Why are my UPS shipping costs on Shopify extremely inflated?

[tnemeth888]

Hi Everyone and Happy Holidays.

We all know the cost of shipping has increased dramatically, no beef there. My issue is that the shipping subtotal numbers being calculated right before you click "Buy Shipping Label" are incorrect. Please see attached. We ship with UPS only for a number of reasons, mainly because the packages arrive in one piece and on time. That's a different story.

I ran a test package of 1.375 lbs. being shipped about 8 miles away from our store. The package is a small box with measurements of 8x6x4. In the shipping cost summary the subtotal cost that was generated before the "Shopify plan discount" was $17.38. I went into the local UPS store (with no account) and the package was just over $7.00. This lines up with the final total price we paid for the label when purchasing online of $7.72.

Per a Shopify chat, this terribly inflated number of $17.38 is generated by UPS and Shopify has no idea how this number is generated. We were told to contact UPS for more information. UPS told us that this is a platform issue and they have no control over this number (which is what I expected). How is this number being generated and why is it so inflated? This is not just this order, it's every single order that's being highly inflated before we're getting our "plan discount". This seems super fishy and not accurate to the point of being fraudulent.

[tnemeth888]

Does anyone have any information on this topic? Where are those shipping numbers coming from?