Travel Technology - Advice about Mail Forwarding Please

In December of 2007 my husband and I signed up for a 6 month mail forwarding service. which included the setup fees, 6 month period of rental and a mail forwarding deposit. This month I discovered that the mail forwarding service had charged to my CC an additional $150 without any prior authorization from me. When I contacted their customer service, the person I spoke to became very belligerent and they claimed that this was normal practice. However I thoroughly checked their website and the contract that I signed and nowhere did it mention that additional mail forwarding fees would be automatically posted to the CC when the forwarding balance became low, nor how much these charges would be.

I have no problem paying for the service I receive, however I seriously object to someone charging my CC without either having contacted me previously or fully explaining in detail this procedure on their website. To me, such action seems tantamount to CC fraud and is all the more worrying since this company has so much of my personal information from when I signed up.

This was my first experience using a mail forwarding service and I'd appreciate any feedback from more seasoned users.

That doesn't sound right at all, particularly if it's not stated anywhere in the contract nor on the web site.

I've been a US Global Mail customer for over 3 years now and have been very satisfied with them. They don't require a deposit (not sure I understand why that would be necessary in any case), the service has always been good, and the rates seem reasonable. No, I'm not out for referral credits but just stating that they've worked well for my needs.

I was just thinking the other day as I opened my mail shipment how much trust is really involved in using a mail forwarding service, because not only do they have a lot of info from signing up but they also see exactly what mail you receive and from whom and could very easily open it or keep it.

This is the only company I've used, so I'm not sure what is considered "normal practice" but I certainly wouldn't appreciate being billed with no warning.

There's an existing thread on this sort of services. You may want to dig into it and see if you can find something useful.

Mail Forwarding services (http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=767081)

I've started using gift card type cards for that type of stuff, as I've had problems with places that renew without letting you know. Drove me nuts.

i have been using earthclassmail for about six months as i should by rights be cbd_eze, not cbd_sea. i LOVE it for the speed/ease of having my items scanned and viewable online. i got eviltwin onto it, too and he loves it.

In general, no complaints about the service. Forwarding physical copies of mail seems to be pricey but i haven't had to do it yet. But if the goal is access to the content of the mail, and not forwarding packages, it is perfect.

".. gift card type cards.." ^ or a 'virtual card' (recalling the days of 'please cancel my AOheLL' :D )

/.

Nellie264, what was the name of the mail forwarder so we can avoid using them?