Shopify Shipping Discount for UPS not working

[Abuckner]

My shipping was working fine until my most recent order where I noticed my shipping label was going to cost more than the customer paid. After trying everything (even upgrading my plan) it appears that UPS shipping discounts that were applied via Shopify are no longer working. USPS shipping discount still show. Anyone else having trouble with this? I have spent two days talking with someone via chat and then email. Any luck getting someone to call you and walk through the problem? It's charging $30+ shipping to a $30 product.

[Magnadyne]

We are having the same problem. Talked to live chat and just ran around in circles. We see our Shopify Plan Discount when selecting USPS.

[Abuckner]

same!! And now they’ve come back to say that the rate when creating the label is right and that the price at checkout will increase. I can look back at shipping costs from just last week and they are $5-$10 cheaper and same for exact orders with the same customers last year. Very frustrating as shipping discounts were our main reason for picking Shopify as our e-commerce channel!

[ABC21]

check my answer that i replied to the original post. Hope it helps.

[ryflyy]

We are having the same problem a well! Not getting discounts on any shipping carrier now and also getting an error message saying unable to ship between destinations.

[UjjawalS]

@Abuckner @Magnadyne @ryflyy 

probably one of the major reasons to go for the carrier business accounts of your own. Carriers like UPS, FedEx, DHL, etc. offer significant discounts to e-commerce business owners in various regions. It is always better to have complete control of the shipping rates that you have been offered and the assurance that the same shipping rates will be displayed and charged while printing labels.

We have a lot of Shopify business owners using our application with carriers like UPS and FedEx and they hardly face the issue of shipping rates not matching the discounts negotiated with the carrier. Also, our application shows the shipping rates displayed on the checkout and the one that is charged while printing shipping labels beforehand, so that you can compare and make adjustments.

[luciavm]

Hey! It's happening the same to me! Please keep us updated if you are able to solve this issue. I already opened a case.

[luciavm]

It seems to have solved for me this morning. Keep us updated if it's solved for you, too.

[raneff5]

How did they solve your problem?  Happening to my store today also.  

[luciavm]

I opened a case yesterday but the help rep told me everything seemed to be working ok. I did a test order today and honestly the problem seemed to have resolved on its own. 

[raneff5]

Interesting.  It is happening to be on multiple computers on different wifi networks, so I hope mine resolves in a day also... frustrating. 

[raneff5]

Did yours start showing the discount amount again?  Support is saying that it wont show the discount anymore and that the prices are right... but I can get the same price from UPS.com.  

[Abuckner]

No, it is not and it’s can get the same prices elsewhere. Their entire UPS rates are wrong and they won’t listen.

[tahoematt]

We still have the issue. Someone please help! Each order is over $100 higher than it should be. 

[tahoematt]

Yes we noticed this on our account also. First sign was November 5th. Support has been useless. 

[Abuckner]

Yes! Still no resolution. We are in the process of setting up our website through Square and will be cancelling Shopify as their shipping discounts were the only major seller for us.

[ryflyy]

All shipping rates seem to have increased across the board, even USPS. Support is telling me that although it's not showing a discount when trying to buy a UPS label it is correct and they are justifying it by going into calculating shipping cost in your Shopify admin / shipping area. I'm only seeing a 2% discount on USPS. Very frustrating!

[Abuckner]

We pay for “up to 88% shipping discounts” and I can still go to Shippo and get a lower shipping rate than they’re offering now. It’s false advertising on their part that we’re actually still receiving a discount. I can also get the same, if not better rates from UPS directly. It clearly changed overnight and Shopify will not acknowledge it.

[ryflyy]

Agreed! If only there was a way to talk to someone over the phone!!

[tahoematt]

Going directly through UPS is still showing higher for us. Its possible this is just holiday surcharge pricing as that does happen. But Shopify said a benefit of Shopify Shipping with UPS is " Shopify will cover any peak surcharges on UPS Ground shipments during the holidays " Source - https://www.shopify.com/blog/ups-shopify-shipping

[ABC21]

I was talking to one of the customer service for 20mins.  Same issues with you and everyone else. 

I'm telling you, Shopify is trying everything to rip you off and make money and save their own cost. 

So I just deleted my own UPS account which I connected with Shopify account. 

You know what, everything went back to normal and getting the discounts I used to get. 

So everyone, when you see the error message from Shopify shipping saying "you need to re-connect your ups account", don't ever do it!!! 

Shopify is just trying to rip you off and make more money and cost less money on their end!! 

[tahoematt]

So please confirm you were able to fix this by removing an ups account you had connected to Shopify?

[Abuckner]

I don’t believe I have my ups account tied to it because I don’t have third party shipping enabled. Please tell me where to remove it.

[raneff5]

What if you don't have a UPS account attached?  The whole reason I use Shopify was for the shipping rates they get. 

[tahoematt]

We don't have a UPS account attached either. We have compared with other vendors in our network for the same size package and their prices are much lower and exactly what our prices 2 weeks ago were... So that rules out any holiday surcharges. This needs to be addressed ASAP

[TetonWasatch]

We are experiencing the same problem, noticing this at the same time which was the end of October.  However over the weekend (Nov 17th) the rates even got higher.  We are experiencing close to double the rates we are normally would be charged for UPS Ground service.  Something isn't right because if you check the discounted rates Settings/Shipping/Shipping-calculator it shows there should be a 50% discount for UPS labels but when you create the actual shipping label for an order it charges you full price.  I have an open ticket with Shopify right now, hopefully this gets resolved before Black Friday sales next week. I encourage all experiencing this same plan to reach out and open tickets with Shopify to make sure they are aware of the problem ASAP.  The UPS discounts are available for all Shopify plan levels, but appear to not be working currently.  

[raneff5]

Please let us know what they tell you, they tell me there is no problem and they are not working on a solution. 

[TetonWasatch]

Raneff5 here is the Shopify ticket response:

I coordinated this with our Shipping team, who conducted a review of the account. The package you are using requires additional handling, which means it is subject to a demand surcharge outlined in Section L (page 5) of this UPS document. Please note that these surcharges are relatively new.
 
The reason the package requires additional handling is that the longest side exceeds 48 inches; you can find more information about this on page 127 of the UPS Daily Rates Guide. It appears that the surcharge is not currently reflected in the shipping calculator.
 
It's important to clarify that the issue here is not related to discounts for your shipping labels, but rather additional charges due to the dimensions of the products you are using. This change was recently implemented by UPS.

The UPS Demand Surcharge Document has a date of 9/16/2024 & the UPS Daily Rates Guide has a date of Oct 20, 2024 which matches the timeline of when these costs started to increase.  The packages lengths I ship most often are all longer than 48 inches thus I'm subject to the Demand Surcharge  and also the Additional Handling Charge.  Below is a screenshot of these extra charges I'm being assessed.  It appears the Shopify discounts only apply to the services selected (i.e. UPS Ground) and not these additional charges for Handling & Demand.  End of day these costs make it to expensive for us to use UPS. I'm not excited to have to use USPS but appears it is my only option at this point.  

[Abuckner]

Our shipping box is 11x12x11. Therefore, this is still a Shopify issue.

Try again.

[raneff5]

Even with the changes in surcharges, were talking less than 20$.  Packages we send (which are large) went up almost 100$.  Add up all the surcharges and it doesn't account for the difference all-of-a-sudden.  

[TetonWasatch]

FYI below were my follow up questions along with Shopify Support's response.

A few more follow-up questions I have:

1) To clarify is the UPS discount that Shopify receives not eligible to be applied to the Additional Handling Charges & Demand Surcharge fees, meaning it can only discount the service selected such as UPS Ground?

2) If the Additional Handling Charges & Demand Surcharge aren't receiving a discount, is the Shopify shipping team trying to negotiate with UPS to receive discounts on everything, including both the service cost (i.e. UPS Ground) and the Additional Handling Charges & Demand Surcharge fees? Without discounts on these extra Handling & Demand charges makes shipping with UPS way to expensive for us to use.

3) Can you tell me how much my UPS discount is on just UPS Ground services?

Shopify's Response:

To address your follow-up questions: the discounts you're receiving from UPS do not apply to additional handling fees, which are incurred when UPS requires extra time to process a package. I understand that this fee is somewhat inevitable given the nature of your products and their dimensions. To help address this concern, I’ll make a note to our development team regarding the feature request related to handling fees, so they can keep it in mind for future enhancements.
 
While I can’t guarantee if or when this feature will be implemented, please know that we genuinely value your feedback. The insights we gather from users like you significantly influence the direction of our platform’s improvements. You may watch out for these links:
 
* [Shopify Changelog] (https://changelog.shopify.com/)
* [Updates] (https://www.shopify.com/blog/topics/updates)
* [Shopify - Pressroom] (https://news.shopify.com/)
 
Regarding your UPS discount, the rates vary based on specific order details, and you can receive up to a 69.19% discount. I've included a chart below for your reference.
 

 

[LeilaAMT]

I am having the same exact issue. And today I got an email from shopify informing that UPS charges with go up 25% effective 01/12/2025!! 25%?!!! 

That is a lot. 

[ahh3]

It is 2/5/25 and I am finding this thread after our store is experiencing the same problem. Does anyone have an update?

I just spent an hour on chat and they said it was an update that the "shopify plan discount" would no longer show in the summary when buying a label. We need transparent pricing from Shopify and I need the flexibility to review shipping prices to accurately set the price for customers. 

UPDATE: OMG I figured it out after the chat ended. The UPS label price that shows up is ALREADY discounted, even though there is no indication of that. This tripped me up because the whole thing started with an order that is in a remote location and has a higher shipping charge than normal for that size and weight of package. Literally yesterday I could see the "shopify plan discount" and today it was gone. I'm really shocked in an hour of speaking that the person on the chat could not tell me that the number I was seeing included the discount already. That would have saved us a lot of time and headache. Thankfully, I did not overhaul the way our shipping is set up- as they suggested! Yikes. 

SHOPIFY, Can you add the words "discounted rate" for more clear communication please.