The UPS Store — Local services in Laguna Beach

Have rented a private POB here for several years and overall they have been helpful and responsive with their services and/or special deliveries / after hours pickups.

EDIT: While the staff is still knowledgeable and courteous, I've dropped the rating from 5 stars to 2 based on policies and procedures.

When I picked this place, over a decade ago, to have as both my business and permanent address, one of the very basic standards that they met was having 24-hour access to my mailbox. I've maintained a PO Box at different establishments for over 50 years and I've never heard of any place, not even the USPS, not providing 24-hour access to box holders. People who work for a living and work normal hours don't expect to have to take time off of work to pick up their mail, and to pay a box rental fee for the privilege. Providing for safe, secure and monitored after hours access is no doubt a major inconvenience for such a business to provide; it's also a basic part of the service. This store made the choice to discontinue that access about a year ago. The city didn't make them do it, all other nearby UPS Stores have 24-hour access, and the neighborhood certainly could not be safer. To be sure whatever their reasons, it was a very convenient choice for them.

This week I had to rush over there at 6:00, because they close at 6:30, earlier than other nearby UPS Stores, to pick up a package and for a simple bank form notarization. "We don't offer notary services after 5:00 p.m." What? Add to that, there was no one else in the store when I got there and no one else in the store when I left. Unless you count the crickets. So it's not like they were slammed by a last minute rush and too busy to do it.

A simple signature acknowledgment takes a notary 5 or 10 minutes. But things aren't always simple. A 5-minute process for a notary can stretch into 20 or even 30 minutes if a customer doesn't have their documents properly prepared or if, because they don't have the proper or standard identification on them, the notary has to help with some creative logistics to legally established their identity. So it's convenient for a business that does notarizations to not offer the service or take appointments within 30 minutes of closing. Mine would have been simple. I know these things, because I used to be a notary.

What I don't know, is why they would choose to withhold the service an hour and a half before the close of business and furthermore, why they wouldn't post that anywhere in the store or on their website. But you don't have to be a notary though, to know that such a policy is very very convenient for them.

Every tangible thing the UPS store sells, you can just as easily get, and cheaper, elsewhere. Every service they provide you can either do yourself from home, or is readily available elsewhere. So the only justification they have to exist, and the only ability they have to turn a profit is to sell those things and provide those services, with a heaping side of convenience. But, for the...

I have been to this UPS store three times. Every time I get quick friendly service. In the past I went to the post office to mail out packages. I found their flat rate boxes convenient and were the best I thought I could do. Now I use this UPS store exclusively. Although, my only use of their services are to mail personal packages out. They do a variety of other things including private post boxes. They also have holiday and special occasion cards as well as postal supplies but no boxes for shipping out.

Atmosphere: 4.5 stars. The store is clean and neat. I recall a USPS post box outside for letter mail and such. Why the 4.5 stars. Parking is crowded in front of the store. I imagine a lot of people park in the parking lot of the grocery store nearby and walk over to do our business.

Service: 5 stars. The staff is very professional, friendly, and quick. I was only mailing packages out but it was small to no line. After going here I kicked myself for not trying them out sooner. They beat the line at the post office.

Quality: 5 stars. My packages arrived quickly (faster than USPS). Tracking numbers were great. They print the label for my packages. They keep my information so the next time I shipped a box to the same address it was smoothly processed.

Value: 5 stars. The standard by which I compare is to USPS. The packages I sent cost me less in postage than mailing through USPS (their largest flat rate being about $24; I paid like $18 or so). Only difference is that I had to supply my own box. I believe they have the standard insurance that comes with any package of up to $40 or $50.

The UPS store feels like one of those times when capitalism wins by empowering a private enterprise to do a better job for a lower price. Makes me feel lucky to live in a country where such places give us a choice and deliver a...

My elderly father went to send me a package from this UPS store. He sends me a package every few months from the Aliso Viejo UPS store, and it is usually around $38 UPS ground shipping, 5 days guaranteed. Never an issue. The store clerk at this store lied and said that it would be $127 for UPS and he should send it USPS global priority 7 days, which would only be $90, even though my father specified the cheapest way possible, and asked for UPS. Not knowing any better, my father accepted this recommendation, assuming that maybe UPS had changed their rates. It took 15 days for this package to arrive, and when I saw what he sent and how much he paid, I went on UPS' website and estimated the shipping costs using the exact box dimensions and the weight on the waybill supplied by this store... the price with UPS ground was $37.11, 5 days guaranteed. I am not sure if this is a scam they run when they see elderly people and up-charge them, or just incompetence, but beware and do your research before going to this UPS store... better yet, head to the UPS store in Aliso Viejo or just have UPS pickup your packages at your door. When we asked them to rectify the situation, they made up every excuse possible to avoid taking...