<p>If its UPS you are talking about, I had about the same experience. I went on Friday with a 2 lb box shipping to Florida (from New York). The gentleman told me it would be $17.00… I said for which service? (I thought ground should be quick enough), he said "if you want it there for Christmas, it will be $17.00, still no answer on which service he was quoting. I took the package and went to the Post Office where I paid $7.00 for a package that will be delivered tomorrow. I had the same thought, something is up there…UPS and PO have always had very competitive pricing. I think I’d call the store and see if I could pick up those packages and get my money back.</p>
<p>I agree with those who think your wife wasn’t thinking. She was not scammed. With ground delivery, you generally don’t have a guaranteed arrival, and it could be dicey over Christmas. It is reasonable that they would recommend 3 day delivery to ensure arrival. Should have checked into different options, these shippers are too busy to babysit your wife. Probably could have just used the post office.</p>
<p>Shoot, I ordered something via ground delivery last week and they couldn’t guarantee delivery by Christmas.</p>
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<p>Ding ding ding</p>
<p>I think that is about how the conversation went. “If you want the packages there by Christmas, we have to ship three day select.” When spouse asked about ground, was told they wouldn’t arrive in time.</p>
<p>But according to this website, packages shipped ground on Monday will arrive by Christmas.</p>
<p>[UPS</a> holiday shipping dates | UPS Compass Shipping Advice Articles](<a href=“http://compass.ups.com/last-days-to-ship-for-Christmas/]UPS”>http://compass.ups.com/last-days-to-ship-for-Christmas/)</p>
<p>(Regarding the guarantee - all that does is says your shipping fee will be refunded if it doesn’t arrive. It doesn’t actually guarantee delivery on the date. I used to work in a mail order company and we saw packages miss delivery guarantees all the time, and we got a lot of money refunded to us. However, it didn’t help customer satisfaction.)</p>
<p>I think the UPS ground delivery times can vary based on location. The link you provided gave Dec. 17 as an estimated latest shipment date - but there was an asterisk that says, “*Transit times for UPS Ground depend on origin and destination ZIP Codes, typically one to six days.”</p>
<p>I take this to mean that most packages shipped by Dec. 17 would arrive by Christmas but there is no guarantee. Perhaps the employee could tell by the destination that it wouldn’t get there by Christmas and suggested the 3 day as a guaranteed delivery.</p>
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<p>It normally takes 2 days to arrive to the destination because it’s close. Even if it took 5 days, it would still arrive by Christmast. The employee erred in telling my spouse that 3 days service was needed to arrive by Christmas.</p>
<p>Clearly, other errors were made too.</p>
<p>No one was scammed. UPS (I assume) gave her the only option that insures a before Christmas delivery. I ship hundreds of packages a week. If a customer asks for UPS ground, we pad the standard delivery time by 2-3 days since things do slow down this time of year.
When a company uses the term “option of paying” for an upgraded delivery time. One asks: “how much” and then you make an informed decision. Let your wife off the hook. It’s Christmas and she is doing the best she can. BUT NO ONE WAS SCAMMED.</p>
<p>Even if she was told it wouldn’t arrive by Christmas, she still made the decision to spend that money to guarantee it. She didn’t get scammed.</p>
<p>Your wife was not conned. She was given an answer and chose to pay the bill rather than drive down the street to see if another delivery service could offer her a cheaper rate.</p>
<p>This thread prompted me to check my USPS Delivery Confirmation receipt. Package posted and receipt dated Dec. 8. As of Dec 17, my box had made it from Hartford, Connecticut to Jersey City, New Jersey. What are the chances it makes it all the way to Florida by the 24th? Not good at this point. I think they’re walking it there.</p>
<p>No scam here. The victim society strikes again.</p>
<p>I call BS on this! I won’t go so far as say she was scammed, but she was given incorrect information, most likely on purpose. My friend called me last Thursday to ask me how long a UPS ground package would take to get to Boston, knowing that I ship stuff to my daughter all the time. It takes 4 days, end of story. if you are worried about it because of the holidays, give it an extra 2-3 days. She was at a shipping store and they told her there was no way her package would arrive before Christmas unless she used 2nd day air, which is why she called me. I told her to insist on ground and tracking shows her package will be delivered tomorrow, just as I said. By the way, there really is no “guarantee” delivery. If your package doesn’t arrive on time, you can fight with them to refund the premium you paid for the expedited service. But I will say that UPS has gone out of there way to resolve issues for us, when it was their error.</p>
<p>It is either false advertising on the part of UPS - [UPS</a> holiday shipping dates | UPS Compass Shipping Advice Articles](<a href=“http://compass.ups.com/last-days-to-ship-for-Christmas/]UPS”>http://compass.ups.com/last-days-to-ship-for-Christmas/) - or she was given wrong information (for whatever reason) - or didn’t hear correctly.</p>
<p>"but she was given incorrect information, most likely on purpose. "</p>
<p>really? Why would they do that? They are not paid or trained to up-sell. But if someone is emphatic about on time delivery, especially during the holidays—they do suggest one day, two day or three day. The OP is naive to think that he or his wife was conned.
Listen, UPS is one of my least favorite companies to do business with. I spend tens of thousands of dollars with them a year and it rankles.***BUT NO ONE WAS BEING CONNED.</p>
<p>*** $38,923 to be exact.(2012 to date)</p>
<p>How much does the package weigh? Really, it’s very difficult to end up with $106 in shipping costs unless there are a lot of packages that weigh a lot or they’re very large. And three-day shipping shouldn’t cost that much more than ground (certainly not 3x!, maybe 1.5x) unless you’re shipping to Hawaii or Alaska.</p>
<p>(We ship about 2000 packages a week through our business. I know UPS rates. And the UPS cost calculator lets you flip between options very quickly.)</p>
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<p>Because expedited services are where UPS makes it money. I used to work at a mail order company, and both fedex and ups heavily promoted their expedited services because it is where the bulk of their profit comes from.</p>
<p>I have no idea if the clerks are trained to upsell or not, but it’d sure be a good idea if I was in the marketing dept of UPS.</p>
<p>You get a discounted rate, so it’s a lot cheaper.</p>
<p>I haven’t seen the weights or dimensions of the packages, but I’ll check the receipt tonight.</p>
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<p>You don’t use the online UPS cost calculator when you are in the store. They don’t show you options. And they don’t show you expected arrival times in the store for multiple services, either.</p>
<p>In your book a good idea, but not the case. She was not conned. You are not the victim of a vast UPS conspiracy. It was your wife’s choice.</p>
<p>And you might even get more outraged if is indeed UPS and they do what they do best: delay your package and post no useful information between pick up and delivery. </p>
<p>Merry Christmas!</p>
<p>this is starting to remind me of the carnival ride con thread. EVERYTHING is set up to rip off the OP.</p>
<p>What would make you think their employees are not trained to upsell? That makes no sense to me. Believe me, their reps do everything in their power to push their expedited services. My husband’s company does close to $40,000 a month with UPS, we have seen it all with them, the good, the bad and the ugly! As I said, I do not believe she was scammed, I live by the motto of buyer beware, but it is wrong to convince someone to purchase an unnecessary service by giving them the wrong information. Had the clerk said that under normal conditions, the package should arrive by the 24th, but if you want to be sure it arrives on time, I suggest expediting, that would be a different story. But she was told her package would not arrive on time unless she paid for 3 day service, which was incorrect information according to the UPS website.</p>