Revolt growing at UPS

The Dallas Morning News ^ | May 4, 2006 | Katherine Yung

[Basselope]

United Parcel Service Inc. is facing a revolt within its shipping network as a growing number of store franchisees, including several in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, are joining forces to sue the company.

The situation has become so acrimonious that more than 100 UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. franchisees from around the country are expected to picket outside the package delivery giant's annual shareholder meeting today in Wilmington, Del.

[Glenn]

Good. FedEx-Kinkos is ready to take up the slack.

[NRA1995]

"What will Brown do for us???"

[HEY4QDEMS]

What can Brown do to you??

[WoofDog123]

reading through the article, it is not clear to me there is basis for the suit, at least not as described here.

[fatnotlazy]

My employer uses UPS for its shipping. I for one am underwhelmed. Fed X is so much better -- more user friendy for one thing.

[kinoxi]

these are people who made bad business decisions and are trying to blame the franchise licensor. it seem kind of like someone opening a mcdonalds and then later suing because they're no turning a profit. these people knew what they were getting into.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Potential Brown out?

[GingisK]

My employer uses UPS for its shipping.

We use UPS only as a last resort. They have become slow in delivery, high theft rate from packages, damaged merchandise, and unwilling to pay out insurance. The once magnificent company has really hit the skids.

[smith288]

Here is what brown does for me... So I got Drano

[RetiredArmy]

Like pouring millions into NASCAR.

[A CA Guy]

Unions doing what they do best, putting a gun to the head of business and eventually extracting overly lucrative contracts that will end the company and bankrupt their pensions.

Keep up the good work unions! You are in fact a cancer that destroys the host and itself.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Hey..."Brown happens."

[skr]

Our retail store's experience with FedEx is to nearly always be shorted on packages, which is rarely the case with UPS.

[HitmanLV]

FedEx Kinkos is almost hideously bad. Kinkos was good before FedEx took over - now I never use that vendor. Awful.

[American_Centurion]

Whew!! I looked into buying a Mail Boxes Etc franchise a little over two years ago. During my research I found out that MBE had been purchased by UPS and the franchises are to be called UPS stores. The price of the franchise was resonable, as long as the promised support was really there. In the end I decided that buying a "new" unproven franchise wasn't wise. Seems like I may have been correct, for once!

[Dont Mention the War]

One thing that might help these franchisees is if they started advertising that their shipping rates are, today, almost the same as UPS's own rates. I get the feeling there are millions of people out there that still consider "UPS Store" synonymous with "price gouging".

I shipped something UPS via a Mail Boxes Etc. store one time about ten years ago, and the cost was double what UPS charged at the time if you took your package to a regular UPS depot. I have never set foot in a MBE/UPS Store ever since, precisely because of that experience. Until I read this article, I'd assumed they were still reaming the customer to this day on shipping charges, in the name of "convenience". But instead it's only 5% above normal UPS charges? Now that's a reasonable fee. Maybe I'll give them another try.

[Energy Alley]

I hate UPS, I swear one of our assitants spends 90% of her time on the phone fighting with UPS over bogus brokerage invoices.

I actually prefer just the plain old post office.

[Dont Mention the War]

Our retail store's experience with FedEx is to nearly always be shorted on packages, which is rarely the case with UPS.

I rarely have trouble with real FedEx, but I won't touch FedEx Ground with a ten-foot pole. They're private contractors, not the real thing, so if anything goes wrong with your delivery, God help you.

[bert]

They wish.....