Earth Class Mail

I've been a customer of Earth Class Mail (ECM) for many years, but the recent more-than-doubling of their prices (from $14.95 to $29 and now to $79!) has forced me to move to another better, cheaper provider (Anytime Mailbox). The last time ECM doubled their prices (in 2017, shortly after their bankruptcy) they committed in writing that us loyal customers would enjoy a "lifetime credit for an extra address" and should accept the change on the basis that we "will not be excluded from new features and improvements in the future". Not even a year later they instead reduced service levels, claiming it was "not an economical business model". Then a year after that (September 2019) they reneged on their "lifetime" promise, instituting a huge 70% price increase and charging for addresses. As if that wasn't enough, the "premium" San Francisco address is itself a forwarder, meaning that my packages are more often than not being rejected; this "service" currently costs $109/month before usage fees! To add insult to injury, I've just learned from another irate customer that they plan to continue charging me for 6 months after I leave, but there's no point discussing with them as they will just refer to clauses buried deep in their terms. The best way to avoid the disruption and expense I'm experiencing now is to avoid signing up in the first place; there are plenty of other, better options out there.

I was a very satisfied customer of Earth Class Mail for many years and trusted them to receive and deposit my accounts receivable checks. However, the service degraded markedly by early 2019 in just about every way, including mail forwarding time, reliability, and customer service. If an occasional snag occurred in their system, it had been possible to reach customer service by phone with little or no wait time and they were always completely knowledgeable, courteous, and efficient. This changed drastically to where customer service was no longer available by phone at all, email response was about two days, and most critically, their email responses provided no useful information and were vague, general, or otherwise meaningless. Despite still needing this type of service, my faith in Earth Class Mail plummeted to the point that I had to cancel the service. Then things went from bad to worse. I had to send several messages to cancel before my request was acknowledged. Then I had to pay a "nominal" $50 cancellation fee for a six month period of continued basic service in case of any incoming mail during that time. Although I paid this fee and had only a few pieces of mail with a few checks the first month after cancellation, they managed to charge me over $100 for that month, just about the same as my usual month charge with a much larger volume of mail and many more checks. I cancelled the cancellation service to not incur any further charges. However, I have not received any forwarded mail despite paying the $50 cancellation fee. One check sent to that address was never forwarded to me nor was returned to the sender. I hope that was an isolated incident and that any other mail is at least being returned to the sender but am very concerned that it is not. Then again, it is probably not a reasonable expectation that Earth Class Mail would be more reliable or trustworthy after closing my account than when it was active.

A 'virtual' mailbox for all your mail. Offer a lot of services, if you don't know much about them. The main service is to scan your letters and email them to you. Lets you have a fixed address even if you move around a lot or plan to be out of the country a while and want to still be able to receive and know what has come in the mail.

Sound great, yea? Problem? Cost is $99 per month, and that is just the basic service. They will also nickel and dime you like a bank or airline if you want to do anything "special".

So, my summary, good product, good customer support, but prices that are just not acceptable for an individual. If you run a profitable small business, then $99 per month may be quite okay, but for a regular joe, the price is just not acceptable.