Little Rock's Weedman made UPS 'Bully' surrender in 2006; looks forward to
coming trial
LITTLE ROCK, Ark., June 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Tom Weedman faced every former
franchise owner's worst nightmare in March, 2006 when 'Big Brown' United
Parcel Service (NYSE: UPS) sought a temporary restraining order (TRO) alleging
violation of trademark rules after they forced him to go independent. Weedman
challenged UPS' attempt to close his store and risked his financial future by
telling a Federal District Court he was prepared to face UPS immediately in a
trial 30 days after they had shut him down.
"In about 45 minutes, UPS' attorneys phoned the judge and said they were
withdrawing their request for a TRO and would not go to trial," Weedman
recalled. "That was easily the most frightening period in my life, but it
gave me the personal satisfaction of not letting a huge corporation bully me
into closing my store."
Today, Weedman and his 130 fellow members of the Platinum Shield
Association (PSA) look forward to a trial in their now five-year-plus legal
battle with UPS, following a California appellate court's decision last month.
That unanimous decision overturned a lower court's granting of motions for
summary judgment to UPS in the long-standing confrontation between the
Atlanta-based shipping giant and franchisees like Weedman who were part of the
Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE) system UPS acquired in 2001.
Weedman said his initial relationship with MBE was excellent, and from the
time he purchased his first store in 1993 until the UPS acquisition of MBE in
2001, he found the business demanding, but rewarding. "You spend six days
with the store open and all of the customer needs, and then the seventh day
you try to catch up," he noted. "But I saw a real future in the MBE system
and opened my second store in Jacksonville in 1995; when that store's
franchise agreement with UPS expired in 2006, we were pressured to convert to
a UPS Store. We rejected that, and were hit immediately with the TRO."
A native Arkansan, Weedman graduated from the University of Arkansas,
Little Rock, in 1970 with a degree in mathematics; while living in the Chicago
area and working for Baxter International, he earned an MBA from the Illinois
Institute of Technology in 1988. He has taught business courses at the
University of Arkansas since returning to Little Rock in 1992.
"This whole situation with UPS has been tough on me, my wife, Candice, and
everyone in the Platinum Shield organization," Weedman added. "There are more
than 130 others in the group, and we are located literally from coast to
coast," he said, "and the TRO attempt was not just in Arkansas; there were a
dozen more across the country."
Weedman said there are many issues that he hopes the trial will bring out,
including UPS' lack of support for MBE franchisees who did not convert to UPS.
"We paid a fee, a royalty really, each month to UPS, and part of that goes to
our Area Franchisee, who in theory is our representative to UPS," he
explained. "The last time he visited either of my stores was in 2003."
The lawsuit in which Weedman is a plaintiff alleges among other charges
UPS' intentional destruction of the Mail Boxes Etc. franchise brand and
system, violation of the MBE franchise agreements, fraud and anti-competitive
actions by UPS in its creation of the UPS Store franchise system. At present
there are numerous lawsuits filed against UPS by various store owner groups
and individuals across the country, based on the forced conversion of the
successful MBE business model to the failed UPS Store model.
Last month's California appellate court reversal of the lower court was
the third time that a California appeals court had overturned a lower court
and upheld the case of the UPS/MBE franchisees. The previous decision by the
Court of Appeals was to grant certification of a national class action against
UPS on behalf of the UPS Store franchisees.
SOURCE Platinum Shield Association
Joe Wightman of Platinum Shield Association, New York, +1-917-880-9609; or
Killeen Furtney Group, Public Relations, +1-310-476-6941, for Platinum Shield
Association
