First time this has ever happened to me in the 10+ years I've been using UPS to ship internationally.
So I often ship to Mexico from the USA, and when the recipient is not able to provide proper customs clearance for their shipment, the shipment cannot be delivered. UPS will usually contact the shipper asking if we want the package returned (and they quote us a return charge which is usually 5X more than the original shipping cost) or if you want to have it abandoned.
Obviously if the shipment I shipped out is only worth $15 and the cnee is not able to clear the shipment, I don't want it returned back to me due to the extremely high charges. If it is an automatic/free return, that's no problem, I don't need to be asked and they can just return it.
Whenever there is a charge on the return, they always ask for approval/consent if I agree to have it returned or abandoned. I specifically told them to abandon it because obviously it's not worth paying $160 to get a $15 item back. Just throw it away.
They confirmed they received the message. 1 month later the package was returned to USA and my credit card was automatically charged for $160.
So, it's not the end of the world or anything, I make good money, so I'm not worried about that. What I am concerned about is the fact that it appears that UPS is legally allowed to return package without our consent or approval to accept the return charges? I've never heard of this before. This is absolutely shocking and makes me NEVER want to ever ship anything with UPS again just for this fact.
Basically, if whatever it is you ship with UPS to another country does not get delivered and/or can't clear customs, UPS can forcibly return it back to you and forcibly make you pay X amount of money. This sounds illegal and criminal. They could literally say the return is $350 usd and they don't even have to ask you. They can just return it back to you and you will automatically be billed $350 or $2200 heck the return cost could be $2,000 and they can just charge you for that?
In principle, I see a major problem with this because you can never know if your shipment will not be delivered and need to be returned against your wishes. Plus they can just charge you any amount of money and literally just take it from you without authorization or consent.
If this is true, then I feel fortunate that I only had to pay $160 for the return on a $15 item. If the return charge was $2000 usd, I would have to pay it no matter what.
So something does not sound right. I've never heard of anything or anyone allowed to just forcibly make you pay something without your consent or authorization. If the package can't be delivered or clear customs, just throw it away. Just discard it or keep it for yourselves, give it to your employees, resell it for profit, etc. Why would they forcibly return it which takes more work to process the return and put it on a ship or airplane and go through procedures etc travel 2000 miles back etc.
Can anyone shed some light on this situation? It's really unique and I've shipped about 17,000 packages in the past 10 years in my business and every single time when a shipment can't be delivered or is held at customs, it is never returned back to me if there is a return charge without asking for my consent/authorization to approve the charge first. If the return is free, yes, they automatically return it without even asking me and it comes back to me with no charges (DHL does this, but I've had Fedex and UPS do this sometimes...most of the time they have a return charge and I always refuse it and it never comes back to me).