Just to add, there's a new service starting called "outbox" www.outboxmail.com

Right now it's only in Austin and San Francisco but it's only $4.99 month, and includes pickup of your mail from your address, scanning of your mail, opening of your mail (if desired), shredding of your mail and even unsubscribing from junkmail. It looks promising and the price is great!

I'm thinking about taking my business on the road (Europe, South Pacific, etc) for two or three months at a time. I'll need a US based service to scan my mail, email it to me and deposit checks that come in. From what I've read, it looks like travelingmailbox.com is questionable. Has anyone had experience with mailforwarding.com or any other services that offer scanning and check deposit?

I've been following this thread for a while and decided at the beginning of the year to take the plunge and went with Virtual Post Mail. I looked at all of them but I don't get very much paper mail and wanted something on the cheaper side. It's nearly impossible comparing all of these services, there are so many little charges and it's all cut different ways - lots of scans? Lots of mail? Each weighs differently.

I picked VPM in the end, it wan't a runaway standout but seemed to the more affordable of the bunch and the first few months for the basic plans were only $10 which seemed good because after a few months I'd have a good idea of what my mail flow was like and the let you switch packages to weight more on scans or more on pieces of mail. After a few months I realized I don't get much mail but the ones I do I usually need to get scanned to review.

I have to say, I went into this with some serious doubts but it's worked out really well. When new mail comes in they send you an email with an image of the front of the letter and you can log in and request that the mail be opened and completely scanned, forwarded to you or trashed. If you catch it early in the day you can get it scanned sometimes late in the day but usually it's the next day it shows up scanned like clockwork. You can download the scans and print them if you need to as well.

Occasionally I'll have mail forwarded to me (credit cards that get renewed, stuff that I need to sign, etc) and the prices seem reasonable, you can wait and combine multiple letters or just sent one, which seem to be like $1.90 or so, which is fine. They seem to ship either that day or the next because I get htem quick via US Mail. I think they have other methods of sending, too.

I think they can do bank deposits of checks as well, nothing I've tried yet.

Only thing I've had to remember is that all my credit cards are sent there so my billing zip code for gas stations and stuff has changed. Otherwise I love it. $20 a month seems pretty reasonable.

I've followed the thread because I like the nomadic sort of totally-mobile lifestyle and this is the only one I've tried but I have to admit I'm really happy with them so far. Worth keeping on radar if you are considering:

https://my.virtualpostmail.com

With all the shills in this thread I wanted to make clear that I'm not affiliated with any of these sites, didn't get any special discounts or offers (admittedly I searched retailmenot and everywhere trying to find a discount code if it existed - it doesn't) and looked at all these sites just from following this thread and the links people shared. I've had better than expected luck with these guys for my pretty meager needs and wanted to share it.

Sorry for the bump, but I must now warn off all from travelingmailbox.com. I started out as a happy customer, but now two things of note which I learned the hard way:

If you forward mail to yourself, you will learn that anything that arrived to them which is larger than 8.5x11 is sliced and diced into multiple pieces by their service. This is not advertised, and problematic if it's say, a form you need to fill out than then file.

Second, I paid them $70 to forward next-day-air a critical item. They didn't release it to UPS for 4 days, and I received it after more than a week due to them releasing it after business hours on day 4. I asked them to refund the difference in cost between next-day air and priority mail, and they refused. Flat out. Rudely. So I've cancelled my account.

I have many more details to share about the experience I had with their service department, and I'd be happy to do so via PM. But please beware of www.travelingmailbox.com !

Hi there,

So did you pay for the shipment before it was released? Was it released within the time frame of actual business days? Meaning .... was the shipment put in on a Friday and then released after the weekend and maybe after a holiday? $70 for a next day air item seems steep. Was the shipment going overseas? If so, I doubt any item could get sent international in one day.

Be sure to post all the facts before bad mouthing a company that has an A rating at the Better Business Bureau. You look childish.

Pot meet Kettle...

*******

Why do you bother responding?

This forum is made up of highly intelligent folks who can see exactly what type of business you are running. Do you honestly think anyone who reads this thread would ever consider using your company? You take no responsibility for when things go wrong and blame the customer even when you are obviously at fault.

I am surprised after posting under multiple users and misrepresenting yourself time after time you are not banned... But I guess the are just giving you plenty of rope in which to hang yourself.


:rolleyes:

Normally posts with personal attacks get deleted - but in light of some of the content, I've decided to keep it here so people can reach their own decisions about a business.

Hi - thanks for the advice. I will absolutely report them to the BBB. Good idea.

To be clear, it was paid for and "released" by them on a business day, as stated directly and clearly in an email I have from travelingmailbox when I first alerted them to the fact it was late:

Biz days don't matter here because as you see, it was released by them on one. Or so they claimed up UNTIL we determined it was their fault - and then the story changed. By the way, traveling mailbox lists business hours on Saturday and Sunday, and their support department assisted me in investigating this on the weekend as the problem stretched into one, and indeed, in YOUR previous posts here, you boast about how they work weekends.

They told me originally they had released it to UPS, and then we spent three days investigating why it haden't gotten sent by UPS only to find out travelingmailbox had "forgotten" to give it to them! The multi-day runaround shows me they don't even know what's going on with their own organization. To play this game and then refuse to make it right, is just too much for me to put up with. I was very fair - I didn't demand my money back, only the difference in cost between priority and normal shipments.

Avoid travelingmailbox. For this reason, and also because they slice up your mail (which they also neglect to disclose, and you neglected to respond to)

NC_Girl - thanks for your response. I also assume that post was from the company. Good to know I'm not the only one who's been screwed by them.

ScottC - Please don't delete their post. Let everyone see how the company behaves.

Just saw this and thought I'd offer a couple of alternatives:

1) These days more and more credit card companies are doing electronic billing/payment so and going paperless - perhaps that is an alternative for credit cards?

2) for bills, I have been using Paytrust for 13 years. Originally, it was through Amex but they went standalone and are now part of Intuit. All my bills are sent to a PO Box in South Dakota, they get scanned and I get an e-mail from them, I can log in and pay through their interface (they cut a check off of my account). The service is $12 per month up to, I think, 50 bills. End of year, one can get a CD with all the bills scanned for $20.

I started doing this as we had homes on both coasts and tracking down bills, payments was a pain, this solved that problem. From a cost perspective, it's comparable/cheaper than licking stamps.

I thought I'd give an update to this situation. Thanks to Hollyw00d's "advice" I went via the BBB. Anyone else who's had a problem with travelingmailbox should also go that route, because the same day I posted the complaint, they refunded my money. Here's the link:

http://www.bbb.org/raleigh-durham/bu...105/complaints

(Link to complain is the upper-right)

So, it's unfortunate that I had to go through such an ordeal, but travelingmailbox did make things right. Eventually. So thanks to them for that.

Now the real bizarre thing is, I got two responses to my complaint via the BBB at the same time. One was totally insane, full of lies, and on the attack. The other was completely normal, conciliatory, and quite helpful. The second response offered a full refund and wished me well in the future with a competing service. It seems like there are two personalities there, and by the luck of the draw, I had the bad one (looks like we do here, as well)

Anyway, issue solved. Looks like FT really can solve everything :)

Beware of USAMail1
 

Signed up for this service to later realize what poor customer service they have (sent welcome email then said card did not go through, no email response at all, etc.) Was still deciding whether to use the service and tried to find a review... Either it is absolutely terrible service or people were simply scammed... Google "USAMail1 Review" - the first several results talk about scams and ripoffs...

https://forums.digitalpoint.com/thre...m-scam.724823/
http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/USAMai...never-f-949717
http://www.complaints.com/2008/augus...ud__182974.htm
:eek:

Bump for the Pay-As-You-Go service. What else is available anywhere in the world today?

The Swiss Post Box for one. Anything else?

www.usa2me.com
 

I've been using www.usa2me.com for the past 5+ years without a hitch. You get a scanned image of each item in your mailbox so you can determine what is obvious junk mail and can be discarded. Monthly fee of $15 is reasonable and shipping internationally is not much over the actual fedex/dhl prices (ie. small handling fee). You can have items scanned for $3 for first 6 pages and $0.50 for each page thereafter. Good customer service.

(duplicate post, sorry)

Just an update - still using Virtual Post Mail now since my post last June, it's worked out very well, I haven't had a single problem and while my volume isn't all that high, everything seems to work out well and the physical stuff I've had forwarded seems to work like clockwork. Again, this was the only service I've used after researching a bunch of them but I don't see any reason why I'd want to leave.

The only thing I could nit pick is that at certain times of the day, which I'm guessing to be peak periods, the web site can be a little slow to display pages and whatnot. Not terrible but not as snappy if you happen to check during more anti-social hours.

I like them to the point of worrying about the longevity - not that they have given any signs of going away, but it's something I've come to completely depend on and not worry about and I'm more than happy to be paying indefinitely to have that level of comfort and reliability.