posted on November 16, 2000 06:30:58 PM
I got an offer in the mail today from www.clickstamp.com Acording to the offer, the service is 14.99 per year regardless of the amount of postage you print. They also offer a free scale. My question is, does anyone here use it? If so, do you like it, & is it faster to print the postage out than just going to the PO? Thanks
posted on November 16, 2000 06:46:01 PM
Well I have never used this service I can tell you it wont be cheaper on you then going to the PO since postaage is the same.
I know stamps.com offers a scale when you pay $15 monthly but the scale is a 4lbs scale and if you sell heavy Items this would be of little use since you couldnt get the weight to print the postage I would say check the deal over good.
if you have enough sales and return weekly and monthly to justify printing your own postage might be worth your money to have a service like this.
if your sales are slow and many weeks you only get $15 or $20 in a week this more then likely wont be fore you as the cost would soon over run sales.
posted on November 16, 2000 10:27:42 PM
I have been a beta tester of Pitney Bowes' Clickstamp Plus for about 2 years. That was a product that consisted of an electronic "vault" that attached to your computer and did not require being online to print postage. I liked it a lot and the price was right (free for us beta testers!), but apparently they've abandoned the product in favor of their newer ClickStamp Online. This is my last month of ClickStamp Plus.
Because they made me another generous offer (1 year free +$10 free postage) I started using ClickStamp Online last week. So Far, So Good. The advantage of the Online vs the Plus is the ability to purchase postage online using a credit card. The Plus required sending funds into an account - a real pain.
Anyway, to answer your question, I like it a lot and it saves tons of time. I simply drop all of my packages off at the P.O. loading dock or give them to my carrier. Combined with U-Pic (www.u-pic.com) for insurance I only stand in line once or twice a week for the international shipments.
I haven't used the other on-line postage services, so I can't give you a feature by feature comparison, but I highly recommend using one of them.
posted on November 17, 2000 06:11:35 PM
I just signed up for Clickstamp this afternoon on the basis of the above posts, and I am very pleased.
I was just about to sign up with Stamps.com when I read in one of these forums that they do not support book rate/special standard. One user said he had to get as close as possible and make up the difference with a few small denomination stamps.
The problem with doing that is the USPS regulation on dropping off stamped packages.
I was told this week by a USPS employee that for security reasons, any package over 1 pound with stamps has to be personally handed to a postal employee, it cannot go in a mailbox. However, if it is *metered* it can go in a mailbox even if it is over a pound. I guess they figure terrorists don't use postage meters.
This is a big difference in convenience for me, and I was pleased to find that ClickStamp does support Special Standard rate. It was very easy to set up, I got my approval within 4 hours even though late on a Friday afternoon.
The best part is the price: $1.49 per month, billed quarterly for unlimited postage purchases. No percentage, no strings that I could see. First month free, too.
posted on November 17, 2000 07:27:14 PM
Well I seriously thought about these systems, but we live in a small town, so there is no waiting in line - plus we are the largest mailer in our area and our post office would lose one employee without us, so I have to stay with the post office.....they take good care of us, so I can't complain.
posted on November 18, 2000 03:29:53 PM
I was going to check out clickstamp after reading the posts above but I tried www.clickstamp.com and I couldn't bring it up... what's up? Is that the right address? Are they down tonight??
posted on November 18, 2000 04:11:21 PM
I took a look at the website, and I'm interested, but I couldn't look at the demos. They use flash and I have trouble loading stuff like that.
How on earth do they make money on this service for 14.99 a year? That wouldn't even cover the scale, most likely....I've become a bit wary of all the net freebies. Other than that, it sounds wonderful. Is your credit card billed monthly or in realtime for the postage you use?
Also, I don't have MS word. Do I need it to use this service?
posted on November 18, 2000 05:50:07 PM
I might have been wary of such a low rate but the parent company is Pitney Bowes, a name I feel I can trust. It might also explain somewhat how they can offer such a rate, as the web postage is surely only a small portion of their business. They may "pull a Paypal" at some point and hike it up and if they do, then I'll have to decide if I can keep the service. I'm just starting out selling so it was great to find a postage service I can afford.
I think my credit card will be charged real time. It hasn't shown up yet but it is the weekend.
I don't have MSWord either. I was able to use the postage program to print directly to my printer.
Now if I could just get a sale so I can try it out.
