Albany, NY – New York state and some of its local governments will receive $1.2 million from UPS Inc. as part of a multistate settlement following allegations that the shipping company overcharged government customers in 14 states.
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Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced the agreement Wednesday. The overall $4 million settlement covers 13 other states and the cities of Washington, D.C., New York City and Chicago.
Schneiderman’s office says UPS employees inaccurately recorded delivery times and took other steps to prevent government customers from claiming refunds for late deliveries.
A former UPS employee exposed the practice.
The other states are California, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
A company spokeswoman says UPS values its government customers and took action once it learned of the issues.
UPS had another little annoyance involving their extra charge for delivery to residential addresses.
If you send a package to a business, they might hit you for $6.50 (numbers for illustration).
If you ship to a residence, they add a $2.50 surcharge (more or less, don’t hold me to that number…)
It’s kind of legit since delivering to a business is usually quicker and simpler, while a residence might require a second delivery, etc.
Anyway… I was sending material to a business that occupied the first floor of a mixed building. i.e. there were apartments upstairs.
The UPS computer system, _even AFTER I clicked “this is a business”_, calculated the charge for a residential setting.
I wrote to UPS’s CEO explaining the situation and asking, for example, what would happen if sending to a business on the first floor at Trump Tower.
They agreed… and they were kind enough to send me a gift card for my trouble.
Every time I’ve sent to businesses that are in shared buildings since then it’s been ok.
– you might want to double check when doing it yourselves, though.. and make sure the system hasn’t defaulted to the higher rate card.