Airborne Express ....... wonder how many

Hey there well this has been stated before but once again they Double charges .

Heres the deal last month i shipped a BCI to tallahasse Fla. called gave box Dim.'s and weight for a shipping quote.easy enough right WRONG they Quoted the price to be $28.04 shipped next day as requested.Now yesterday my invoice from them arrives and i open to not (much surprise) to find there charges to be alomost 100% doubled of there quote $44.08for a 5lb shipment. well of course i got on the phone and placed a call and requested the same size box& weight quoteto the same physical address to see what they tell me .well they tell me the same $28.04 so i proceed to ask them why they seem to on a regular basis DOUBLE charges to there customers.and went on to explain to them that i have had this done to me on over 15 shipments over the last yr.one perfect example wasa custom cage i did a giveaway on last yr which SPJ won the cage i called and spoke with him to set up shipping etc. and also called airborne which there quote was if i remember correctly was $128.00 there abouts well all was set right ... wrong my bill came in for that shipment and yep you bet it was doubled $256.00 again i called and asked what the problem was as the charges i was told were again doubled .which there customer service person told me they would check and make the appropriate changes to the billing statement to reflect what they quoted me (which by the way never happened) and was continually billed they $256 for the package i did send the payment for there original quote of $128.00 but it really erks me how they seem to always double there billing charges i was just wandering how many other people have had this happen to them via Airborne. or am i the only lucky lottery shipper lol.

You're not alone. I haven't paid my invoice yet this month (Due Oct 2nd) because of this problem. I shipped 3 packages that were supposed to be on this invoice. All were quoted under $30 so I was expecting like a $90 bill for the 3 shipments. Boy was I shocked. The invoice is $176 for the 3 shipments. That is just about double what I was quoted.
So far Airborne has been more trouble than they are worth the past few months. I have had new airbills assigned (no one seems to know why) to packages, late deliveries, and the list goes on.

This is because they calculate the weight not by how much the package weighs, but by the box size. You need to give them box dimensions and weight in order to get an accurate quote. The box is measured at the hub once shipped and the prices are adjusted there. That is why they can charge you one thing at the counter by someone who does not know the system as well, then charge you the actual amount on your bill.
I think a 10 x 10 box is considered 7 lbs or something like that.

Dana

But when i called in and every time i call in for a quote i give dimensions this box was a 10x10x12 and even the second person gave the same price and explained they didnt understand why it was charged as so.Trust me as i know if i was to explain to a customer that my shipping charge for there item was $44, more then likely that would not be a sale.Esp when every one puts up a standard of $35 for shipping. so if i am selling a $100 snake and put a $40 dollar charge to it (for a normal BCI) would you still make the purchase?
Now if i was to charge you the actual cost i was quoted of $28 and then i get my bill for an additonal $16 i lose out and cant verywell email the buyer to send an additonal $16 for there shipment as i would be laughed at or platered on the BOI and then if everysale i loose $16 per sale well i know that im not going to be doing buisness long.

Hmm, yea, I guess I dont even try for a quote anymore with them. I know it is going to be between $28-45 depending on the box size and location. I can take a good guess by looking at previous bills.
But it does get confusing--I got harassed a bit by someone today saying that I am way overpriced on shipping (I charge $30 standard overnight by noon, $35 by 10:30)--they said they went and got a quote from airborne and it was only going to be $20. I tried to assure them that it would be way more than that once I got the bill (nicely) but they didnt want to hear it--I think $20 charge would only cover overnight shipping in the same town! They will now continue to believe I'm overpriced due to what airborne quoted them.

Dana

wonder if airborne does COD? maybe that would stop all the saying "you are to high " well if they do then i would probably be bad mouthed by them saying you didnt say it was goingto be such n such amount just a thought

You can select "Bill to Receiver" on the airbill. I used to do this regularly, but I got to thinking about it. Airborne just sends a bill to the person, what if they decide not to pay it? It never happened to any of my shipments that I know of, but I wondered if it did happen would Airborne reverse the bill back to my account.
For this reason I now only bill charges to customers who have an account with Airborne themselves. I really need to ask someone at Airborne about that because I much prefer doing it that way. There's no estimating charges, which always results in either them paying more, or your covering the balance out of pocket, more often the latter.

My packages average $35-40 each. Anyone who insists you can ship overnight for $20 and are overcharging has obviously had no experience whatsoever shipping reptiles. They don't understand that the price quote doesn't include residential pick up or delivery charges or the fuel surcharge. I'd just tell them fine, if you're so sure about that I'll bill the charges to you and you will pay exactly what Airborne charges.
I generally charge a flat rate of $35 for shipping. Sometimes I might actually get it for $32 but it's often $38. If anyone said I was actually shipping for $20 and was overcharging I'd laugh at them because they're speaking way out of their area of knowledge.
Bill them the charges and when they get a bill for $35 they'll wish they hadn't said anything and let you eat the other five.
Some lessons are best learned the hard way and not worth the effort of trying to explain it to someone unwilling to listen.

With UPS if you bill to a third parties account and they don't pay they will bill it to your account. I had this happen to us this year. About 6 months after we shipped the package the charge showed up on our bill. I called UPS and they said they couldn't collect from the receiver so they put the charges through to our account. Luckily I was able to collect from the receiver personally so it became a non-issue but it could have gone bad. The receiver had a UPS account.

thanks guys

They have been a constant problem for us over the last year. I've had the same problem with price quotes. We sent shipments out last year that they tried to charge both the customer and us. This was not a charge back because the customer didn't pay....It was on our account and we paid it. They then billed the customer as well. We had some very irrate customers over this. Also, nearly every bill we disputed was reduced. I wonder how many people simply pay the bill without question. I'm sure this adds up to a lot of revenue for Airborne. It seems that they know they are doing this. I say that because , when the bill is disputed they do not even question it, they just reduce it immediately. I have solved this by using FedEx or UPS. If I do ship on airborne we take it to the local office and pay the shipping then and there.