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One business model that has proved quite successful over the last several decades is that of the private postal center. Through both independent stores and chain/franchise outlets (such as Mail Boxes Etc. and Postal Annex), these businesses, although not affiliated with the United States Postal Service (USPS), provide many of the same services as U.S. post offices: they rent mailboxes (similar to post office boxes), sell postage stamps, vend mailing supplies, and package and ship items via U.S. Mail. These businesses appeal to customers with a variety of needs: those who want the safety and security of receiving mail at sites other than their residence addresses, those who need someone to accept delivery of parcels and signature-required items on their behalf during hours when they would not be home to do so themselves, those who travel and move around frequently and need mail services at multiple locations, and those who live in areas where the local U.S. post office is not conveniently located for them. These businesses also typically provide a variety of services not generally offered at U.S. post offices, such as the shipment of items via other delivery services (e.g., UPS, FedEx), fax services, copy/print services, passport photos, money transfers, key cutting, and notary services. (The United Parcel Service offers many of these same services at its own branded UPS Stores, which are franchised by the Mail Boxes Etc. chain, a subsidiary of UPS.) All of this convenience comes with a price, however. Customers who buy postage stamps at private postal outlets will typically pay a mark-up over the face value, and those who use such outlets to ship items via USPS, UPS, or FedEx generally pay a premium over what they would be charged if they dealt with those entities directly. Most regular customers consider those additional fees to be worthwhile trade-offs for the convenience factor, but many folks who only occasionally use such services have been surprised (and disgruntled) to learn that they have been paying surcharges above the standard shipping rates. As a December 2009 New York Times article on the subject observed: The article also noted that: The situation is somewhat more complicated in Canada, where customers can choose between outlets of private postal chains such as PostNet, MBE or UPS Stores, and official Canada Post franchise outlets. One viral message circulated online purportedly recounts the experience of a disgruntled customer who utilized one of the latter, a Canada Post franchise location (in a drug store), and was not only charged over 50% more than the cost of mailing an identical package at a Canada Post post office but was also supposedly told by a Canada Post representative that Canada Post franchises may charge extra fees as a convenience to their customers at their discretion: The substance of this complaint seems to be inaccurate: the packages mailed by the customer (although they may have contained similar items) apparently were not identical; the second one was packaged in a way that made it slightly bulkier than the first, and it therefore did not fit through the smaller mail slot that would have qualified it for a lower postage rate. Canada Post's initial response to this matter acknowledged that inaccurate information was provided by a Canada Post representative to the customer in question but affirmed that Canada Post franchise outlets are not authorized to charge customers more than the published Canada Post rates: Canada Post later disclaimed the purported reply as a hoax, claiming that they had no employee named Veronika Strofski.
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