FedEx Shipping Nightmare
 

I recently sold a 70's 52cm Nishiki International on ebay. Being a fairly small frame it was one of my smaller bike packages measuring 47x8x28. I have a FedEx account so I just print the labels and they bill me the actual amount. The day after I mailed it I left town for 2 weeks, came back to check my FedEx account to see they billed me $127.39 to ship the bike from Colorado to Georgia! They said the dimensions were 52 x 28 x 21 ! I called them and had a heck of a time trying to convince them it was an error. I tried contacting the buyer to see if they still have the box, but no word yet.

I escalated the call once, and still she said she had to go by what their scanners say (they have scanners that measure the dimensions). But later she said they took it off and measured it by hand, which to me means they could have made an error in input. At any rate she took off the $45 oversize charge as a 'courtesy', still leaving me with a charge of over $80 for what should have been less than half that. After I told her I needed to escalate the call again, she then finally suggested sending out an account rep out to talk to me about it and possibly adjusting the charge.

Anyway just had to vent. If the buyer tossed the original box, I'm going to have to hope I can convince the account rep that I'm honest. Almost all I've shipped with them is bikes so hopefully they can look at my history and see I've never shipped any bike box that wide. What a pain.

Anyone else ever have a problem like this? I've been happy with FedEx so far, but I can't afford to have this type of error keep happening, especially if it's going to be so difficult to prove I'm right.

Ryan

You just have to keep fighting them on this stuff. They used to do it all the time, and even got busted for it and were forced to refund a lot of over charges. I just got a $70 refund out of the blue for a package I sent 2 years ago and did not challenge. Go figure!

I always write the true dimensions on the top of the box in marker. And make sure you measure correctly and round up like they will. If a box is 7.5" wide it is really 8". 29.5" is 30", etc.

Take a digital photo of the box with a tape on it if you have to.

Don't back down, they will come around. But it is a pain in the ass. With that said Fedex is nowhere near as bad as DHL was. They would try to pull that on every shipment I sent with them. I closed my account after the first week.

Thanks for the support and good ideas too. I always round up like you say, but I haven't written the dimensions on the package before, great idea.

I hope you have better luck then I had with the USPS on a cooling unit they broke when "they did a home land inspection".

Sorry to hear of your dilemma! I chucked my account years ago for just the same problems. Oercharges were a pain and getting refunds a waste of my time...what I mean by that is...by the time you finally resolved the problems you could have handed checked ten frigging shipments! I know they don't mess up often,at least not too often but that one or two odd times is just too much a pain. Found it easier to just pay by charge or debit and be done with it.
What I hate about DHL is their annoying habit of not charging your card for a long time and the hitting it way after they should have and me not remembering what the heck the charge was. Their too much of a pain to use regularly.

There are 2 ways around rounding up and rounding down.

1. Rather than measure L+W+W+H+H measure length then 'wrap' your tape measure around the girth and add that to the length. For input into the FedEx system tweak the numbers so they equal your length plus girth measurement.

2. FedEx specificly states to measure L + girth where girth = 2(w)+2(h) NOT w+w+h+h

7.5 width and 29.5 height would be 76" rounding up or 74" using 2(w)+2(H)

If you can be there when the driver picks it up, make him measure it on the spot (have your own tape measure there) and write it down. Then you're set.

I do my labels on line, then take them to the Fed Ex office about 20 minutes away, and have never had a problem. Once they accept it there, it's in stone.

What do you mean exactly? Can you just print the mailing label then pay at the counter? What I'm currently doing is printing the labels, putting the charge on my account number, then taking the packages to the FedEx center.

Tomorrow I'm going to go talk to the guy that scanned them in for me and see if he remembers what packages I had. And I'm going to ask if they have a security camera footage, might have been reset by now but it's worth a shot.

I know what you mean, by the time I'm done I'll have a few hours invested, all just to get another $45, (the first $45 only took about 30 minutes) with no guarantee I'll win. I think they know that and that's how they get away with it, but I'm going to keep at it till the bitter end.

With Fed Ex, I don't think you can print unpaid lablels. With USPS, you can. But if I print the label on line and take it to my local terminal, once she scans it in, it's accepted AS IS, no more fees.

I went in there yesterday, shipped a wheel box from NC to KY for $30.79, and a complete bike from NC to GA for $25.83. Yes, $25.83, properly packed, for a 56cm Ironman, via Fed Ex. I have learned to pack a bike.

I have found that if you go to UPS or FedEx in person, the shipping clerk usually comes out cheaper than doing it on line, even with the "retail counter" charges.

I avoid the UPS Store and FedEx Kinko's, etc. They are interested in increasing revenue, period. Same with online labeling. It is going to get "audited," and no matter what the dimensions are, if there is revenue pressure in the transportation sequence, they will hit it. I've had to fight that battle with UPS, with a box that was actually labeled with dimensions.

At a terminal, it's about service and accuracy. The clerk knows the loaders and shippers, and a well-packed and secure package will get measured, weighed, paid for and moved on. Efficiency is the rule there. I'd much rather deal with a Fed Ex or UPS employee than some franchise owner who is looking to make as much as he/she can from me.

I was in Texas, and shipped back to IN a bike my brother bought for me. I used a full sized bike box (first mistake) and took it to FedEx Kinko's. Charged me $87 to ship from DFW to Indy! I about choked. Amazingly earlier in the year, I shipped Robbie a Centurion Ironman, and packed it per his recommendations. Frame and bits in one box, and wheels in another. Shipped by FedEx at the terminal, both boxes in total came to about $37 to SC. I definitely like FedEx shipping, but ya gotta watch the package size and ship from the terminal.

geek

And on another note, just think of the poor collectors in Japan who might of had stuff coming in on the FedEx jet that crashed at Tokyo a few weeks ago. I can only imagine the high end bikes and rare french bits that may have been on that ride!

That's a thing of the past. At least in North America.

Go get 'em ColoRyan.

Wow so much new info I didn't know about. So FedEx Office (previously FedEx Kinko's) is just a franchise? Once I shipped a pair of speakers, each package weighed a bit over 80 pounds, and the clerk at FedEx Office was a bit peeved that I was overweight because they just have 'one guy' that loads the trucks, and said I should go to the FedEx center down the street for packages that heavy. THAT must be the terminal she was talking about; I just did a search on the Fedex site for locations and that one down the street is the only location with a burgundy square meaning it is FedEx staffed.

When I lived in Idaho I used to take the bikes to Fedex Kinko's, fill out the little white forms for every package, have them measure it, pay there, and they seemed to get annoyed with all the work they had to do and finally suggested I get a FedEx account. I suppose it's a lot nicer for them to get a cut off each package and not have to do anything!

So can you clarify for me, (sorry I'm not fully understanding), are you paying for the label online at Fedex.com with an account number, then taking it to a terminal? Or are you just printing the address out and paying at the terminal after they measure it?

Awesome. Do you have a link to any threads or anything about your suggestions for packing a bike? I haven't had any damage for the last 3 years but it can be quite frustrating getting the wheels in the same box as the frame.

Yeah I know some of those bike boxes are so close to being oversize and some are definitely oversize. That's what peeves me about this box, I cut it down, it wasn't even close to being oversized, and somehow the length grew from 47 inches to 52 inches! Width can sometimes bulge out, but I'd like them to explain to me how a box grows in length. Thanks for the tips on separating the wheels out, I may start doing that. Do you do the 'this side up' like the frame boxes so they don't get smashed? I've got about 20 bikes I need to list in the next few weeks so I'm hoping I don't run into any more problems.