I needed to return 3 packages to myself from England. I tried to do that on the internet at the UPS website. That's when I found out that UPS is actually not an international company. According to UPS here, I needed to contact UPS in England to accomplish my goal.
I continued trying to do it at UPS website here and after 2 days of trying had finally accepted that I couldn't do it myself by way of the website. However, the very next morning the man that was to ship my packages back to me emailed me and said that UPS had come to his house to collect my packages. He hadn't contacted them and didn't have the packages ready because I hadn't contacted him to let him know that they were coming. I guess not, I was told I couldn't do it that way!
He got the UPS driver to agree to come back later in the day so he could get the packages ready. They were picked up that day without having been contacted by anyone in England. So I must have been successful on the UPS website, contrary to what a "supervisor" and a "manager" had to say about it.
When I did my business online I filled in the information that I had 3 packages and that together they weighed 20 Kgs. That's the way the question was asked. They didn't actually weigh that much but I wasn't sure exactly how much they weighed. I knew that 20 Kgs would cover it. I have the weight in pounds from my reciepts from shipping them there from the Post Office. I was given a price for the 3 pieces of approx. $235. I put the charge on my UPS account to be billed to me.
My packages arrived here a couple of weeks later on a Thursday. Two of them were totally destroyed. I shipped framed art and the boxes I shipped them in were constructed specifically for framed art. The boxes cost more than $100 each. UPS not only destroyed the contents of the two packages they destroyed the boxes also. The frames and the glass were broken. The actual art piece in each box was salvageable. Thankfully, because it was original art which could not be replaced. I have shipped these many times in the same boxes with the post office and have never had them damaged in any way.
One of the pieces was sold here in the US and scheduled to be hand delivered 4 days after it got delivered here. I called UPS to report the damage and they said they would send someone out to pick up the damaged packages. I told them they were the ones that damaged the pieces and that they would never pick them up at any time again. I told them they could send someone to my place to inspect them if they needed to. They said they would schedule someone to come out the next week sometime.
I had the piece to be delivered on Tuesday so waiting was not an option. I had it fixed, at a cost of $180. I delivered it on Tuesday. UPS finally called on Thursday to say they would come to inspect the damage sometime the next week. I told them one piece had already been fixed as it was sold and had to be delivered. They said they couldn't pay for any damages for that piece as they couldn't inspect it. They never even bothered to come and inspect the other one.
A couple of weeks later I got the shipping bill. It was a whopping $700 plus!
They had charged me for 3 packages each weighing 20 Kgs! Not 3 packages weighing a total of 20 Kgs. Obviously they don't weigh packages if the mistake is in their favor!
I had already spent many hours of several days going round and round with many different people at UPS about the inspection of the damage to no avail. I spent many more hours of many more days going round and round with many different people at UPS trying to get my bill corrected. They steadfastly tried to convince me that I never had the packages sent to myself by way of their internet site because that just doesn't work that way. Amazing how the very morning after I thought I had accomplished just that, that UPS should appear at his door asking for the very packages I wanted shipped. He stated that he had at no time contacted UPS about those packages. After a grand total of more than 30 hours on the phone with them I finally got someone in billing who agreed to cancel the charges for me. They hadn't paid for any of my damages so I figured that made us about even. My damages totaled more than $500.
It was all just wishful thinking. A couple of months later my wife got a bill from the person who had actually sent the packages for me. The bill had apparently been given to UPS in England and they had stiff armed the person there into paying the bill, saying that they would no longer ship his stuff if he didn't pay. They apparently told him that I would not pay.
He paid, so she, who happens to be the artist, had no other choice than to pay him as he represented a large art organization there that we were doing business with. Unfortunately, she didn't bother to tell me about it until last week, 8 months later.
So I have been continually lied to, cheated out of my payment for damages, ripped off for the incorrect amount of shipping and my name has been slandered in the eyes of a large art organization in England.
I can't prove any of this because it was all on the phone and on the internet, which doesn't work according to them. I assumed this was all taken care of when I was told they would cancel the shipping charges and I received no further bills from them. I discarded what little paperwork I had and now that I've found out about the bill being paid anyway, by us, this is about the only recourse I have.
I have cancelled my account with UPS and will no longer do any business with them. If someone else has any ideas as to recourse I would be all ears.
Kenneth
Gainesville, Florida
U.S.A.
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