Stunned At UPS Terrible Customer Service

I needed to ship something back to the UK about 3 weeks ago, and paid almost $100 for 2 day insured delivery.

The woman at the UPS store told me to write the reason for the shipment, in case customs decided to involve themselves in the delivery.

I was sending back an iphone that I mistakenly brought back to the US, and I wanted to make sure that it was insured against loss so paid extra for that as well. I wrote on the form the reason for the shipment, and said that it was something that was bought in the UK, and was being returned to the UK.

15 days later the package had not arrived, and I got a call from the UPS Store saying that they had tried to call the person I shipped it to to confirm the package but had not spoken to her. My friend said that she had not received a single call from them......

The UPS Store told me that they would ask UPS in the UK to call my friend one more time before sending it back to the US. Seeing as they had proved to be pretty inept up to this point I thought that a better plan was for me to take their number, and then give it to my friend to call. This would ensure that the connection was made. She then spoke to UPS in the UK and I thought everything would be ok.

I then get a call on Friday July 31st, saying that my friend never called, and UPS had sent the package back to the US, and it was sitting in Kentucky ready to be shipped to San Francisco.

I have a few issues with this.

My friend did call UPS on Thursday the 30th July, and spoke to someone called Richard Fordham who told her to email him with the confirmation that the phone was purchased in the UK and was just being returned and he would have it delivered the next day.

She did this:

------ Forwarded Message
From: **** ***** <****.****@*******.com>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2009 09:53:22 +0100
To: <rfordham@ups.com>
Subject: *****8T304128*****

Hi Richard,

Just to confirm in writing.
The cellphone being delivered is from the UK and belongs to my office in London.
My colleague in US, accidently took it with him when he left to go back last month.

Thanks!

Richard told her that the package would be delivered to her on Friday, which she waited for.

The package clearly never arrived, and I had a call that same day saying that the package was now back in the US.

Either the UPS guy my friend spoke to lied to her, because there is no way that the package could have been in the UK on Friday if it was already back in the US, or UPS is so inept that they cannot track a package and follow through on their promise.

After checking the tracking information, the system shows that 'Shipper requested return of package' which is strange seeing as I did not such thing!

I explained my position, and was not offered any kind of apology, (and was in fact blamed for the whole mess) and told that a refund was not going to be forthcoming. How this is my fault I am still trying to work out. Maybe they blame me for choosing to use their service, or for believing that the package would in fact arrive within the 2 day window that I paid for.

I am stunned that UPS has done nothing to ensure that they fix the mess that they have created and then even had the nerve to tell me that if I wanted to redeliver it they would charge me full price for the delivery!

What planet do they live on if they think that I will EVER ship anything with them again!