How did they charge his AMEX? Do they just charge any card they happen to have on file and associated with an address any time they want?

Matt, you need to contact the person who this package belongs to, and tell them what happened! otherwise they're going to have a tough time figuring out why the tv they shipped is soaking wet.

not that that's your fault, (it's UPS's) but you know that ups won't tell this person what happened.

@henrygates: From the letter: "I have had a shipping account with them for about 3 years."

The "wrong shipping account number" may not actually be UPS's fault. It was probably filled in incorrectly by the actual shipper, maybe even on purpose.

The CSR fail in being unable to do anything about an incorrectly entered shipping account number is UPS's fault, although this possibly could be considered a security "feature" designed to prevent fraud.

Speaking of fraud, what are the odds that the actual shipper was pulling some kind of a scam here, rather than an honest error? A busted 42" TV with an invalid return account..."Sorry, we have not received the returned TV so we cannot issue a refund." Sus PIH cious.

I live in Canada and refuse to allow parcels to be shipped via UPS. If you UPS me so much as a pencil from the US to Canada I will be hit with a $40 "brokerage" fee and will be hit with as much in duties as they think they can get away with.
FedEx and the USPS have never once charged me a cent on my end.
UPS won't tell US businesses about how they are about to screw their Canadian clients. I wonder how many US businesses wonder why they don't get repeat Canadian clients where the Canadian clients think that they were screwed by the business that sold them the product.
This brokerage fee applies to almost any parcel regardless of cost.

@donovanr: I also live in Canada, and will never touch UPS again. Not only do they charge insane brokerage fees, THEY NEVER DELIVER THE PACKAGE! I work from home, and I can sit on my couch and look out the front window as the truck slows down, then drives off.. only to check the tracking number and say "Delivery Attempted, pick up package at depot". Assholes.

Why did this guy jump through so many hoops? Call the cops, report UPS for littering. Done.

@Clold: Because he's a decent person?

We use FedEx at work exclusively for reasons like this. Not all of our vendors do the same.
Just the other day, we were on a job and had a product with some defective components. We called the vendor (in Oklahoma) and they agreed to ship us the parts we needed that day, Next Day Early AM delivery. We asked them to ship to the job site (in Philadelphia), something we have done numerous times before. Next day comes - no package. Call UPS and they say "out for delivery" and "is your correct address blah blah blah, Lower Gwynedd, PA"?
I say "is that where this was shipped to"? They say, "No, that's where we CORRECTED it to". They took it upon themselves to "correct" the shipping address to an address we haven't used in over 2-1/2 years.
Long story short, it took them half the day to even track down where the package was and to tell us that they could not get it to us until the next day. We ended up having to send someone to a terminal to pick up the package in order to get it that day.
Yet another reason to use FedEx.

@ceejeemcbeegee: Standing up for yourself and the law isn't incompatible with being a "decent person". Someone leaves stuff you don't want on your property: that's littering. There are LAWS AGAINST IT. After calling UPS once, saying "I don't know what you're up to, but the package you delivered isn't mine, I don't want it, remove it from my property immediately" he should have phoned the cops the next day. What benefit is there to subjecting himself to the stress from all of UPS's crap?

"He said I would not have to be there to sign anything (what a relief)"

I hope that the OP, or anyone else in this situation would have refused to sign anything.

@Clold:

Excellent insight. I would have done one of the next few options:

1. Called UPS and explained that I wanted said package off my property. If no response in 24 hours, dragged said package to curb for trash pickup.
2. Called UPS and explained that I wanted said package off my property. After a reasonable amount of time, considered said package a gift for being a longtime customer, and parted it out.

In both of these options, I would have not spent more than one call to UPS. After receiving said bill, one quick call to AMEX would resolve the situation. Possibly a lawsuit for charging a card without authorization and the harassment that ensued.

Feedback is appreciated :)

So what happens if you say why do I give a crap, it's nothing to do with me, tell them that and say you're just going to leave it there and ignore it.

This is one more reason why you should ship fedex ground vs ups. More convinent drop off locations and it's cheaper, too.

Agreed; if UPS or anyone dropped a random piece of broken junk at my house, they can either come back and get it, or the trash pickup will. Not my problem, not my fault.
And if they charged my card, I'd deal with amex, not UPS. amex is more inclined to have my best interest in mind.

As a former business owner, over 30+ years I have never had a problem with Fedex, not ever. UPS however is a different story. I remember once they lost an entire truck for a whole week. We had about $10k worth of product on the truck too. Later we found out that the driver had driven into a dry riverbed and just abandoned the truck.
UPS does have an 800 number for claims, but they never ever cover insurance. You can never call back and speak directly to the same representative. Neither will a UPS representative call you back. They will tell you they do, but they don't ever. They send inspectors out and even though you professionally sealed packages with the proper package materials and stuffing, the insurance inspectors will always say the package was improperly packaged. Their customer service reps will drive you crazy and you know it's on purpose because most people are stupid and give up. Packages more often than not end up being delivered with at least some damage, to severe damage. If I am forced to use them because of a lack of choice by the vendor and I'm not happy with their customer service representatives, then file a complaint. You can save yourself some pain and a few years off your life, file a report with [www.ftc.gov] and the [us.bbb.org] . File with both and hit the offenders hard! ;)

His experience was better than mine with my last run-in with UPS. I spent an entire evening at a UPS facilility waiting for them to find a package they said would be there. It wasn't delivered to begin with because they said the 70-story building I work in 'didn't exist.'

There were some nice people there, but it's the rude ones I remember. They lied (the package is here, the package is in the truck, etc.), spoke badly of me after I was as patient and polite as anyone could expect, forgot about me for a time, and finally conceded they had no idea where my package was, or why someone told me it would be a good idea to spend my Friday evening with UPS.

My "2-day delivery" ended up taking ten days or more, and I've avoided them since.

Wow, running that pseudo communist government in Canada is expensive!

Last time I used UPS is when someone shipped a guitar I bought online to me. It was supposed to be signed for. Luckily I was home at the time when I heard a crash on my front porch. By the time I got to the door(15 secs, tops), there was nobody in sight and a 4 foot tall box (laying on its side) blocking my door from opening. Luckily, my guitar was well packed from the factory in it's origional box and outer box.

If I were a thief, I could have easily said the box never arrived, as I did not sign anything, like I was supposed to.

Before you canonize FedEx Ground... Remember that FedEx Ground is not under the traditional FedEx corporate structure. FedEx Ground is run mostly by independent owner-operators whose quality varies wildly. You want reliable quality go with FedEx traditional with the red and purple logo not ground with the green and purple logo.

Here's an interesting perspective....

[www.truckflix.com]

In my neighborhood UPS rules and FedEx Ground performs terribly.

UPS left a case of wine, worth more than $2000, at my door. The only marking of any kind on or in the box was a small sorting sticker with the first name of my business, which was also the name of the town. If it wasn't for the value, I would have assumed it was a gift from a client, but either way I wanted to find out who sent it.

Calls to UPS were useless without a tracking number. I got hold of the driver who said he left it because I was the first stop with that name.

If you have a shipper account with UPS, then you also have a UPS sales rep for your region. Find out who it is and contact them directly via phone & email. That's never failed to get results in my experience. Obviously, since the OP only ships a couple of times per year, he's not going to have much pull compared to a high-volume business, but generally the sales reps give a crap more than the local managers and way more than the drivers.

Also, get the direct line for the local UPS center that covers your area. The 800 number is useless for anything other than tracking a package. The most they can do is send a message to the local center and request they call you back "within an hour." Skip the middleman and call them yourself.

Finally, if you get a lot of deliveries, tip your driver around the holidays. There are good drivers and bad drivers, and that $20.00 might mean the difference between your new laptop being left on the porch in the rain or not.

So, I assume there will be another story shortly about someone who shipped back a defective TV, had it left out in the rain, delivered SOMEWHERE, and eventually it got to the service center even more defective than before? :)

UPS is the most incompitant shipper on this planet. They don't care about your package AT ALL. I had a $2,000 guitar amplifier left on my porch (in the rain, while I was home, no doorbell ring, nothing). UPS guy ran off in a hurry because the box was destroyed as was the amp (soaking wet)and you can't refuse a package you don't know came can you? Thanks UPS. I disputed the charge with my credit card company and won the dispute. The company I ordered from is now fighting with UPS. NEVER use them. Not ever. FedEx for the slightly better win!

@donovanr:

I've had two packages held hostage by UPS in Canada. Both times I asked the shippers to mail them to me (oddly enough both shippers mailed their stuff to their US customers), and both times I had to take an extremely long bus-subway-subway-bus-bus ride to get to the UPS depot in Toronto (which is outside of Toronto), then pay $40 to get my packages. Neither times did UPS attempt delivery because I have a P.O Box (hence asking the shippers to mail). Both times I didn't even get a delivery attempt notice, just a phone call as I was about to call the shippers because it was three weeks after I my order, and UPS was letting me know they were going to ship my packages back that day if I don't haul ass and go pick them up.

Now I never order from shippers who use UPS. Only USPS. Way cheaper. Way faster.

This reminds me of whats going on with my Barbeque order from Brinkman.

After 8 weeks they finally delivered it and it was in pieces, and the legs were completely missing: the box was fecked.

So we call them up they ship out new parts.

6 weeks later we wonder where the hell the legs are, call them up (yes our mistake for not calling back) It turns out theyve shipped the order to some random address out in Misourri... keep in mind im in South Carolina.

So someone in misourri has my legs. I wouldnt think anything of it besides being brinkmans fault but now youve got me thinking that poor misourri person has to pay out to have those shipped back? Thats shitty.

Matt probably has 2 houses and is trying to pull a fast one on UPS.

I have a store that's recently moved and UPS tried to deliver a package there. I received the postcard telling me to pick up the package from their depot a 2 weeks AFTER they sent it back.

Why would they send a postcard to a business that has moved, letting them know that they couldn't deliver a package because the said business had moved?

Luckily, I've never had a problem with UPS, though I haven't used them much. Most of the things I order online come shipped FedEx. Heh. Wonder why?

My biggest problem with UPS is them leaving packages on the stoop. All that does is make it like Christmas for someone with malice in their heart.

I hate shipping with UPS. They never obey orders like "Do not release without signature". I've had over $2,000 in computer equipment shipped to my house and they left in front of the house laying in the snow.

So much hate for UPS here. I was going to post a long response hitting all points but there are way to many misconceptions to clear up.

Bad things happen. Mistakes are made. A lot of the problems mentioned are easily taken care of with a phone call or god forbid, two. Some of the comments I call BS on.

I understand some people have had poor service, but with few exceptions, the comments have been about bashing UPS and NOT about the original post (a pretty messed up one at that). Something bad happen to you recently that involved UPS?

tips@consumerist.com

Maybe you'll get your own post.

UPS routinely delivers packages to me and other tenants of my apartment building -- and, if there's nobody there to sign for the package, rather than leaving a note and attempting a next-day redelivery, the driver just leaves the package by the front door.

I have seen this happen numerous times. Once, to me, when I was at home with the front door open (screen door closed), but not within earshot of the driver.

@theycallmetak: Mistakes are made...by people. Bad things happen....when a company doesn't follow appropriate procedures, and doesn't care about its customers. The "misconception" in your post is that by putting all this in the euphemistic passive voice, you could eliminate any blame for UPS supporting screw-off employees.

I live in a 500 unit apartment building and reciving a package from UPS, FedEX, DHL is a pain in the ass.

They all come to teh building dont buzz up, dont tell security to call up dont even leave anything on the mail boxes, Once i was going down stairs from the 15th floor i saw a Fedex tuck pull up (samething happen with DHL & UPS)and then just pull off by the time i got downstairs without coming in the building at all, I asked security they said no, I check there site and said delvery attempt made when they didnt even come in the buiding. I called them and said that the person delvering the package was lying and i had proof the security gave me a copy of the tape from the secuity cameras out front.

They still refused to accept responsiblity; then there locations are in the middle of nowhere I live in a big city Fedex locaion is 20 miles outside of the city and UPS's is about 10 in the middle of nowhere not accessable by train, bus or anything and DHL's location might aswell be on the moon it is the hardest to get to not only is it in the middle of nowhere you cant even find the damn building you have to go down a country road then up a hill down another hill then up another one no where on the building does it say DHL the only way i knew that was the buidling was that a DHL van was driving down the hill.

The fact that i live in a city where most of the population uses public transportation and they have there locations where no public transportation goes you call the public transportation and ask do they have any buses or trains that go anywhere near there you get an answer saying you might as well catch a cab the place where they have there locations is just wrong do they expect every single person in the city to have a car.

The dumbing down of corporate america.

@Mythago:

Shit happens, people make mistakes, companies make mistakes, even computers do. Does that excuse poor behavior by drivers or unresponsive CSRs? No. I never said that, I didn't imply that, I didn't claim absolution for any of that.

One misconception is blaming UPS for duty on imported goods. They may overcharge for "customs brokerage fees" but duties are levied by the government.

Another is that UPS "corrects" addresses. They only do so at the shipper's request, never the recipient, consignee, any third party, etc. and only for a charge once it's been picked up and is technically in transit. Incorrectly addressed letters or packages get returned to sender unless the address is corrected in transit as above. The only thing I can think of is if the goods were sent under the recipients account number which is tied to the account address.

Signature on delivery is only required if purchased, if you're receiving alcohol or a firearm (consignee must be 21+), or if it's a "high value" item (an item for which additional insurance above a certain amount has been purchased, $500 IIRC). For normal items at or under the $100 limit or high value items for which additional insurance has NOT been purchased, the delivery is subject to driver discretion. Most drivers are assigned routes and are "regulars", meaning they know their route backwards and forwards, they know customers by name, and critically, they should know when it's safe/appropriate to leave something on the porch or at the back door. Does this always work? No. Are items stolen? Sometimes. When it does happen (theft, damage), the driver typically won't be able to drop there without a signature again unless he has the dispatcher's or manager's okay, and I think even then it's on a case by case basis.

Damage and loss claims are paid as well as service failure (i.e. Early AM letter or package showing up at 0900 or even 0831) refunds. Damage/loss claims are paid up to $100 with per package with some sort of proof of value, usually this needs to be faxed or emailed to the adjuster. If the claim is large enough, an adjuster is sent out to the location of the package for inspection which is why all packaging materials should be saved if there's even a HINT of damage to the outside of the package. The packaging requirements are pretty strict but what do you expect with a $50,000 maximum insured value per package? The stores I managed and worked in used a rigid 2" styrofoam liner, double boxed with either styro or kraft paper as dunnage with bubble wrap around the item or items. Claims were a fraction of a percent AND not a single claim for damage was denied with the method we used. Your package goes through a ton of sorting, both manual and automatic. Our rule of thumb was "Pack it so it could be dropped without damage from three feet"

Packages can't be delivered unless they have a shipping label, either computer generated or handwritten. The shipping label number or tracking number, along with the address sticker is used to get the item where it's going. Without this, the package should not have even made it past the first sort.

A few misconceptions cleared up, hopefully. Although have not and do not currently work for UPS, I know these things. I also know that things happen and that UPS as a company should be held accountable. What I DON'T know is how your (or anyone else's) bad experience with a misdelivery or nonpayment of damage claim has any relevance or bearing on the original post. I say again, many of these posts seem to be only to vent frustration at UPS.

To the OP: the tracking number contains the account number shipped from. Unless something's radically changed in the last few years, it should be the 6 digits and letters following the 1Z. If you get something you haven't shipped or authorized to be shipped under your account number, call UPS and make a fraud claim. You're entirely right, you should not have been charged for anything and I'm glad you got UPS's mess resolved.

I have had nothing but bad luck with UPS. FedEx is much better.

@utube2007: The UPS / FEDEX / DHL drivers probably can't figure out where to go in your building, if your building's signage displays the same lack of command of English as your post does.

UPS is terrible. Their overnight service has gotten worse! In the last 30 days they did not deliver two purchases that were needed for a project that I was doing. My father works for UPS. UPS never left any notification that they attempted to deliver the package on my door with either the overnight or the ground packages. I WILL NEVER USE UPS OVERNIGHT OR UPS GROUND AGAIN. When I called the hub the UPS operative told me that the overnight packages go out before the ground packages. The ground packages are delivered whenever the overnight packages have been delivered.

For me UPS has always been great. I hate DHL. I have had them misdeliver packages too many times. My most recent encouter:

I ordered a few small items from Dell and took the standard free delivery. I was having them delivered to my office address, but there wasn't a place for the company name. It was broken into 3 orders (Spare Parts, New Parts, and Software) and came from 3 places.

The next day I tracked the items to see when they would arrive, to find 2 had already been delivered to the receptionist. I asked at the front desk, no packages.

I immediately called DHL (about 1 hour after delivery) and opened a claim. I got a call a few hours later that the driver had gone home for the day and that I should here from them in the morning by 10am.

Well, the next day I still hadn't heard from them by noon. I called again, but I'm sure that was pointless. Around 2 I got a call from a nearby business (9330 instead of 9300, same suite number). They had my packages, including the 3rd!!!

To top it off, the DHL driver asked the receptionist at that business (19 yo) to please let customer service know he had in fact delivered the packages when they called.

He knew I had a claim open and still delivered another package. The address on the labels clearly said 9300, not 9330.

I didn't wait for them to call. The customer service representative was very polite and seemed as concerned as I was that this happened. She said she was notifying the local depot management, but who knows....

I refuse to use UPS only because they refuse to deliver on Saturdays and/or Sundays. The satellite office closest to me is in a very inconvenient location (horrible cross town traffic)

Interesting, I have never had a problem with UPS (yet). Fedex is okay, but its much harder for me to get to their depot. I almost lost a package only once, (a fedex driver left it at the door of my apartment building thats in a not so good area), but I got lucky. According to the CSR, he had realized that leaving it was not such a good idea and went back to pick it up.

@hektik: UPS will send a postcard to a business that they know is closed in an attempt to have the USPS do the proper forwarding.

@Zimorodok: For the record, even if you have a massive corporate account like my company (and it broke my heart when they made us switch - I HATE UPS) it doesn't help you much. I shipped a masive amount of drawings once and they were lost by UPS. Calling my account rep got me absolutely nowhere because the pick up information was the only thing logged into the system nothing after that. Two weeks later I actually got a call back from a local office saying they'd departed that location, but then no more information from there. If things aren't scanned or the driver forgets something, you have zero information. 3 months after I filed my claim, the drawings (that I'd already paid to be re-printed and shipped again) showed up in our corporate office 500 miles away. I had to pay to have them sent back to us. Only benefit to that was having a spare set on the jobsite.