Posters Beware
Bonnie Roskes’ publisher usually takes care of shipping the software books she writes, but sometimes she has to ship them herself. When she does, she often goes to the post office. Occasionally, she goes to Parcel Plus in Cleveland Park.
Parcel Plus isn’t Roskes’ favorite place. She thinks the owner is rude and the prices are high. She even said so in a March 2006 post on the Cleveland Park listserv.
But on Nov. 9, Roskes had a packed schedule, so she went to Parcel Plus, which is close to her home. As procedure dictates, she filled out forms with her name and address and handed them to an employee. “The guy typed my name into the computer and said, ‘Oh, you can’t ship here.’” Confused, she asked why, but the employee told her to contact the owner.
The next day, Roskes did exactly that. She assumed there was a glitch in the system. There wasn’t. The owner explained that because of Roskes’ listserv post, she had been banned from the store.
“My view was she had gone out of the way to damage my business in a public forum,” franchise owner Mike Finley says. “So I just basically told her she should take her business somewhere else.”
Roskes went home and fired off another angry e-mail to the listserv informing her neighbors about the blacklisting. Several of them wrote back pledging to boycott the store. “Obviously, I’ll never go back there,” Roskes says.
5 Responses to “Posters Beware”
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November 20th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Parcel Nazi hits Cleveland Park.
Glad to know. I’ll avoid it too.
November 20th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
Obviously, Mike Finley has never heard of the Streisand Effect. Nothing good EVER comes of acting against your critics — rather than responding constructively to criticism. Only a fool would think that this could have any result other than the one we’re already seeing… his name is tarnished further.
December 25th, 2007 at 10:54 pm
A couple of the staff were joking about this article last week when I went into the store. They seemed pretty amused by it all, but defensive of their boss.
I used to work retail, so I can only imagine what it’s like dealing with some of the incredibly uptight people in Cleveland Park who get upset about the littlest things. While at Parcel Plus, I saw a (presumably) Cleveland Park resident get angry at one of the clerks there for refusing to ship alcohol - which is against the law.
Oh well, you can’t please everyone, but this store is the only packaging store I’ve used in DC that hasn’t broken or lost anything I’ve shipped.
July 20th, 2008 at 1:00 am
I had the same experience just today…Parcel Plus in Cleveland Park is owned by a nut case….I went there to ship a package and he wanted to charge be almost $200 (yes that’s right) I knew it was insane. I told him that it was okay I would wait till Monday (still be able to get it there on time and save myself almost $170 DHL, UPS, USPS charge about $60-$70 for the same package). I left the store and realized that I had filled out a form with all my information…so I went back in and asked if I could please have the form with my address and ph back…he said no! He wanted me to give him $10 to have the piece of paper back! The guy is crazy….I called the local authorities and they assured me that he shred the paper. What is wrong with people!
July 20th, 2008 at 1:02 am
Daniel…try the post office it works just as great and it’s cheaper! Parcel Plus doesn’t ship the items they just charge you to put in the back so that ups or fedex can pick it up.