Those of you that have used Uship before

[Diamondpilot]

That's what I thought, but I must admit that Google is rather effective. Here is a small sample of what came up when I Googled the phrase "uShip Scam". Other phrases such as "uShip complaints" and "uShip ripoff" yeilded similar results.

Uship is a scam "PERIOD"

uship | Ripoff Report | Complaints Reviews Scams Lawsuits Frauds Reported

uShip Complaints, Reviews - SCAMS & MISLEADING

uShip Scam

Should I trust this site called Uship.com? It says it's eBay trusted, - Ask Community

While gathering the links shown above, I also discovered that uShip appears to accept PayPal, which also happens to also be an escrow "service" similar to uShip. How does that work, especially when something goes wrong? Does uShip and PayPal take turns screwing each other, before the consumer gets screwed?

uShip Payments: PayPal Planned Site Outage - April 19th



What's to understand? uShip is just another escrow "service" that happens to specialize in shipping.

Why are you so negative? I have never used them but it is what she said, a site to put shippers and people with items that need to be shipped together. If you do not like it don't log on. Plain and simple.

You or me can google ________ scam or ripoff or complaint and find this against any item. That is the problem with the internet, any A-Hole can say whatever they want with no ramifications. I know all about this because I am as opinionated as anyone and include myself in that A-Hole comment.

Again, I have no affiliation or dog in this fight. Just saying the internet is what it is. Most people come on to either brag or complain.

Chris

 

[MasseyWV]

Why are you so negative?

Where you see negativity, I see balance. There are two sides to every coin and I'm simply providing a different, but opposite, perspective.

 

[Superduper]

Here is my one and only experience on U-Ship.

(1) Had 50 file cabinets that needed to be transported from Kansas to California. Each file cabinet weighs about 500 pounds. I live in CA. Items are in Kansas, in a storage facility. I posted an ad, requesting bids....

(2) Got several bids. One guy said he would show up with a tractor trailer, and gave me a bid. Said he would sit back and I would need to load all of them myself. He would give me 2-hours. I passed. Another guy gave me a price I was OK with. But wouldn't respond to any questions. I accepted the bid and waited but he never responded. A third person gave a bid, and I accepted. And first, he said I would need to pay 1/2 at time of pickup. I agreed to fly over and meet him and give him 1/2. He changed his mind and said I would need to give him 1/2 via cash but he would not pick up right away, he would schedule the job later. Sorry but my name is not stupid. A fourth guy bid and was slighly higher in price. We compromised and came to an agreement. I express mailed him the keys and waited. When he arrived at the destination, he told me he only had enough capacity to load 36 file cabinets.... this even though I made it clear with him through many emails the size weight of the cargo. I was stuck. He already loaded up over 1/2 my inventory. I said OK and he delivered. While I was happy that he loaded and unloaded without my help, he did charge the full amount for only 2/3 of the job. Worse yet, he kept promising to return with the balance for a lower cost. I waited 6 months and after many promises, I have now accrued double storage costs for 1/2 year now and now need to go retieve the rest of the goods mysel. Highly disappointed.

(3) How it works: It's up to the policy of each shipper but U-Ship gives you the option of prepaying U-Ship. They then give you a code which you will release to the shipper when your goods arrive. I suggest go no other route. Also keep in mind that while this affords you some level of protection against bad shippers, it does not guarantee good results. That's because while it keeps the fee from getting into the shippers hands before they deliver your product, nothing prevents them from holding your shipment hostage if they try to charge you more.

(4) Be mindful. If your shipment is valuable, you may want to reconsider U-Ship. While you can get your shipment shipped cheaper than other methods, the shipper-members and their business ethics/morals vary greatly from one carrier to the next. Also, maybe this is common in the business but when you read the reviews, you will find that lots of people have problems with the quality of the service they receive.

All I can say is that after the experience I had, I probably would not reuse U-Ship until they can control the quality of their service providers better. I posted my shipment hoping to avoid having to personally retrieve my goods. In the end, I'm going to have to do that anyhow but lost 1/2 year, thousands in shipping costs, and another $1,000 in extra storage fees.

Anyhow, this is my personal take based on my one experience. Your mileage may vary. Just remember Caveat Emptor.

 

[brokenot]

Be mindful.

I agree, but....that applies to everything. I haven't seen or heard too many complaints about UShip that are necessarily UShip's "fault". There will be some issues along the way because other people involved, (i.e. the haulers), can vary greatly as far as professionalism, attitude, and honesty go.

I guess that's the biggest reason I tend to not be "against" places like UShip or eBay....or anywhere else that gets blamed for the "good dealings gone bad" when one party or the other in a transaction is misleading or incompetent. I've heard all sort of cute names (former) users have assigned to such entities when a transaction has ended up badly, and I often wonder if they come up with similar names for "old standbys" like the local newspaper if an answered ad from the classified section goes awry.

As far as UShip being just another escrow service, I don't think that's necessarily fair or accurate either. Will they take and hold your funds until you give the okay to release them? Yes they will. When a deal is done do they get a cut? Yes they do. But they do provide some *value* along the way. They aren't only taking and holding your funds and then getting a cut. Listing a shipment doesn't have an up-front cost, and the site is fairly well known. I listed my *potential* shipment twice with two different drop-off locations to expand the possibilities of attracting advantageous bids.

It cost me nothing to sign up and list the shipment. It also cost nothing to sign in each day and see if there was any progress in the bidding. I could have cancelled the listings at any time....and walked away if the mower I listed had been sold to someone else in the meantime or if there were no bids that were acceptable to me.

The reason I think all that's worth mentioning, is because of the earlier post in this thread that *kind of* condescendingly called them an *escrow "service"*, (with the "service" part in quotes to make it seem as if there were no services actually being provided).

Where you see negativity, I see balance.

Nothin' wrong with providing balance, but the balance provided should be accurate. Find something online you're interested in obtaining and then sign up on UShip to create a detailed listing if the item including a photo or two. See what kind of results you get. You won't have given them any money to hold, yet you'll get some bids from interested haulers. Those haulers' profiles can be read and their feedback ratings checked also. No money will change hands until you accept a bid...if you accept a bid at all. You've used some of the services the site has to offer, but you've given them none of your money.

It's not "just another escrow service" because pretty much all escrow services really do is take money, hold money, and release money....and that's it.

 

[Daronspicher]

I've never used uship but now I know it exist, maybe I will.

Having never been to their site, it would seem they have a good idea, but if the promise that your experience will go well isn't made, then I don't think they will last.

Even if they just add an option to insure the experience like ups has. For 1.2% of the value of the goods, some underwriter will cut a check if the hauler shows up with 36/50th of your load, or in some way make it right...

eBay owns PayPal and both promise satisfaction guaranteed. When I got screwed, that guarantee was worthless. I fought that machine for months on principal alone. Before they fixed me right. You better be selling me a gold plated Deere 9630 for 50 bucks to get me back on their systems.

Without some way to ensure the customer is done right, uship won't last. Maybe they already do, I've only read about them in this thread and it sounds like you are on your own with the actual shipper.

 

[downslope]

Where you see negativity, I see balance. There are two sides to every coin and I'm simply providing a different, but opposite, perspective.

It is not really balanced. The problem with trying to provide balance by way of internet related research is that it's mostly only the dissatisfied customers that take time to post their grief stories. The satisfied ones go about their business, maybe leaving some positive site feedback at best. You searched for negativity and you found it.

 

[downslope]

Here is my one and only experience on U-Ship.

(1) Had 50 file cabinets that needed to be transported from Kansas to California. Each file cabinet weighs about 500 pounds. I live in CA. Items are in Kansas, in a storage facility. I posted an ad, requesting bids....

(2) Got several bids. One guy said he would show up with a tractor trailer, and gave me a bid. Said he would sit back and I would need to load all of them myself. He would give me 2-hours. I passed...

The guy with the tractor trailer would probably have given you the most satisfying service. I've found the the real professional drivers don't want to get very involved with loading and unloading, especially heavy items or things that will waste a lot of time.

When I post something on UShip the more professional truckers will usually ask "is it strapped to a pallet and ready to go?" Do you have a loading dock and/or forklift to load it?". Only then do they respond with a bid.

This is why trucking companies have to charge more when delivering to a residence or farm. They fear consuming a lot of time with either the unloading process or waiting for someone to come in from the back 40 or return from the volunteer FD, or whatever else.

I think if you could have had a crew there for one hour in Kansas to load the trailer things would have gone better. Of course if you could have worked out a deal where the trucker provided the loading services for an agreed price that would work too.

 

[atgreene]

It's free market at work. Not sure why someone would get so upset at Uship answering questions. At least their here answering questions, try to get a major tractor manufacturer to do that.

Most of the drivers need positive feedback in order to get more quality shipments. For those who want it done cheap, you get what you pay for. I see no room to complain when you demand something done at half price and you get half service. Having run my own business for many years now I walk away from folks who think they should get a deal, I have hobbies.

Cheap is never good, good is never cheap.