Dear Fellow eBay members,

Would like to pay your attention to one of the biggest parts of our business ? shipping. We sell and ship on eBay for the last 8 years. Besides all problems everyone may encounter in their businesses on eBay is shipping in all different aspects. We are not talking about claims, rates, charges, hidden charges, wrong addresses, return shipments, etc. We are talking about the shipping by itself overall.

In the beginning, we used to ship by DHL and USPS. We didn't have much luck with DHL Ground, so after a few their minor screw-up, we have decided to leave them for FedEx.

We started doing business with FedEx about six years ago because we needed a mail carrier to ship out dozens of products per day. Our 1st. warehouse was located in Glendale, CA and FedEx would come and pick up the shipment that our customers ordered and everything worked out smoothly, which led us to believe that we could depend on FedEx as our primary source for shipping packages. Some time went on and our company expanded. The warehouse we had in Glendale was too small to house all of the products we had, and we began looking for a new location. We found a warehouse in the City of Bell, CA and we moved all of our products including all the FedEx equipment to the new location. Starting from the very first day shipping from the City of Bell, we began encountering problems with FedEx.

We accidentally stumbled across our problem when a customer requested a tracking number for his shipment, a routine procedure, and we found a substantial difference between the weight of the actual shipment and the weight FedEx was actually billing us for. In other words, we were being overcharged to such a substantial degree, it was impossible not to catch such a problem. We thought it was a minor (a one time) discrepancy on their part, but we decided to document and follow up on shipments made after that day because we were doing business with FedEx on a day-to-day period. To our astonishment, increasingly "mistakes" began to suffice. The weight discrepancies were so significant in size; we could not just let it go. For example, a shipment weighing in at 8lbs., as indicated by our FedEx equipment at the warehouse, was recorded by FedEx at a weight of 110lbs. As a result, our company was billed for the 110lbs.

After several documented mistakes, we contacted our Bell field manager at FedEx to further investigate the issue. We contacted FedEx via emails as well as invited a FedEx representative to personally visit our warehouse in the city of Bell to find the underlying cause of the problem. FedEx found no problems or mistakes in their records, but they assured us that an intrinsic investigation was under way and ensured us that the problems were taken care of promptly. A month passed with no resolution. In our efforts to contact FedEx, we were dismayed at the responses they gave us. Still after all of this time, meanwhile shipping on a day-to-day basis, there were no discrepancies found in their records and they insisted upon the charges remaining valid. Battling over 5 months, with no relief or changes from FedEx, our company was still recording and keeping track of the differences in numbers leaving the warehouse and making their way to our bill. Five out of seven days a week, we shipped out cargo. Each daily shipment averaged 100 items per pick-up. Every time our employees did a routine request of the tracking number a substantial difference in the weight and cost surfaced. FedEx was still demanding us to make payments for shipments severely overcharged or wrongly calculated. As for the pending investigation, FedEx told us everything would be resolved at a later enigmatic date. In order to keep our business secure and our paying customers satisfied we had no choice but to continue shipping through FedEx.

We requested an itemized bill documenting the time, date, weight and costs recorded by FedEx, however they refused to send or show us proof that their billing was legitimate. Instead, they sent bill after bill indicating outrageous numbers and gave us broken promises for a resolution that could potentially cost us a lot of money. It was as amusing as going out to a posh restaurant, ordering off of a menu that has no prices listed next to its entries, however, having to pay a bill that was counted by a mysterious tally. Unfortunately, ours was a matter of day-to-day business rather than recreational expenses at a high-end restaurant.

FedEx was not providing any elite shipping services and we are talking about a company known all over the world. FedEx is a public trading company. FedEx was turning out to be a company that breaches its own contracts and leaves its customers such as us, the victims of their unjust actions. They were making us pay for their mistakes, moreover blaming innocent people for problems they didn抰 even follow up on nor resolve in the first place. We told our FedEx field manager that we were tired of these problems and charges made at our own cost and we requested a valid, up to date itemized bill that was in accordance to our accurate, documented records. Only then, we would go ahead and make a payment for the services rendered by FedEx.

Eventually after seven months struggling with FedEx, we received an itemized computer printout listing all of our transactions since moving to our new location in the City of Bell, where all the problems began. Assuming that the transactions were fixed as ensured to us by FedEx representatives, as well as sent out of FedEx database headquarters in Memphis, TN, we studied the print out. The print out that was thousands of pages long still had hundreds and hundreds of radical mistakes. Again, we presented all of these errors to our FedEx field manager who replied to this overwhelming issue with a dumbfounded expression and open arms dubiously mocking our efforts. After this shocking reaction, we informed FedEx that we wanted zero affiliation with their specious business and we wanted out of any business relationships we had with them. FedEx's field manager refused to withdraw from doing business with us and again ensured us that everything would be fixed in adherence to outcomes we discussed and numbers that we agreed upon.

As expected nothing has been done nor fixed pertinent to the issue, in fact at the end of January 2007 we began receiving threatening phone calls from FedEx collection department demanding payment for ridiculous charges they insisted were valid. Keep in mind, this is after we studied the print outs from their headquarters and after being ensured by FedEx that these substantial differences would be corrected in their system. Our agreement was to make a payment in full only after the appropriate corrections and calculations were made and shown to us by FedEx. Still refusing to pay the incorrect amount as demanded by FedEx, our services were cut off in the beginning of February 2007.

Since February 2007, we have suffered, losing thousands and thousands of dollars per day. In fact, FedEx is still demanding us to pay a bill exceeding $150,000+ in services. A public trading company for something we did not do and had no control over has humiliated us!!!
It looks like this story may be a common shipping problem with carriers like FedEx, UPS (didn't adjust our rates to the business rates for 2 full months?) or DHL. We suggest that all our listeners of this story would open their bills and randomly check their itemized shipments, as well as their totals. You may never thank us enough for this.

Because of the problems we have encountered with FedEx, we have decided to take action against them. We are desperately searching for companies who have suffered substantial damages to their business in affiliation with FedEx and their services. Our immediate plans are to file a class action lawsuit against FedEx. Each company in pursuit of justice against FedEx will cooperatively testify against FedEx seeking reparations in an equally divisible monetary settlement met by the courts. We are determined to reach an outcome for all of the problems, damages and losses FedEx unfairly imposed on us and each company battling beside us. This is a class action lawsuit worthy of worldwide publication because FedEx is a company doing business all over the world. It is only fair that customers are fairly treated and righteously charged at all times. A company should not have rights to breach contracts and policies regardless of size. Proper business etiquette has been issued and observed by our parties and all we ever demanded was the same treatment from FedEx and their representatives, but we were clearly wronged in this matter.

We ask all persons or companies interested in cooperatively joining forces and presenting valid documented evidence before a court of law in a class action lawsuit against FedEx to please contact us as soon as possible because we want to resolve these issues once and for all.

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10-04-2009 Update:

FedEx has taken us to court for not paying their fraudulent bill and requesting to pay them over $250,000.00 for these charges. Also, they have contacted IRS, so they would conduct an audit for our company, which is currently undergoing. Anyone, who is reading this article may already assume, that FedEx will NEVER receive a single penny from us! Even if this going to cost an owner of our Corporation a 7 years dark mark on his credit report. They can choke-up to death with these lost money in their sleep forever! Fraud this size should never be tolerated in the United States! God Bless America and God Bless for what we stand for in our lives! Dump FedEx forever and dump their stock, as well!
Thank you all for reading this article folks and best of luck to you all in your business!