The UPS Store

TL;DR: Go elsewhere! Owner is rude from the get-​go, and price gouging is alive and well here. When I told owner I’d complain to UPS and post on Unilocal,she said, «Call UPS and tell them; they won’t care, and I don’t care about Unilocal.»
Long version: Price gouging is alive and well at this store, and the owner does not care about customer service. In fact, her attitude is one of, «This is my place; don’t like it? Get out.» We hear about that attitude from time to time — restaurant owners who get in Unilocal wars with patrons; bakeries that refuse to serve certain customers. I like to think that in the long run, that anti-​customer-​service attitude will make these people fail.
But only we – the paying customer – can make these people fail. The owner of this UPS Store does not deserve to succeed in this business. She’s rude. She charges too much. And she’s arrogant. She also gives other UPS Store franchises a bad name. Ultimately, I hope that will be her downfall.
Here’s my story:
I had three boxes to return to online shopping places and needed to print labels for them. Having done this somewhere between 50 and 100 times in my life, I figured I knew what to expect. A small charge for computer time and maybe 5 to 10 cents per page printed.
Wrong.
I walked in and was ignored by a gruff woman at a cash register, who was helping someone else. I put my boxes down to wait; she looked up at me with a «why the $#&* are you here?» look, and I said, «Can I use the computer to print labels?» «No!» she barked, and I kind of stood there stunned. Beat, two, three, and she said, «I need to log you on as a different user and then you can print, but you have to wait.» Okay, I thought. This is one disgruntled employee, but whatever. I need to send these boxes off today.
Another woman who’d been on the phone finished her call and came over to set me up to print. She was pleasant and said, «There’s a charge to use the computer.» I said, «That’s fine. I need to print.» She said, «Well, I’ve been yelled at for that before.» That should have been my first clue that something was up, but I thought, well some people are really cheap and don’t want to spend a couple of bucks on anything.
After taking about 10 minutes on the computer to print six pages, I struggled to tape up my boxes using tape my husband had purchased at this store the week prior. Once I finally got my boxes together, I brought them to the desk.
Gruff Woman scanned the labels and gave me a receipt, then said, «It’ll be 15 for the labels.» I said, «What?!» She said, «It’s 15 dollars, 5 per box.» I expressed extreme dismay, told her I’d been to UPS Stores across the country, had used computers and printers in many businesses, and never had I been charged that much for so little.
She said many things (keep in mind that everything she said was with a f– you tone to her voice):
«I have to maintain that computer and that printer. How much do you *think* it should cost you?»
«A couple of bucks, max,» I said, pointing out, again, that I’d done this same thing in UPS Stores across the country and had never been charged so much.
«Well, that’s what it costs in Fairhaven,» she said. «We’re independently owned and we can set our own prices.»
I continued to protest.
«People come in here all day to drop off boxes and we get nothing for that.»
I said, «You should be ashamed of yourself for charging as much as you do.»
She replied, «I’m just ashamed we ever let people do it for free.»
I asked if she was the owner. She said she was and that her name was Cathy ***. I told her I’d be calling UPS and writing on Unilocal once I got home, and she said: «Call UPS and tell them; they won’t care, and I don’t care about Unilocal.»
She might not care about Unilocal,but I did call the UPS Store franchise, and they did (at least seem to) care. The woman I spoke to at UPS Store’s corporate HQ said customer service is part of the franchise agreement and that the regional manager would be contacting this store’s owner to discuss the incident with her. The HQ woman also offered to send me my $ 15 back. She said that to her, as a consumer and as someone who used to run a UPS store, that was an outrageous amount to charge for the service provided.
Here’s what bothers me: If you look at Cathy’s LinkedIn profile, you’ll see that she has owned and run UPS Stores since 1991. If you read the reviews that Unilocal has hidden, you will see that my experience is not singular. My husband had been there the week prior to me, and after I told him my story he said, «Oh yeah, she was awful to me, too.» He just let it go. That says to me that many people have a bad experience there and just let it go. But people! This woman will then *stay in business* and she shouldn’t.
I hope the UPS Store corporate HQ actually does something about this. I just read that Cathy used to own the Westport UPS Store, too. (Similar reviews.) But that store apparently has a new owner. It’s time for the Fairhaven store to have a new owner, too.

Just left the store and was helped by Becky. She was very pleasant, helpful in packaging up my belongings and informative regarding shipping. I am local and will now reserve my UPS shipping day to Saturday so I will only deal with her. Thanks for hiring a great worker.

We had the worst experience at this UPS Store location. The owner told us we had to fill out a form to send our packages, even though both were prepaid. When we said one of them was an international shipment, she told us it would be at least $ 200 and that she didn’t handle international shipments. According to her, the UPS Store and UPS as a whole were «totally different companies». She instructed us to go to a UPS customer service center in North Dartmouth, a 15 minute drive away, but would not give us the address. We drove the distance only to discover that center was closed on Saturdays. We will never patronize this store again. A nearby Mailboxes Etc. took both packages with no questions asked.