e-Vents

[ Friday ]

Caveat 'Stamps.com' Emptor

You get e-mails from them continuously. Their 'affiliates' fill up your Inbox with spam, promoting their 'Free Trial' and $80 in free postage and supplies. But beware...all is not what it seems.

The idea sounds simple enough, especially if you have ever waited in line at your local post office...print postage from your home or office computer, and avoid the hassle of going to the post office. And, on top of that, they claim, we will give you $80 in free postage and supplies, including a digital scale...and you may cancel at any time. (Better read the fine print, though). Give them your credit card number up front, by the way, for this 'no-risk' offer.

The package of supplies arrives within a reasonable amount of time, delivered not by UPS or FedEx, but by the USPS...go figure! Now the truth is in the documentation...in order to get the full $25 worth of 'free' postage, one must subscribe to the monthly service for $15.99 per month, and can submit a claim for $10 worth of postage after the trial period expires, and then another $10 claim after that month is completed. How's your math?...Let's see...that's $15.99 times 2, minus $20 in free postage plus the $5 worth of free postage that was included in the initial welcome package.

But there's more...check your credit card statement, and you will find that the first charge was posted on the 30th day after registering for the service. So, add another $15.99 to that total. (Shouldn't that charge only be 1/30 of $15.99, since the first 29 days were 'risk free' ?) And check to see if the digital scale operates properly when it arrives...mine did not. But, to return it would cost at least $3.85 of your free postage allowance, and you can find a good spring-loaded scale for about one dollar at your local discount store. (Incidentally, the digital scale provided does not connect to your PC...only the more expensive model does that).

So, again, back to the math problem...$15.99 x 3 = $48 minus the $25 in 'free' postage, and the inoperable scale...you are only out $22.97. A small price to pay for not having to wait in line at the post office, right?

Some critics and consumer advocates (along with consumer protection agencies and state Attorneys General) might consider this misleading and/or deceptive advertising by Stamps.com and their affiliates. If it happened to you, it probably happened to thousands of other consumers.

Send an e-mail to your state's AG or consumer affairs chief. Practices like this should not be allowed to continue at the expense of the consumer.

MM [15:32]