Amazon's deal with the devil: UPS

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

It is probably fair to say that all of us who live here depend on Amazon for many things we can't get here.  There is a disturbing new trend, which is for them to send things here with UPS, who then hold your shipment for ransom until you cough up on the order of 30€, which they have bamboozled Amazon into thinking is a clearance fee, something they are forced to charge customers, because there is IGIC due.   This after you have contracted for FREE super saver delivery!  We have rejected three orders to date, and I am about to reject a fourth, having been notified that my order has been shipped with UPS. 

Suffice to say I was royally pissed off so this time, I initiated an online chat with Amazon, which I am pasting in below. 

This is a call to action:  spread the word!  If you are notified of a shipment sent via UPS, initiate contact with Amazon, and reject it.  We need to get rid of the scourge of UPS! 

Chat:

You are now connected to Stephen from Amazon.co.uk.
Me:Is there a live person at the other end of this chat?
Hello Stephen. I have a problem with the delivery of Order # <order number>
Stephen:Hello, I am a live person and my name is Stephen. I'll be happy to help you with your order. First of all, can you please confirm your name?
Me:Yes, my name is Myrtle Hogan Lance.
Stephen:Thank you. How can I help you with the order delivery problem?
Me:The problem is: I selected free super saver delivery, which Amazon is happy to provide to us in the Canary Islands, which is much appreciated. We do not pay UK VAT, but if the post office, through whom most deliveries are sent, wants to charge us IGIC (local sales tax) then they do. They have only ever done it on large items, so 99% of our packages come through with no additional charges. Will let you read this and keep typing.
The problem is, I have just been notified that the subject order has been sent via UPS. There is a MAJOR problem with that. UPS does not just deliver packages, like DHL does. They take it upon themselves to collect any IGIC which might be due, then they slap on a huge 'clearance' fee - this is how they make money. So they will demand in the neighbourhood of 26€ from me for a package for which I contracted for free super saver delivery.
I will, of course, reject the shipment, as it is not my plan to support their business model.
My husband, who orders from Amazon a lot, has just had to reject yet another order because UPS wanted to charge him nearly 30€ for under £7 of toothbrush heads!
It appears that somebody at Amazon has made an arrangement with UPS and you guys are shovelling business their way, not knowing that they are really souring the customer experience for those of us in the Canaries. How can I get this issue escalated so that I can continue to shop with Amazon? I refuse to pay the UPS ransom when I have contracted for free super saver delivery.
Stephen:We do use numerous carriers that have proven to provide the best service when handling our different delivery options. Our ordering system automatically assigns the most appropriate carrier to your order when it's ready to be sent. Do you mind waiting for a few moments while I look into this further for you?
Me:Please, by all means. I'll be here and thanks.
Stephen:Thanks so much for waiting. Ups have advised that the additional charge is a broker clearance charge. The problem is these are charged once your parcel reaches the Canary Islands. We've no control over the additional charges and can't predict what they might be. I appreciate that you prefer to order form us, but it may be worth purchasing item from Amazon.es as it may be less expensive.
Me:The clearance charge is how they make money. And yes, I understand they add the charge here, and also that you have no control over them. UPS is the only carrier that holds packages to ransom. Anything arriving from Royal Mail or Deutsche Post or DHL is delivered directly. They would only add a charge if customs here tells them to. UPS is actively seeking out customs so they can add on their clearance fee. It would be the same, by the way, with Amazon.es because we don't pay the VAT they do on the mainland, so are still subject to IGIC. We don't order from them because they have very little we want. This situation is wasting a lot of people's time in addition to creating customer satisfaction issues. It is costing Amazon money all out of proportion to the value of orders, with us having to reject and reorder things. That is why I want to escalate the problem, so that at the very least we can opt out of UPS as a carrier. They are making you guys look like very bad guys. Amazon is a lifeline for us here, able to supply things we cannot get on this lovely island. Can I get this escalated? I am willing to contact anyone.
Stephen:Thanks for waiting sorry about the delay there. I do understand were you are coming from and I realsie that it is not very fair and a very big inconvenience. I will certainly escalate the details to our transportation department to investigate this further with UPS. At the moment, I can't guarantee that your future orders won't be sent with them. We will need to wait for the out come of the investigation.
Me:Yes, well clearly the UPS salespeople told your delivery guys just how great it was going to be, but neglected to mention that they would be trying to extort money from your customers (not theirs!) for each and every single shipment Amazon sends with them. I am happy to be contacted by anybody at Amazon to elaborate or clarify any points. It may help you if you have further corroborating evidence, so I can tell you that my husband's most recent order was <his order number>. That is the one I mentioned that we rejected. You can certainly access the history via your system to provide info to the rest of the people who need it. So, to go on record: I will reject this order when UPS contacts me as I refuse to have money extorted from me when I have contracted for free delivery. Then I will attempt to re-place the order, and hope for the best. If it is sent via UPS, I'll reject it again. By the way, one thing you may also wish to send up the chain is that the expat grapevine is very good here, and that I plan to inform and warn others, and that word of this type of business practice naturally gets around the community quickly. We all depend on Amazon, and we actually would like to keep it that way. Since Amazon values its reputation, the transportation department needs to start looking at the experience from the customer point of view. Thank you Stephen, much appreciated.
Stephen:Amazon does take full responsibility for safe arrival of your order. I can't really comment on UPS but I am sure they are not trying to exort money from customers. They were be a plausible reason, otherwise this would have been raised with them previously. You have provided a lot of information and I thank you for that, we also have access to your order history, The best thing to do is to leave the details with me and I will escalate this with our transportation department her in Edinburgh to be investigated. I will be in touch as soon as I hear back from them.
Me:They need to ask why UPS out of all the carriers seek out customs - no one else does. The answer is, that way they can tack on extra charges and their revenues go up. Trust me, I've been in sales, and the UPS salespeople glossed this one over. Look forward to hearing from you and let me know if you need anything else from me. Ta ta!
Stephen:Okay and I will send you an email as soon as I get more information. My apologies again for this situation. If there's nothing else I can help you with, then have a nice evening and please click the "End Chat" link to close this window.

[Perikles]

Well done Myrtle! I confess I just love it when you're outraged. 

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

And I've got that in writing!

[Janet]

 

as Ronnie Reagan said, on record, when Margaret Thatcher rang to give him a dressing down over something ... ain't she marvellous?

[Delderek]

If I were Amazon, I would tell you to use ebay

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

If anybody is on another forum serving the Canary Island expat community, you have my permission to copy and paste my online chat, with the proviso that you edit out my name.  The further and wider this information becomes known, the greater the chance we can get Amazon to do something, like get rid of UPS. 

PS Delderek posted while I was typing this so the system gave me a warning. So Delderek, piss off mate!   

[El Profesor]

You are lucky to get the option to pay 30€. I have recently had two packages that UPS has just decided to send back without informing me.

When they didn't arrive I contacted the seller and was told that they were incorrectly addressed ..... funny that, as it's the same address I've been clicking on for the last 14 years. When I question this I`m told that the bill was wrong. Both times I asked for it to be resent but got a refund instead.

After 14 years of buying hundreds of items on amazon, I find I am now unable to use the site. (Amazon.es don't have the same merchandise).

You may quote me.

[Myrtle Hogan-Lance]

You are lucky to get the option to pay 30€. I have recently had two packages that UPS has just decided to send back without informing me.

When they didn't arrive I contacted the seller and was told that they were incorrectly addressed ..... funny that, as it's the same address I've been clicking on for the last 14 years. When I question this I`m told that the bill was wrong. Both times I asked for it to be resent but got a refund instead.

After 14 years of buying hundreds of items on amazon, I find I am now unable to use the site. (Amazon.es don't have the same merchandise).

You may quote me.

Was the seller Amazon or one of their third parties?  I absolutely refuse to deal with their third party sellers.  eBay has it right, and Amazon has it wrong on that front (see Delderek I do use eBay!!). Third party sellers do not remove the 20% VAT and in my experience are not worth the trouble. 

Why can't you use the site?  Totally agree with you that the .es site is not fit for our purpose.  Their merchandise selection also isn't aimed at us.

[El Profesor]

Why can't you use the site?

Nothing seems to get to me anymore.

I think you may be barking up a losing tree  . The main problem being the money grabbing authorities and paper pushers here .... in the end it will all be more trouble than it is worth and they will just say "use Amazon.es".

They have probably stopped using Spanish Correos because so much goes astray and the price of registering it makes these carriers cheaper.