Mail Boxes Etc. now to be called the UPS Store

Hey Y'all,

All of this is why I use the good old U.S. Postal Service. Always have and always will.......John

Yea, but John try dropping off 300+lbs. of speakers at the post office and see how far you get ;) they are good for smaller items but when you need to ship heavy stuff you have to go else where.

Jrwr7 and Tim raise good points. For small items like cables and CDs, its just about impossible to beat USPS. $4.00 plus insurance for 2-3 day service cross-country. Have to go the extra for registered mail or Express if its really high value, tho, since the so-called delivery confirmation is essentially worthless.

I just encountered the new UPS business model today. I went to ship a DAC I just sold at my local UPS depot counter. I haven't been there since the purchase of Mailboxes Etc.

What I found was one clerk serving a room full of customers, where formerly there were two or three. She made a big producion out of checking packages for correct packing. In fact, this seemed to be her major role, aside from collecting money.

In the past, UPS would help beef up the packaging if they could. Now the clerk simply advised people to take their non-compliant packages to the nearest Mailboxes Etc for packing assistance. Of course they didn't mention that it might cost a bit...

Fortunately for me my shipment was packed in original factory boxing, so she couldn't really complain about it.

Watch out next time you bring in a self packed item.

The lack of a tracking number from the UPS store can be a real hassle.

I recently sold a preamp to a customer that lives ~150 miles away (NYC). At his request, I had the preamp in its original box, doubleboxed. I had my local UPS store do it. I requested a tracking number, they were swamped and asked me to call back later. I did and they ignored me. ~ 4 days later, my customer advises me he has yet to receive the preamp. I call the store and go over again and demand a tracking #. My customer also calls, they hang up ojnj him 3x. They finally try and track for me and advise status as out for delivery. I look at the number they give me it says that the package did not leave until that day(Friday).

The package showed up the following Monday at my customer's address. With this unprofessional behavior, I will never use UPS again. Even though Fedex ground is 15 miles away, I will use them. The purchase of Kinko's by Fedex in the near future will certainly make it easier to do business with Fedex.