Getting Rid of Snail Mail Part 1
It seems like every year or so I end up needing to file a change of address with the USPS – whether it be in the same city or across the country, it’s the only part of my contact info that really ever fluctuates. I’ve kept the same email since middle school, and I’ve even had the same cell phone number since my first phone about 10 years ago. Why not establish a permanent address, too?
I started running with this idea and began daydreaming about the perfect mail system – an email like interface to scan, shred, recycle and forward my physical mail to my real current address. Never file a Change of Address Form again. Genius! After sharing this idea with a few friends over breakfast, I was told “…they already have it, and it’s called Earth Mail”. However I would soon discover that this ‘Earth Mail’ might not be the perfect solution after all…
Earth Class Mail Fail
One google search later brought me to Earth Class Mail, an impressive site that almost immediately won me over. The basic plan is $20 per month, with a $1.50 charge for opening and scanning the contents of a piece of mail. Not bad I guess, but what if I want to actually hold that Christmas card from my Grandma? Shipping costs a minimum of $7 + $1 + $0.95 – mega ouch. Sure you could wait and consolidate a few envelopes into one shipment, but seriously… $10 to ship a letter to me? I decided to hit up Google again to investigate some other people’s experiences.
It wasn’t very hard to gauge the reputation behind this company. They have some major PR work ahead of them if they want to continue to grow. It seems a recent price hike has ticked off a lot of would-be loyal customers, among other things. I’m not here to create yet another Earth Class Mail bashing post (they’ve already threatened legal action against a blogger), but I did find some promising alternatives that look just as good, if not better.
Earth Class Mail Alternatives
I was actually surprised at how many services exist out there that can receive, scan, and shred or forward your mail. I’ve listed some popular ones below, but as a web developer I have to admit that I judge a company pretty quickly based on the quality of their website. If it looks like it hasn’t been touched since the 90′s, I stay away. That said, I’ve crossed off the companies that I immediately eliminated.
MailLinkPlus
MyUSPostbox.com
St. Brendan’s Isle
My RV Mail
VirtualPostMail.com
MailboxForwarding.com
The remaining two companies were tough contenders. I narrowed it down to a few key items:
VirtualPostMail.com
- Beautiful application like interface (with fully functioning demo)
- Smart address tags
- Variety of promotion codes to customize your package options
- Competitive pricing with free trial offer
- Real street address (California)
- Limited number of recipients
MailboxForwarding.com
- No demo, just a small screenshot on homepage
- Better pricing and value overall with free first month
- Includes fax number
- Real street address (Michigan)
- Unlimited recipients
And the winner is…
Searching for company history yielded little results for both contenders. I was able to find a few testimonials in blog comments from respectable sites, which was just enough to put my mind at ease and dive in. In the end I went back and forth between the two for almost an hour, but ended up choosing Virtual Post Mail even though they were not the best value. I decided that their application like interace would be the easiest to use in the long run, and once I determine the volume of mail I receive and how often I need to scan the contents, I can change promotion codes to better suit my needs.
Sign up was a breeze and only cost me $5 to get started. I can start using my new address right away, but they cannot scan or forward the mail until I send in form 1583 with two forms of ID, and fill out a Change of Address form IN PERSON at a local post office. This is a requirement of the USPS, not Virtual Post Mail.
The Experience so far
Since I’m moving across the country very soon, I wasn’t sure whether or not I should fill out a change of address with my new Virtual Post Mail address before sending in form 1583. I filled out their support request and I had a response in a few hours on a Sunday evening!
While this response answered my question quickly and efficiently, I still wasn’t able to find a phone number or actual person listed anywhere on the site. I’m all about email these days, but it would still be nice to see a human somewhere behind the scenes when dealing with my personal mail.
I’m off to the post office to fill out my official Change of Address form, stay tuned for a full fledged review of Virtualpostmail.com in Part 2.
Mike – Nice unbiased information, thanks. I’m leaving ECM (the price increase issue) so your post was very useful.
Any more information, now that you’ve been using VPM for a while?
Steve
Whoops – just found a “deal breaker” (for me) with VirtualPostMail. They only allow ONE “Free Recipient” (Me) and charges an additional $7 a month for my wife. MailboxForwarding allows unlimited recipients.
Will keep you advised on my search, but right now – looks like MailboxForwarding.com is a better fit for me.
Steve
The additional recipient fees will definitely be a deal breaker for some people, thanks for reminding me about that – I’ll update my original post with new bullet points. I will be posting ‘part 2′ shortly, it’s been a very positive (and interesting) experience so far! Would love to hear more about your experience with Mailbox Forwarding – especially the interface, I’m curious as to how you evaluate Earth Class Mail vs. Virtual Post Mail Demo vs. MailboxForwarding, they all seem to have a different approach.
Did you seriously base your selection on their websites? I too was an ECM customer and decided on St. Brendan’s Isle based on the RAVE reviews available on the web. You should take a second look at these guys.
Greg (if that really is your name) – posting fake comments will only hurt your reputation in the long run, I highly recommend you change your marketing strategy. How do I know this is a fake comment? Your ip address is from the same exact place as the company you’re raving about. Coincidence? Nope. While your fake comments may work elsewhere, unfortunately this comment will probably have the opposite effect – everyone who reads this blog will now see that you have resorted to dishonest tactics. I highly suggest you put some effort into the things that really work – social networking, PPC ads, and giving your website (and branding) a basic facelift
Readers, make that two strikes against St Brendan’s Isle.
Thanks for pointing out that less than honest post by “Greg” earlier. For some odd reason, the paperless mail industry has been plagued by fake blog entries and similar impropriety.
Anyway, I just made the decision to switch to virtualpostmail.com after three years with Earth Class Mail. My needs changed, plain and simple. When my freelance work required a mailbox to get checks, ECM was great. They were big and reliable, and they gave me an address in the same city as the client and the bank.
Now that client is gone, and all I need is a stable address in the US. Like ECM, virtualpostmail actually answers the phone when you call them. +1 for them. Pricing is good for a little guy. +1 again. They even said they’d ship stuff using my own FedEx label (meaning I can bill it to my FedEx account and get better rates). +1 again.
How’s Part 2 coming along… there is certainly a dearth of unbiased information on the subject on the web so I’ve been looking forward to your experience so far.
Cost is a big consideration but so is sustainability. That is probably a bigger concern to me.
Tnx.
Part 2 is long overdue, I’ve been swamped with freelance projects lately but will post it soon…experience has been GREAT so far.
looking for part 2
[...] anxious to talk about my experiences. If you haven’t read it yet, my first post called Getting Rid of Snail Mail Part 1 will give some good background info on why I chose VirtualPostMail.com in the first [...]