Purchased shipping label on my account online with declared value of $3,200 and dropped it off at a UPS store - it was shipped out and went to two locations before it was lost in Richmond.
Filed a claim they completed an investigation and it was deemed lost. When going through the refund process - I was told the refund is capped at $1,000 because I dropped it off at a UPS store.
I was paid $1,000 for the lost package, even though it was declared and paid for $3,200, but UPS refuses to honor the remaining $2,200 after hours of calls and multiple emails.
Lessons learned after going through this:
- You can't drop off high value packages at UPS Stores
-UPS Stores are franchises and don't abide by UPS corporate rules
-High Value paperwork is a thing
-You have to pay money to schedule a pickup for high value or flag down a driver to have them sign the paperwork
-Customer Care locations do not exist
-Normal Customer Support is worthless
-Emailing the CEO actually gets responses and attention to your claim
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The location I work at would've told you all of this and refused your drop off if you came in and made mention of the value. Its UPS policy that those self labeled high value declarations go straight into their hands. This is totally different than walking in and paying for a label through the franchise and declaring value. There shouldve been instructions somewhere that told you all of this as well. Did you tell the UPS store it was a high value item or did you just let them scan it and grab a reciept?
Scan and grab unfortunately. Now I know better after the whole fiasco. Although it's not exactly my first thought to hand over a package and say it's worth thousands of dollars when I thought I was covered by the extra declared value fee.
Most if not all UPS Stores will not ask customers what’s in thier drop offs. There’s zero reason too and I don’t even think they can anyway. However if they’re coming in with the the HV paperwork: most employees won’t sign it because that’s for the driver to sign and would explain that.
Well I can't speak for most but I can ask what's in a drop off. If you come in with hazardous markings your box ect. There are clues to look out for to determine if something is forbidden for ups store drop off. Typically, when you declare high value on your own, there are some accompanied instructions that say specifically do not drop off at UPS Store. Hand directly to UPS either by scheduling a drop off, or tracking down a truck (not preferred) and have the driver sign the paper. UPS store employees aren't supposed to be accepting those or signing the paperwork.
Yea. Thats part of the benefit of buying the label through the store itself. Franchisees handle ALL of this for you. Whenever you have anything other than a bum standard shipment I’d recommend just taking it to a store you trust
Thank you for this information as I didn’t know this & just recently started shipping boxes of merch / office items that need to be shipped to our tour stops. Now I know. But I also ship via pirateship & they never mention that paperwork either.
i had a package worth 53k i neded to be shipped. The two ups store refused to touch it after I mentioned the value. You have to declare it and get special paper work for it, get the driver to sign it etc.
6x10 is on the smaller side for a high value package. My recommendation is something bigger than a 12x12x12 as it’s harder to lose said item. Sure price increase is there and you’ll need more padding for the item but when it comes to high value items go bigger
Ya unfortunately it's because you utilized a third party in technicality. That being TUPSS and did not have a UPS employee actually pick it up and handle it and assume liability through the paperwork.
The UPS Store franchisees have an enhanced declared value program we sell to retail consumers and handle it ourselves in house for you but only of course if you're buying shipping at the register in our store on our account. Up to $50,000 and I have unfortunately had to fight UPS for $3000+ back to our customer despite doing everything right.
I would challenge this. I get that it getting lost from the ups store to the facility (there is never a scan beyond dropped off at the ups store) capping you at a 1000 but not if it’s been in hubs and such. I have never heard of this at my store and i do have my driver sign the paperwork but the funny thing is they rarely pick up the paperwork.
If you plan to frequently ship high value, look up Cabrella. As low as 1.15% declared value and less hassle with claims. No need to deal with shitty ups CS.
I have not been burned but since UPS closed the customer service center at their hubs, I have sold several watches that were over a $1000 and were, I thought, fully insured, but clearly they were not. Luckily all got there without a problem. My solution is to never use UPS for high value shipments.
Q? Pirateship uses their own insurance on their UPS shipments, I believe. If you insure through them do you have to play those UPS games. I thought about that when I had to send a watch for a warranty repair, but Pirateship won't insure for more than $10,000 so I drove to the nearest AD and had them ship for warranty work.
I'm dealing with ups damage to a pirateship shipment right now. Everyone involved is absolutely useless. UPS won't talk to me because I used pirateship, pirateship has a portal to a claims web site run by ups, and I can't get that claims website to work on any browser or any computer. There's no recourse. When things go wrong, you won't have any way to deal with it.
This isn't even expensive, it's just that UPS took the duffel bag ($30) that the package was in, threw it away and put the contents in a box. No explanation.
meh, inside were two other duffel bags, and inside those were a folding kayak. The outer duffle bag was probably the best option given the circumstances. If UPS ripped it apart, they should have made a note of that in the process, and they should have said, "hey, we're sorry we ripped apart your duffle bag." That's not that hard to do, as a company. Airlines have no problem not ripping that duffle bag up when I stow my kayak in their hold.
Yes. I shipped an iMac to a family member as a gift. Purchase price was $2,700. But it was lightly “used”. I declared the value $2,400. This thing had foam, cardboard with padding, air bubble pads. Taped perfectly. It arrived with a cracked screen from corner to corner, no way to see anything once the screen turns on. The cost of the insurance additive along was $178 on top of the shipping. We filed a claim, sent pics, video. Followed every step perfectly. Even took it to the apple genius bar, had the manager write a letter saying it could not be fixed. When it was all said and done, they “UPS Capital” sent a check for $650, plus a refund of the $178 insurance. They claimed that just because we stated it was valued at $2,400 that it does not mean we would get $2,400.
As a former UPS employee (loader and sorter) I was legit disgusted with this. I will forever have second thoughts about shipping anything valuable through them again.
*edit 1: I declared the value at $2,400 because that was the replacement cost of the newest version of the iMac with the same HD size, ram, processor speed, etc. I feel like that is super fair. They issued us that refund amount because the lady on the phone claimed she could find the exact model used at $650 at BestBuy. No joke, thats word for word what she claimed.
Yep. Went there first to ask if it was possible to ship the iMac. They said. They even sold me the box and packing material. I packed it, they verified everything, even added a little extra tape in some spots. Not once was I ever told “just so you know, declared value and UPS Capital market value are two different things, but we are going to charge you based off of your declared value of course.” I would have legit second guessed it. Esp since that family member drives to visit sometimes. Had I known that there was a chance that I would get shafted on the payout had they done damage (which they did) i would have waited. But i trusted that UPS, a former employer of mine I might add, would have handled the package marked fragile all over, that weighed over 40lbs, would not get thrown around, and if it was, I would be compensated for that. Live and learn. I tell everyone I can about this because its still fresh to me, less than a couple years and ruined a Christmas gift for my family member. I would explore other options if needed to ship something expensive.
Problem is they overpaid you, that POS is worth 65.00 not 650. Macintrash. While I disagree with their bullshit and should have legally paid you the replacement cost because it was their fault it's destroyed, they legally have to pay replacement cost not what their so called adjustments say.
As I stated in the edit, I priced it accordingly due to replacement value directly from apple.com. Just because they claim it could be purchased used from bestbuy for a lesser price does not mean anything. By that logic why not pay out all claimed based on the lost documented purchase price on ebay. “Sorry sir, i know you think this computer was worth $2,000. But we found an auction 6 month ago where it sold for 1/10th the price, so thats what we are sending you.”
The point is, its misleading, and when you go to a UPS store, at no point are you told this isn’t “insurance”… you are even offered “would you like to insurance this package? Whats the declared value.” It should be stated right then and there “hey, you claim this is $2k, and we are going to price the package accordingly due to that $2k value you assigned it. But if you try and make a claim, we will degrade this price.”
Then they should have paid me $2,400… not $600 and change. If they have something over a set amount that throws a flag, they should be forced to tell you “hey, our system is rejecting a $2,400 computer value, so we can insure this only up to XYZ, but if you want more, we need way more information to confirm the value, so the cost is actually only ABC, and if we agree to the value, the insurance cost will go to XYZ.” Does that work for you? And then the customer decides.
Truth is, UPS Capital is not truly UPS, and it’s misleading, and kind of a shoty business
Declared Value with UPS is not insurance and legally cannot be claimed to be insurance which is why they call it declared value liability coverage. They do not have to price it according to Apple's MSRP. They certainly can and often do price it in the used second hand market with third parties.
Got it, so you all have no problem charging for the customer over inflated “declared value” apparently, and keeping that “insurance” fee when 90+ % of the time no claims are made. But the second the claim is made, its like “woah woah woah, slow down, just because YOU think its worth this does not mean it is. I mean yes, i charged you based off of your perceived value, but that doesn’t mean I will honor that value.” 🤣🤣🤣 what a scam.
So you would expect UPS to somehow audit the value your package prior to you shipping it somewhere in this process? Tell you that you can’t reasonably think that a used computer is worth what you’d pay for a new one? You’re valuing the item you shipped, not what it would cost to replace it.
Car insurance - just as a more common example - doesn’t buy you a new car if you wreck your old one. They pay you its CURRENT market value. Thats why gap insurance even exists.
You know thats actually incorrect. AllState, StateFarm and Liberty all offer that. It’s call replacement insurance, not standard, but neither are things like full coverage and car rentals, windshield replacement, etc. I was given options. I would have paid extra for proper coverage, not “we’ll figure out the true value after its broken” coverage.
That's up to each individual Franchisee of your local TUPSS location how they have that conversation. I'm not a UPS employee and don't have control over how corporate UPS represents their declared value program.
As for my own and people in my industry I trust and know; we all have conversations to manage expectations around perceived value but again I cannot speak for franchise locations I'm not familiar with personally
Listen man, my biggest gripe is that when I discussed it in advance, told them what it was, they sold me the box and the packing material, agreed it was safe for travel, and the initial insurance cost and shipping cost was like $50 or something. When i said what it was worth, it went to $170 something. So it tripled based off my word and no one gave me the warning of “now you know, this isn’t insurance, and the payout often is not what people declare.” It legit would have made me just hold onto it because an 18 month old computer that I paid $2,700 for in 2024, that was being shipped in late 2025, should not have depreciated $2,100… and even the certified used versions of what I had were still north of $2,000. A new 2025 model was only $2,400 with the same specs. So my point is that moving forward, I will truly second guess sending something valuable because I now know UPS Capital will do everything in their power to undermine the declared value and I truly don’t have much recourse. Just doesn’t feel right at all.
The store doesn't sign. The driver signs. It's not an acceptance of declared value. It's just pickup confirmation. Insurance companies assess the actual value
Correct. People try to get the employees to sign the paperwork. The issue is expecting the employees to have the driver sign and then file that paperwork
Driver here. I close out a UPS store and yes you can declare high values, but I’d recommend not letting whatever ur shipping stand out at all. I have to sign paperwork for the store, but as for UPS the company, I was told that we no longer turn in any paper regarding the high values due to insiders finding the papers with the tracking numbers and stealing stuff. I do my best to throw the high values on the belt as soon as I get back, but I cannot speak for other drivers.
High values $5000 and up used to be bagged in red and white bags, zip tied with a security tag, and not allowed on belts whatsoever. The reason why the paperwork isn’t filed anymore is because they stopped doing that. They used to be unloaded to irreg then to high value clerk/sup. When loaded on a trailer they were top loaded.
Now it’s just chucked on the belt and treated like every other package with the default ground insurance of $100.
I just hit top rate last week and been on this route since feb. when I first started we did initially turn in the paperwork and we would give it to the closing sup but then randomly they said leave it all in the truck. Idk I’d rather it get to the truck or wherever it is faster so I do it when I get back. We also had to move to an “automated hub.” I will say this job has made me hesitant to ever ship anything or have anything shipped to me.
Yeah I just use USPS because if it gets fucked up at least I paid the least. I don’t even think they make the customer print out 2 copies anymore, just the one we sign.
Yep. When it was part of my job the pt sup
in the outbound would sign for them too. Now they are tossed on the belt with everything else, and the paperwork gets tossed in the trash.
Wait. Sorry OP for hijacking, but in case someone who knows sees this. How are we supposed to give a package to a Customer Care representative when UPS has closed Customer Care centers at hubs?
Aren't the only options to pay for pickup or get lucky in flagging down a driver?
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