Franchise Woes continue

[Iconoclast]

I found a link to a franchising forum - It appears to be very well run and there is some very good information on the site about the UPS plight with their UPS stores

Here is a link to an interesting article that could have huge financial implications for UPS.

http://www.bluemaumau.org/states_scrambling_ups_dim_weight_debacle#comment-17228

 

[DS]

Its pathetic the way ups ruined the livlihood of so many mailboxes etc stores.Sure its great for the ones that are in high volume areas,but
so many lost everything after the franchaise fee.

 

[tieguy]

Interesting article. Puts us down for inaccuracies in the lazor system while calling us United postal services. Guess they forgot to calibrate the article...

"SAN DIEGO (Blue MauMau) - After franchise owners of The UPS Stores and Mail Boxes Etc. filed state complaints over United Postal Services’ flawed laser technology, some"

The good news is it should confuse some readers into believing it is the postal service doing the overcharging.

 

[upsdude]

Come on guys, I’m sure it all looks good on a UPS report, somewhere.

For a company so focused on “numbers”, they sure screwed up, again.

 

[Iconoclast]

Yeah, it is kind of scary what has become of those UPS stores. I thought it was such a good idea too. The corporate branding and uniformity of a well run retail outlet is nice brand recognition, especially to the folks that aren't exposed to our drivers on a consistent basis. But the press that we have suffered as a result of this has been terrible. These latest charges are none too pretty either, I wonder where it will lead.

Franchising has been around for a while now, and it is certainly a litigous environment, even though it is regulated by the federal government, there is a great deal of legal risk on both sides when you enter into franchise contract with someone.

It is things like this that kill us. FedEx paid huge money for Kinkos in response to the UPS purchase of MBE. Not only are the Kinkos stores more profitable, but they have enjoyed great success in the cobranding of the two entities. But the real inherent strength of the realtionship between FedEx and Kinkos is that it is another piece of the puzzle as to why Wall Street loves FedEx. They just seem to get it together better than us. This UPS store morass is just another strike against us as far as Wall Street is concerned.

 

[MeMyselfI]

Yeah, it is kind of scary what has become of those UPS stores. I thought it was such a good idea too. The corporate branding and uniformity of a well run retail outlet is nice brand recognition, especially to the folks that aren't exposed to our drivers on a consistent basis. But the press that we have suffered as a result of this has been terrible. These latest charges are none too pretty either, I wonder where it will lead.

Franchising has been around for a while now, and it is certainly a litigous environment, even though it is regulated by the federal government, there is a great deal of legal risk on both sides when you enter into franchise contract with someone.

It is things like this that kill us. FedEx paid huge money for Kinkos in response to the UPS purchase of MBE. Not only are the Kinkos stores more profitable, but they have enjoyed great success in the cobranding of the two entities. But the real inherent strength of the realtionship between FedEx and Kinkos is that it is another piece of the puzzle as to why Wall Street loves FedEx. They just seem to get it together better than us. This UPS store morass is just another strike against us as far as Wall Street is concerned.

I wouldn't pat FedEx on the back for Kinkos. Their Kinkos purchase is not going well - they're losing their shirts on it. Their stock would be much higher if Kinkos wasn't weighing on their results. We made a bad move with Mailboxes and then FedEx made a bad move in response. The question now is - who can make the best of a bad situation?