Re: UPS soon ?
Reply #1 –
It was not promised to be added many times :P I acknowledged that people might appreciate it and made note to look at it further in the future.
We have had UPS and FedEx before, but they're just not big in China and they're really difficult to work with. They do not have predictable pricing. The package goes out and then they bill us back random amounts of $5-$10 for every package despite what their API shows as the price. It makes it impossible to charge the correct price for shipping when this happens with every package. We lost $1000 dollars when we tried UPS before, so I'm not exactly eager to work with them again (at least through this logistics company). FedEx has some similar post-shipment random billing issues, but not as many.
Also, I recently had a horror story with UPS. I shipped some government travel cards and tax documents from USA to China. They picked up the package and nothing happened. They started an investigation that would take 8 days. After 9 days I called them every day for 3 weeks. Each day the rep said "today is actually the 8th day and you'll get an email". 20-some business days into an 8 day investigation they emailed a claim form and said the package was lost. I filled in the claim (I will have to fly to the embassy in Singapore in person to replace the travel cards) and they immediately rejected it because they had no record the package was picked up! That was their fault! We have security camera footage showing them picking up the package! But because of their mistake they denied my claim. How's that for a great customer experience?
So, to be honest, UPS is on my shit list and I have no desire to work with them. FedEx - maybe.
There are also technical issues. There are two ways to add a new shipper. The first is re-enable them from our current logistics agent (that is already loaded into DirtyPCBs and everything) but then we get hit with random unpredictable fees (directly from UPS mind you, not the logistics company).
The second is to use another logistics agent or sign a contract with UPS, but that means writing and testing an interface to another API and adding it to the site. DirtyPCBs is deprecated, there will be no further updates to that site's garbage dump of code. We could add it to the new site, but that is just not on the roadmap anytime soon. We're using a proper transhipment agent who does export declaration so we can legally exchange your payments into RMB to pay the factory, and they only provide DHL and airmail. It would take weeks of the team's time to interview new providers, sign the contracts, get the API info, and write and test an interface to their API, etc.
I'm sorry to disappoint, but I don't see us changing the shipping at either site anytime soon.
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