The UPS Store

I tried to send some meeting materials to Tokyo for a business meeting. It was a rush shipment, small envelope, neither valuable nor heavy. The guy in the UPS store messed up the commercial invoice, and it didn’t get there on time. While the UPS worker wasn’t rude to me, he was completely incompetent. I had to repeat the postal code about 17 times before he got it right. Also, it was overpriced.
I sent 6 other boxes myself via FedEx, and they all arrived on time and without incident.

Charlene is indeed the black sheep and will be solely responsible for sinking this otherwise decent shop. All other staff are nice but are frightened to work under that woman. When I called in Mail Box Etc. to complain about her years ago, MBE told me that I was the SECOND person THAT WEEK ALONE to call in. No one ever called me to apologize but I went in and out frequently so I knew she knew that I called. She’s THAT crazy, bad, and unprofessional. If she can divert just a bit of love from those Shih Tsu (are they still alive?) to human beings, we’ll be in heaven. I have since moved and do business now with another UPS store. OMG, THIS shop is how humans should treat each other. How did she survive this long with her attitude? Her style is like: I know my shop is at a prime location and what other choices do you have for your shipping needs? I can treat you like shit and you just have to suck it up. Really huh? Welcome to the Internet era, you can be more famous than you wish now.

The owners wife, Charlene, is a vile, rude, unprofessional woman needs to be trained in the basics of customer service. I have reported her to the Better Business Bureau and UPS.
Six months pregnant, all I wanted to do is to send a box of baby clothes to my home in California. I walked into UPS with a bag of clothes. I filled out a shipping slip and the owner began to antagonize me.
She told me that in addition to the $ 23 UPS delivery charges, I would have to pay her «$ 18 upfront» for «services.» I questioned what she meant and was told that she does not work for free. Huh?
Apparently, she wanted $ 18 compensation to put my bag into a box, and to tape the box closed.
I offered to purchase a box and assemble it myself. She told me that I could purchase a box for $ 9, but I was «not allowed» to assemble it in her store.
After much negotiating, I assembled the box on the floor, despite my big pregnant belly.
After asking her for a piece of tape to seal the box, this ingrate told me that I «could not get anything for free» and that I could have tape for $ 3.00 I scoffed, as my local UPS store always seals my boxes for free. She then screamed that I was a «bad customer» who needs to «get the f*ck» out of her store”.
I nearly forgot. This was after Charlene grabbed my credit card out of my hands, and swiped it through the machine, hitting enter twice to make the transaction go through. That is right, even though the machine was customer-​facing, I never touched it. I never authorized the transaction. This woman fraudulently processed the charge.
Unreal. She has only one star reviews on Google and Yahoo — all from other members of the public who have been harassed by this dreadful woman.
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Update — I reported Charlene to the corporate offices of UPS and Mailbox Etc. One day later the owner of the store called me to apologize. I accepted his apology and told him I would update my review if he took his wife out of the store. He seemed like such a nice man. I can’t imagine his home life… Watch this space

I’m not sure how to rate this (for now, I’ll use A-​OK), because I have not yet dealt with a worker (owner?) who is supposed to be nicknamed the ‘Dragon Lady’. I have only been at the store around the weekend, when a male employee was quite helpful so there may be real insurmountable problems at this location, or it may be worth a second look if you are lucky enough to deal with a good worker.
In general, this seems to me to be a category of business that has lots of problematic business practices. Contracts can be very one-​sided, owners or managers sometimes make themselves unavailable to resolve problems and can be evasive about charges, credit card numbers are often foolishly left on file under conditions almost guaranteeing abuse, and so on. The owner /​managers have a lot of authority and can do a lot of damage, but don’t seem responsible to anyone if customers don’t find a way to complain effectively.
However, there does seem to be at least one employee around the weekend here who will explain options and work things out with customers.