Wish I Didn't Get Involved With Pitney Bowes

Word of caution: if you are just starting to sell online and need an online shipping service, STAY AWAY FROM PITNEY BOWES!!! Here's why: In August 2008, I tried their trial offer to receive a mailstation2 meter for 2 months without having to pay. Pretty much as soon as I received it, I knew it wasn't for me. I quickly found that a lot of my customers wanted a tracking number when I mailed something out to them...and having delivery confirmation would benefit me too. I called PB and spoke to a nice lady who convinced me to keep the meter for the full 60 days just to make sure I really didn't need the service. Dumb me agreed to it. When time was up, I called again and spoke to another rep who wanted to extend my trial for another month. What was it going to harm? She sounded so sad, I agreed again. After I hung up, I immediately began to kick myself in the bottom for caving in. When the 3rd month was about to end, I called again. I knew I couldn't flake out this time. I was firm and the rep agreed to send a return box and label to me so I could send the meter back. The box and label showed up, I sent it back...I thought that was the end.

A couple of weeks later, I checked my debit card statement and found a pending charge of $43 and some change from PB. I called them and a rep told me she didn't know why I was charged. There was nothing on my account that showed any charge. The balance was at 0. It was clear the meter was returned before the 2nd trial and promised to give me a credit if the pending charge became an actual charge. A couple of days later, the charge went through. I called them back for a credit, which they said again I would receive. After a couple of weeks...no credit. I called my bank and they helped me settle it. They went to battle for me and treated as a fraudelent charge. I had a credit of $43 by the end of the next business day. That was around the end of November. Again, I thought that was the end.

Earlier this week, I got a bill through snail mail from PB for the amount of $43. I just chucked it into the trash. Then yesterday, I got a call on my cell phone and a message on my voicemail from a rep saying the $43 was from charges that accrued before I canceled the service. I wonder why it took them so long to send me a bill. This happened around Oct-Nov and it's almost the middle of April now.

I have no plans to pay this. They have not told me what the charges are for specifically. Even if they charged the monthly fee of $15.95...originally $17.95, but they gave me a better rate when they extended my trial...it still doesn't add up to $43. When they call again, I will try my best not to go off on them. I'll probably end up talking to a supervisor on this one.

The moral of the story is: do your research before you start a program or service. If I would have researched Pitney Bowes before I got involved with them, I would have seen the scores of unhappy customers that have had to deal with crappy customer service and unethical tactics. It's amazing how many stories I've found online that are so similiar to mine.

I use Paypal for the most part because it's easy and they do not charge a monthly fee. I also use Stamps.com for when I need to get a better international shipping rate. The monthly fee is $17.99 for the program I have, but I think it's worth it to be able to give shipping quotes and put international first class postage on my mail at home and not have to wait in long lines at the post office.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment on any of my posts.