I have been shipping bicycles and frames all over the world for quite some time now and can tell you that UPS is the worst shipping company on the planet.
So why do I keep going there? Because every buyer insists that I use UPS to ship their frame or bike. When I would quote a person $40.00 for a pack and ship to anywhere within the U.S., many bidders balked at this price. I pay MORE than $40.00 via UPS to its destination EVERY time. So I "eat" some of the shipping. However, the last time I went into the aforementioned UPS station with a bicycle to ship to somewhere in the midwest I had quite an ordeal.
I filled out all of the necessary paperwork ahead of time, waited in line, and when it was my turn, I was greeted by this ferocious woman who was gigantic. She says "Put that box up on dat scale." I lifted the box up onto the scale." She did not look down at the weight displayed on the scale, NOR did she measure the width x lenght x girth (or however it goes) of the box. Instead she looks at me and says "O.K., oversized box, that's gonna be $95.00." I was like, "what?" "That's right" she said, "This is an oversized box and you are going to pay the oversized fee!" I said, "Wait a minute, the dude I usually deal with always charges me $40.00 because he says someone hosed the NAFTA laws and now we are getting the shaft." It escalated into a heated arguement which I will spare everyone the boring details of.
I later spoke with a friend who is uses Fed-Ex and he persuaded me to try Fed-Ex.
Went into F-X, put the box on the scale, the lady looked at me and said, "That will be $22.00."
I will never use UPS again.
Ted Baer
Palo Alto, CA