We are using the Real-Time UPS option, but the prices we are getting are consistently much lower than what we are actually being charged.

Here's an example. We received an order for a small item we have on our website. The customer wanted it shipped 2nd Day Air to Chicago, IL. Through MC the price came to $11.95, but when we entered it into the UPS system at the store it was $34.97.

Has anyone else had this problem or know how to resolve? As a temporary solution, we have put a mark-up on the shipping, but I don't like this work around.

In addition, is there a way to price by dimensions and not by weight? Some of our items do not weigh much, but are very fragile, so I need to be packed in bigger boxes.

(I have opened a ticket w/MC support already.)

We are getting killed on shipping and losing money.

Never heard or seen that happen. Have you check your settings to make sure you have you zip code, default residential, and weights right?

We have a small markup on shipping, but there has NEVER been an undercharge in shipping. I would check the weights of your products.

Also if your item was dim weight and you did not list it as such on the cart, UPS will not calc right.
Dave

Just a holiday tip along these line. We always add a bump to our expidited shipping (2 day/3 day) during the last 2 weeks prior to Xmas, as these ramp up considerably.

On topic though, I've had a few issues with pulling real cost, but not an extreme amount...it usually balances.

Small item cost $34.97 2nd day UPS?? That sounds high - I just researched 2nd day rates to different parts of the USA from east coast and the highest I came up with for a 1-2 lb package was 22.33 to MT. Average was about $15-20. The only discount we get is the daily pickup discount.

I checked the settings and they are right. The weight is right as well. Many of our products are under one pound--lots of Christmas ornaments. In fact, the example I gave today was a Christmas ornament. As I mentioned, they may have shipped it in a larger box though because it is very fragile. It's a $200 Christmas ornament (yes $200!) so they need to be sure it doesn't break in transit. This is an extreme example though.

Thanks everyone for your responses...

Parkeryamaha, what is dim weight?

Nancy, I know it sounds outrageous. I checked other sites too and I'm not sure why our rates are so much higher. Some other sites that sell the same things had lower UPS shipping rates. I don't get it. The owner is convinced they have some sort of "big" discount, but I don't think that's the case. They called UPS to double check their rates and they were told the rates they were getting in the store (not on MC) were the correct rates. As of right now, they do not have an account with UPS. They've been shipping for years(!)--at least 15 years--so I was shocked when I heard this. Apparently, they are going to start getting some sort of shipping discount on Monday, but I don't think it's going to be anything significant.

MartiniGuy, thanks for the tip. I've marked the shipping up CONSIDERABLY until we get this figured out. I'm worried it's going to really affect sales, but they are losing money big time on shipping.

Take a look at this article...Read this article

We are having a similar issue. A customer from the UK ordered 2 parts. If you add the first part to the cart and start to check out ... you can see the shipping is $118. The customer realized they needed another part so they went to add the part to the cart. They went to check out and the shipping was $85! How is that possible if you are adding more weight? I checked the UPS worldship and it should be $138....not $85.

A $200 ornament for your tree? Who says the economy is bad...

I've noticed this as well. Same product, same weight, same zip codes, same markup, calcs it several dollars cheaper than Stone Edge.

We are on our last few weeks on , so I haven't done a support ticket but I'd be interested in knowing the issue.

DaveW

MartiniGuy, Thanks so much for this article! Very interesting and something the owner has casually mentioned as an issue, but I didn't realize how big of an issue it is! After doing some more digging in the forums, I found some threads on this topic. I think I've figured out how to calculate dim weight. Once I do that, do I put this in the weight field instead of the actual weight?

Here are some links for others who might be having the same problem:

Here's one thread I found: Ups - Weight & Dims

UPS Dimensional Weight

What is Dimensional DIM Weight How to Calculate it.

I guess there is no "easy" way to do this. I'm not quite sure what to do if someone orders multiple items that end of up going in a large box... but I'll worry about that issue later.

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I've been going back and forth w/MC troubleshooting the problem, but even w/some of the changes I'm not getting the right shipping prices. For this one order (the $200 Christmas ornament) I'm still only getting about $17 for shipping in MC versus the $35 from our UPS machine. I want to test it out on some other orders.

In case anyone else is having this problem (not that this has fixed it) this is what told me to do:

"It looks like what is causing this is that you have your UPS settings set to commercial rates, which is always lower than residential rates, and you have your UPS service type set to Daily Pickup, this combination produces the lowest UPS rates. To adjust these rates go Checkout>>Checkout Settings and set Return Real-time UPS Residential Rates to yes. Then go to Checkout>>Shipping>>UPS OnLine® Tools and set the UPS service type to what's appropriate (note suggested retail rates is the same rates as the UPS website) and then hit save settings"

I totally missed the UPS residential rates under checkout settings. I think that's weird that isn't under the Checkout Shipping settings, but whatever. I changed that and I tried experimenting with all three of the options under UPS OnLine® Tools but again the price I'm getting for this one order is still about 1/2 as much as where I need it to be.

Anyway, just an FYI for anyone else who may have missed the UPS Residential Rates option. It did help a little, but not near enough. As I mentioned, I'd like to test it on other orders. Perhaps this dimensional issue is the problem although the owner says the box they packed it in wasn't that large.