Rob & Melissa Stephenson from Flea Market Flipper talk about how to get your money back if UPS doesn't deliver your package.
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fleamrktflipper/
Check out our FREE Workshop: https://courses.fleamarketflipper.com/flipper-university-workshop-webinar
You can find us at: https://fleamarketflipper.com/
How To Get Your Shipping Funds Back From UPS If They Don't Deliver Your Package
Rob: What's up, Pro Flippers, on today's episode we are talking about how to get your shipping funds back if UPS does not deliver your package.
Rob: Alright guys, on today's episode, we are talking about shipping with UPS. We just had an incident happen recently where they didn't deliver the package and it was a bear to get our refund on the shipping amount that we paid UPS to deliver the package.
Melissa: Yeah, we actually, recorded this podcast last week before we had an answer. So now we get to rerecord it because the sound was not on apparently when we recorded, but we wanted to, now we have kind of an update, which is even better so we can update with that.
Rob: Absolutely. So the situation happened was I sold a Peg Perego ride on toy, six volt toy. A little kid rides on it Thomas the train. Thomas the train. It has a pull behind as well. So two kids can actually ride on this six volt toy. We sold it and it actually went in three boxes. I shipped the first two boxes with FedEx. The third box was larger than the first two and it was cheaper to go with UPS so I I shipped the third one with UPS.
Melissa: Before you dive into it, Sorry. So you bought, you got it for our kids back in the day. It, and those kids rode that thing forever when they were little, like tiny little kids riding around. What did we get it for? $20, I think? $25?
Somewhere
Rob: in there, yeah. It was cheap. We've had this thing for years.
Melissa: Yeah, we've had it for over 10 years now. And, you sold it for $450. So, plus shipping or no?
Rob: $450 plus $100 in shipping. So $550 total with shipping. Okay. And that's what we did. We sold it. We sold it on eBay. Made some good money on it. But what we did is split it. Packaged and shipped two of the boxes for, with FedEx and the third box went with UPS because it saved me, I think it saved me $15, $20, and in the long run, not worth it.
And it gave me a huge headache. So what happened was FedEx delivered the boxes perfectly. No issues. UPS it made it to the shipping terminal or the hub right next to where the buyer was and then instead of trying to deliver this box, the delivery driver pulled it off of the 18 wheeler and decided they didn't want to deliver it, so they threw it back on and said it was refused by the buyer.
Now, all this is crazy because nobody can pinpoint who the delivery guy is that actually took it off the truck and threw it back on and said the buyer refused it. Nobody can pinpoint who was the culprit on this, but that is what they told me. The lady messaged me who bought it on the same day that this happened and it said refused by the recipient or the buyer.
Melissa: And she was just messaging you because she was curious where that was, right?
And you guys looked at the tracking.
Rob: Exactly. So immediately I got on the phone, which was a whole other nightmare in and of itself. UPS, come on, you know, straighten your crap out. This is just crazy. It took me 45 minutes to get on the phone, all automated system, and you cannot bypass the automated system.
Melissa: No, every time it kept asking for the number, like he would, it's numbers and letters, it's not like you can punch in the numbers, it's numbers, letters, it's this whole big tracking number and he would say it and then they would reply it back to him, so you're saying this and it was the wrong, and he's like, no, that's not the right number.
Rob: Crazy. And the automated system will just hang up on you. It's not like, all right, well, I can't understand you, I'm going to send you to an agent. Right. No, I can't understand you, call back later. See you later. Hang up. So you cannot bypass the automated system, which this is new. I don't know how long they've been doing this, but within the last couple years, definitely new.
We haven't dealt with UPS having issues.
Melissa: No, usually you can get somebody on the phone.
Rob: Just crazy. Such a nightmare. Spent 45 minutes. Couldn't get anybody on the phone. Waited till I got back to the house. I tried to get somebody again. Finally got somebody on the phone who I told them what was going on. They couldn't pinpoint it. They said, oh yeah, recipient refused this.
And I said, I just talked to the recipient. It was never tried. You guys never tried to deliver it. You just said that they refused it so you didn't have to deliver it. Now, it's showing that you guys didn't do anything wrong. You're shipping it back to me. I said, stop it. It's still at the terminal right now.
You guys need to put a stop on this tracking number and go deliver it to the buyer. The agent told me, oh, yeah, we'll do it. I'm going to set it up right now and we're going to do it. We'll, we'll, we'll, we'll get it taken care of. No, they did not. So I was out of town. We waited two days until I messaged. Oh no, no, sorry.
They told me they were going to have a supervisor contact myself and the buyer because I had the buyer's phone number. So they never contacted me. They never called me back, but they called the buyer and said, Hey, we're looking into this. Just so you know, we're gonna, we're gonna handle this situation.
We'll get the box back to you. That kind of thing. So I was out of town. I messaged, we got home two days later, and I messaged the buyer and said, hey, have you heard anything? She says, no, not since the agent messaged me. I looked at the tracking. Sure enough, it was going to get delivered the next day back to me.
So they shipped it back to me. After they said they wouldn't. Crazy. So all that stuff happened. It ended up coming back to me, called them up again and said, you guys, I don't want the box back. I told you this initially, you guys need to deliver it. I paid you to deliver it. You need to deliver it. And they said, oh yeah, we can't do anything.
We can't change anything. Just create another label. And I said, I'll create another label, but I am not going through UPS because you guys are crazy. And I got to a supervisor who finally is like, yeah, there's no, there's nobody who actually rejected this package. I don't know why somebody wrote rejected package or anything like that.
So they couldn't even pinpoint who did it, what happened, other than it came off the truck, went right back on the truck as refused, and then delivered it back to me. And I'm like, this is crazy. And you paid $80 for a label, right? $80 we paid to have this thing delivered, so that was the craziness.
That's the first portion of the craziness. The second part is...
Melissa: After you got it back to the house and then you went through FedEx and got it back to her. Delivered. The most important thing right now is getting it to the buyer. She paid for it. She needs it. So that's our first call of action is get this thing out back to her and get it delivered to her.
So you went FedEx with that one.
Rob: Yes. Thank the Lord she was very understandable. And I actually called her up because I had her phone number and said, Listen, I'm so sorry. This is the reason why I went with UPS. It was saving me, $15 or $20, versus going through FedEx. It was a bigger box, so that's why I did it.
She totally understood and she was like, yeah, no, no worries. We'll get it all straightened out. And she was very willing to work with me. So very, very nice, very gracious. So I, I, I'm very thankful for that. But even after all this stuff happened and it came back to me, I had to try and get the funds back.
Now this is where the other nightmare starts is we create labels through eBay for FedEx, UPS, USPS. The problem is they're not on our account because eBay has the big account and that's why we get such a big discount. Yes. So now I have to figure out how to get my money back, which FedEx will not give me one.
I'm sorry. UPS will not give me my money back because I don't have an account with them. Well, I do, but I didn't use the account to ship it, so it had to go through eBay. So then I had to get eBay on the phone and get them to file a claim with UPS for this, which thank, thank goodness what I did was with UPS on the phone, I made them give me a case ID number on this because I escalated this to a supervisor.
I got them noting on the the tracking number that it was not delivered. It was no fault of mine. It was because of their negligence on their driver didn't want to deliver the package He threw it back in the truck all that kind of stuff. Craziness. So anyways, I got all that done. I got a case number from the UPS driver I called eBay up and told eBay what happened and eBay was able to open the claim with UPS and got me my refund back, with that case ID.
Now, definitely a takeaway on this. If you do run into a situation like this, get a case ID from UPS. So showing that they did something wrong, they opened up the case, but then you have to go through eBay to actually get the refund because eBay is the one paying UPS, they're the ones who are going to get the refund.
Melissa: So does it go back on your account through eBay then? Yes. So it goes, eBay is the one that's refunding you the money and they're getting the money from UPS.
Rob: Yes. So, but the one thing that will expedite it is you have to get that case number from UPS, that they opened the case that something was wrong.
And you have to give them to give that to you. Then when eBay fills out a form to actually get the funds back from UPS, you have to give them that case ID that they can put in the form so they can see it's already all been taken care of. And then they will not try to drag it out. Because I knew exactly what was gonna happen.
That when eBay contacted UPS, they were gonna say, yeah, we showed that the buyer or the recipient refused it, refused it. So we're not gonna give a refund for the return shipment or the shipment at all. And I knew that was going to happen. So that's why I really went, I hit home with the, the supervisor I spoke to at UPS and I hit home with the supervisor that I spoke to at eBay.
Well, both of these places I had to escalate it because the reps told me they couldn't do it. I got on the phone with eBay. About the label and she's like, yeah, the rep the first rep told me no, we can't do that. You have to go into your back office. You have to do it yourself. And I said listen I've this has been a nightmare.
I'm not gonna call you guys up and do this again I know exactly if I do it in my back office, it's gonna go over to UPS. They're gonna re they're going to, refuse it. And then it's going to come back and I'm going to go through the whole process again. I don't want to deal with that. I need you guys to fill it out, make sure it's done right, and then I do it.
And then I got to a supervisor. The supervisor did all the work. I didn't have to go to my back office. I didn't have to do anything. They filled everything out. And, but one thing, another caveat that I will mention with this. Is I had to do the follow up so, four or five days went by actually has it been a week?
Was it a week? So a week went by I got a lot of other stuff going on and Melissa's like did you get that refund yet? So I said no, just called this morning and got a rep on the phone for the shipping and she goes you will see the refund within the next hour your your account right now is at 85 negative. It's an 85. It's an $80 refund So your account will be at five dollars negative. It just a shipping label came through, the actual the FedEx shipping label label came through and that's what they're billing me for. So my account is negative $85 right now. So it was $85 instead of the $80 for it, which it's okay.
It is what it is. Now I'll get my refund from eBay. You still need to double check that later today. Absolutely. So, she told me it'd take about an hour or two to get it to totally go through, which was better than three to five days, which they normally tell you. Absolutely. So, the moral of the story, the couple takeaways is definitely get a case ID from FedEx or UPS, if this ever happens, you make them open the case and give you the case ID so when you go back to eBay and have eBay fight them, they have that case ID and it'll go through fairly quickly.
Melissa: Yeah, so and I wanted to add too that when you have this situation where they're talking to each other, it's usually not in your best interest. So you do have to be more pushy, and I think one thing that you're really good at is getting people on the phone, and like you mentioned that the rep said they couldn't do it, so you had to go to a supervisor.
So, how do you do that is, you know, you're polite with the person, that is one of the biggest things. When you're on the phone with somebody, be polite, you're frustrated. You can hear the passion in his voice about this whole situation. Like, it's frustrating, you're frustrated, but if you come at and combat the person right away, and you just start yelling at them for what's going on, you're never going to get anywhere.
So, you know, start out, be polite, but also be confident. Be confident in your situation, and you do very good at that. You're like, okay, this is what needs to happen. If you can't, are you, and you ask usually the representative, are you able to do this? If whatever it is you're trying to do in your account, if you cannot do that, can I please speak with your supervisor?
And so I don't know how you word it exactly. Something like that, because it is important. You need, you need this done. You need whatever action to be taken for this. It was the refund for the label, but sometimes it's other things. So, yeah, but getting to a supervisor is super important because a lot of times that's the only way that you can get
Rob: things done.
And the reps will tell you it can't be done. it. And then you go to a supervisor and the supervisor can do it just like in this situation. So and we're giving you guys the cliff notes version. This actually got a little more heated and I even got a supervisor on the phone. I'm like, I can I bill you guys for my three hours of time?
It's taking me to get this refund. That was your fault. I mean I got into it with the supervisor at ups, just upset and i'm like imagine yourself You just worked for the last three hours of your day and you're not getting paid for it. My hour my my time is worth money to me. And anyways, we went back and forth with them, but we're giving you the cliff notes version.
Just know, sometimes you do have to escalate it. Don't just take what the UPS or eBay or FedEx, the representative that you first speak to, don't take that as, just take it as face value. That's not the end all be all answer to your question. Cause I even got the first rep or two that I got on the phone with UPS are like, oh yeah, this package was refused.
You can't get a refund. Your buyer refused it. And I'm like, no, they didn't. I've already gone through this. You should have notes on this tracking number stating what it is. Just know that's one of those things and Melissa is right. It's the confidence to do what is right. You have to be confident with the reps that you're speaking to and just let them know, hey, I, you know, I get it that you can't do anything.
Can I speak to your supervisor? I have to get this handled today and I need to get to somebody who can actually handle this because I don't want to call back and do this again. I want to have it rectified. I want to have it resolved right now. So I need to speak to somebody who can do that. And if you're confident in doing that they're going to push you up the ladder to where you can get to somebody who will absolutely do it.
Melissa: Confident and polite, but then even at sometimes after you talk to somebody, if you get heated, you'll be like, look, I'm not trying to come at you. I'm not, this is not an attack on you. If I just want you to understand my frustration in this situation, this is not, you know, I know you're just the messenger or whatever.
That's usually what you say to them. And so, but if you put yourself in my shoes, you could see the frustration. So you, you let them know that you're not attacking them. You're just frustrated with the situation and you need to get rectified. And yeah, so that's kind of where you go with it.
Rob: That is one thing that I end the conversation with and I tell them, listen, I'm sorry that I'm so heated about this.
It's just very, very frustrating. Hopefully you can see my situation and typically any agent, a supervisor that is on the phone, they say, yeah, I totally get it. And I said, I'm not attacking you, but it is one of those things that, it's very, very frustrating to be in my situation, have to deal with this, spend my time doing this.
When I didn't do anything wrong, I paid you guys for a service and you guys could not provide it. Now you're not, you're giving me a hard time with even getting a refund on it. So just know that no don't, and most companies nowadays are going to expect you just to roll over. They're going to be like, oh yeah, sorry.
That was refused by the buyer. You can't get a refund. And most people might just get off the phone and say, okay, well. I'm out $80 on this. You don't have to do that. Right is right. And you really have to fight for it with a lot of companies right now.
Melissa: I wanted to add that too, because, you know, maybe it is like a $10 label or a $5 label, is it really worth fighting for?
No, like you have to know what your time is worth. And at some point you do have to say, okay, well. You know, it's not worth my time. I understand that. But then sometimes there is the principle and you, it's annoying that big companies do try to take advantage of the little guy, the little business. And that's, you know, it's frustrating.
And so sometimes on principle, even though if you know, it's not worth your time, like three hours for $80, I mean, it's $80 bucks. That's a lot of money, but it's, it's more principles while you do it. So, and it isn't, they shouldn't be able to do that to you. So, and it, I will add to. I know you went with FedEx, over UPS because of this whole situation, but I feel like it's usually the other way around.
Or maybe you'll, we usually ship with FedEx, it can be either company, but for this time it was UPS.
Rob: FedEx right now is a little bit more expensive than UPS rates. That's what I found. It's a little.
Melissa: For the meat, like for the stuff we're selling, it's like a bigger box.
Rob: So they're a little bit more expensive.
So UPS and the other boxes were roughly the same same rate as FedEx, the same rate from FedEx and UPS because they were smaller boxes. Not small, but smaller than the last one that I shipped that was really big. And that's the reason why I went with UPS because it was just a bigger box. And when the boxes get bigger and bigger, UPS seems to be a little bit more of a discount than what FedEx is right now.
So, but we've gone with both companies and we've used both companies for years, years and years and years. And it is, it's one of those things that. Right now I'm a little put off at how long it took me to get a representative on the phone with UPS. And it was just a nightmare. And I haven't had to deal with that in a long time.
And now I'm like, this is just crazy. You guys need to have, that's it. You need to have a way that we can get to a representative. Quickly, not go through the whole automated system and then say, Oh, sorry, call back later. No, it's done. It's just ridiculous. So, that's kind of our situation that we just went through.
Hopefully it will help you out. A couple of those key points that we pointed out. Hopefully you do that if you do have the situation so you can get it resolved as quick as possible.
Melissa: So this was a little bit different than doing a shipping claim. We'll have to do another episode on like if something gets damaged in shipping and actually filing a claim.
So this was more just, they made a mistake and we wanted our funds back. We needed the money back for the label. So, and we were able to get it. Well, they said we were able to get it. So we'll check later today. But it should be in our account. So, so just be confident, be polite and you know, do what's right.
Get your, get your money right. Right. Is right. So thanks guys so much for listening. If you guys have a question you want us to answer on the podcast, we would love to answer it. We love hearing from you guys. So if you go to fleamarketflipper.com/question. We can get your question answered here on the Pro Flipper Show.
Rob: You guys rock. Thanks for hanging out with us today.