The Port Townsend UPS Store is open. The Port Angeles UPS Store has permanently closed. And the Sequim store recently reopened with limited hours after temporary closures in the past month and mixed messages online from the corporate office saying it’s “permanently closed.”

The manager of the Sequim store at 1400 W. Washington St., said that it will be at least 10 days (or sometime after Christmas) when computers will be back online and the store can begin shipping and receiving packages.

“It’s a huge inconvenience for customers and myself,” said Wade Thompson, who was also the manager for the shuttered Port Angeles store at the corner of Eighth and Lincoln Streets.

“I don’t like it either, but it’s beyond my control.”

Shipping can be done from the UPS hub in Port Angeles at 3216 E. US Highway 101 by Traylor’s Restaurant. It’s open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday.

The Sequim store is now open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays. Thompson said that once computers are back online, hours will be from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Port Townsend

The Port Townsend UPS store at 2023 E. Sims Way is open from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. It is closed on Sunday.

The last air pickup is at 3:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. The last ground pickup time is at 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. No pickup is available Saturday or Sunday.

For more information about the Port Townsend UPS Store, call 360-385-7447 or email store2441@theupsstore.com.

Peter Scott, a Victoria, B.C., software developer, said he had used the Port Angeles store for about 20 years as his U.S. address to forward mail and packages.

He learned of the store closing on Aug. 20 and was given two-weeks notice to forward his mail and make necessary changes. So he transferred to Sequim.

“You don’t just expect it to go out of business,” he said.

Scott received an email on Nov. 11 about a lack of delivery to the Sequim store due to it being closed.

He received one package more than a month later, but he’s still trying to track others down equating to thousands of dollars in lost payments.

Scott shifted his business to the Port Townsend UPS store, he said.

Sequim store

Thompson said he’s working on providing 24-hour access keys to mailbox customers. The rest of the business is protected in caging to allow safe entry, he said.

One of the Sequim business’ many services was accepting Amazon returns with Thompson saying the store “easily” saw 100 returns every day.

He said the Sequim store’s temporary closure was beyond the owner’s and his abilities.

“I’m committed to being open 10-4 Monday through Friday,” he said.

Shipping and receiving packages is a bulk of the Sequim store’s business, Thompson said, but he remains open to help the approximate 300 mailbox customers who were unable to access their mail.

Clint Cummins of Sequim said he’s been a mailbox customer there for about 10 years because he and his wife don’t want their deliveries sitting on the porch due to rain.

They were also members of wine clubs that required someone over 21 to accept delivery for packages, and the UPS store could sign for deliveries and keep packages safe.

Cummins said the only thing that irritates him about the closure was that he just paid for another year for the mailbox.

New ownership

UPS’ website and the Sequim store’s Facebook page say the store is “permanently closed.”

Jenny Robinson, a spokesperson for The UPS Store, Inc., said via email, “We are working to try and reopen the Sequim store under new franchisee ownership but don’t have any details to share at this point.”

She said that “customers that need help getting their mail or packages from the Sequim location can reach out to our customer relations team at 800-789-4623.

“We do apologize for any inconvenience this has caused customers,” she said.

Thompson said that he’s spoken to the potential new owner, whom he would not name, and that once computers are back, hours will go back to normal along with staffing levels.

The now-closed UPS Store in Port Angeles at 136 E. Eighth St. was owned by the same franchisee, Thompson said, whom he also wouldn’t name.

He worked there for four years and said the store had a big impact for decades there.

He said it closed because of issues between the franchisee and corporation.

“They weren’t able to come to reasonable terms with the corporation,” he said.

For more information on UPS, visit ups.com.

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Matthew Nash is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach him at mnash@sequimgazette.com.

Leah Leach, executive editor of the Peninsula Daily News, contributed to this story.