Mail Boxes Etc. now to be called the UPS Store

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.

I recently returned an amp I auditioned via ups and they made me pay for "their packing" because the original box had one small indent. Even though the dealer sent it in the original box, ups said they have been told not to send without repacking. Their rational was "the ups drivers don't know the value of the item, so we need to repack to insure. Now I ask you, if you were a ups driver who on a daily basis picked up and delivered audio equipment to a high-end dealer you would not have ANY idea what you have? When I told the salesperson, he thought ups was full of it. I bought the amp and sent mine via fedex.