After getting a mailbox here, their services can only be not recommended. This is the experience why:
They already had bank details, can take out funds according to a contract, and a copy of the passport, and had met with them on several occasions so they know who we are, e.g. when signing, when picking up items, discussing travel plans so they can advise about issues forwarding your mail. It is a UPS/MBE Store, licensed by UPS to use the UPS name and logo, with the international UPS reputation for professionalism, service and integrity. It is in a central area of Berlin, near Alexanderplatz - a major transit hub. It seems normally busy, and so has no lack of income.
Our situation is as above, plus, we were stranded overseas without a vital VISA card because we left it at a local business. As the business owner, who was helpful, was catering alone an event for 150 people that day, it felt better to alleviate her stress of sending it out. So we put our heads together, and decided to give the UPS Store / MBE Mailboxes Etc a call; the same one there was already a mailbox account with. We explained the urgent situation; that we were overseas and needed the card expressed to the hotel desk so that we could retrieve it. Without hesitation they behaved as though they agreed to pick up the card, and then send it out that day. The fee was 111EUR: 81EUR for shipping and the rest for the courier service to pick up the card from the business, a few kilometers away.
They did half of that.
Then they (Uwe Kunert, owner) proceeded to surprise us, demanding the payment immediately, or he would hold the card hostage, as a kind of sick & petty emotional bribe. The additional trick? : He demanded the funds via Uberweisung -bank transfer- a process that usually takes 2 - 3 business days. We were shocked because we had negotiated this in good faith, and had prior good feelings with the shop. Indeed, playing-along, even if he needed the payment immediately -as if his bustling business would collapse- he was required to have explained up-front, and not pretend like he would send the card out that day, a Friday, to arrive the following Tuesday. We had already to make different and difficult arrangements to be able to be at the destination to retrieve the card. We tried playing along, and asked if he would accept Visa or PayPal payment: "No" was his answer. Although if a store calls the Visa processor, in my experience, usually they can accept it manually over the phone. He re-iterated, claiming it would 'only' take 1-2 days to receive the bank transfer, which is not true in our experience. Only sometimes it does, and this was a Friday. Besides, the point is we trusted he would take care of his side of the agreement, and you can see the situation.
When we were both completely aghast at his inhumanity, and cruelty, and bad-faith practice, and I called and brought this to his attention, at first as diplomatically as possible, keeping in mind that we needed the card, he told me he would hang up on me for being "impolite", and did-so. I managed to call back, again on our behalf and talk with his woman, Anne Kunert, offering to connect me to him if I could be "polite", play along with the games of an immature, insecure man, and basically ignore what he was doing, and instead I begged her to talk to him because maybe she could talk to him in words he would understand. Still, it took them a long time, and thirty minutes later, with only a small time to go in the send window for that day, and after these several emails/phone calls, being hung-up on, and basically refusing to carry out their part of the agreement, they offered a PayPal account. This came via an email message from someone else at the Store. We sent the money immediately, and had a receipt from PayPal within 6 minutes of their offer.
Over 45 minutes later, at 1806, we received another email. Yet another trick: The fees PayPal had deducted for the amount was 4,68€, and they would again refuse to send this vital document. "Only 10 minutes remaining for us to be able to send it today." I immediately sent them another 10.00€, so they would not have any more excuses, manipulations, and bad faith or fraud to operate under. Furthermore, they claimed that because it was a Visa card, it might get held up in Customs, because strictly-speaking (to them) it was not a 'Document'. So then why didn't they tape it to the inside of a large envelope inside the UPS Express envelope? So much for service; I fear local Customs and UPS shipping, less than I fear these people.
* Note to Yelp team: Business is listed as "Versand - Digitaldruck - MBE- Business Service Kunert e.K." In accordance with the guidlines asking for full names not to be used unless it is service providers already using their name, in this case in the public business title. read more
