Decent Quality, but Expensive and Sneaky with price.
As things go, Arbor Pack N Mail is about what you would expect from a small business, their business model being similar to that of other local groups: set up shop near a relatively high traffic location - in their case a Trader Joe's - and hope that when customers see they can get their packing and mailing needs taken care of just a few stores down, that said customers will be willing to pay extra for the convenience.
This is the tried and true method all small businesses use to survive, and while there's nothing wrong with it in theory, Arbor Pack N Mail proves that in practice this idea is not always implemented in a way that is fair to the customer.
Let me tell you my story:
I was walking out of Trader Joe's a while ago and saw their sign as I was unloading my groceries into my car, as it turned out I needed to ship something and figured that I'd at least walk in and see what they were like. When I did, I saw one person behind the counter and a line about 5 people long, this person was a young man, and looked like he was a student at one of the local colleges, his name was Tom. Tom was incredibly nice and efficient with all the customers he had, and, to my surprise, in about 7 minutes he got to me - an efficiency that would put your average post office employee to shame. When he quoted me a price for my package it seemed a little high, he then kindly explained about how they charge more at their location for their services.
So no harm, no foul; like I said before, I get it.
I decided to go ahead and let Tom pack and ship the item for me, and the person I sent it to was very impressed with how well the item had been packed.
So overall, I paid a little extra, but the friendly service and great job on packing seemed worth it.....at the time anyway.
Fast Forward to a few weeks later, and I had another item I needed shipped. Now, just to avoid the same price shock I had last time, I went ahead and looked up some shipping quotes online. I was on my way home from work and decided that I'd stop by and see what they would charge me, since my experience had been so positive the last time.
When I got there, I saw a similar scenario: one guy, this time an older one, and a few customers in line. This guy was about as fast as Tom, and he got to me in no time, his name was Sam, and from what I could tell he was the owner of the place. Like Tom, Sam was very nice and efficient with the customers he had, but unlike Tom, Sam apparently knew these customers personally, at least that's what I gathered, so it didn't seem that unusual that he took a little longer getting to me than Tom did. When Sam did get to me he was very business oriented, and a little less than friendly, but I chalked it up to the fact that he didn't know me and that he was the (apparent) owner of the place. When Sam gave me a price quote I was shocked, he wanted to charge me nearly 3 times what I had been quoted online!
A 25% markup I get, even a 50% markup I can understand, but a 200% markup!? To make it even worse, this Sam person gave me excuse after excuse about how "shipping to certain locations carry a premium over others" and that his prices "were predetermined by the carriers", when I called him on how his prices were nothing but service charges he still refused to admit to it, and instead told me to try one of the carriers directly, I told him that went without saying and stormed out.
I can only guess that if your a recurring client, and the owner gets to know you personally, that he gives you some kind of discount, otherwise most of his clientele must consist of ignorant college kids and people with enough disposable income to value familiarity over his ridiculously high prices.
Honestly, my experience with Tom is the only reason why I'm giving this place as high a rating as I am - It's really sad when the employee is more honest, and does more to help you out than the owner.
I will definitely NOT be using them again. read more
