12mo ago

UPS has started charging for pickups even if you have a prepaid label

I have a UPS Ground prepaid label to return the cell phone that I'm trading. They told me it would be $10-12 to schedule a driver pickup, else I can take it to a dropoff location. When did this start? Boo, UPS. Boooooo.

Edit: To be completely fair, it may be that the destination decided not to pay extra for driver pickups rather than this being some new UPS thing. I don't know the inner workings.

36 comments

They charge for a scheduled pickup, but they don’t charge if the driver is already destined for your address. You can give it to your driver on your next delivery for free. I’ve also given out-bound packages to my UPS driver when I see him delivering to other units in my complex.
- Which is completely fine. Expecting the driver to go out of his way to pick up your package, and do it completely for free, is unreasonable
- That's good to know, thanks.
- Fair but we don't get regular deliveries via UPS. Most everything we get comes USPS or occasionally FedEx.
  
  Do you think every service offered by every company should be free?
Th US is the only country I know of that does mail pickup.
- Just for the record UPS is not mail- that’s USPS- they’re a parcel and freight delivery service. UPS doesn’t go to every address every day (‘Cept Sundays,) the same way the mailman does.
  For residential… yeah, UPS definitely going to be charging since that’s a random and probably out-of-the-way stop. USPS will take postage-paid parcels/letters at the mailbox since they’re there.
  
  UPS doesn’t go to every address every day (‘Cept Sundays,) the same way the mailman does.
  US Postal Service has some sort of deal with Amazon now, I have gotten Amazon packages delivered by my regular mailman on Sundays. I hope he's getting paid well for that.
  
  They didn't used to. 🤷‍♂️
  
  I did know that, but they have very confusing acronyms
- Most courier companies will do regular daily or scheduled pickups from business accounts.
  
  If there’s enough volume, sure. But they’ll charge you if it’s a one-off type thing.
- In Germany you can give you mailman letters and small parcels, since DHL is owned by the geman mail
- Thanks!
- Like pickup requests? Can you not mail a letter by leaving it sticking out if your mailbox?
  
  UPS, not USPS.
Scheduled pickups always cost more, but most businesses provide ARS (Authorized Return Service) labels that have pick up pre-paid. They saved $10 and made things inconvenient for you, so you’ll have to either pay for a pickup or drop it off at a UPS store or access point.
Source: been a field tech with several companies that use UPS exclusively. I am far more familiar with UPS than anyone ever should be.
- Ah so I should be blaming the shipper, not UPS. Those chincy bastards.
Not sure if it's already covered in another comment or if you are already aware, however ... Depending on where in the world you live, there may be a semi-local official UPS drop off location at a store or business near you. I live outside of a very small rural town, yet there are UPS drop off options here. They even print, text, or email a receipt to confirm they've received it.
Still not as convenient as an at-home pick-up, but it's something to consider if you didn't already know.
- Sure and I'll probably do that on Monday. Just another pain in the butt.
UPS/FedEx has sucked for a while now, rarely are they cheaper than USPS. I only use them when I need something overnighted or something
USPS OTOH, I found out the other day, will take packages from your mailbox with the flag up and not just letters like I thought lol
- UPS/FedEx has sucked for a while now, rarely are they cheaper than USPS
  Well yeah, USPS should be cheaper. They tend to get bailout money from the U.S. government due to operating at a loss e.g. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-senate-approves-50-billion-postal-service-relief-bill-2022-03-08 , UPS/FedEx on the other hand just raise their rates / change services to keep their shareholders happy.
  In theory if the USPS was allowed to increase rates as much as any private company then they would be as expensive, if not more, vs UPS/FedEx.
  
  The USPS is objectively profitable
  The reason they posted a loss is because a 2006 bill mandates the USPS to fully fund all employee pensions 75 years in advance. There are full retirement accounts sitting around for employees that aren’t even born yet.
  Even then, reliable postal service to all addresses in the country is a basic expectation of the government of the most powerful and wealthy nation in the history of human civilization.
  The fact that you start with the premise that the USPS should somehow make profit off being a public service is a self report that you are here in bad faith.
  Why are you spreading right wing propaganda?
  
  USPS is a public service it does not nor should run at a profit
  "USPS running at a loss" is a right wing talking point. If you were unaware, you're aware now. If you were aware and intentionally spreading right wing crap, kindly fuck off.
Can I just say how shitty UPS is with pick ups? Every time I have to RMA something through Dell's support they would schedule a delivery of the replacement part and a pick up of the defective one through UPS, right? Not once did UPS actually show up to pick up the parts.
Even when I manually schedule a pick up with them they just don't show up; they sent an confirmation email saying that they did, but the part is still where I placed it for pick up. And when I email UPS to tell them they just repeat what the confirmation email said.
- Probably because Dell uses fedex. I’ve been a Dell service tech off and on for 25 years, and it’s always been fedex.
  
  Well, FedEx doesn't even really exist over here so eh
This has been the case for a long time. Just go on the website and find a drop box or location. They are pretty much all over the place.
- What's a long time? I literally scheduled a pickup last year for a pre-paid label and it was free. Anyway, another commenter seemed to say that it's the shipper's choice whether they cover the home pickup or not.
Huh. Just logged into my UPS account, and you're right.
That sounds pretty typical, didn't know they used to not charge for a residential pickup.
To be fair businesses that have a FedEx / UPS account and have regularly scheduled pickups do get charged for that. It's one of the items buried in the bills you get from them every week (can't remember offhand if the pickup fee is a weekly or monthly charge). Maybe the high volume businesses get it for free, not too sure.
I'd expect USPS to do the same but don't have any direct experience with their billing.
Where I work we have a similar situation, we sometimes have prepaid FedEx labels but no regular FedEx pickup so that has to be arranged differently on our end. We could pay FedEx their pickup fee if we wanted but we don't ship FedEx every day so it's kind of a waste of money, and the FedEx drivers would be coming and going without picking anything up most days.

36 comments