Guide · UPS service guarantee
How to get a UPS refund for a late delivery
Most UPS air and express services carry a money-back guarantee: if the package is delivered even one minute after the guaranteed time, the shipping charge is refundable. UPS does not issue these refunds automatically. You have to catch the late delivery and ask — and you have a roughly 15-day window from the scheduled delivery date to do it. Miss the window and the money is gone.
Step 1: find the guaranteed shipments
Check which of your services are guaranteed (Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air, Worldwide Express and 3 Day Select have historically carried the guarantee; ground guarantees have been suspended and reinstated at various times, so verify current terms on ups.com). Anything guaranteed is a candidate.
Step 2: compare promised vs. actual delivery
For each shipment, compare the scheduled delivery date and time against the actual delivery scan in tracking. The invoice alone will not show you this — you need tracking data. This is the step that makes manual auditing painful at any real volume, and it is why most shippers never collect.
Step 3: check the exclusions
Weather events and other carrier-declared exceptions void the guarantee for affected packages. If tracking shows an exception like severe weather, do not bother filing that one.
Step 4: file inside the window
File through the UPS Billing Center (dispute the charge on the invoice) or by phone at 1-800-PICK-UPS. Reference the tracking number, the guaranteed delivery time, and the actual delivery time. Approved refunds appear as credits on a subsequent invoice.
Or let the scan do steps 1–3 in a minute
Our free scanner reads your UPS invoice export, flags every refund-eligible shipment (late deliveries, duplicate charges, billed-but-never-shipped labels, bad surcharges), and computes each claim's filing deadline. It runs entirely in your browser — your billing data never uploads anywhere. Run the free scan →