Is Stamps.com a Scam? - Comments Page 4

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

There is a way to get both: the Free 3 months Membership and a $100 deal. Also, if you are an ebay seller, guess what? The membership is lmited, but it's 100% Free!
Yes, they may or may not have been upfront about the monthly fee, but I would have never expected this service to be free to begin with. When you are using the software, simply go to "My Account" and you can see everything about your fees.

I just want to share my story in hopes that other people will STAY AWAY from this site unless they want a huge headache.
Short story long, I signed up for a free trail, called to cancel before I got charged and got coaxed into getting another month free. (also you can ONLY cancel via phone, no option to cancel online). This month I forgot to cancel on time and went a few days over. So this month wasn't free and I cut my loses and learned a $15.99 lesson. Account canceled. Then I notice next month I have another $15.99 charge to my account. I call and they don't know what happened but promise to refund me the money in 7-10 days. over 2 weeks later I call again and speak with a supervisor who promises to have it actually returned in 3-5 days which I'm still waiting on. And when she went to give a confirmation #, it was exactly the same as the one I got when I called previously. I asked her about that and she just said 'oops sorry, I'll give you another one'. What kind of a business won't return fraudulent fees? Unbelievable.

LEASE DO NOT EVER DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!

After several years of supposedly cancelled account (it started with a "free 30 day trial" which tagged along with another purchase, and after not only PROMPTLY cancelling this service.. but ALSO getting charged month after month, multiple phone calls and promises that "this time it is REALLY REALLY cancelled" .. just to be charged the very next month... I finally had to cancel my Credit Card.

Not ONCE during all the months they charged me did I EVER receive ANY KIND OF PRODUCT OR SERVICE, nothing at all. No promised trial pack of some kind which is supposed to explain their services, and different options of customizing, whatever they do.. nada! Their software kept crashing and I was unable to install it on my comp, even after multiple tries. Contacting support for that was pointless, as they only leave you on hold for 45min or more, couple of times it was over an hour and I just gave up on their "help" with their own software, opting instead to cancel it before my "FREE TRIAL MEMBERSHIP" (WHAT A JOKE!) expired.

So after closing the CC .. I figure they finally can't charge me anymore for zero service provided, right? OH HOW WRONG!!!!

It is now YEARS after the fact, and these money hungry thieves, pretending to run a stamp business, have just somehow found my 75 year old MOTHER'S CHECKING ACCOUNT, which has a debit/credit card, and on which account I am listed as a Power Of Attorney (NOT an account holder) in order to translate for her, since she speaks very little English.... and THEY JUST SMOOTHLY STOLE $233.35 OUT OF HER CHECKING ACCOUNT - which only ever holds her SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK, the entire pension she lives on - $800! Stealing $233.35 is QUITE a big deal for her and because of their greed and unscrupulous tactics - my mother will now be unable to pay her heating & electricity bill.

Thanks so much, STAMPS.COM .. you greedy bastards!!! Ruining people's lives for no reason at all.. promising cancellations of accounts and then waiting for years before you slap a $230 charge on someone's relative's checking account -- WHICH NOBODY GAVE YOU ANY KIND OF PERMISSION TO DO!!! And all this for what? Never have we received so much as a single STAMP, nothing, absolutely zero product or service of any kind.

I smell lawsuit. And something tells me it will be a class-action, as I'm not the only one they've done this (or similar) to.

I will MOST DEFINITELY pursue EVERY avenue available to me and my mother in the State Of California .. from the Better Business Bureau, to Postmaster General of the United States, to Consumer Protection Agencies (as many as I can find that will hear me out), to Court... as well as those ever-popular local TV channel Investigators (I hope there will be others in California eager to tell how this shady company scammed them too, so that we can have a nice big segment of exposure on the local television stations (yep, plural, I do not intend to stop with just one locality!).

They have finally done it to someone who has nothing to lose, and who is pretty well pissed off about their tactics. I would like nothing better than to see this company of scammers shut down for their unscrupulous practices and ripping people off, people who CANNOT AFFORD TO BE RIPPED OFF!!! People who live day-to-day on their SSI checks, and often go without food, unable to afford gas to even visit their local food bank.. yep, that's who they stole from this time!! Just such a person. And they took $233.35 exactly, which could have paid PG&E bill and afforded some much needed food for my mother!

Thanks for letting me tell my story! STAY AWAY FROM STAMPS.COM PLEASE!!! THEY NEVER EVER STOP, NOT EVEN WHEN THE YEARS PASS AFTER CANCELLATION OF YOUR ACCOUNT WITH THEM.. THEY JUST HOPE THAT:
1. you will not be paying attention to your bank statement;
2. you will let it go, if its a small amount like $15 or $17 and trust them when they tell you its been cancelled;
3. they KNOW most people don't have the record of the transaction number of that long-ago cancellation after so many years since the service was supposedly cancelled... so basically they will come up with the standard "hey, you never cancelled" story.. since "you have no proof". BULL!!! This WAS cancelled, and the money will be returned, ONE WAY OR THE OTHER! If it takes extreme measures, so be it, like I said - I have absolutely nothing to lose! But do they? And is it worth those $233.35?? They need to ponder that one VERY seriously.

Bob, Thanks for the well written synopsis of stamps.com. I certainly appreciate the time and effort that you obviously went through to inform people of the site.

I signed up just because I wanted to print a shipping label. Then I reviewed my credit card statement and saw a $15.99 charge on it for the past three months. I cancel my account which took me forever. And now they send me a collection letter???!!! WHAT A BIG SCAM. BE AWARE!!

I got my subscription around first of July 2012. The lady was polite and told me the cost and about the $10 monthly coupons given for 4 months. She told me about calling to cancel and the first month free while the $17 charge starting after that. I used the web site for sending packages national and international and it works well. I do have a problem with the pass word and logging-in which is very irritating. There is something in there software that seems to be monitoring my computer for some reason and interferes with my Malware software (PUP malware). But Other than that I do not see any issue and do not see a scam here. They are offering a service that seems to be convenient for a charge. To me that is the way of doing business and the Lady on the phone was quite clear on ALL aspects of the service, charges, coupons, and how everything work. Sorry, I don’t see the scam here.

Why on Earth would anyone use stamps.com? You can get the exact same service from paypal ship now, however paypal is free. Stamps charges you a monthly fee plus a fee every time you ship something. I can't see stamps.com surviving too long seeing how there is a free service that does what they charge to do. They rely completely upon people's ignorance.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Paypal's "Ship Now" service is actually quite different than the Stamps.com offering. Paypal will print postage labels for packages only. You cannot send a first class letter using Ship Now. There's no scale included, so you must use the Flat Rate boxes, which can be more expensive for lighter packages.

The best thing about stamps.com is the domain name. Sadly, that is the best thing about it.

I've been using Paypal's stamps service for a very long time. I loved it for a few reasons: 1) pay exactly as you go (no need to prepay) 2) no monthly fee 3) no annoying advertisement/3rd party marketing.

Unfortunately, in 2013 USPS cancelled Parcel Post and switched to Parcel Select. There was a period of 1 month where Paypal was not ready to use Parcel Select, and therefore I signed up for stamps.com for my shipping needs. Unfortunately, my nightmare with stamps.com began. They started pushing a lot of unsolicited mail and marketing to me. They charged $16/month regardless of whether I use them 10 times or 0 time. They require BULK payment (of at least $10), and totally unrefundable. They spam, a lot.

Now that Paypal is offering Parcel Select, I just cancelled stamps.com. Unfortunately, while it's easy to get sucked into stamps.com, it's really really difficult to cancel the membership. They make it difficult by requiring you to talk to some annoying agent who will keep pushing for you to keep the account. REALLY ANNOYING.

Stamps has some bad marketing schemes. Their plans are not easily understood or transparent, by design. Hiding stuff in the small print is so 1950's and people still get mad when a business uses those tactics. I canceled my account because of my low volume mailings, but if my business ever does get big enough where I need a service like Stamps.com, I'll be sure NOT to return to them and find another service provider that is less sneaky and wiesely.

I noticed stamps.com was on my master card for two months? I never opened an account with them, and then found out they have been charging me $15.95 for six months and I never got nothing from them. This is fraud plain and simple. How many people have they done this to???

I had to send this complaint to stamps.com. Such a ripoff! When I signed up, your site said it was completely free just pay shipping and handling. Little did I know that during the application process, you guys would sneak in information about monthly payments. I am so upset at this service. I did not know my debit card was being charged, and it caused me an over draft fee. Plus when I went to cancel, I got hit with another fee of payment for the start of the month I was cancelling during. I never once used your services or the packet that was sent to me. I am so upset at the service. When I called to get help on a refund, I was only given partial credit. The monthly payment thing should be in bold on the main page, not blended in with the application on the side where not very many people look. At that point we are too busy answering the endless questions on the application. So frustrating.

EDITOR'S NOTE: I hope you also sent this to stamps.com (which is not this site).

I have to admit that I haven't been watching my bank account very well this year. I signed up for a "free scale" in January, and didn't notice the charges until July. $9.99 for shipping the scale, I expected. But I don't recall ever seeing or agreeing to $15.99 per month "membership". But of course they say it was fully disclosed.

I just got off the 1/2 hour phone call with them. Explaining that after I received the scale which was different than I expected, I did not use their service at all, and I would like a refund. Everyone was very nice, but persistent. And so was I. After getting the account cancelled and escalating the discussion, a very nice supervisor was able to refund 4 out of 6 months of service. I accepted that.

Had I been on top of my bank statement, this would have been resolved much sooner. I ended up paying $42 for something I've never used, nor will ever use. But I guess that's what happens with fine print and expecting something for "free".

It may not be an actual scam, BUT I very carefully looked at it online, and nowhere did I see anything about a $15.99 monthly fee. I assumed I would just be paying for the stamps, with perhaps a small fee per stamp. I received the software but was unable to download it and just gave up on it. Later I noticed the monthly fee on my credit card - WHAT? I called to cancel (after trying unsuccessfully to find a way to cancel online) and spent a long time on the phone insisting I wanted to cancel and wanted my money back. They sent me an email saying they would waive the fee, but so far, there is no credit on my account. I may need to call the bank and deal with it at that end. What annoyance! I would recommend that people stay away from this company!

the customer support number listed on their website is no longer valid, it belongs to peoplePC.com support. pretty sketchy- I found their functioning number after a couple of false starts-

1-855-608-2677