ParcelCompare.com via UPS changing cost of courier after delivery

matt_mccombe

Please can you help/advise me on my rights.  I am currently being pursued by ParcelCompare.com on behalf of UPS. 

In a nut shell we sold a tent on Ebay and booked a courier via ParcelCompare.  We followed the instructions on the website and provided the dimensions and weight, including some tolerance to be sure all was ok.  The cost was £45 to pick up and deliver. 

A few days after the tent had been successfully delivered I received an email from ParcelCompare stating the tent had been audited by UPS and was deemed to be a total of 8cm bigger than stated. They want to charge us an additional £60 because of this.  This is a 130% increase in price for a 4% increase in parcel dimension (we are contesting that the parcel was bigger as we believe it was not).

They have not been able to supply any proof from UPS of these increased dimensions (other than a heavily redacted document with some dimesions on) and have requested we supply photographs of the wrapped package with delivery sticker affixed and a tape measure showing dimensions….after the parcel has been sent and something we are now unable to produce.

I have supplied evidence of what we sent and to whom but they are saying this does not fit their criteria.  We have reached a deadlock and I am now unsure what will happen if I refuse to pay the additional £60.

Any advise/experience would be greatly appreciated.

Many Thanks

visidigi

Your contract is with Parcel Compare - nothing to do with UPS. 

You have to do whatever Parcel Compare ask for as proof - the rest will be down to the terms and conditions.

The problem with parcel middle marketers such as parcelcompare is they are used because the are cheap. They are cheap because they buy an absolute bare bones service from the carrier and hope they keep the slim margin.

As soon as a courier comes after these sellers for oversize the rates are astronomical. 

I would push parcelcompare to provide you with proof of the oversized package - of course, they will only need to provide sufficient evidence, in line with their terms as long as those don't impede on your rights.

pbartlett

If you refuse to pay they will either write it off as too small an amount to bother about (maybe also blocking you from doing any further business with them) or pursue it through the courts. If it does come to a court hearing you both put your sides of the case and the judge comes to a decision based on his/her views and the balance of probability.

In my own view (with nothing to back it up) I would have thought the judge would side with a large company experienced in parcel delivery with procedures and processes in place to measure items passing through their system. 

MattMattMattUK

Answering this purely from the perspective of UPS, once a package goes into the "oversize" category then surcharges apply, so a small increase in size which pushes it over can result in a large increase in cost, where as another increase in size might make no difference at all, even though the increase might be by a larger amount. 

One example of where I have seen this happen is where the item is not boxed, so when squashed down it becomes longer and so exceeds the dimensions originally listed. Eg. if your tent was just in the tend bag, or wrapped in pallet wrap etc. and you sat on the package, would it get longer?

PaulRudz

Unfortunately I have used Parcelcompare before I read any reviews on them!! Big mistake. So my story is the same as other very poor reviews on this company. I sent a parcel back to Amazon using Parcelcompare, who in turn used UPS as the courier. I sent my parcel in good faith using the correct weight, dimensions etc. only for them to come back to me later down the line saying the weight had been audited by UPS and that my parcel was 17kg over weight at a cost of £60. Sound familiar!!
I am still fighting my corner but wondered if anyone had any success in not having to pay this extra cost which in my opinion is totally unjustified, especially as they have produced no proof and that it is their word against mine. With so many bad reviews surely this company needs to be investigated.

Sandtree

ParcelCompare are just an agent, UPS is the supplier and the ones levying the charge.

What did you send? How heavy was it? 17kg is a rather substantial difference. Presumably you have gone back and checked you didnt make any typos on the weight or sizes?

Thankfully never had the problem myself but have known others that have and they asked for the couriers evidence which comes in the form effectively of a photo of the parcel going through their machine which measures and weighs the parcel. In their case it was clear from the photo that there was a second parcel "under" the end of theirs and that the machine had measured the full length as one parcel. Once pointed out the excess charge was waived.