# UPS shipping

10 Hacker News commenters recommended UPS shipping and 32 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 5 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** People recommend UPS for domestic ground shipping and on-time delivery. The most common caveat is surprise customs brokerage and paperwork fees on international shipments.

## Why people recommend it

- Best domestic ground shipping (2 comments): "UPS is still probably the best domestically for ground shipping" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45943296)) "UPS is generally pretty good." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50087707))
- Tracking and delivery better than FedEx (2 comments): "UPS tracking is better than FedEx, but it is very likely to damage your package." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47435206)) "Yet UPS still delivers packages better than FedEx." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49648299))
- Few problems, delivers on estimate (2 comments): "My problem rate with Fedex or UPS is maybe 0.1% of packages." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48781836)) "UPS, Fedex, etc., tend to deliver when the estimate says." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50087435))

## What people warn about

- Surprise import duties and brokerage fees (5 comments): "UPS or FedEx would happily lose the package and then still try to bill both sender and receiver for customs brokerage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45945082)) "UPS does not enforce payment. They will hand out the package before receiving the taxes and tolls." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46669466)) "hearing the horrors of shippers (UPS, FedEx, DHL) charging import fees equivalent to 1000%" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47274814))
- Hard to reach for disputes (2 comments): "UPS has been completely non responsive and still won't show me the customs forms." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942898)) "Impossible to get ahold of anyone at UPS to discuss/dispute this." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49902267))
- Packages sometimes damaged or lost (3 comments): "UPS or FedEx would happily lose the package and then still try to bill both sender and receiver for customs brokerage" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45945082)) "I would say 10-20% of UPS packages have some delivery issue from damaged to lost." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47435292)) "UPS tracking is better than FedEx, but it is very likely to damage your package." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47435206))
- Aggressive billing and collections threats (2 comments): "UPS says that's the money I owe. They will send to collections if you go long enough without paying it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45942171)) "It's pretty clear that UPS is scamming people and hoping they don't fight the obscene charges." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45953736))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [USPS](https://hackerapproved.com/p/united-states-postal-service.md): 5 recommend

## Where to get it

- [Visit the official site](https://www.ups.com/)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "UPS shipping", https://hackerapproved.com/p/ups/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).