UPS Uses Web to Ease Consumer Return Problems

September 27, 2000 10:00 AM, EDT

United Parcel Service’s Web-based automated return system now lets shippers offer consumers who buy products online a way to more easily send goods back to retailers.

The system allows both buyers and retailers to track the whereabouts of returns on the Internet. Companies can use the system to prevent boomerang packages from being dropped on their doorsteps or otherwise delivered without warning.

The electronic returns system also gives consumers assurance that products are going to the right place and returns will be processed, UPS said.

Using the system, buyers can log on to a Web site and indicate that they want to send in a return. The site — hosted through UPS’s system — allows consumers to print out a shipping label and affix it to the package to be returned. It is only useable for UPS deliveries, said Ross McCullough, UPS vice president of e-commerce.

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