So I'm standing in the UPS line....(no punch line to follow, although the line I was standing in made me punch drunk...badabadink!)The people in front of me had to rebox their stuff because they didn't leave the required 3-4 inches of padding.
They purchase a really large UPS box from the guy behind the counter, and put their stuff in it.
The guy behind the counter calls out to someone..."Is this box oversized?"...the other guy yells back "You better measure it".
The guy behind the counter produces a chain of a specific length and measures the outside perimeter of the box, what is known as "Dimensional Weight".
Dimensional Weight means if a box is oversized, even if you only put one pound in the box, you get charged as much as if the package had 10 or 20 pounds in it!
Lo and Behold, the measurement reveals that the box is just is about 3 inches too long!....DING DING DING DING....
"Thanks for playing UPS lotto" the counter help says, "I'll have to charge you by dimensional weight instead of actual weight"...
Actually, the guy behind the counter said nothing, but proceeded to add a huge surcharge because the box happened to be just over the box size maximum.....
IT'S A FRIGGIN UPS MADE AND SOLD BOX!!!
IT'S A FRIGGIN STANDARD ISSUE UPS BOX SOLD BY UPS FOR IT'S CUSTOMERS THAT DOES NOT MEET THE MAXIMUM ALLOWABLE SIZE CONSTRAINT! As a result, the person who bought the box had to pay a HEFTY SURCHARGE!
It's not like the box was so oversized it's a non-issue...IT WAS BARELY OVERSIZED.
When the three people paid their exhorbitant bill and prepared to leave....I told them what the Big Bad Evil Empire was doing to them.
I also didn't speak softly enough...it was during a slow time, so suddenly I had the ear one manager diddling with a cash register, the counter guy I would be interacting with, and one more UPS employee...
The room grew REAL COLD as I finished my explanation to the three people as to how they had just been ripped off.
The guy behind the counter tried to counter (hehehe) my point by rationalizing that if they had to use two boxes instead of the one oversized box, the cost would be about the same...
But that is assumption asserts that a slightly smaller albeit not oversized box would not have fit their belongings....which I sincerely doubt was the case.
So now it was my turn...and amazingly enough, a package that I had shipped dozens of time before in the exact same configuration was now illegal because it didn't have the necessary 3-4 inches of padding.
I won't get into if it was payback or not...however, the bottom line is UPS has a standard issue box that is just slightly oversized, which results in anyone purchasing that box will automatically be charged the maximum amount possible even if the contents don't weigh very much.
Shame on the bean counters. This is the type of scam that needs to be "corrected".
If you go into a UPS station, and must rebox your items...ASK THEM IF THE BOX THEY ARE SELLING YOU IS WITHIN UPS SIZE REGULATIONS.
If it isn't, raise HOLY HELL....make a scene...scream and cry and the injustice of it...make a difference.
------------------
Discuss This...
Super-8 Filmmaking in the Digital Age...
Email this topic to a friend | Printable Version
posted March 24, 2002 01:11 AM
