Out of the Box

I arrived on a Tuesday at 9am to drop off an item for delivery to a PO Box inside. According to their business hours they open at 9am. It is now fifteen minutes past the hour and no one has arrived. There are now at least five other patrons waiting outside. Lesson learned do not show up on time to this place of business I will have to leave and come back at a later time so that I am not late as well.

While this placed used to be great when Mercedes owned it, Ardena and her team are now a RIP OFF!!! I was charged $ 103 to mail a letter overnight via FedEx only to find out that if I would have gone to a FedEx Kinkos, it would have cost me $ 41. THEY OVERCHARGED ME BY $ 62! When I brought it to their attention the next day I was basically told «buyer beware» and that I’m free to «shop around for better prices». While I go out of my way to support local business and don’t mind paying a little more to do so I refuse to be blatantly ripped off. So, in the words of the owner herself: BUYER BEWARE…

This place is a RIP OFF!!! I was charged $ 1.51 to print 2 black & white pages. I was only on the internet to access my email & print my doc for less than a minute & was charged for using the internet. They don’t accept emails for printing docs, they said because they can get a virus. Stop being cheap & invest in antivirus software, you are a business & that is part of owning a business. They make you log on to use their internet to print & charge you for using the internet. UPS, Office Max all accept emails for printing & only change $ 0.10 per page for black/​white printing. This is the absolute worse business I have step foot in. Their supplies & services are also ridiculously expensive. DON’T COME here unless you enjoy throwing away your money.

Please update your hours of operation on all your websites. I was disappointed when I arrived and you were closed when your website and Unilocal said you were supposed to be open until 4pm.

Do not come here — unless you enjoy paying double for your shipments. They are TWICE the price to ship Fed Ex as FedEx Kinkos is. Drive the extra distance and go to FedEx Kinkos!

Super friendly girl who works there and helped me with my printing and shipping needs. I love this place and would definitely go back. There aren’t enough places with this level of customer service anymore.

it took them so long to make a key
my supervisor docked me for taking too long a break
an no they key didn’t work when i got home

I used to love this place, it was a charming local business that I loved supporting. However since Mercedes has sold it to Ted and his wife things have gone very awry. First of all Ted hired me on spec to do graphic design work, and when I submitted an invoice to him based on our agreed upon price he refused to pay it because, he said «I don’t know if they’re going to actually purchase the banners.» So I did $ 400 plus worth of work for free. Do not contact with them for this if you are a graphic designer. The thing that really prompted this review is what happened when I returned my keys. The previous owner charged me a $ 25 deposit on the front door key, which I expected to get back when I returned the key. The new owners did not even offer me the courtesy of contacting me directly to tell me the new process, theyinstead informed my sister that the deposit was made to the previous owners and they took all the deposit money with them, therefore I would not be getting my deposit back for the front door key. Ted’s wife even suggested that my sister go and talk to the previous owner about it! (Ted has owned this business for over 2 years!) This was the final straw for me. Unfortunately this mailbox company is in a very perfect location for my family to continue using it, but do not do any other types of business with this company or you will be sorry. By the way I never post negative reviews, so you must know I’m quite disappointed in their business practices.

I will admit, this place is way better than the post office in terms of customer service, but unfortunately they are too expensive for my budget shipping needs. I sold something on ebay that I needed to ship and was told the cheapest shipping option through USPS was $ 45. What?!
I knew shipping this beast of a box wouldn’t be cheap, but I nearly lost money on this sale. I bit my tongue and paid it because the nice young woman who was helping me mentioned casually that yeah, they charge more than the post office, but usually only a dollar or two. I’m okay with a dollar or two saved to avoid the lines at the post office. But when I got my final receipt which contained the package weight and dimensions, I went to the USPS website and saw that it only should have cost $ 30 to ship — not $ 45. They also charged me $ 4 more to ship a medium sized priority mail flat rate box (usually $ 13, I paid 17).
I’ve learned from this experience and will be sticking to the post office or at least stores that won’t charge a 50% markup on shipping.

My property management company has a drop box here and I took a chance sliding my rent check under the door outside of their normal business hours. When I called during their business hours to make sure it had actually made it into the drop box, they had taken care of it. I was absolutely relieved.
The staff is great every time I go in and love the fact that I can drop stuff off and know it will just be handled.

So today I go in person since no one felt it was important enough to return 1 of the 12 calls I made. I was met with the owners wife who rather talk over you than really hear the issue at hand. FINALLY the owner now want to talk to me on the phone, It took me having to go in instead of one simple return call. he promptly lets me know that he’s a busy man, and he’s not been in over the holidays (busiest time and owners not there?). So I get thrown about 50 different reasons why I was not called back. I heard rumors that this is how the new owners run the business but I guess I found out for myself. To top this off their computers weren’t working properly. So un-​prepared Monday morning business, rude owners who make excuses instead of the customer happy, great business model uh. Then I get a call from the owner 2 min ago telling me basically to take my business elsewhere because I left a neg rating on Unilocal,which this morning the wife didn’t care about. Owners actually said «i shipped 10,000 boxes, so what if 4 complaints happened. WHAT? EVER customer is as important as #1 or #10,000. DO NOT GO HERE. Yes mistakes happen, unprofessional bad attitudes do NOT happen. Look for yourself, look at the dates, when the old owners were their glowing reviews other than a super rare negative. Now look at 2013 and how many did the new owners get? I don’t even know if the old owners ever got 3 the while time they owned the place and the new ones 3 in the last month? You’d think they would stop making excuses and get to work on fixing problems. Take your chance if you want but I’d say don’t go. IF you do go for some reason, stand their and watch them pack your item. Another trick they pull is package your small item in a huge box much bigger than you need., it changed the charges on the dimensions so you have to pay more. The thing is all this could of been worked out just fine, very easily. Still no legitimate reason why 12 calls got no results. Even if they want to say i’m wrong, tell me how can any business justify not calling the customer back even 1 time in 12 attempts? So in the end you add it up yourself, youd’ do better pretty much any place else. I gave it a one star only because their was nothing less. It’s sad what they have done to a wonderful business. I been shipping from their for many years with the previous owner and never a problem, NEVER… till now

I have been going to Out of The Box for many years. It was much friendlier and efficient than the Post Office. There has been a change in ownership and unfortunately it has resulted in a change in customer service as well. Services that I received earlier under the new owners I am now told in a rude manner that those services have never been offered or received. This is not the first time that the female (I think owner) was rude and unhelpful. I will assume that if this happens again I will need to find an alternative method of shipping. Too bad

I just back from this store and I have the most wonderful costumer service. Usually I come here and drop something off (in an out in a second, and they are always saying hello with a smile). This time I had to mail something out and the lady that help me was just delightful. She was friendly with an amazing energy that felt contagious. Multitasking and helping everyone with such a charm. When I get costumer service like this, I tend to ask for names but I was so impressed by her that I forgot. I will be back if I need anything without thinking twice!!!

Mercedes, you are simply awesome and the best! I will elect OTB over the USPS any day of the week. The USPS’ staff is rude and non personal. OTB, on the other hand, is totally opposite.

Super friendly, super fast. Owner stayed late so I could receive a rushed fax for an apartment I was applying for.

LOVE LOVE LOVE This place of business, feels like family! They REALLY do CARE!
I do a lot of eBay business and always ship from here! Friendly, Happy, Inviting environment!
Will ALWAYS come back!
If you go here you are supporting a family owned business in our Long Beach community.
xo
Mercedes is simply THE BEST!

If you prefer to support family business like I do, please make sure you visit Out of the Box. The family that owns this ‘all purpose’ shipping office is the same family that owns the locally world famous Potholder, on Broadway.
The family business is pretty much run by Mercedes and her family and that’s what makes it so cool. They know your name by the second time you come in and you know that they take care of your business and personal shipping. The shipping business isn’t very exciting, but its nice to have some friendly, reliable faces to meet you when you have to take care of something. I plan on going to Out of the Box as long as I have to work. See you soon guys!

I went out of my way for a while to use Out of the Box — they’re on a convenient route from my neighborhood, they’re small, non chainy, etc. Once I went in and they gave me a free photocopy (around tax time, it would only have been like 15 cents tops, but it was appreciated). Cool, right?
But around Christmastime my husband and I had some packages to ship, we both sent them on the cheaper/​less urgent end of Christmastime shipping, and they took around the same time after being mailed a day or so apart. Only thing is, my husband paid about $ 6 each for two light weight boxes (containing single framed photos with packing) at the Pack N Ship place in Hollywood, while I paid an eye-​popping $ 30 for one lightweight box (containing a single framed photo with packing). They were about the same weight and sent USPS Priority Mail. They both arrived fine and within the timeframe expected (3 – 4 days). No difference in outcome except I’m about $ 25 lighter in my wallet for the one I sent. I paid it at the time, because I didn’t have time to run all over kyarn to send it, but I vowed never to return. Times are too tight to indulge that kind of gouge, even if they are a local business owner.

Out of the Box is a great alternative to USPS, UPS, or FedEx if you don’t mind a small surcharge. Additionally, they are friendly every time I walk into the store. Their fax rates are comparable to all other places, and they have notary services. I would definitely recommend them!

This place is awesome!
It’s laid back and cheap and really convenient if you live in the ‘hood.
I just stopped in to copy and fax something, but they offer an array of other services worth checking out.
Yay out of the box!