Is this the pick-me-up you need?

I am following, with a great deal of interest, Paul Moscardini’s latest move.

He emailed me the contract he had been offered to become a ‘UPS Collection Point’ at his premises in Wetherby and asked if I would take a gander at its terms and conditions to see whether anything struck me as dodgy.

As I frequently tell people, I have no legal training or I would be filling my bath with caviar (this is unfair comment BTW: lots of solicitors don’t really make that much but when I started this sarcastic stream years ago I didn’t know that).

So, whew, a solid hour later, after I had read them, digested them and tried to sort the wheat from the chaff, I decided they were pretty bog standard, although obviously written by lawyers with their client in mind.

Paul has decided to go ahead and tells me: “This project is at launch stage and they are recruiting people like me for the first phase which will go live in six months feedback would be interesting if you want to run the story.

“I will say this though: I have customers who have parcels delivered to me at present - so this means I could attract new customers and potential incremental sales, therefore I intend to proceed with the arrangement given my understanding of the programme and my interpretation of the contract.”

I know that UPS is certainly genuine - on the day I received Paul’s email I saw two UPS vans circle around the square that my office looks out onto, and its website is international.

I’ve heard from retailers in the past who have made a jolly good go of the Collect+ parcel service via PayPoint, and from those who don’t think it’s worth a light. As with most things connected to retail, it probably depends on location.