UPS & The UPS Store UPS Insurance is a rip off ! They'll take the money but won't deliver the service they charge for !! Atlanta Georgia

First you need to get your facts right. You are giving false information. I own multiple UPS Store and let me tell how our rated compare to UPS.com. UPS Stores are retail locations and we do not mark-up our charges like indipandednt Authourize Shipping Outlet. As per when customer go to UPS.com to price a package you are given option 1. I will pay shipping charges and ship my package at a retail location such as The UPS Store or UPS Customer Center, 2. I will drop off my prepaid package(s) at a UPS location, or give my package(s) to my UPS driver, 3. I will schedule a pickup via: UPS.com . If you select that you will be shipping it out from a retail location the price would be the same as on the upsstore.com. I hope you understand this and STOP calling stores rip off.

Since my information has now offended yet another person, I feel I must apologize to all. It now appears that my comment is being taken as "hateful", which was never the intention. Because I too get so offended at "hateful", that is the reason I posted the first comment to begin with.

For any reader of these comments who for some reason has taken my comment as hateful, I give my full assurance it was never meant as anything but a statement to help the consumer save some money and avoid the negatives which seem to be happening at these storefronts.

Now, I might ask... has anyone on these forums received an apology, or a refund from a UPS Store? I can only base my comments on my own experiences, friends and family, and dozens I've seen online.

And... I also discovered the huge discrepancy in the shipping rates. Again, it is due to the UPS Store. They consistently package the contents in a box which is two inches larger than the box which I use. This small difference in box size increases the rate from $14 (my box) to $40 (their box). I had to do much detective work to uncover the reason for this predicament. But, I am quite surprised that a store owner would not be aware they are upping the cost so drastically. I am also surprised that if the owner is aware of this that they don't mention it when packaging... the same as most conscience shipping firms do.

The store owner also didn't mention that he would be charging $40 a piece just to box the items!! Ouch! I am accustomed to The Shipping House charging about $8 to do the same service.

My apology still stands (which is more than the UPS Store could offer).

Footnote to consumers who ship a lot... US Post office ships same parcel for about $12.

I didn't know there was a ups store website but I see there is now. I do a lot of ebay and use the ups site to find out what shipping is. I don't know what that persons problem or motive is but he's completely wrong about the rates. Anyone can easily see they're the same if they want to check it out. Go to www.UPS.com and enter to information, then go to www.theupsstore.com and do the same thing. The rates are exactly the same.

I used to ship at Pak Mail for years until they went out of business. I questioned the prices a couple of times and they said ups stores were higher because they had higher overhead. After Pak Mail went out of business, I went to the UPS store and was shocked at how much my same boxes were less to ship. Frankly, I was pretty upset with how much money I wasted in the past.

Maybe I'm just lucky but the two ups stores I use are always decent and professional with me. I'm sure if I searched far and wide, I could find employees that are having a bad day at any company. How anyone can make the claim that a chain of any business is purely rude at all of them with no exception strikes me as very peculiar. It was suggested above that pphillipp stating the prices were wrong was lieing or ignorant. I believe that person saying the rates are different is just plain lieing and likely has some ulterior agenda to do so. Readers can see pphillip does indeed have the hateful tone and blatantly incorrect facts. How can anyone have such a negative attitude and state such inaccuracies is beyond me. Again, just check out those websites. You'll see they're the same and you can use them interchangeably.

I had to re-research my facts after reading the above rebuttal by Mark L.
I see that I was wrong about the Store and the Shipping company being separate from one another.

Mark's defense might have some true facts which I was previously unaware about, but instead of helping his cause, they only add fuel against the company's practices.

The point of my comment was to come to the defense of UPS shipping since the UPS Stores are so quickly giving UPS a bad name (just look at the multitude's of consumer complaints circulating the internet).

So now instead of blaming UPS Store for the problems... the real blame is now shifted back to the mother company. The many consumer complaints which are aimed at the almost universal rudeness of store owners/employees, along with the inflated high prices of these small stores, now no longer falls upon the heads of independent stores... but upon the company at the large corporate level.

I did take Mark's suggestion and went back to the shipping rates of both the store and the company, and the rates still come-out far greater when shipping at a Store than from the company.

One thing quite noticeable in Mark's response is the rude tone he takes. He minces no words in being insulting. All it takes is a quick read of the many complaints against the UPS stores to see that this rudeness is quite common and typical of what the consumer is experiencing from the various store locations. I personally have experienced it at more than one location... as well as with Mark's response. I am obviously not alone either, since rudeness and attitude seem to be the norm instead of the exception for these stores.

I will step forth and give Mark and his colleagues an apology... I had my facts wrong! But I do it with the heaviness of now knowing that my defense of a company no longer stands. UPS has now fallen quite low in that they knowingly are allowing these practices to propagate on a large scale.

Thank goodness they don't run a monopoly. Thank goodness we, the consumer have other options for shipping our goods... options that save us time, money and grief.

The previous post is either a blatant lie or the epitome of ignorance with an adolescent attitude.

The UPS Stores are franchised locations within the Mail Boxes Etc corporation. The MBE corporation was purchased by UPS in 2002. The UPS Stores obviously not only have the 'UPS' acronym, but includes the UPS trademarked Gold Shield as a mandatory component of the store front name. These locations are under contract with UPS to follow identical UPS guidelines and procedures as customer counters at the less convenient major hub facilities. The UPS Store locations are intended by UPS to represent the UPS corporation. The UPS Store locations do not have markups like authorized shipping outlets (ASO) which mark up their rates to profit as middleman shippers. These locations have names such as PakMail, Postnet, Pack-N-Ship, etc, etc.

The basic idiosyncracies are few and due to independent owners owning and managing these facilities. They cannot be responsible for shipping items such as alcohol, hazardous materials, and firearms. The UPS Stores, however, have identical shipping rates as UPS with one exception: there is a .20 cent iShip software surcharge. There are service options (assessorials) for which customers may request that have small surcharges as these The UPS Store will be required to perform significant labor and expense to perform for the customer. An example would be a signature upon delivery for which a paper copy is requested after deliver. This would cost the customer an addition buck.

If a The UPS Store charges more for the shipping rates than quoted online, that location would be in breach of contract and could lose their shipping license with UPS.

Regarding the original damage claim complaint, The UPS Store is NOT part of the claim decision. UPS corporate is 100% responsible for that decision. It is easy to understand that if damage occurs, the packer will often state, "It was packed fine", where in fact there was some aspect which clearly did not meet industry guidelines for packaging requirements. These guidelines are the same with all carriers and are clearly detailed in every carrier website. If this person with the damage claim would like to know the details of the decision, all they need to do is ask The UPS Store for a copy of the claim report which clearly defines where the packaging did not meet industry guidelines and offer suggestions to avoid the problem.

Since The UPS Store are indeed an integral part of the UPS corporation, they also are the ONLY locations that UPS will refund the entire packaging cost to customers in the event of damage. Logic would have it that this should be automatic, but not even Fedex Kinkos refunds their packaging fee when damage occurs.

I have owned my facility for almost eight years. I was originally a Mail Boxes Etc store with the old retail markup which ended when UPS purchased MBE. If the previous poster feels it necessary to flagrantly slander The UPS Store and their websites with his nonsense, he could simply print out the rates he's finding and bring them to any The UPS Store. He expect he will not do this as he either knows of his deceit - or will find that he is VERY wrong with his quote entry information.

I believe much of the problems mentioned, and aimed at the UPS shipping company, are actually caused by an independent shipping store which uses the name UPS within their title.

It is not only within their storefronts where the deception occurs, but also on their websites. I was made aware of this scam while going online to price a shipment. Instead of the true UPS website, I somehow got onto the UPS Store website. The incredibly high prices for shipping were stunning... never had I seen such exorbitant shipping costs before. They made the US Postal Service look like the bargain of the century.

Upon spending much time and investigating, I finally ended-up on the true UPS website. The shipping prices were much, much lower... where they should be. What is amazing, is that the UPS Store doesn't double the shipping costs... they triple and quadtriple it many times over. (UPS... $12.00 to ship, UPS Store... $40.00 for same shipment).

The true crime committed here (besides the inflated prices) is that the UPS Store is using incredible deception to deceive the public that they are actually UPS. I believe the average person whom uses their services actually feel they are sending from an authorized UPS center. Both the store fronts, the web sites, and the advertising all try to convince us that they are UPS.

I am surprised that the true UPS allows this to happen. No telling how much business they have lost due to this fowl business tactic.

How do you feel that UPS is being unfair? I handle a few of our vendor contracts (I am employed by UPS, not a contractor) and the job and performance specifications are detailed, to the letter. If you and the other contract employees are not performing to the terms of the contract...... I have a question for you - you say that you are being harrassed. Is the harrassment coming from UPS hourly employees or Managment? The harrassment may be understandable if coming from the hourlys - they would like to do the job that you are doing, themselves. If from management, you may want to re-evaluate your performance.

Hello, I am currently working for UPS. I work nights with a few other people who subcontract for night work at UPS and we are building a site for people to go to and post their thoughts about the mistreatment that they have received from UPS. We have been threatened to be fired a few times. For unknown reasons we have not been yet. Every time we go in we are expecting a "Your Fired" note, but instead we just get a note yelling at us. They are never satisfied with anything; personally I believe they have to have something to complain about and why not the night people. It is like they can't seem to make up their mind. But we have had enough of UPS. We have tried to work with them as much as we can because, like it or not we need this job due to the economy. But the way things are going the job for us will not last long. So this blog site is being created for people to come post their thoughts, stories and experiences along with any information that may help people in these types of situations. I hope this information helps you and I hope you can rally some of your friends to help us. Thank You so much for your time. Our site is a www.myspace.com/upsblog

Hello, I am currently working for UPS. I work nights with a few other people who subcontract for night work at UPS and we are building a site for people to go to and post their thoughts about the mistreatment that they have received from UPS. We have been threatened to be fired a few times. For unknown reasons we have not been yet. Every time we go in we are expecting a "Your Fired" note, but instead we just get a note yelling at us. They are never satisfied with anything; personally I believe they have to have something to complain about and why not the night people. It is like they can't seem to make up their mind. But we have had enough of UPS. We have tried to work with them as much as we can because, like it or not we need this job due to the economy. But the way things are going the job for us will not last long. So this blog site is being created for people to come post their thoughts, stories and experiences along with any information that may help people in these types of situations. I hope this information helps you and I hope you can rally some of your friends to help us. Thank You so much for your time. Our site is a www.myspace.com/upsblog

Hello, I am currently working for UPS. I work nights with a few other people who subcontract for night work at UPS and we are building a site for people to go to and post their thoughts about the mistreatment that they have received from UPS. We have been threatened to be fired a few times. For unknown reasons we have not been yet. Every time we go in we are expecting a "Your Fired" note, but instead we just get a note yelling at us. They are never satisfied with anything; personally I believe they have to have something to complain about and why not the night people. It is like they can't seem to make up their mind. But we have had enough of UPS. We have tried to work with them as much as we can because, like it or not we need this job due to the economy. But the way things are going the job for us will not last long. So this blog site is being created for people to come post their thoughts, stories and experiences along with any information that may help people in these types of situations. I hope this information helps you and I hope you can rally some of your friends to help us. Thank You so much for your time. Our site is a www.myspace.com/upsblog

Hello, I am currently working for UPS. I work nights with a few other people who subcontract for night work at UPS and we are building a site for people to go to and post their thoughts about the mistreatment that they have received from UPS. We have been threatened to be fired a few times. For unknown reasons we have not been yet. Every time we go in we are expecting a "Your Fired" note, but instead we just get a note yelling at us. They are never satisfied with anything; personally I believe they have to have something to complain about and why not the night people. It is like they can't seem to make up their mind. But we have had enough of UPS. We have tried to work with them as much as we can because, like it or not we need this job due to the economy. But the way things are going the job for us will not last long. So this blog site is being created for people to come post their thoughts, stories and experiences along with any information that may help people in these types of situations. I hope this information helps you and I hope you can rally some of your friends to help us. Thank You so much for your time. Our site is a www.myspace.com/upsblog