Is Stamps.com a Scam?
"I hear radio ads for Stamps.com, promising the ability to print postage stamps at home, and $100 in bonuses. Is Stamps.com internet postage legit, or a scam?" |
What's the Deal With Stamps.com?
Stamps.com is an Internet postage service that's heavily advertised on talk radio and other media, offering you the convenience of printing your own postage, and bypassing long lines at the Post Office. They also promise a $100 bonus which includes free postage and a digital scale, just for signing up as a new customer. Can this Internet postage service do everything it promises and make your life easier? Do they really give you the $100 bonus?
I signed up for the service and found out the good, bad and the ugly. So let's take a look at the claims that Stamps.com makes, and see if they deliver...
Printing Postage From Your PC?
Yes, you really can print postage using your own computer and printer. The Stamps.com software lets you print postage directly on envelopes, or on special sheets of "peel and stick" paper. You can print First Class or post card stamps, Priority or Express mail postage, or any specific amount, based on the size and weight of your package. I have to admit that's pretty cool, and the obvious advantages here (aside from the coolness factor of seeing real US postage stamps rolling out of your printer) are that you save gas, money, time. You don't have to drive to the Post Office, or wait in long lines. I say less time spent in government offices is a good thing.
Stamps.com will also turn your photos, or your business logo into postage. They make this possible with a customizable interface on the site that lets you choose a picture, manipulate it to your desire, add border colors, then purchase for a fee.
Save Money and Look More Professional?
The Stamps.com website claims that you will save at least "80% compared to a postage meter." I'm assuming they're referring to the cost of buying and operating your own postage meter. I've never done that, so I'll take them at their word.
Other advertised features are that your mailings will look more professional, and that you'll never overpay for postage again. This must refer to the feature in the software that lets you print addresses and postage directly on your own envelopes. Yes, I suppose that's a professional look, and a desirable thing if you run a small business. And I'll admit to occasionally putting an extra stamp on overstuffed envelopes, just in case they're over the weight limit. But with the free digital scale and the software, you can figure out exactly how much postage you'll need for a large or overweight mailing.
However... I had some problems relating to those last two points. First, I never got the digital scale they promised. It's only been two months, so maybe it'll eventually arrive. Or maybe not. And the software would not print correctly on my HP OfficeJet Pro printer. For some reason, the postage wanted to print in the wrong spot (half off the page) and after an hour of fiddling with the options, I gave up.
No Hidden Fees?
I do have a gripe here. If you go to the Stamps.com website, then click on the Signup button, it's fairly easy to miss the fact that there is a 4-week trial period, and a monthly fee of $17.99 to use the Stamps.com service after the trial period. And that does NOT mean you get $17.99 in postage to use each month. That fee is just for the "convenience" of printing your own stamps. So you're saving the Post Office money by using your own stamps and ink. And presumably it reduces labor costs, because all those Stamps.com customers won't be showing up and making the lines at the Post Office even longer. But you still have to pay $17.99 a month for convenience?
I'll grant that this service fee wasn't exactly hidden in the small print. But I'm sure a lot of people miss it in their haste to sign up and get the free scale and $45 free postage. I'm usually pretty good about scanning for gotchas, but I'll admit this one slipped by me. I didn't find out about the $17.99 monthly fee until I saw it on my credit card 4 weeks later.
$100 Signup Bonus?
But what about the "$100 Signup Bonus"? They're pretty clear on the website that the breakdown of this is as follows: $45 in free postage, a $50 digital scale, and a $5 supplies kit. I could quibble over the actual value of the digital scale, but let's just assume it's a deal. However, they are NOT clear on WHEN you get the free postage. Upon signup, you get $5 instant free postage. If you want, you can print your $5 worth of stamps, cancel the service, and walk away.
But how do you get the other $40 in free postage? There's the rub. When your free supplies kit arrives, it comes with four post cards. Each one is a voucher for $10 in free postage. And AFTER the 4 week trial period is over, you can send in one voucher per month. But of course you'll be charged that $17.99 monthly service fee. So your $40 in free postage will actually COST you $31.96. I did not see this mentioned anywhere on the Stamps.com website, so a pox on them for not being upfront about this.
How to Cancel Stamps.com
Cancelling your Stamps.com membership cannot be accomplished using the software, or by email. After poking around in the Help screens, I learned that it must be done by calling Customer Support at 1-888-434-0055. I called, and after waiting on hold for just a minute or two, I was connected to a very polite rep. She asked why I wanted to cancel, and mentioned some of the benefits of remaining as a customer. I said no thanks. She then informed me that I was eligible for a "Basic Account" at a reduced rate of $9.99 a month, and that she would waive my regular service fee for 1 month.
That's classic "customer retention" stuff that you'll get if you try to cancel a credit card, an AOL account or many other services. If you still want to cancel at that point, just keep saying no, and they'll reluctantly do it.
So Is Stamps.com a Scam?
If you look on the web, you can find people who love the Stamps.com service, and those who hate it. I found complaints from people in online forums who said they had to wait on hold forever when trying to reach customer support. Other claimed that they were still getting billed after cancelling their accounts.
So I headed over to the Better Business Bureau website. They actually rated the site with an A, but of the 30+ users who commented, most were negative and Stamps.com only received one star out of five. But keep in mind that very few people visit the BBB website with the intention of writing glowing reviews. The "A" rating implies that the company is operating in a trustworthy manner and has made a good faith effort to resolve any complaints.
Although I am disappointed by the scant mention of the monthly service fee at signup time, and the lack of clarity regarding the "free postage," I can't go so far as to declare Stamps.com a scam. The software does work as advertised, and if you run a small business that does a lot of mailings, the convenience of not having to go to the Post Office could make it worthwhile. There are also discounts, such as 10% on insurance, up to 10% on Express and Priority mail locally, up to 8% international rates, and free USPS supplies. But I doubt that most people using it for personal household stuff would consider it a good deal.
What's your opinion? Have you tried Stamps.com? Tell me what you think by posting a comment below...
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Posted by Bob Rankin on 23 Sep 2009
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Most recent comments on "Is Stamps.com a Scam?"
(See all 66 comments for this article.)Posted by:
annonymous
28 Jan 2011
I would like to make some comments about Stamps.com For these purposes I should tell you that I know someone who works for Stamps.com. From what I have "heard" Stamps.com is a very good system for people who own a business, or who send out a lot of things (and I mean - a lot). For those who send out just a few things, it's not worth paying for (and the "savings" on shipping are the same "savings" you get from USPS.com).
What you are paying for, in the monthly fee, is the software that allows you to integrate your sales data / address books and so print out addresses and postage at the same time. This works well for big companies, as it saves them man hours.
The problem is that Stamps.com is being marketed to people who don't have a use for the service. The "$45 in free postage" is a great sales tactic to people who send out a few letters or packages. But asside from the initial $5 you have to pay the monthly fee in order to get $10 of postage a month - which is NOT worth it to send out the occasional piece. There are many sales tactics that are completely legitimate (after all, everyone should know to read the fine print before putting in their credit card details, which many companies rely on us NOT doing!) but are possibly ethically questionable. There are many forums with people who complain about Stamps.com, and claim it's a scam. They have over 400,000 happy customers who use them every day - and there are always dissatisfied customers for even the best company.
I guess my message is two things - if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is - and that we should all be very careful who we give our credit card details too.
Posted by:
Rick
15 Feb 2011
Everything you say is true, but there is one point you missed. The supposedly free scale isn't totally free. You have to pay nearly $10 for shipping on the scale, and you don't find that out until after you have signed up and given your credit card. You can opt out of the free scale, but you have to pay close attention to all the options presented to you when you sign up for the trial. And if you do opt-out, they'll keep bugging you about it until your trial runs out...
Posted by:
Bruce Wayne
28 Feb 2011
Save yourself money And hassle....you can download the Free Shipping Assistant from the Post Office, and do all your labels/printing etc. for Free!
Or, if you don't need yet another program taking up space in your computer, you can also get all the info you need and print postage at the post office website...again, for Free!
^^X^^
Posted by:
Darrell
02 Mar 2011
I signed up with them not planning on getting any free scale or anything. I just wanted to print a shipping label. Turned out I didn't have any acceptable label paper so that was that. Of course until I reviewed my credit card statement and saw a $15.99 charge on it. I used their feature to close the account, of course they did not close my account when asked. I'm sure that they must have had somewhere on their web site about the subscription fee, but I didn't see anything, and I'm better than most at noticing details like that. None of their emails said anything about me authorizing any monthly charges to my credit card, there was no receipt or anything. Just the fact that many people have missed the bit about the expensive subscription and the difficulty of canceling the account wreaks of a scam to me. I'm attempting to resolve this through different avenues. I think I felt they would be more legitimate since USPS provided a link to their site. I suppose for now on even if I think a place is a trusted site, I better Google their company with words like complaint, scam etc. first.
Posted by:
Devin Ogden
04 Mar 2011
When I first looked up stamps.com in google, I was a little taken back at a lot of the negative feedback they have received. I mail packages fairly often and recently I had two packages that totaled in value to $180 break during shipment. Of course, I did pay the .50 some cents to insure it but I was not sure if it was going to take months for my claim to be approved like it does for usps. I called customer service yesterday and after 1 week of filing my claim they informed me that my check was mailed the day before. I understand where people are coming from with the "underlying" charges and stuff, but in my opinion there is a lot more that stamps.com charges you the 17.99 monthly subscription for than just a mere "convenience". For me, it saved me $180 and I was able to get it a whole lot quicker than normally.
Posted by:
Neil
21 Mar 2011
I received a 5" X 6.5" flier in the mail with a CD inside and info about the service. It said NOTHING about a monthly fee. I was surprised to see that on my user profile. I then Google'd and got this web site which is very helpful. Unfortunately, I now have to waste a lot of time to cancel this thing, and I'm sure it'll cost me something. Thanks for all the info.
Posted by:
Rich
24 Jun 2011
Your summary on stamps.com was exactly the same as I experienced, except my charge was $15.99 a month. Like you, I didn't realize there was a monthly charge to get the $40 in "free" postage they offered. When I saw the charge on my credit card statement, I called the same day to cancel and rejected their additional offers to stay another month for $9.99. Unfortunately, because they bill "in arrears" that meant by the time I saw the charge, I was already into the next month and will be charged another $15.99. So to get $15 in "free" postage, it will have cost me $32. I wish I had been more careful in reading their offer.
I just hope they don't continue charging my credit card monthly, as some people on the internet complained about.
Posted by:
Steve Crane
26 Aug 2011
I came to this article after making an online purchase and receiving a shipment notice saying I could track the shipment via a stamps.com link. In the three days since I have neither been able to access that link nor the root of the stamps.com site so I was wondering if it was legitimate. My browser simply reports that it cannot connect to stamps.com. I am therefore encouraged by this article suggesting that stamps.com is at least somewhat legitimate. I hope to receive my purchase delivery in due course.
Posted by:
Ronnie Honduras
30 Dec 2011
I just found the credit charges on my bill for 15.99. Unfortunately I signed up using a card that is on auto pay, that I rarely use, and hence I never check the statements. Perhaps that's stupid, but year end, I review things and found I'd been hit for 12 mos of $15.99, having tested the system in the first month for personal use, using less than $5.00 of postage.
1) I too, had missed the $15.99 recurring fee, which in NOWHERE in the WELCOME email. I would have NEVER signed up for that had it been clearly noted.
2) What's written above confirms it is somewhat hidden. Moreover, when the 4 week trial ended, again NO EMAIL was sent saying I would now be billed $15.99 / month.
3) I just canceled and when I complained that I never received emails about recurring billing as it happened, was told I had selected to not receive any billing notices at sign up! I looked through the stamps.com interface for this function, and the only options I could find for receiving emails from them were the ones I normally ALWAYS turn off -- the options to receive spam on special offers from the company. Those were all selected as affirmative, yet the recurring billing statements supposedly selected by me as turned off? I suspect like 1) above, these options are obscure.
CONCLUSION: STAMPS.com probably gets a decent about of revenue from people who try the service and are unaware of how much they are billed by keeping very quiet about it. It strikes me as being deliberately sneaky about what you're actually signing up for, and tries to get you to not receive billing notices for as long as possible.
I managed to get 3 mos refunded, but that's all they'd budge. May take it up with Discover who I used for billing.
What I used of stamps.com worked nicely, but for a home user being charged this monthly fee, or a $9.99 lesser package that was offered when I canceled -- is a ripoff vs. going to post office and buying stamps.
Otherwise, I FEEL TOTALLY SCAMMED.
Posted by:
Rebecca Barker
22 Jan 2012
I signed up for stamps.com mainly for the free scale. The description of the scale did not mention that it only works with their program and hooks up only to your computer not to an electric wall plug. I canceled before the free trial period expired so I was only out the 9.99 that it cost to ship the "free" scale.
If anyone knows of a program I can down load to make the stamps.com scale useful, please post.