Murph
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posted on July 30, 2001 10:47:58 AM
I'm trying to get out my packages from weekend sales and endicia.com functionality seems to be down. Endicia's site is up right now, but the www.dial-a-zip.com site that endicia has to access to verify the address is down. (The Dazzle software can't access it; I can't access it on my own, and the Endicia zip code look up on the endicia.com site can't access it either.) Since the address can't be verified, endicia can't print the postage.
I have a call in to tech support, but thought I'd give a heads-up here as well.
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cabledogii
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posted on July 30, 2001 10:54:52 AM
Does this happen often?
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Murph
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posted on July 30, 2001 11:00:24 AM
I've used the service for about a month, and this is the first problem I've encountered.
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Murph
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posted on July 30, 2001 11:05:53 AM
Well, as of 11:05, dial-a-zip.com is responding and labels are printing again.
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cabledogii
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posted on July 30, 2001 11:15:47 AM
Thanks,
I have been asking a lot of questions lately about this service because I will be singing up with them tomorrow, and I want to make sure I dont' get into something I'll regrett.
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Murph
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posted on July 30, 2001 11:56:12 AM
And here's a nice conclusion to this: at 11:35 am--about 50 minutes after I left a message for tech support--an Endicia customer service person called me.
She was knowledgeable and personable. She confirmed that the dial-a-zip site had been down for an extended period (as opposed to waffling on the issue as some sites do!). She explained in detail what the problem was, and gave me an alternative way to get addresses verified if dial-a-zip goes down again.
I was quite impressed with the way she handled the situation and with the short time it took both to get the site up and for a CS rep to return my call.
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wbbell
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posted on July 30, 2001 02:19:05 PM
That is my one (and only) complaint with endicia/Dazzle, is that it requires your address to pass validation, otherwise it will NOT print. (Or at least I haven't figured out how to do it.)
So if dial-a-zip is down, then endicia is pretty much down as well. At least with stamps.com you could override.
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avaloncourt
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posted on July 30, 2001 08:23:46 PM
It worked fine for me all day and I generated about 50 postage labels.
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tomwiii
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posted on July 31, 2001 04:00:05 AM
HINT:
If ever Dial-A-Zip is down, do the following:
1) GOTO "Preferences" > "Verification"
2) CHANGE the URL from www.dial-a-zip.com to:
www.envelopemanager.com
Try that -- it worked for me during the outage!
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paintpower
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posted on July 31, 2001 04:01:18 AM
Here's what I do. As soon as I receive the payment from my buyers I enter their addresses into my address book while offline. Then go online and verify them. Then, if there is a problem with the address I have time to contact buyers and make sure the address they gave me is correct. If it is correct, it is already verified when I get ready to print the postage. The address verification is a good thing because it makes sure your address meets every postal standard plus adding the extra 4 digits to the zip code. Makes your mail travel much much faster! I had one address a few weeks ago that would not verify, and the buyer said this was her address and she had lived there for 30 years. Turns out she didn't even know her correct postal address!!
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silksecrets
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posted on August 12, 2001 07:40:18 AM
Has anyone noticed that the Dial-a-zip for endicia has been down all weekend?
Tomwiii....you posted the "www.envelopemanager.com" address as an alternative....but that one is not working either!!
Does anyone know of a different zip verifier that can be used? I seem to remember Endicia giving me one similar to "www.envelopemanager.com" but a little different. Of course that little slip of paper I wrote it on to remember has dissapeared from my desk!!!
I have left a message for Endicia...but it is Sunday and I'm sure they are not in the office today.
Thank you for your help!!
Rita
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darrelll
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posted on August 12, 2001 07:55:34 AM
Drats!
It was down all day Saturday until around 11pm PST it was working. This morning at 8am it's down again.
This is the first time it's been down for more than a few minutes in over a month.
It's a great program but probably the Code Red worm has caused a problem...
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barbarake
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posted on August 12, 2001 08:20:57 AM
I wrote Tech Support (and called) yesterday afternoon - there was an email in my mailbox this morning explaining about the dial-a-zip site being down and that it's back up now.
I just tried it though and it's not working.
I'm going to be upset if I have to do all these packages (60) manually. And my post office won't be thrilled either.
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silksecrets
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posted on August 12, 2001 08:54:29 AM
My post office will not even allow me to bring more than 10 packages for mailing at one time. They told me I would have to find other ways to get postage on my packages if I had more than 10 packages. According to them it is not fair for the other customers to wait in line.
Soooo....I sure hope this is fixed soon!! And doesn't happen often.
Rita
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gr8ful2bhere
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posted on August 12, 2001 08:59:45 AM
www.envelopemanager.com is working as an alternative for me right now.
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darrelll
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posted on August 12, 2001 10:37:32 AM
RE 10 packages...
You have to suck up to them... When I go fishing, the last time I caught 8 albacore and ended up with about 80 pounds of fillets so I smoked it and gave some to everyone at the post office...
I'm on a first name basis with just about everyone there... maybe 10+ workers and I am always friendly to them and they used to do special favors before, but know they will do almost anything for me... (that's legal and with their clothes on)
Bribery works!
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paperfan
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posted on August 12, 2001 12:29:50 PM
I'll preface this question by saying that I love endicia!
That having been said, however, I'm having a little problem at present. I was verifying addresses for tomorrow's mailings and am unable to verify one as I keep getting "State Not Recognized." The state is North Carolina and the correct abbreviation is NC, and that is what I'm using. I checked out the program help and it said I must be using an incorrect abbreviation or sometimes this happens with foreign addresses. I know NC is foreign to some people (hi y'all) but last time I checked, we're still in the union (I happen to live in NC).
I've tried changing the spacing all around and still no dice. Anyone got a suggestion? Ever had this happen to you?
pf
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avaloncourt
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posted on August 12, 2001 12:34:38 PM
During a previous address server outage I was told by technical support to switch the address verification preference entry to:
www.envmgr.com
When the Dial-A-Zip stopped responding I inserted this entry and it has worked for me wonderfully all weekend.
[ edited by avaloncourt on Aug 12, 2001 12:35 PM ]
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paperfan
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posted on August 12, 2001 12:44:23 PM
Thanks avaloncourt. 
I tried it but that one gives me a "Request failed" notice. It says usually this is a problem with my internet connection or see troubleshooting. Hmmm.... Have you used it very recently? Is anyone able to get it to work right now? I was in the middle of a series of addresses and the first ones worked with absolutely no trouble.
I tried the www.envelopemanager.com too.
Oh well, maybe a glitch. I guess I'll try again tomorrow. 
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darrelll
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posted on August 12, 2001 01:04:50 PM
I switched to envelopemanager.com under preferences and it's working fine. I sent an email to tech support and here's their reply:
The ZIP Station service on www.dial-a-zip.com was down yesterday. We
rebooted the server around 9pm PDT last night, but it went down again this
morning.
I have just rebooted it and it's working right now. The developers will look
at it Monday to see why it had such trouble this weekend.
In case it goes down again, here's how you can work around the problem:
Go to the File menu, choose Preferences, then Address Verification. Change
the ZIP Station address from www.dial-a-zip.com to www.envmgr.com (which is
working fine).
Diane (Hewitt) Schnee
Envelope Manager Software
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wbbell
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posted on August 12, 2001 01:05:23 PM
State Not Recognized - if you are using an ad killer like AdSubtract that sets up a phony proxy server, that can cause peculiar problems with internet based programs.
In the case of dazzle, I have found that for whatever reason you cannot put a # character in your address if you are using adsubtract. Try "APT" instead of # and it will work fine.
I seem to remember Endicia giving me one similar to "www.envelopemanager.com"
You're probably thinking of www.envmgr.com - and that is verifying addresses just fine for me at this moment.
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avaloncourt
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posted on August 12, 2001 01:18:59 PM
Paperfan: The envmgr server worked at the point I posted that message and I just tried it again to make sure.
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HarryWhitehouse
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posted on August 13, 2001 01:42:23 PM
Here's a list of URL's which support the Dial-A-ZIP functionality:
www.dial-a-zip.com
www.envelopemanager.com
www.envmgr.com
www.fastforward.envmgr.com
We are replacing the rather old Quad server which houses dial-a-zip.com this week. We're not sure what's wrong with this puppy, but we're going to retire her!
Best
Harry
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HarryWhitehouse
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posted on August 13, 2001 01:43:31 PM
Here's a list of URL's which support the Dial-A-ZIP functionality:
www.dial-a-zip.com
www.envelopemanager.com
www.envmgr.com
www.fastforward.envmgr.com
We are replacing the rather old Quad server which houses dial-a-zip.com this week. We're not sure what's wrong with this puppy, but we're going to retire her!
Best
Harry
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HarryWhitehouse
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posted on August 13, 2001 01:44:12 PM
Here's a list of URL's which support the Dial-A-ZIP functionality:
www.dial-a-zip.com
www.envelopemanager.com
www.envmgr.com
www.fastforward.envmgr.com
We are replacing the rather old Quad server which houses dial-a-zip.com this week. We're not sure what's wrong with this puppy, but we're going to retire her!
Best
Harry
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