How to audit a shipping account for late packages is common knowledge, and can be performed with a bit of effort and the right guide on how to audit your own shipments.
Overview
Steps to follow to reclaim refunds from UPS
UPS offers a time delivery guarantee on most shipments, which means that when any package is delivered late, then you (the shipper) are due a full refund on the shipping costs for that shipment. But, there’s a catch. You have to ask for the refund within 15 days, else that refund is lost forever.
This guide is a resource for any company to self-manage it’s UPS account for late packages. Do it yourself shipment auditing is great for small companies save on shipping.
First: Wait to receive your invoice
UPS delivers invoices weekly. Within, you’ll see a list of all packages that were delivered within the week’s billing period.
Second: Audit your invoice for late deliveries
You will need to go through each shipment and evaluate a few key points.
- Is the service type eligible for the money back guarantee? UPS 2nd Day Air AM, for example, has no money back guarantee option for late deliveries.
- What is the cut-off time for that service type? Ground, for example, has a cut-off time of end of day. Priority overnight, as an example, has a cut-off time of 10:30 AM, whereas Ground has a cut-off time of end of day (11:59 PM).
- What time was the package delivered? You’ll need to look within your account to determine the timestamp of the last delivery.
- What is the cut-off time for the destination? Rural deliveries have different cut-off times than usual. This must be evaluated as part of the shipment auditing process. Heuristics can be used here to save time; if the package is delivered in a big city, then there’s no need to evaluate to this regard.
- How long should it have taken to get to that location? Based on the service type, and the ship date of the package, you’ll be able to determine the number of days required to reach the destination specified.
Third: File claims with UPS
There are three ways to file Money Back Guarantee claims.
- Via the phone. You can call UPS and provide the tracking number of the late package and the customer support agent will assist you in issuing a refund claim.
- Via the website. You can navigate through UPS.com to file a claim on the package. Note: this requires online billing to be enabled.
- Via post mail. You can use a web form available online to indicate any tracking numbers with service failure for consideration.
Fourth: Review the result of the initial filing
At this point, You’ll see one of two results:
- Rejected. This can be because of bad weather or for a number of other reasons.
- Accepted. This means that the Revenue Services Department at UPS will evaluate your request. Note: it may takes weeks to receive any result as it can take UPS weeks to come up with a decision regarding refunding money for late deliveries.
Fifth: Monitor your account and credit card for credits
Credits can be delivered to your account in the form of credit to future invoices or as a refund back to the credit card on file with primary billing method with UPS.
Inputs and requirements
The points below are what you will need to do shipment auditing within a company internally.
Time required
An estimate of 10 minutes is required to audit each shipment, including the filing of claims and monitoring of credits being delivered back to the account. This works out to around 50 packages per 8-hour work day.
Spreadsheets
Spreadsheets are helpful to keep track of each shipment and all attributes for that shipment. Separate columns that relate to the filing of refund claims and the credits delivered are recommended to keep track of KPI’s in the filing process.
The expected outcome
The numbers provided in the section below are based on the data Bear Down Parcel has observed in doing shipment auditing.
Number of packages delivered late
10% is the average, although there are many input variables here. The service type used to send a package (i.e. UPS Next Day Air, UPS Ground), the location of the ship from, origin of the package, the ship to destination of the package and time of year are just some of the metrics to consider.
Number of packages delivered late that result in a refund
3-5% is the average, again there are many input variables. Weather is the biggest contributor on why a package is late but does not result in a refund, accounting for more than half of the total rejections on refund requests on average.
The smart way to do shipment auditing
Bear Down Parcel exists to provide shipment auditing to our customers. There’s a significant amount of time required to perform shipment auditing, and at any volume of shipping it’s advantageous to use the automation that we’ve created to perform the tasks required within.
- Don’t audit your own shipping account. Let the
- parcel auditing professionals
- at Bear Down Parcel manage this service for you.
Other resources
- If you would like more information about
- UPS Money Back Guarantee
- directly from UPS.
