For a little over 2 years, I have relied on a third party mailing service for my freelance company.  I did not want a simple PO box from the post office, nor did I want the mail coming all to my house.  Additionally, I really enjoyed the fact that packages were signed for and securely placed in a facility rather than left on my door step in the weather.  On Saturday, January 3rd, I stopped in to check my mail as I am eagerly waiting some money to arrive from client invoices.  I grabbed a check and some other mail and headed on my way.  On Monday, January 5th, I go by to see if the other check had arrived and found that their store front was covered with cardboard and a note that said they were out of business.

Store front, now covered up with cardboard:

The two notes taped to the inside of the front door:

Without notice to paying customers the owners decided it would be better to show up on a Sunday and after hours work out their plan to close up shop.

Not only were my bank statements, client payments, and other important communications coming to this location, but I now had to scramble to figure out what to do so that nothing was missed.  On January 6th, I sent the following email to Goin’ Postal Corporate.

I have been a customer with the McDonough Goin’ Postal (Store GP142) for approximately 2 years now.

While I understand that the economy is extremely poor and has presented a challenging environment to any business, I also believe in being as professional as possible through the entire life of the business.  While it is unfortunate that Goin’ Postal in McDonough had to close its doors, what I cannot understand is how yearly mailbox holders were not at least forewarned about the situation so that proper arrangements could be made.  I arrived this afternoon to check my mailbox only to find that the entire storefront was covered with large cardboard boxes.  There was a note on the front door stating that due to the economy the business was closed.  Another note said that mailbox holders would be able to check their mail at the McDonough Post Office.  I was just there checking my mail on Saturday and the owner, Calvin, was there.  No mention of any business troubles came up during my visit.

I had come to rely on the mailbox and services provided by Goin’ Postal during 2008 with my own company.  My bills, payments, bank statements, and other important communications all were sent to this location.  I find it extremely unprofessional to not allow a paying customer the opportunity to at least setup a box elsewhere, retrieve any mail at the facility, turn in keys, or be given reasonable time to have mail forwarded to another location so that nothing falls through the cracks.

Three days after getting the email, I get the following response:

I apologize for the inconvenience.  The current owners have closed their doors, leaving us with no information on the status of their business.  For information about mailboxes, current shipments, or any other business please contact the former ownership, their contact information is below.

Calvin Addison
678-858-0645
caddison@addison-allen.com

Derrik Allen
678-982-9114
dallen@addison-allen.com

We are currently looking for another franchisee to step-in to fill all of your shipping needs and once again we are truly sorry for the issues that have arisen.

Just a quick note, that after being notified that the company is out of business and acknowledging this fact, the McDonough location is still listed on their corporate website.  I have to take that back.  I checked again before posting this and now it has been removed.  Another quick note is that I would not do business with this company again.  That last line is a bit odd to me, as if I am waiting around for Goin’ Postal to arrive and find a solution for my “shipping needs”.  Most importantly, it is even more obvious that they had no intent of notifying anyone that they were closing.  Not even the corporate office was aware.

I realize they cannot control these franchises and that it probably frustrates them to no end to have this happen.  After all, it gives Goin’ Postal the bad name because that was the name that the public had seen for 3 years, not the franchise owners.  I realize that the person who runs their corporate operations had no clue how these two people who run the business or close the business.  I am sure if they were in my shoes, they would be equally upset.

With that, I thought I might try to contact these people.  Sure, my single email might not do anything or trigger some important chain of events, but I am still upset at the cowardly manner in which their doors were closed.

I tried to visit their website to see what information was on it.  Nothing.  In fact, you cannot even access their website.  The WHOIS information is as follows:

Registrant:
Addison and Allen, LLC
1608 Greenview CT
Woodstock, GA 30189 US

Domain name: ADDISON-ALLEN.COM

Administrative Contact:
Allen, Derrik
derrik_allen@comcast.net
1608 Greenview CT
Woodstock, GA 30189 US
678-982-9114    Fax: 678-432-8807

Technical Contact:
Manager, Domain
919 East Jefferson
Phoenix, AZ 85034 US
+1.8885114678    Fax: +1.3103141610

Registration Service Provider:
IPOWER, Inc.,
888 511 4678

Registrar of Record:
TUCOWS, INC.
Record last updated on 01-Aug-2008.
Record expires on 16-Aug-2009.
Record created on 16-Aug-2006.

Registrar Domain Name Help Center:

http://domainhelp.tucows.com

Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.IPOWERDNS.COM
NS1.IPOWERWEB.NET

So that was a dead end. Literally.

If you Google the email address listed on the WHOIS as a contact (derrik_allen@comcast.net), the only information available is that Derrik Allen is listed as Operations Manager for the East Cobb Track Club named “The Heat”.

How about the phone numbers?  I tried searching for Calvin Addison via the phone number and came across this curious website which lists the following contacts:

USA Office:
China Key Development, LLC
452-B Plaza Drive
College Park, GA 30349

China Office:
China Key Development, Ltd.
#121 East Shugang Road, Jiangyang Industry Park
Yangzhou, China 225009

Kurt Keeping
President
Phone: 404-768-7087
Fax: 404-768-7019
Mobile: 678-207-9989
kurt@china-kdl.com

Derrik Allen
Vice President – Sales
Phone: 404-768-7087
Fax: 404-768-7019
Mobile: 678-982-9114
derrik@china-kdl.com

Calvin Addison
Vice President – Operations
Phone: 404-768-7087
Fax: 404-768-7019
Mobile: 678-858-0645
calvin@china-kdl.com

I Googled the owner’s name and found a few surprises.  First, I see an ad on Craigslist that, while expired making it unable to view, shows a title of “Must make $10K for my business; I’m selling Color and B/W Copies”.  So the owner knew that they would be closing their doors.  Why else would you try and off load your business and equipment?

So I Googled the other owner’s phone number and found this listing:

Store is part of fastest growing retail shipping & packaging franchise chain in the country. Great location in south Metro-Atlanta. Very high traffic count. Store was profitable in 1st year of operation. Owners motivated to sell as they are seeking to pursue other business interests. Serious inquiries only. Prospective buyers must show proof of liquid financial assets that would be used to complete sale in order to review company financials.

I wanted to get the mail forwarding ball rolling but could not do that until I had decided on the address to forward it to.  After that decision was made, I was able to go on Tuesday to setup the forwarding.  I was told then that Goin’ Postal still had not dropped off the mail that they had for boxholders.  The very next day we received a phone call at our house saying that there was mail from Goin’ Postal and that we had 10 days to pick it up or it would be returned to the original sender.  So I went and collected it and have hopefully ended this little mess.

Why do I care so much?  Truth be told, I don’t.  I should have gone with my instincts and went with a more established chain such as UPS Store or even the Post Office rather than roll the dice on some startup company run by a couple of morons with no knowledge of how to run a business.  I blame myself as much as anyone, after all, I did write the check.

To be clear, I do not have an issue with going out of business.  That is not the situation at all.  What I take issue with is the manner in which it was done.  Another local business here, Redz Restaurant, recently made the announcement to close their doors.  Citing the poor economy and lack of financial backing, the operating manager stated that he wanted the last person to eat a meal to receive the same service as the first.  Talk about class.  That is how you go out: with your head held high in the air knowing you did the right thing. You do not wait until late at night or a non-business day to come in and close up shop and screw the very people that supported you for years.