No pictures or nails - this is for those of you who, like me, have received the little "Try our service free with a five dollar postage on us" kit break down of stamps.com. I went ahead and gave it a go - I got a TON of swagbucks for signing up so I thought why not.
1. Getting started is super easy. You pop the disc in or use the download link they email you to get it setup on your computer. You are, literally, ready to go within minutes. For me the 5.00 was instantly loaded so getting going was hassle free. That's about all that was hassle free though.
2. Getting ready to print. It's like usps.com except you can actually print first class mail through this which is why it could have been a totally amazing answer to all the nail mail I do. It also saves you 15% on postage AND gives you free confirmation as well. Simply put the information in, select your options (you DO need a scale to weigh your package), print out the label....wait. It won't print! Well that's ok there has to be a reprint button here somewhere...oh history! Yay easy button to find this HAS to be it. Well there the label is so I'll just go ahead and click on that. Nothing happens. THE ONLY BUTTON OPTION IS AN E-REFUND. Whaaaaa....?!?!? After about an hour of fooling around with the interface and the online site I finally call in to figure this out. Guess what - if it doesn't print the first time you have to ask for a refund and then do it all over again. Well that can't be too bad. We live in the modern day. Nope...refund takes 4-6 weeks. Well now I have to go buy more postage but you HAVE to buy in 10 dollar increments. You don't get to pay exact amount. So I buy 10.00 since it ate my free postage but I have more stuff going out next week and I'm sure 4-6 weeks is just a precautionary time frame. It is not. It literally takes 4-6 weeks for that refund. I get that refund, load up a new label for another package and it won't print again *facepalm*
3. Calling to cancel. So you are probably surprised to hear I decided not to keep this golden service. At 15.95 a month just to use I really wasn't feeling the free confirmation (which I get on the regular usps.com site on priority ANYHOW) or the 15% discount. I call to cancel and the chick pretty much won't let me. She's pushy and prying and horrid and tells me she gave me another free month to use that 5.00 postage.and.hung.up. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Well fine, sure...but you see what happened with that refund...more postage bought, more time wasted, and I still had to go to the post office. I call in to cancel this month and got another gal who tries to do the same thing. I tell her I've wasted my time and money. I tell her I'm frustrated. I do all of this calmly and she keeps going on and on about the savings in time and money. I tell her to cancel or else.Well stamps.com this is my or else.
Bottomline: A large business with a ton of mail on a daily basis may get a lot of use out of this but I can pretty much guarantee you that the free swagbucks and supposedly free 5.00 postage are not worth it. It will eat your time and your sanity.
That is just bad! Any company can make mistakes... and a 4-6 week return policy and shocking customer service are not mistakes!!!
ReplyDeleteThey really aren't - I am the sort that gives a company a LOT of tries but this was terrible from the start :( Probably great for a business but not great for single use no matter the "perks"
ReplyDeleteHi serendipitously.create,
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing your experience about Stamps.com. When you print postage in Stamps.com, after you print a postage stamp or shipping label, you should see a "Reprint" button appear next to the "Print" button. Stamps.com will allow you to reprint your postage one time in the event of a misprint or printing error. It sounds like you did not see this button or it did not appear?
Regarding postage refunds, the USPS is the organization that is responsible for refunding postage as well as setting procedures for refunds. Unfortunately, they have a number of processes required and as you mentioned, it does take quite a long time. For postage stamps or postage printed directly on an envelope, the USPS requires customers to send in the actual misprinted postage for verification. For shipping labels, you can do an e-refund by filling in a few fields online.
Your comments regarding our Customer Service and your call to cancel are very alarming to us. First and foremost, we would like to apologize for the negative experience you had. While our Customer Service agent will try to explain the benefits that Stamps.com offers, you should definitely not have to go into lengthy dialogue to cancel the service. And if a call is ever disconnected for some reason, the Customer Service rep should call you back immediately.
Stamps.com records all of our Customer Service calls for quality and I will investigate this call immediately. Can you email me your username to social@stamps.com to help with our investigation?
Again, I would like to apologize for the bad experience you encountered.
Eric
Stamps.com