife. Maybe she misheard. </p>
<p>*
She did, not realizing that the three day service costs 3x the cost of ground service. $106 later, the packages were on their way.*</p>
<p>??? How old is your wife? Has she never mailed pkgs before? Seriously, if you were writing about something your 16 year old experienced, this might be believable. But, really, a grown woman is told that the cost is $106 and she doesn’t realize that is a LOT more than she would pay for a normal delivery?</p>
<p>Sorry this happened to your wife. Yes, it’s shocking the amount they charge, but your wife had 3 chances to prevent this.</p>
<p>(1) First time when they told her it will require a different service than normal to get the package their on time. At this point she could have asked how much the expedited service would cost.</p>
<p>(2) Second when the bill was calculated and they ask for payment. At this point, you can inquire the total of the bill before whipping out the plastic.</p>
<p>(3) Lastly, when she receives the receipt, she could look on the receipt to see total amount. If it didn’t agree with her, she should have even after the sale cancelled the whole thing.</p>
<p>Employees cannot always run through all the umpteen options and pricing for each customer, especially now during the busy season. It’s up to the customer to follow through and ask for pricing and options otherwise it can be assumed by the personnel that pricing simply does not matter to the customer. Did she not ask about the pricing of the packages at all?</p>
<p>I would just let it rest and chuck it up to an expensive lesson learned.</p>
<p>She also had the chance to GET SHOPPING DONE EARLIER! It just blows me away how people never seem to figure out that the weeks before the holidays are tough to get shipping on a specific schedule.</p>