Pak Mail

The lady who owns this is charging $35 to notarize a single page. State law says maximum is $10 per page notarized. She tried to justify by saying she had to pay for an “expensive” bond, which is actually only around $100/year. She also justified the huge price at first by mentioning that the UPS store didn’t have a notary, so she could increase her price. Then, she eventually said she has to “pay for gas” as the notary service is “by appointment”. She owns the place, and is there essentially daily. I am reporting to Probate Judge/Secretary of the State of Alabama.

Terrible service!! We were shipping a package internationally and paid $400. It kept coming back to Pak Mail because they didn’t pack it right. They didn’t call us to let us know and kept trying to ship it without fixing the problem. We finally got the package back and they wouldn’t give us our money back. We went directly to USPS and shipped it ourselves and had to repack it. USPS was able to get it shipped for us but we had to pay again.

Probably the worst experience I have had when dealing with a notary. I came to get a few documents notarized and the lady was trying to act like an attorney. She can barely speak English but yet she thought she was qualified enough to tell me she cannot notarize Alabama Motor Vehicle Power of Attorney Form (MVT 5-13) and it requires an attorney, she is completely WRONG! She is NOT an attorney her responsibilities are NOT to interpret the legalities of a form. She verifies we are not signing under duress and our identities are true.

I have been a customer for over 20 years. During that time, I have always received friendly, courteous service. Pak-Mail is convenient. No long post office lines, and I can ship and receive UPS and FedEx packages, as well as receive my regular mail, all in one stop. Mirian and the staff have always been great, very attentive to any questions or concerns. I highly recommend Pak-Mail to businesses and individuals alike.

One my favorite places to get my mail dropped off and taken care of. Really good people! Been going there over 5 years and always great to see the team working there.

Friendly, convenient service. Always a pleasure when using their services.

This company is fast and very friendly and professional! If everyone did business this way, what an easier life we would all have! Thank you!

Very kind over the phone

While I cannot speak to the quality of the mailing services at Pak Mail, I can say the customer service is abysmal. I stopped in to get fingerprinted for an upcoming internship. The process was confusing, as I'd never had my whole hand fingerprinted before, and the woman who helped me was impatient, rude, and honestly downright mean. I looked for a name tag but she wasn't wearing one - all I know is that she had spiky, short blonde hair and brown eyes. Another lady who worked there who had a heavy accent first directed me around the corner to start the fingerprinting process. I entered through a door that it seemed that she was pointing at, and the blonde woman rounded on me and yelled at me that I couldn't be in there with her. My bad. After more confusion (and a nice older woman saying that she didn't understand the lady's instructions, either), I ultimately realized that the fingerprinting machine was in a very small alcove of the main room. I simply hadn't noticed it before. I made my way over there and waited for help. Naturally, my blonde friend came to "help" me. The whole process was just awful. She repeatedly slammed my fingers into the machine, was short with me when the machine didn't properly scan a particular finger, and was overall heinous. She raised her voice at me multiple times, almost yelling, and for NO reason. "Quit FIGHTING me with your hand," and "You're not LISTENING to me," she said to me while I was doing my best to follow her instructions. I was meek and passive the whole time. I thought about telling her that it was inappropriate to talk to me that way with that tone, but I was scared she'd get angrier and the process would be worse. Once I figured out being mad was pointless, I wound up just feeling hurt and at the verge of crying because of how stupid she made me feel. After a time she left me to scan my fingers on my own. She and the lady with the accent were arguing in the back about her (blonde lady's) productivity. She shouted at the lady with the accent that she had no problem carrying her own weight. She came back out to me to check on my progress and launched into a tirade about how her coworker's son was supposed to replace her at 1 (it was around 1:45) and that he was so irresponsible and how her coworker shouldn't have the audacity to tell her she wasn't being productive enough. Maybe her replacement being late was why she was so cranky, but I found her discussion with me about it to be incredibly unprofessional. On top of being unprofessional, again, this woman was mean-spirited and venomous to me for absolutely no reason at all. I will do everything in my power from here on out to avoid going to Pak Mail for ANY reason.

It is what it is. It's a convenient place to drop off packages that don't fit in USPS/UPS/FedEx drop boxes. They offer some packaging if you are in need of that. I'd rate level of service just a smidge below a typical UPS/FedEx store which benefit from more resources and offer more packaging supplies. As far as I'm concerned, Pakmail serves its purpose.

I brought a large, valuable shipment to be packed and mailed interstate, which was very expensive. I was promised a certain arrival date, and a week after that date had not had tracking info or any communication from Pakmail. I emailed twice and got no response (they'd responded quickly when I was looking for a quote!). So I called the parent company, and soon got anxious emails from the owner telling me the items had taken a long time to pack, blahblah blah. Nothing she'd ever bothered to communicate to me previously. My items did arrive intact eventually, but only after many emails and calls on my part, and at least two weeks late. Given how much I paid, I expected a partial refund. Neither the owner nor the parent company offered, and when I tried to discuss it on the phone with the owner, she just talked and argued and argued, and could not listen or follow a rational line of thinking. Unless all you are mailing is small and you do it yourself, beware.

I live in Oregon and my mom passed away in Alabama. I had to have volumes of valuable and sentimental items shipped to my home across the country (including volumes of fine porcelain china, delicate crystal stemware, framed pictures, small sentimental breakable items, etc.). I went to Pakmail off McFarland in Northport, Alabama. Mirian and Chris at Pakmail worked for days packing each item individually by bubble-wrapping and taping each piece to ensure that it would make the cross-country trip safely. Anytime I attempted to contact Pakmail, either Chris or Mirian would promptly respond - by phone and/or email. They were more than willing to assist me in keeping the price down. All items arrived in Oregon well packaged and in perfect condition! I STRONGLY recommend this Pakmail store for ANY shipping needs you may have. The people I worked with (Mirian and Chris) were kind, attentive, and professional. A wonderful experience! I wish all retail and service-oriented business were this professional and pleasant to deal with!