I just had the most infuriating experience at this UPS store.
I'm a Temple employee and alumna and have been shipping packages here for the past 13 years. This is literally the only joint that I ship packages out of, because it's conveniently located near my job.
I always mail my boxes the same way. I get an old box, usually from an Amazon shipment, put the stuff in it, and wrap it securely with SHIPPING PAPER. Today I did just that and arrived to be told that they won't ship a box if it has shipping paper on it. I literally had wrapped the entire box in clear packing tape after covering it with the paper, so I was very confused as to why this was a problem. Andrew, the guy I was dealing with, told me that they can't ship it with paper in case the paper rips. I pointed out that literally the entire box was covered in clear packing tape so it would be impossible for it to rip. It would actually be MUCH more likely for the shitty box that I used to rip or dent or break than it would have been for the packing tape and the packing paper to both get ripped.
I asked how much a box would cost - just a box to put my box inside of, and he told me it would cost $26.00. For a box. For one box.
No.
I then asked him if he had a pair of scissors to cut the paper off the box, since I packaged it with the expectation that I would be handled roughly and that the person on the receiving end of the box would have a pair of scissors to unwrap it. He said no. No scissors at all. I then had to proceed to struggle to rip the packing paper and packing tape off the damn box because I had packaged it so that nothing could permeate it. Apparently using a box that has markings all over it, with a previous shipping label on it, is preferable to shipping a box that I spent 15 minutes tightly securing.
As if that wasn't annoying enough, Andrew was absolutely INSISTENT that I list every single item in my box. Mind you, every time I come here I usually list "paper, plastic, glass, electronics, etc." I never get insurance on my packages, and no one has ever given me a hard time.
Not Andrew. Andrew wanted to know every single item in my box.
This was beyond a frustrating experience. I kept telling him there were several items (at least 8 or 9) in the box, most of which I couldn't even REMEMBER anymore, and that there were simple paper and plastic items in it. He refused to process my order until I told him what was inside. I get that they want to make sure there are no flammable or dangerous items in your packages, but that question was never posed to me.
If UPS is going to have rules, then they need to be applied by every single employee of the store. Either Andrew was giving me a hard time for no reason, or all of the other employees I've ever encountered here are utterly incompetent, because I have never, ever, in my entire 13 years of going here, had any of the obstacles that Andrew placed in front of me today.
UPS, what the fuck are you doing? Get your shit together.
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EDIT: I called the complaint line for UPS (1800-789-4623) and was told the following:
1. While UPS doesn't like to ship things with paper wrapping, if you tell the associate to ship it anyway, they should do it for you.
2. They are not permitted to ask for every single item in your box. Saying "paper, plastic, clothes, electronics" is more than acceptable.
3. The woman I spoke with was "dumbfounded" that Andrew would not let me use a pair of scissors to remove the paper. "Of course he has scissors," she says. read more