UPS preferred pricing service agreement?

[Geoff]

Hi everyone –

I just wanted to take a pulse if anyone out there has worked with a UPS account rep and actually signed a service agreement with UPS (outside of Ebay for Ebay selling) to take advantage of ‘preferred shipping’. I am relatively new to selling full time – like 6 months – and have been building up (monthly sales between 6,000 – 2,800 during that period) – so it is not like i am very big relatively speaking. Nonetheless an ‘account rep’ called me and asked me a ton of questions and eventually positioned having me get ‘preferred pricing.’

Long story short – the contract makes my eyes roll back but ultimately it is not obvious at all that i would get better pricing – some things like global shipping i may save as an option to not doing the Global shipping through Ebay (I am sure the pros and cons of this has been covered in depth elsewhere) but it looks like the discounts for regular domestic may actually be not as good as the good old fashion ebay discount. The wording of the contract, that i am not going to sign but nevertheless gives me caution, states that i cannot share the pricing with others – but i do not need to share that to ask:

Has anyone out there signed a UPS agreement and have any experience to reference? I am curious if it makes sense in general to engage with UPS and perhaps negotiate better rates (maybe when i am bigger) — or if in general, especially much larger sellers, if the Ebay discounts end up being much better just because the overall Ebay leverage plays out well for everyone.

Personally – I come from a world of doing all kinds of sales for big software companies and such and would honestly say that working at some of them is like being part of the ‘Death Star’ – many times i found myself having to absolutely screw customers just to survive – and wonder if UPS is motivated by pulling Ebay sellers out of the Ebay pricing to make more money essentially – but was hoping gain insight from anyone who may have actual knowledge to speak of. I could see it being potentially a win win for UPS and sellers because in cases like me i offer customers multiple shipping options and it could lead to UPS taking away business from USPS etc..

Thanks
Geoff
NorfolkGoldandSilver

[Geoff]

and I just wanted to add – I sell all kinds of things and sometimes really big stuff. This summer for example i sold a vintage B&O stereo cabinet that someone paid 185 to ship from Boston to Florida. So maybe my shipping is high relative to sales.

[Gompers]

UPS has a specific program for ebay sellers for discounted shipping. I posted a link to it in an earlier thread. Check this link and start with “step #1”

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/ship-smart/ebay-shipping-partners/printupslabels/index.html

IMO unless you are shipping large quantities of items over 1 lb that can not fit into a flat rate box, UPS will never be able to beat USPS rates even with discounts.

However, UPS is good for shipping heavy items especially if you are on one side of the USA and shipping to the other side East Coast<->West Coast and vice versa. If you are in the middle of the country USPS will nearly always be cheaper.

DO NOT sign any contracts with UPS, if you already signed up for a UPS account on their site or thru ebay previously, your number automatically gets forwarded to some “salesman” to try to upgrade you etc. I received the same calls just ignore them.

The way UPS discounts work is the more you ship, the more you save. IF you do not ship enough with UPS you will only get a small discount like 8%-15% depending on weight. UPS uses some weird average shipping cost / the most recent week.

This is much different from FedEX where you get a standard discount on every purchase and it doesn’t matter how much you have shipped with them during the last week.

[Gompers]

I forgot the write that you CAN NOT purchase shipping labels for UPS via ebay. However, you can purchase UPS shipping labels via paypal (for your ebay sales)

I have done this before so I know it works.

[Geoff]

Gompers – thanks a lot for the thoughtful reply. I did not sign the contract but you totally have made me feel better about my decision. Have a good one!

[Gompers]

No problem. Don’t be scared to use UPS though. They can really be competitive on heavy packages vs USPS.

[imjosh]

You have to ship a lot of volume to get good discounts.

The discount on FedEx you can get through eBay is actually quite good – I know one seller that gets better rates than that but his company ships hundreds of packages a week through FedEx.

[Gompers]

YEs that’t true. If someone is shipping lots of volume especially if those packages won’t fin into a USPS flat rate box UPS can have good pricing.

UPS uses a 13 week rolling average of your shipping costs. If you average under $50 per week you will only get the standard ebay discount of 8 -20% depending of weight.

Even if you’re not shipping volume on packages greater than 15lbs UPS can beat USPS if you are shipping across 5 or more postal zones.

[Author]

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