15
Jun
09

UPS Store – Run Your Business From Anywhere?

By Joshua Steimle 4 Comments Categories: Reviews & How-To

Maybe radio advertising has a future? I keep hearing these ads for “The UPS Store” that have been intriguing to me because the UPS Store appears to be able to solve a few problems I have:

1. Driving to the post office to check my post office box only find out I didn’t get any mail that day (The UPS Store will send you an email whenever mail is received).

2. Receiving any and all packages (certain companies won’t ship to a PO box, and obviously the post office won’t sign for my packages, but the UPS Store will).

3. A real street address (the UPS Store gives me a real street address rather than a PO box, which doesn’t look as good, plus there are certain companies that won’t accept a PO box which means I have to give them my home address, but I only check the mail at home once a month which sometimes causes issues).

4. But the #1 problem I’ve had is mail forwarding, and it appears the UPS Store may have solved that for me as well with their Alternate Location Delivery service. Let’s say I want to go live in Boston for two months, just for fun. I can work from Boston as long as I’ve got my laptop and Internet access. That’s easy. I can get my phone calls forwarded from my office phone, no problem. Even my voicemails are forwarded to my email account as audio file attachments. The one problem I have is getting my mail forwarded. The USPS mail forwarding solution stinks. You give them a temporary forwarding address, it takes a few weeks to kick in, it’s unreliable, and then it takes a while to turn off. With the UPS Store apparently you can go online, tell them where to send your mail, and they’ll forward it to any of their 4,300 locations and you can go pick it up. I’m guessing that if you’re traveling and it gets forwarded to a location too late you could even forward it more than once. There’s no such flexibility with the US Postal Service. Not even close.

And the main reason this is a problem for me is that I need to be able to process checks from clients. I can do that remotely (I have a check scanner that sends my deposits to my bank over the Internet) but I have to have the physical check in my hand in order to do it, and the USPS didn’t cut it when I was in Ohio once for six weeks.

The only thing is that I’m not a customer of the UPS Store, so all I have to go on is their advertising which, as I mentioned, is doing it’s job on me. But I’d like to get comments from other people on their experiences with the UPS Store, bad or good. If it works as advertised, then I may have solved the last piece of the puzzle when it comes to being 100% mobile with my business.

Related posts:

  1. USPS Temporary Mail Forwarding Could Use Some Improvement
  2. Work Anywhere and Check Your Snail Mail Online
  3. Mail Receiving / Check Deposit Service
  • AR

    Sounds like a good strategy. I have access to the Regus buildings and I’ve found them to be quite helpful. I use them at least once a month when I go in and out of major cities (NY, DC, Atlanta, Boston, etc.) I don’t use their mail or receptionist services, but the meeting spaces, private offices, and lounges have served me well. Check out this thread for more opinions and ideas. http://www.abanet.org/soloseznet/threads/0902/homeoffice.html

  • http://www.jeremyhanks.com Jeremy Hanks

    Josh, if it’s just check processing/depositing, you should should look into lockboxes.

    http://banking.about.com/od/businessbanking/a/lockboxes.htm

    Some banks will do it for you, and I think there are 3rd parties as well in that About article, and maybe the bank or service fees outweigh the UPS store fees, but at least another option.

  • http://www.pixelfixinc.com scott

    What a great argument for small government and free markets! Quick, someone tell Pres. Obama.

  • calandra

    The UPS store rocks- I bought a mailbox there for business- and eventually another for personal use- i get plenty of deliveries that have to be signed for and im traveling alot, therefore, rarely around to sign. If its a drop off delivery, it would get left on the stoop, a real problem since im not home often. The risk of theft was high. The ups store has performed in every way possible, even beyond what they advertise- the times i cant get in to pick up a package they are holding during their normal hours- they will leave it in a designated (safe) place for me to pick up at my leisure. Then leave the slip in my mailbox, which i sign and return. I have a building key for checking my boxes at my convenience, not just during biz hours (when your train gets you back home at 8 at night-and you have to leave at 5 am for another trip thats just convenient)

    Forwarding is fast and accurate- they email me when i have packages or mail, and will even let me know, upon request, who it is from, so i know the urgency of pick up. if i stop in during normal hours, they offer to unlock my mailboxes (from their side of the counter) and hand me my mail..a small thing, but customer service that cant be beat. If you need to mail something, and cant be there during normal times- you can even leave it there with a note- follow up email and ask them to prep. and send it for you- lets see you try that at the post office.

    Overall- i hope i never have to use the post office again- the service is something like wal-mart as the post office, and a designer boutique is ups store. And the rates are as good as a po box too- only 33 dollars for 3 months with a 15 dollar deposit for the keys. Id recommend ups store for mail to anyone.