September 13th, 2004

Filed under:
Mixed Bag
22 Comments »

UPS Wants Its Shirt Back

I just got a call from a guy at the Vancouver office of UPS. They’d apparently seen my UPS shirt on the Web, and they want it back. Specifically, he indicated the shirt was “private property” and they had a policy that no UPS material was resold. In view of “9/11″ and more recent incidents, they don’t want anybody parading around as a faux UPS dude. They offered to reimburse me for the shirt.

I told him I’d think about it and call him back. After all, I like my shirt. I’m also not clear on the legal standing of my shirt. Do they have a claim to it? Regardless, it was an amusing call.

UPDATE: This entry explains that I’m giving them their shirt back.

Comments: 22 Responses so far

kk+
September 13th, 2004
4:25 pm

Unbelievable. Talk about a terrible job… how’d you like to be the guy whose in charge of tracking down all these renegade shirts and negotiating for their return. Haha.

kk+

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Dan
September 13th, 2004
4:51 pm

Man, I’d talk to an attorney about it, but unless they are outright claiming it’s stolen I don’t see how they can claim it’s theirs. So you’re saying they have a policy nothing was resold? Is that like me having a policy that the sky is green? I’m looking, it’s not working.

Well, I hope you get to keep it. If their so worried about people posing as UPS employees don’t they realize that making a counterfit uniform that could fool most people would be easy for the average person?

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Alan
September 13th, 2004
5:04 pm

Do they really have a staff dedicated to tracking shirts which are or look like their little uniforms? How odd.

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Paul Allen
September 13th, 2004
5:34 pm

Damn, I hope 7/11 doesn’t want that shirt back from when I worked their in the early 90’s… :)

I’m not a national security threat, I promise!

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Brian (Shadowfoot)
September 13th, 2004
6:06 pm

Tell them the price will be a shirt of exactly the same cut and size without labels

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Dean
September 13th, 2004
7:27 pm

Of course they can claim it’s their property. If they provide them, like they provide trucks, they’re company property.

I like Brian’s idea.

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Jeff
September 13th, 2004
9:02 pm

Hey Paul, never forget 7/11…it changed the world.

VOTE BUSH/CHENEY 2004.

(or the terrorists will have won)

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'nee
September 13th, 2004
9:24 pm

Tell them they can have it back for $1000. If they’re serious about their “policy,” then they’ll pay. If not, well, you offered. There’s no proof that it’s an actual UPS shirt, it’s not like they put serial numbers on the fabric or something. Tell this guy to quit web surfing on company time, and to stop wasting yours! Also, it’s a cool shirt, it’d be a shame to lose it.

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Matthew
September 14th, 2004
1:13 am

Personally, I think you should tell them you considered their offer but will just be keeping the shirt. But then, I’m just curious to see how far they will go to reclaim their logo. There is a question as to whether the shirt was issued to their employee and expected back, or whether they SOLD the shirt to their employee - not an uncommon practice.

Nonetheless, they deserve to be punished for their slavish adherence to branding, particularly in their attempt to co-opt the colour Brown, for pete’s sake, and deserve even more punishment for cravenly trying to link their branding strategies to the War on Freedom, uh, I mean “Terror” - so do nothing until they’ve actually employed a lawyer and sent you an official-looking letter.

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Mimi
September 14th, 2004
6:00 am

Hey Darren,

Do you have hospital uniforms too? Specifically the green scrubs that are so very popular when I was growing up?

I know a couple of people who wear these and they’re not doctors. (Apparently they’re fantastic to garden in.)

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Chris
September 14th, 2004
8:33 am

I also have a 7-11 vest, from the 3 months of hell I spent working graveyard shifts a few years ago.

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Rob
September 14th, 2004
8:46 am

Darren, I agree that you should tell them that you’re not giving it back. Then hopefully their corporate lawyer will send you some kind of nasty letter that you can send to the press and get your name in lights. This will be bigger than the flowers!!!!

Of course then you’ll divide the population - half the people will be with you in your fight against “The Man” and the other half will think you’re an idiot because it’s guys like you that make terrorism possible.

Then the whole thing will get blown out of proportion, and people will call me because I put this silly idea up here, and I’ve known you since you were in the 2nd grade and I’ll have to say “jeez… he was always kind of a quiet guy.”

It’s going to be fun. Go for it. I’ll back you up. At least until I stop.

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`jen
September 14th, 2004
10:03 am

i’m no lawyer, but i’m pretty sure UPS has a claim to their shirt. companies that issue uniforms usually have some disclaimer in their contract that the uniform must be returned after the term of employment. if they don’t sell or “give” them to the employees without small print, then it’s technically their private property. like the trucks someone mentioned earlier.

legal claim aside, should you keep it? guess it depends on how much you like it.

as a side note: i had a friend who wore a mcdonald’s uniform to a halloween party once (back when they had red and white striped shirts) and went through something similar. maybe this is why most corporate uniforms are so ugly.

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filmgoerjuan
September 15th, 2004
12:39 am

Perhaps it’s time to claim that you actually bought a “UBS” shirt (because you like Mad TV so much) and that you doctored the photos on your blog because you didn’t want people to think you were a TV geek ;)

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b l o g b a n d i t
September 16th, 2004
8:46 pm

UPS wants your shirt

Darren Barefoot bought a used UPS shirt at a vintage clothes store - and now, UPS wants their shirt back. Pulp Politicians - funny Pulp Fiction spoof The eye of hurricane Ivan as seen from the ISS. So on this…

Meggan
September 17th, 2004
5:50 am

One of the comments that followed your original posting of the picture of your UPS shirt illustrates why UPS is not wrong in wanting its shirt back.

The commenter, in jest said something like “now you can gain entrance into peoples homes!”

Not funny.

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Dave
September 17th, 2004
11:03 am

Keep it. You bought it from a store, so they have no claim to it. And if it comes down to nut-cuttin’, let ‘em try to take you to court. I’m sure they could use the bad publicity.

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dwg
September 21st, 2004
4:19 pm

Um…those glasses you’re wearing in that picture are mine, and it’s my policy that no one else can wear them, especially after 9/11. So…cough ‘em up.

Seriously: I would’ve told UPS to go screw. Whatever their “policy” might be, it seems fairly clear that it wasn’t observed by others in this case. The fact that you wound up with the shirt doesn’t make it stolen by you, nor you responsible for its return.

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O'DonnellWeb
September 21st, 2004
4:42 pm

UPS called, they want their shirt back

This guy posted a picture of himself wearing the UPS shirt he purchased at a 2nd hand store. Imagine his…

Yngwie Dunksteen
September 21st, 2004
4:46 pm

I’m sorry, Meggan, but it _is_ funny. You, however, are boring.

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Anonymous
September 22nd, 2004
10:00 am

Oh, the terramistic-like acts I could commit with the aid of my illicitly obtained Stuckey’s jersey!

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John Smith
September 22nd, 2004
9:26 pm

Send the original to me here in Vietnam … I’ll get a thousand copies made and we can all wear them …

Security through washing line control?

UPS … You guys make me laugh.

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