United Parcel Service Inc., which has drawn sharp criticism over the past couple years from many of its UPS Store franchisees, is the target of a proposed class-action lawsuit filed Wednesday.
The suit, which was filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, accuses Atlanta-based UPS (NYSE: UPS) of wrongly profiting off of UPS Store and Mail Boxes Etc. franchisees by billing them for differences in shipping rates.
According to the complaint, franchisees weigh and measure customer packages in their stores, and charge customers accordingly. They then ship the package to UPS, where the company re-measures the package and charges the store owners for the difference.
The lawsuit argues that franchisees have no ability to contest the revised measurements and can’t reassess customers for the additional charges.
It also claims that UPS uses “inaccurate” methods of measuring the packages.
The suit currently has one named plaintiff, Persepolis Enterprise, owner of a UPS Store in Michigan. It is represented by the Hagens, Berman, Sobol, Shapiro LLP law firm in Seattle.
FranchiseBrief.com on May 3rd, 2007 at 12:36 pm
The is a huge insatisfaction among UPS franchisees right now.