All of the stores are local franchises, so if you ever have any serious problems, you will get ZERO support from UPS or MBE at a corporate level. Its says UPS, but your contract is just with a local guy down the street who will do what he wants with your mail and what he wants with his store (including closing it without notifying you or delivering your mail).
If your local store goes out of business, UPS will just drop the ball completely and customers are stuck with ZERO support from MBE or corporate UPS. And good luck trying to get a refund from UPS or MBE. They don't have any of your records, contracts or anything to even give you a refund. That's all kept by the local franchise guy, NOT UPS or MBE!
So YOU will be the one running around changing your address, trying to track down your mail, standing in line at the Post Office to get your held mail, doing your change of address forms, notifying customers of your new address, and changing your business cards, marketing materials, web site, finding receipts to try and get a refund, waiting on hold at the UPS 800 number, etc..
Here's my story of the terrible experience I had with UPS/MBE:
I set up a mailbox at my local UPS store for a small business I had started. After putting the address on business cards and making changes to web site and marketing materials, the local store proceeded to go out of business. No one at UPS or MBE bothered to notify me, I simply found an "Out of Business" notification taped to the store window. I had to drive to another town to get any back-logged mail and they proceeded to give me someone else's mail. I then had to drive back again and return it. The mail was things like a child support check for a woman in my home town. I asked it he would make sure it got returned or delivered to her. He said that was not his job and he was doing corporate a favor by simply holding this mail for them. I then drove to the post office get any additionally held mail, and they said I need to do a change of address because the mail would be return to sender soon. I then was supposed to drive to another town to a different UPS local store that might honor my previous contract with the other local guy.
I was frustrated so I called the MBE 888 number and it said they were on memorial day holiday (this was on Wednesday, 2 days after the holiday). I then call UPS 800 number and they said they couldn't help me because its an MBE problem and problems like this are the responsibility of the local store. I said my local store was out of business, they said there is nothing they could do, but they would have a local marketing person contact me within 24 hours.
Three days later, I still had not been contacted and called the 800 number back. They said nothing they can do, someone will contact me in 24 hours. Again, no contact, so I submitted a complaint to the Better Business Bureau. After another week of back and forth with several people. Finally, MBE support asked what they could do to compensate me. I said simply give me something like a year or 6 months free or anything to help alleviate the hassles and expenses I had incurred.
They then contacted me and said the other town would honor my existing contract. I said, what? I thought you were going to compensate me for my costs. They said, we have, we are honoring the original contract. I said I want a refund. They said they don't have any of my records, because its all franchises and they don't even know how much I paid for my account. Now I need to find my old receipt, mail it to corporate, and then they will process a refund.
What a hassle and I still don't have a refund yet. Its the typical big corp excuses - that's not my department, its the local franchise's problem, its the wholly owned subsidiary's problem (MBE in this case). Well then why does it say UPS in huge letters on every local store?
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