Rockford Amazon Prime Shoppers Face a Surprising UPS Fee

If you're an Amazon Prime member in the Rockford area, it appears there's a new shipping change you may want to know about before you choose to have your next package sent to a UPS Store.

Benefits of Amazon Prime

As a busy mom with kids who love to wait until the last minute to tell me about something they need, being an Amazon Prime member has saved the day more times than I can count.

I use many of the Amazon Prime benefits nearly every day, but there is one that I have used before: the pick up option.

Amazon Prime Pickup Option

To be completely honest, I've never considered having my Amazon packages sent to a pickup location like The UPS store. However, I do understand that it's beneficial for people who don't want their packages lying on their front porch all day enticing someone to steal it.

If you often send your Amazon packages to The UPS Store for pickup, there may be a policy change you need to be aware of.

Amazon Pickup Charge at The UPS Store

A recent post on the Rockford Nextdoor app has local shoppers talking after one resident said they were surprised to discover a $5 pickup fee at The UPS Store on East Riverside Boulevard in Loves Park.

The post said:

I have Amazon Prime which includes free shipping. Amazon didn’t charge me for shipping but the UPS Store charged me a $5.00 pickup fee. Apparently thru research I found Amazon is terminating their relationship with these stores. Thus the pickup charge.

Is this true? After doing some digging of my own, this doesn't appear to just be a rumor floating around Nextdoor.

UPS Reducing Its Amazon Business

In its latest earnings report, released in July, UPS announced that it had completed what it calls its "Amazon glide down", basically a planned reduction in the number of Amazon packages moving through its network.

So, yes, the relationship between Amazon and UPS has changed, but what about the $5 fee?

I couldn't find an official announcement from either UPS or Amazon saying that Prime customers who pick up a package at a UPS Store will automatically be charged $5.

However, that doesn't mean the Rockford resident's experience isn't legitimate.

If you normally have Amazon packages sent to a UPS Store because you don't want them sitting outside your house, it might be worth checking the pickup details carefully before placing your next order or have it sent to an Amazon Locker in the Rockford area instead... just in case.