September 2, 2025 • 14 mins
KTLA & KFI tech reporter Rich DeMuro joins the show for ‘Tech Tuesday.’ Today, Rich talks about California refund text scam, Gmail hack headlines not true, free iPhone storage app, Wizard of Oz at the Sphere, and Amazon Prime benefit ending.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
It is time for Tech Tuesday, which we do every
Tuesday with rich D Murrow. Rich of course live Rich
on Tech every Saturday here at eleven o'clock to two pm.
He's on KTLA every day, Instagram, at rich on Tech website,
rich on Tech dot TV.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, Rich, Good morning to Bill.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
All right, let's get right into it. And another scam.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Seems like we always talk about scams, but it's I
think it's really important as to what's happening. This one
is the California refund the tech scam.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
So I want just tell us about it. And how
do we know it's a scam?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Well, you know it's a scam because well the best
part is so basically, let me just explain what the
scam is. So you get a text message. A lot
of people are getting this right now. It says the
State of California Franchise Tax Board, your tax refund claim
has been processed and approved. Please provide your accurate collection
information before you know, and they give a date we
(01:02):
will deposit the money into your bank account or this
is the best part, email paper check within one to
two working days. I don't know how they do that,
but anyway, and then they give you a website, and
the dead giveaway is the website looks similar, but it's
of course a little bit off. And what they're trying
to do is capture not only your social they go
right for that your personal information, your credit card information,
(01:26):
maybe your bank information. And the California Tax Franchise Tax
Board says, look, we are not going to contact you
via text message. We see this as going around. They're
basically trying to steal your personal information and maybe even
file fake tax returns with your information. So it's all bogus.
We won't contact you via text and when in doubt,
(01:46):
obviously just go to the standard website, Franchise Tax Board
or the irs.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah. No, I understand that they can get pretty sophisticated.
I'll talk about what I got five times yesterday. But
why would they want your credit card information when you
are getting a refund?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I know? And this is what makes it so silly.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
And by the way, I click through all these scams
just to see what the scam is, but I don't
recommend you do that. And so I was that was
a you know, it's like the things that they ask
for make you kind of scratch your head. You're like,
hold on, I get why you want my social because
you know you need to look up my info, but
obviously they're trying to steal that. But then at the
end when they're asking for your credit card to give
(02:30):
you a refund, it's like, hold on, I've never heard
of the State of California or the irs requesting a
credit card number to give a refund. Now they may
you may be able to pay with your credit card,
but not directly. And so long story short, you see
this stuff and if you actually follow through with it,
at the end you realize like, oh my gosh, what
did I just do?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Because this is completely bogus.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
But at the same time, these websites they're building they
look more and more realistic every single time, and if
you're not on guard, you may fall for it, which
of course people do.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
That's why they do this.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So here is what happened yesterday five times. And I
don't know why they keep on doing it. Well I do, okay,
FedEx sent me a text saying we have a package
for you and you have to sign for it, and
we tried delivering it and we couldn't and click on
to this website and it was fed X. I think
(03:27):
it was a return at FedEx at FedEx dot. And
then there was a whole series of numbers, the kind
that you get when you know that you're being protected,
and it must have been thirty or forty different numbers,
you know, the lowercase uppercase numbers. That's sort of I mean,
(03:50):
that's wouldn't you see that instantly and say this is crazy?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
You know it's a fake website.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Well you do, but there are you know, these are
numbers game and there's plenty of people out there that
just don't look. They're less tech savvy. And it's sad
actually because they're the ones that are preyed upon. And
it's actually, Bill, it's actually the young people and the
older people, the people in the middle that sort of
like understand this stuff are fine.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
But it's like it's this.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Wide range of like young and older, less tech savvy
because the young people haven't been experienced.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
It's like, I'm sure you know more about this than
I do, but like, you know, it's that old adage
where like if you're the first time you're seeing something,
you don't know about it yet, and so you're tricked.
It's like the first time. Like we talked about time
shares and all this stuff. It's like you fall for
it because you've never been exposed to it. In your
middle age, you've been exposed to it, but by the
older age, you're just like, I don't really understand this
stuff anymore. So look, at the end of the day,
(04:46):
the reason why I share these on my Instagram is
to let people see what's out there, let them understand
the different ways we are being attacked on a daily
basis with these things. And the more you know and
the more you see them, the more you can identify
the bogus stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Hey, is there a real way to shut these down?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I have these companies been able to do that or
the government or enforcement agency to be able to shut
these down? Or are the scammers always going to be
ahead of any attempt to deal with them.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Oh? I think they're always always going to be ahead.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
I mean, I think scams have been going on as
long as we've had technology, and anytime you kind of
shut something down, they figure out a new way around it.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And it's just the reality.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
It's a cat and mouse game, and it's just it's
been going on forever. And that's why I think education
and learning the signs of these things is the best
way to do it, Because Bill, I mean, I get
emails where I'm sitting there for a couple of minutes thinking, Okay,
is this real?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is this fake? And again I always talk about this
on the radio show.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
These scam artists they take what we know, right, like
how many times have you gotten a text from your
bank that says, hey, we just had a transaction at Target?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Was that you?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
And you have to reply why or any yes or no?
That really happens from Chase and these other bank accounts.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But the scam artists.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Take that and they take that same exact phreezing and
they try to trick us into saying was that you? Now,
we just texted you a code, give us that code number,
and it's like wait a second, hold on, I'm all
you know, you're all turned around. So you just have
to slow down and just really think about whether this
could be a scam.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Or not, as opposed to just saying yes or no.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah exactly, Like sometimes I don't even reply to those
kinds of things, So I'm like, well, I'm not you
know whatever, I'll use a different card right now, and
I'll figure out this later. But there have been times
when you get these texts or these emails where you're
like hold on, you know, like my mom will send
them to me, or people, well, I mean now it's
like every follower that I have sends me these things,
and I'm sitting there like analyzing, Okay, the email address
(06:46):
looks pretty good. Like sometimes you'll get an email from
like facebookmail dot com and I'm like, hold on, that
could be real, you know, you know, And so you
have to understand like all the different aspects that they
use to try to trick you and find one.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That is like, Okay, I got it.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
It's the URL, or it's the email address, or it's
the language in the text, or it's the bottom of
the foot or of the email.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, Amazon Prime benefit. What benefit do I have because
I'm the anaho, I'm Amazon Prime plus whatever they held
they're offering.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
What am I get getting that I'm not going to get?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, so here's the deal.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
You used to be able to This was kind of
almost like under the radar feature, but you used to
be able to share your Amazon Prime benefits with pretty
much anyone that you invited. So, for instance, I had
pretty much all my family members sharing my free shipping,
and I would pay the fee and they would get
the benefit. And that was called the It was called
(07:48):
the Prime invite. Let's see, I gotta get the exact
term here. Let's see here, I'm just writing a whole
thing about it. Okay, it's called the Prime Invit program.
That's what it used to be called. And so basically,
if you were in the know, you would share your
Prime with someone else, and it could be pretty much
anyone that Amazon did not care. And this went on
for many, many years, and as of this week, they
(08:12):
now say we're ending that program, and you can still
share your Prime benefits with someone, but they have to
live in your house. So the way I see this
bill is it's kind of like how Netflix and all
the other streaming services started cracking down on password sharing.
Now Amazon is cracking down on Prime benefits sharing. And
(08:33):
so if you are one of these people that was
getting Prime for free for many many years from a friend,
no more, No more, dice October one, twenty twenty five,
that all ends, and Amazon is giving you fifteen dollars
for the first year of your Prime if you want
to sign up for your own account. But of course
after that it's going to jump up to the regular
price of one hundred and thirty nine dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
It almost seems like you've got the suit sitting around
a table and going, all right, what are we to
do to create more revenue. Let's get rid of the
two bags for free concept, Let's charge extra for an
exit seat. Let's really charge for Amazon Prime or Netflix?
(09:16):
How much is Netflix now? Eighty dollars a month or something?
Completely insane? It is not stopping where it's every moment
they're trying to get revenue and they're making a fortune,
aren't they.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Oh of course?
Speaker 4 (09:29):
I mean well Netflix is Amazon is Yeah, I mean look,
and what you're talking about is correct. It's like they
played nice while they were in the growth phase and
while people are still getting used to paying, you know,
one hundred and thirty nine dollars a year for free
shipping and all this stuff. It's like in Netflix getting
used to watching you know, old, tired, boring movies on
(09:51):
a TV screen. Oh sorry did I say that? And originals.
But you know, now that everyone's used to these things,
it's like, hold on, let's crank it up. How can
we squeeze more revenue out of these people, because by
the way, we are answering to billion dollar budgets and
also a board that wants to make money on our stock.
And so yeah, at the end of the day, we're
(10:12):
paying for all this stuff. Now, I will tell you
there's a report today from Reuters saying that Amazon did
not sign up as many people as they thought they
would during Prime Day, and so it wasn't a ton less.
It was like one hundred and sixteen thousand fewer than
the year before. But again, you know, they want to
sign people up, that's why they do Prime Day and
(10:33):
that you know, I don't know if the two are related,
but it's just so convenient that Amazon is like, okay,
we figured out all the ways to get people to
sign up for Prime. Now let's kind of smoke out
some of these people that are you know, that are
just sharing their benefits with other people.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Hey, I have a question the model where Amazon and
we return Amazon here like crazy. As a matter of fact,
my wife has stitch fit whatever they call it, where
the entire model is returning the package back.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Here's a bunch of clothes to do what you want
with them.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Keep the ones you want and ship the ones you
don't want back to us, and you go down to
the UPS store drop it off and they do their
scan thing and they're done.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Who makes money on that? Does UPS make money on that?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Or they paid enough for I don't understand the business
model on that one.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Well, on stitch Fix, the business model is, you know,
they hope you forget about the clothes and never return them.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
That's right, they hope, Yeah, and I understand that, But
how does it work with UPS because I don't understand
that business model.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Yeah, so a couple of things. I you know, this
is the nerd in me. So I asked the UPS
store when I do things like that? Because my wife
did sign up for stitch Fix. There's also another one
she signed up for called like Numbly or something like that,
which they basically you rent your clothes every month, and
of course they make money based on my wife kept
the same clothes for two months.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I was like, well, wait a second.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
You just paid double what you should have because you know,
the name of the game is to return these clothes
as soon as possible. Anyway, so they have a deal
with UPS of course for the shipping right and the
company pays them to ship these things out and on
the return side, so if you return anything through UPS whatever,
the store that collects it basically gets like a quarter,
(12:25):
like a twenty five cents or fifty cents for handling
that return. And you know UPS is making money too
on the back end with the retailer. But it's all
sort of like negotiated how much they're getting for that.
It's not like the retail rates that you and I
would pay if we ship something back. But you know,
it's big business, and I think UPS and FedEx, well
FedEx never really did Amazon. UPS did, and remember they
(12:48):
lost like a huge amount of business because Amazon did
their own shipping now, so but I don't I don't
think they're hurting.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, when I ship something and I have to pay
for it, it's like fourteen dollars, Yeah, twelve dollars, And
you're telling me they get a quarter from Amazon to.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Do that, Well, that's just the store, So the store
gets it.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Amazon obviously has some exclusive you know, some back end
deal that's I'm sure a very good price for the returns,
but no, the store that Because I always wondered, like, hey,
if I bring this to like some you know, not
just a UPS store but some random PO box store, right, Like,
what's their interest in dealing with my return and having
to like hold this box and give it to the
(13:33):
UPS people? And so I asked them and they basically said, like, yeah,
we get like a tiny you know whatever. It is
a small a tiny amount for each return that we process,
and so it's in their best interest to take those
because they do make some money on it, not a ton,
but yeah. But the Amazon thing, they I find it
fascinating that Amazon was able to ramp up their own
(13:55):
logistics and now you know, almost every package you get
from them comes from their own trucks, which is quite incredible.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, and I love the technology at the UPS store.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I mean it takes two seconds walk in, they scan it,
they take it, and you're walking out the door literally
in thirty seconds.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
All right, Yeah, No, it's incredible. And Amazon, you know,
when they do returns at their own stores, and I'm
not sure if the UPS is like this, but I
think they are. They put everything into much bigger boxes.
So when you return one thing, they're not just returning
it to Amazon, you know, individually, they sort of group
together a whole bunch of returns so that it's cheaper
(14:35):
to ship everything back. You know, ten items in one
box versus ten different boxes.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And then of course you have that small box in
that massive moving box.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And this is completely crazy. Rich. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
We'll talk again next Tuesday. Always, thank you, pleasure
It is time for Tech Tuesday, which we do every
Tuesday with rich D Murrow. Rich of course live Rich
on Tech every Saturday here at eleven o'clock to two pm.
He's on KTLA every day, Instagram, at rich on Tech website,
rich on Tech dot TV.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Good morning, Rich, Good morning to Bill.
Speaker 3 (00:21):
All right, let's get right into it. And another scam.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
Seems like we always talk about scams, but it's I
think it's really important as to what's happening. This one
is the California refund the tech scam.
Speaker 3 (00:37):
So I want just tell us about it. And how
do we know it's a scam?
Speaker 4 (00:41):
Well, you know it's a scam because well the best
part is so basically, let me just explain what the
scam is. So you get a text message. A lot
of people are getting this right now. It says the
State of California Franchise Tax Board, your tax refund claim
has been processed and approved. Please provide your accurate collection
information before you know, and they give a date we
(01:02):
will deposit the money into your bank account or this
is the best part, email paper check within one to
two working days. I don't know how they do that,
but anyway, and then they give you a website, and
the dead giveaway is the website looks similar, but it's
of course a little bit off. And what they're trying
to do is capture not only your social they go
right for that your personal information, your credit card information,
(01:26):
maybe your bank information. And the California Tax Franchise Tax
Board says, look, we are not going to contact you
via text message. We see this as going around. They're
basically trying to steal your personal information and maybe even
file fake tax returns with your information. So it's all bogus.
We won't contact you via text and when in doubt,
(01:46):
obviously just go to the standard website, Franchise Tax Board
or the irs.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah. No, I understand that they can get pretty sophisticated.
I'll talk about what I got five times yesterday. But
why would they want your credit card information when you
are getting a refund?
Speaker 2 (02:06):
I know? And this is what makes it so silly.
Speaker 4 (02:08):
And by the way, I click through all these scams
just to see what the scam is, but I don't
recommend you do that. And so I was that was
a you know, it's like the things that they ask
for make you kind of scratch your head. You're like,
hold on, I get why you want my social because
you know you need to look up my info, but
obviously they're trying to steal that. But then at the
end when they're asking for your credit card to give
(02:30):
you a refund, it's like, hold on, I've never heard
of the State of California or the irs requesting a
credit card number to give a refund. Now they may
you may be able to pay with your credit card,
but not directly. And so long story short, you see
this stuff and if you actually follow through with it,
at the end you realize like, oh my gosh, what
did I just do?
Speaker 2 (02:49):
Because this is completely bogus.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
But at the same time, these websites they're building they
look more and more realistic every single time, and if
you're not on guard, you may fall for it, which
of course people do.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
That's why they do this.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
So here is what happened yesterday five times. And I
don't know why they keep on doing it. Well I do, okay,
FedEx sent me a text saying we have a package
for you and you have to sign for it, and
we tried delivering it and we couldn't and click on
to this website and it was fed X. I think
(03:27):
it was a return at FedEx at FedEx dot. And
then there was a whole series of numbers, the kind
that you get when you know that you're being protected,
and it must have been thirty or forty different numbers,
you know, the lowercase uppercase numbers. That's sort of I mean,
(03:50):
that's wouldn't you see that instantly and say this is crazy?
Speaker 3 (03:54):
You know it's a fake website.
Speaker 4 (03:57):
Well you do, but there are you know, these are
numbers game and there's plenty of people out there that
just don't look. They're less tech savvy. And it's sad
actually because they're the ones that are preyed upon. And
it's actually, Bill, it's actually the young people and the
older people, the people in the middle that sort of
like understand this stuff are fine.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
But it's like it's this.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
Wide range of like young and older, less tech savvy
because the young people haven't been experienced.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
You know.
Speaker 4 (04:24):
It's like, I'm sure you know more about this than
I do, but like, you know, it's that old adage
where like if you're the first time you're seeing something,
you don't know about it yet, and so you're tricked.
It's like the first time. Like we talked about time
shares and all this stuff. It's like you fall for
it because you've never been exposed to it. In your
middle age, you've been exposed to it, but by the
older age, you're just like, I don't really understand this
stuff anymore. So look, at the end of the day,
(04:46):
the reason why I share these on my Instagram is
to let people see what's out there, let them understand
the different ways we are being attacked on a daily
basis with these things. And the more you know and
the more you see them, the more you can identify
the bogus stuff.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Hey, is there a real way to shut these down?
Speaker 1 (05:03):
I have these companies been able to do that or
the government or enforcement agency to be able to shut
these down? Or are the scammers always going to be
ahead of any attempt to deal with them.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
Oh? I think they're always always going to be ahead.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
I mean, I think scams have been going on as
long as we've had technology, and anytime you kind of
shut something down, they figure out a new way around it.
Speaker 2 (05:28):
And it's just the reality.
Speaker 4 (05:29):
It's a cat and mouse game, and it's just it's
been going on forever. And that's why I think education
and learning the signs of these things is the best
way to do it, Because Bill, I mean, I get
emails where I'm sitting there for a couple of minutes thinking, Okay,
is this real?
Speaker 2 (05:45):
Is this fake? And again I always talk about this
on the radio show.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
These scam artists they take what we know, right, like
how many times have you gotten a text from your
bank that says, hey, we just had a transaction at Target?
Speaker 2 (05:57):
Was that you?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
And you have to reply why or any yes or no?
That really happens from Chase and these other bank accounts.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
But the scam artists.
Speaker 4 (06:05):
Take that and they take that same exact phreezing and
they try to trick us into saying was that you? Now,
we just texted you a code, give us that code number,
and it's like wait a second, hold on, I'm all
you know, you're all turned around. So you just have
to slow down and just really think about whether this
could be a scam.
Speaker 3 (06:21):
Or not, as opposed to just saying yes or no.
Speaker 4 (06:26):
Yeah exactly, Like sometimes I don't even reply to those
kinds of things, So I'm like, well, I'm not you
know whatever, I'll use a different card right now, and
I'll figure out this later. But there have been times
when you get these texts or these emails where you're
like hold on, you know, like my mom will send
them to me, or people, well, I mean now it's
like every follower that I have sends me these things,
and I'm sitting there like analyzing, Okay, the email address
(06:46):
looks pretty good. Like sometimes you'll get an email from
like facebookmail dot com and I'm like, hold on, that
could be real, you know, you know, And so you
have to understand like all the different aspects that they
use to try to trick you and find one.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
That is like, Okay, I got it.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
It's the URL, or it's the email address, or it's
the language in the text, or it's the bottom of
the foot or of the email.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Whatever it is.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, Amazon Prime benefit. What benefit do I have because
I'm the anaho, I'm Amazon Prime plus whatever they held
they're offering.
Speaker 3 (07:20):
What am I get getting that I'm not going to get?
Speaker 2 (07:23):
Well, so here's the deal.
Speaker 4 (07:25):
You used to be able to This was kind of
almost like under the radar feature, but you used to
be able to share your Amazon Prime benefits with pretty
much anyone that you invited. So, for instance, I had
pretty much all my family members sharing my free shipping,
and I would pay the fee and they would get
the benefit. And that was called the It was called
(07:48):
the Prime invite. Let's see, I gotta get the exact
term here. Let's see here, I'm just writing a whole
thing about it. Okay, it's called the Prime Invit program.
That's what it used to be called. And so basically,
if you were in the know, you would share your
Prime with someone else, and it could be pretty much
anyone that Amazon did not care. And this went on
for many, many years, and as of this week, they
(08:12):
now say we're ending that program, and you can still
share your Prime benefits with someone, but they have to
live in your house. So the way I see this
bill is it's kind of like how Netflix and all
the other streaming services started cracking down on password sharing.
Now Amazon is cracking down on Prime benefits sharing. And
(08:33):
so if you are one of these people that was
getting Prime for free for many many years from a friend,
no more, No more, dice October one, twenty twenty five,
that all ends, and Amazon is giving you fifteen dollars
for the first year of your Prime if you want
to sign up for your own account. But of course
after that it's going to jump up to the regular
price of one hundred and thirty nine dollars.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
It almost seems like you've got the suit sitting around
a table and going, all right, what are we to
do to create more revenue. Let's get rid of the
two bags for free concept, Let's charge extra for an
exit seat. Let's really charge for Amazon Prime or Netflix?
(09:16):
How much is Netflix now? Eighty dollars a month or something?
Completely insane? It is not stopping where it's every moment
they're trying to get revenue and they're making a fortune,
aren't they.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
Oh of course?
Speaker 4 (09:29):
I mean well Netflix is Amazon is Yeah, I mean look,
and what you're talking about is correct. It's like they
played nice while they were in the growth phase and
while people are still getting used to paying, you know,
one hundred and thirty nine dollars a year for free
shipping and all this stuff. It's like in Netflix getting
used to watching you know, old, tired, boring movies on
(09:51):
a TV screen. Oh sorry did I say that? And originals.
But you know, now that everyone's used to these things,
it's like, hold on, let's crank it up. How can
we squeeze more revenue out of these people, because by
the way, we are answering to billion dollar budgets and
also a board that wants to make money on our stock.
And so yeah, at the end of the day, we're
(10:12):
paying for all this stuff. Now, I will tell you
there's a report today from Reuters saying that Amazon did
not sign up as many people as they thought they
would during Prime Day, and so it wasn't a ton less.
It was like one hundred and sixteen thousand fewer than
the year before. But again, you know, they want to
sign people up, that's why they do Prime Day and
(10:33):
that you know, I don't know if the two are related,
but it's just so convenient that Amazon is like, okay,
we figured out all the ways to get people to
sign up for Prime. Now let's kind of smoke out
some of these people that are you know, that are
just sharing their benefits with other people.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Hey, I have a question the model where Amazon and
we return Amazon here like crazy. As a matter of fact,
my wife has stitch fit whatever they call it, where
the entire model is returning the package back.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Here's a bunch of clothes to do what you want
with them.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Keep the ones you want and ship the ones you
don't want back to us, and you go down to
the UPS store drop it off and they do their
scan thing and they're done.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
Who makes money on that? Does UPS make money on that?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
Or they paid enough for I don't understand the business
model on that one.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Well, on stitch Fix, the business model is, you know,
they hope you forget about the clothes and never return them.
Speaker 1 (11:34):
That's right, they hope, Yeah, and I understand that, But
how does it work with UPS because I don't understand
that business model.
Speaker 4 (11:44):
Yeah, so a couple of things. I you know, this
is the nerd in me. So I asked the UPS
store when I do things like that? Because my wife
did sign up for stitch Fix. There's also another one
she signed up for called like Numbly or something like that,
which they basically you rent your clothes every month, and
of course they make money based on my wife kept
the same clothes for two months.
Speaker 2 (12:03):
I was like, well, wait a second.
Speaker 4 (12:04):
You just paid double what you should have because you know,
the name of the game is to return these clothes
as soon as possible. Anyway, so they have a deal
with UPS of course for the shipping right and the
company pays them to ship these things out and on
the return side, so if you return anything through UPS whatever,
the store that collects it basically gets like a quarter,
(12:25):
like a twenty five cents or fifty cents for handling
that return. And you know UPS is making money too
on the back end with the retailer. But it's all
sort of like negotiated how much they're getting for that.
It's not like the retail rates that you and I
would pay if we ship something back. But you know,
it's big business, and I think UPS and FedEx, well
FedEx never really did Amazon. UPS did, and remember they
(12:48):
lost like a huge amount of business because Amazon did
their own shipping now, so but I don't I don't
think they're hurting.
Speaker 1 (12:57):
Yeah, when I ship something and I have to pay
for it, it's like fourteen dollars, Yeah, twelve dollars, And
you're telling me they get a quarter from Amazon to.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
Do that, Well, that's just the store, So the store
gets it.
Speaker 4 (13:12):
Amazon obviously has some exclusive you know, some back end
deal that's I'm sure a very good price for the returns,
but no, the store that Because I always wondered, like, hey,
if I bring this to like some you know, not
just a UPS store but some random PO box store, right, Like,
what's their interest in dealing with my return and having
to like hold this box and give it to the
(13:33):
UPS people? And so I asked them and they basically said, like, yeah,
we get like a tiny you know whatever. It is
a small a tiny amount for each return that we process,
and so it's in their best interest to take those
because they do make some money on it, not a ton,
but yeah. But the Amazon thing, they I find it
fascinating that Amazon was able to ramp up their own
(13:55):
logistics and now you know, almost every package you get
from them comes from their own trucks, which is quite incredible.
Speaker 3 (14:02):
Yeah, and I love the technology at the UPS store.
Speaker 1 (14:05):
I mean it takes two seconds walk in, they scan it,
they take it, and you're walking out the door literally
in thirty seconds.
Speaker 4 (14:14):
All right, Yeah, No, it's incredible. And Amazon, you know,
when they do returns at their own stores, and I'm
not sure if the UPS is like this, but I
think they are. They put everything into much bigger boxes.
So when you return one thing, they're not just returning
it to Amazon, you know, individually, they sort of group
together a whole bunch of returns so that it's cheaper
(14:35):
to ship everything back. You know, ten items in one
box versus ten different boxes.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
And then of course you have that small box in
that massive moving box.
Speaker 3 (14:47):
And this is completely crazy. Rich. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:50):
We'll talk again next Tuesday. Always, thank you, pleasure
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