I went to this UPS store on Friday, 12/18, intending to mail Christmas gifts to Montreal. The clerk locked the door behind me, even though it was 20 mins until their posted closing time.
There were two other customers ahead of me, and the clerk was obviously having problems with the register/computer. After speaking to the owner, she rebooted the system. She told all the customers there we could wait if we wanted to, but the reboot "takes a few minutes." All three of us said we'd wait. I asked her for a box to begin packing up my shipment while I waited. I finished packing it, and completed a customs form. She called the owner back, and the owner apparently didn't know how to fix the problem, so she asked to speak to everyone waiting. She told me that I could take my package or leave it and she'd personally take care of it in the morning and call for my credit card info. I agreed to the latter option, because we were supposed to get a bad snowstorm starting Friday night, and I didn't want to have to drive in it the following day.
Saturday morning the owner called and quoted me freight charges of over $150. I knew from checking transit and cost on UPS.com that the actual charges were around $30. When I questioned this, she seemed to get annoyed and said that she "didn't see any cheaper options" on her screen. When I tried to tell her that UPS standard would have delivery by 12/23 and only cost $30, she outright lied and said that it wasn't guaranteed to deliver on any certain day and that the $150 shipping was my "only option to get it there before Christmas." I informed her that UPS.com was indeed stating GUARANTEED delivery by 12/23 based on shipping Monday morning for $30. She kept insisting she couldn't ship it that way. I asked her about doing it myself online and having the driver pick it up at their address. She refused to let me do that either. So, I expressed my annoyance at having to drive back down, in a snowstorm, to get a package that I should have been able to process Friday.
So, she asked me if I was going to pay the "Packaging charges" over the phone. When I asked how much that was, she said over $13. I told her that was outrageous, and she explained how the clerk had to "package, tape, and put peanuts in the package." I refused, and told her that I had packaged my own box that the clerk handed over the counter. She said that couldn't be because they don't allow clerks to just sell boxes without their "packaging services." I told her, whether she should have or not, this is what the clerk did. She still ended up charging me $7 for just the box. I even stated I wanted to bring in my own box and give them their box back, but she said it couldn't be used again because it was all taped up.
I ended up going to get my package and did everything online and scheduled a pickup&at my front door—guaranteed for delivery before Christmas. It cost me a few cents over $30. This was my first and last trip to a UPS Store ever. I only used it because it happened to be in the plaza where I bought some of the gifts I was shipping. Never again!!
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