They will break your items and not compensate you for them. Buyer beware...
I just want to share my story so everyone knows what snakes the people who work/own the 2 Arlington Heights locations (Rand Road & Wing Street) and UPS as a whole.
First off, let me start by saying that I am just a regular person. I don't own a small business, I don't normally sell items online, and I don't have a need to ship things regularly. My assumption would be that this is a fair percentage of a UPS Store's customer base, but after my interactions with several employees, I guess that they assume that we are all shipping mavens.
I was decided that I was going to upgrade my turntable and wanted to sell my current one to help offset the cost of the new one. I posted it on a used HiFi website and after 5-6 weeks, it finally sold for $1,000 with shipping included (meaning that I would cover those costs). The retail on the item is $1,995, and despite being a few years old, they are still selling for that at retailers.
Since the item was very valuable, I kept the original packaging that it came in. Now, these items are typically shipped on pallets, so there wasn't a shipping carton (the outer box), but there were fitted foam inserts and instructions on how to unpack and re-package the items. As this particular turntable has moved with me several times, I was very familiar with how to properly package the components.
I took this box to the UPS Store on Rand Road and was greeted by a short young man and a very tall old man. I explained the item and the value, as well as opened the box to show them the sensitive nature of what was inside. I asked that they package the box that I brought inside of a shipping box for further protection. Despite the fact that I mentioned the value of the item and the delicate nature, I was not offered to purchase insurance (this is important later). As I mentioned earlier, I don't normally ship things. This is maybe the 3rd time that I have ever needed to ship a package and always in the original packaging.
A few days later, I received an email from a very upset buyer (furnished to UPS via the employee named Rand) that the item was damaged upon arrival and that he was going to submit a dispute with PayPal to get a refund. After multiple investigations with PayPal, I decided to submit the claim with UPS, who directed me to the UPS Store that I shipped from.
After explaining the situation to Rand over the phone, I was instructed to email evidence to the UPS Store email address. I provided photos of the undamaged turntable (dated 2/6/2019), the classified ad where the item was purchased from, the bill of sale (dated 3/20/2019), angry messages from the buyer stating that the item was damaged and not packaged properly (dated 3/26/2019) photos of the returned turntable with the damages incurred in shipping (dated 4/1/2019), a police report with a detailed description of the damages incurred (by the Arlington Heights Police Department dated 4/19/2019), along with other classified ads of the sold item and the replacement costs (via multiple sources) for the 2 items that were specifically damaged.
Note that it is now 7/11/2019 and UPS has, insultingly, just now offered me just under $130 for my $1,995 turntable that I sold for $1,000 (not including the cost to ship [$80] and post the ads [$60]). Well, I am actually not sure that UPS actually offered me such a lowball amount or if it was the owner of these 2 stores Patrick Casey (Casey Connection, Inc - https://www.linkedin.com/in/patrick-casey-97194a163/).
When I received the "paperwork" for the claim that they filed on my behalf, I noticed some irregularities. First off, they only asked for the replacement part, not the sale price, which is what I would have sold the item for, if not for Patrick Casey's employee's negligence. So instead of asking for $1,000 from UPS, they only asked for $90 + $595 + $75.35 (11% tax) = $760.35. Had that been the offer, fine, I could fix my turntable and re-sell it, but for that to be what you start off asking for? That's BS.
The second thing that I noticed was the gross lack of evidence that I had sent to Rand at store4073@theupsstore.com. I saw the email that referenced the replacement items but didn't see much else there. I send emails, with evidence, 3 times on 5/9/2019, 5/16/2019, 5/17/2019, 3 times on 5/21/2019, 6/4/2019, 2 times on 6/18/2019, and follow ups on 7/5/2019 and 7/9/2019 for additional information.
Lastly, and the thing that really sticks in my craw is that one of the employees included a check stub from UPS, which didn't include a dollar amount, but the insulting check for under $130 was from Casey Connections, Inc. Did Patrick Casey receive the requested amount of $760.35 and pocket the difference? Where did his dollar amount come from?
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