Earth Class Mail is a recent start-up company aimed at bridging the gap between traditional ’snail-mail’ and the technological age. I signed up recently and was extremely excited to use an innovative new service. In a nutshell Earth Class Mail gives you a private mail box mailing address in one of a couple dozen cities around the country. When the receive your mail they scan it and put it online in PDF format for you to read. Sounds great right? Wrong. Here are the three reasons why I hate Earth Class Mail.
- 1. Sign-Up Process – The website encourages new members to sign up by saying how easy it is. I had some mail I wanted to get while on the road, so I figured it was a perfect opportunity to sign up. As soon as they suck $100 from my bank account (six months prepaid) I expect to be ready to go. Not the case. Once they take your money they inform you of an interesting little caveat. You have to go to the post office, get a special form which will authorize them to handle your mail, fill it out, have it notarized, and mail it to their home office in Oregon along with photo copies of your drivers license and passport. I was instantly upset because I had mail I wanted to get through the service that week. I went to two different post offices and both looked at me like I had three heads when I asked for the form. I had to go to a THIRD post office to get the form, then scramble around out of state to find a notary and get everything sent in. During the sign up process there was no mention of any of this. Also, once I finally got everything sent in I never received any notification from Earth Class Mail stating they had received my paperwork and my account was active.
- 2. Postal Re-Routing – So a little bit later I decided I was probably all set to start having mail sent. Earth Class Mail is based in Oregon but offers private mailbox addresses for most major cities. I selected the Boston location because that is where I live. My thought was; my local clients will mail paperwork to this address, Earth Class Mail will receive it a couple days later, they’ll take a day to scan it, and then I can log in and see it. Not the case AT ALL! It turns out that Earth Class Mail doesn’t have any sort of presence in any city outside of Portland, OR and NYC. According to customer service (which I have called several times) what happens is, the local post office in that city (in my case the Boston post office) simply sets aside all the mail and periodically mails it ’snail-mail’ in a big box across the country to Oregon. There is no schedule for when these mailings take place. I am told sometimes they get sent a couple times a week, sometimes it may take longer than a week for the mail to get sent out. What it boils down to is this: my mail sits in the Boston post office for an unknown amount of time without any sort of tracking (for about a week), then it travels across the country via truck (for about another week), then it slowly gets sorted at the Oregon facility. So my mail that I was expecting to have in only a few days takes anywhere from 2 to 4 WEEKS to get online. I had 2 paychecks sent to my new address 3 full weeks ago and they have NOT YET ARRIVED and there is no way to figure out where they are.
It turns out that selecting the Boston address, the address in the same city as all my clients is actually the SLOWEST options I could have selected. Earth Class Mail does not mention any of this BS on their site and I was completely caught off gaurd and am now financially in a bind because of 2 missing paychecks. - 3. Check Cashing – The big draw that encouraged me to sign up for Earth Class Mail was their promotion of check cashing. They proudly state on their website that they now have check cashing, so members of their service can have paychecks directly deposited into their bank accounts. For me this was PERFECT. This mail service really did sound like the best thing since sliced bread. So I signed up and had some clients send paychecks to my new address.
I couldn’t find anywhere in my account options for setting up check cashing, so I called customer support. I was informed that not only do you have to have a premium account with Earth Class Mail to have access to the service (a substantially more expensive monthly fee), but that they ONLY offer check cashing to members of Wells Fargo banks. I about lost my grip on the phone. NO WHERE on their site do they mention ANYTHING about either of those stipulations.
So I currently have 2 paychecks that have been floating through the system for 3 weeks without showing up. And once they do finally show up I can’t even have them deposited, I have to have them shipped BACK across the country (another week) to me so I can put them in. BULLSHIT.
All in all Earth Class Mail has not only stressed me out and taken my money, they have not delivered on the service as expected and promoted. They have taken my mail delivery time from 3 days to 3-4 WEEKS, and maybe even longer. This mail service is AWFUL, deceptive, sneaky, and fishing for money.
My official Earth Class Mail Review is 0 out of 5 mail-bags. I hate it. I wish I never signed up. If they were only honest and upfront about how their service operated things might be different. I have called and cancelled my account. If those paychecks don’t show up somewhere they will have a very angry Evan Fell knocking on their front door in Oregon.
Thanks for the honest review – A friend was looking for a remote mailbox for his consulting business and asked if I knew anything; Earth Class Mail looked perfect… until I read this!
Well, I imagine that Earth Class Mail might be the ticket for some, but for me it just isn’t. They have a lot of improvement to do, I know their resources are somewhat limited so far. I think for people in the Portland/Seattle area it might be more feasible because there wouldn’t be a huge mailing delay. But that said. . . . I still have 2 very important outstanding pieces of mail that I confirmed were mailed over 3 weeks ago. I think I unfortunately have to make a couple calls to clients regarding missing checks – an issue that I take very seriously.
Anyway. . . . Thanks for reading.
I’ve been with ECM for 6 months now and love it — for what it is. I live in Denver, but have a NYC and Seattle Earth Class Mail address. I travel frequently and love that I can get my mail automatically scanned and I never have to see the actual paper.
Mail from the NYC PO box does take a while to get online, but the Seattle address is rather fast. Filing out the forms to open your account is a bit of a pain, but it’s a requirement of the post office, not Earth Class Mail.
Bottom line: Use it for mail like bills and other correspondence you wouldn’t want to give out your home address to.
Hey Evan,
Thanks for your comment on my site where I reviewed my Earth Class Mail experience.
Your experience sounds really awful!
I can say that I haven’t experienced the same kind of frustration you have. I think that I’m so enamored with getting my paper mail via the web wherever I may be that I tend to overlook any hitches I’ve encountered. There really don’t seem to be too many credible options out there for mail forwarding.
However, I’ve always used the Oregon address so I haven’t experienced any delays in getting my mail. I’m also using a Seattle address now but I haven’t noticed a lag. This probably doesn’t matter much to me anyways because I let my mail pile up for a week as it is.
The one issue I agree with is their check depositing service. There’s definitely some work to be done there. I also went through the process of getting this set up and you do need a special account with Wells Fargo to make it work. I talked to Earth Class Mail today about it via the phone and stressed to them how important it is to get this worked out. Right now it’s a very convoluted process. They have a guy working on it full-time.
Overall I have to say, though, that I’m still happy with Earth Class Mail.
(BTW: I love your vintage BMW. Is that a R69s or a newer model? I really want to do a restore of my own. Sweet!)
Hey, I know its a bit far off, but when i moved to Australia i used a service based in New Zealand called http://www.privatebox.co.nz. They don’t charge me unless I want them to, I don’t have to pay any extra for scanning if I don’t want any. So far I find it fairly valuable.
[...] I Hate Earth Class Mail – My Review – Evan Fell, a real user of Earth Class Mail services, had the following to say: [...]
Thanks for all the comments guys and gals. I’ve had lots of emails about this as well.
I never added in a few final thoughts about closing my account at Earth Class Mail.
I called to cancel my Earth Class Mail account (this is many months ago now) and it went smoothly – or so I thought. They were polite when canceling my account and said the refund would be processed in 2-3 days. After I got off the phone with customer support I received a confirmation email from Earth Class Mail stating that the cancellation had been made and the refund would be processed in 2-3 days.
Ten days later I looked at my bank account and the refund had not been made. I called customer support again and they said “Oh, actually we never processed your refund.”….. “WHAT?!”
They didn’t have any excuses other than “I’m not sure why it wasn’t processed.” Seems fishy to me. So after closely watching my accounts the refund was eventually made – but what a hassle. The whole experience with Earth Class Mail was a giant pain. Ugh. Live and learn.
thank you for the review. I was thinking about using them until this!
I signed up in 2008, and loved ECM’s service. I even recommended it to many people. Now I feel ROBBED. ECM raised its prices in mid-2009 by 200-300%. Even worse, ECM tried to market the price hike as intended for allowing customers to save money. As soon as ECM had a sizeable captive market, ECM went for all its customers’ throats. ECM should be sued.
More price hikes. They converted my “Value Plus” plan to a new “Essential” plan. Storage fees went from $0.05 to $0.25 per envelop per month. Shredding went from free to $4.95 per month. Mails scans went from 100 per month to $1.50 each for black & white and $2.00 each for color. Instead of paying less than $20 a month I’m now stuck paying upwards of $45 per month. And it would be much worse if I received a significant quantity of mail. As soon as I can find an alternative I’m dropping these clowns.
Are there any alternatives to ECM in the US? I tried some Google searches but came up dry.
I absolutely HATE Earth Class Mail. They lured me into their service a couple years ago when I cancelled a 10 year old relationship with Mailboxes Etc. because of the better value proposition that ECM offered me. Then all of a sudden in the middle of a recession they increase their prices in such a way that small users like myself would see their costs increase by 5 times or more if my usage of the service were to stay exactly the same. They make it sound like they are providing me a great deal. Now I have to choose between paying them 5 times for the service or switching my mailing address to another provider, and having to inform tons of companies, family, etc. about a new address. A company that does this and doesn’t grandfather existing users in the old plan SUCKS Big time; and I discourage ANYBODY From signing up with them. Let them ROT in hell; and the way to get that going is to reduce their membership numbers SOOOOO much that they are unable to secure any venture capital funds the next time around until they go out of business for their abusive, selfish, iresponsible and frankly STUPID move. GO TO HELL EARTH CLASS MAIL. Please somebody find a way to file a class action lawsuit against them.
Help! I just signed up, and sent myself a test letter, but ten days later, nothing in the inbox. Anyone have an alternative service that works well? I’m going to cancel but need a back up plan. thanks,
Anne
ECM has turned into a ripoff. They overcharge for everything! I cancelled my service and they won’t even forward any mail that might arrive late–unless you reopen and pay for a month or more service. They do scan and handle your mail as stated but everything comes at a price…not worth it.
I don’t think point #1 is fair, because it’s a USPS requirement.
I spent 5 or 6 hours watching the business series on hulu called “Start-Up Junkies”. I saw how hard these guys worked to put all this together, putting their lives on the line with venture capital groups,working around the clock etc etc. The series was shot in 2008 and I just thought I’d check them out on the web to see if they were successful, and if they had “made it” as I am an entrepreneur myself. It’s really sad to see how close it looks like they came, only to screw up in the most important area for ANY business to pay attention to -Customer Service. Look at what bad service to one customer has led to. After reading these posts I wouldn’t even think of opening an account with them. After seeing the series I was rooting for them, but…too bad they didn’t put customer service at the top of their priority list. I’d say their outlook now seems bleak…
Assessing the money flow is another essential element in the company strategy format, so as to sustain a regular money flow to meet the essential capital requirements. Probability of monetary crisis and also the ways of crisis management should be pointed out in the structure. The business technique must consist of the marketing plans and technique leading to the expansion from the company.
Thanks for the heads up. My boyfriend and I along with our families, which is about 23 of us, were about to sign up for this because we always do road trips together. Your blogs saved us so much money and time. We appreciate it.
Signing up for Earth Class Mail is the same as asking Mike Vick to babysit your dogs.
Go figure
I am first few membeers in Earth Class Mail and I using ECM for over one year and 100% satisfied for the all services. The ECM customer service are too friendly and I didnt find any mistake or delay for forwarding my parcels or mails.
Are you people really surprised by the increase in prices @ ECM? Have you not seen this company’s show called Start-Up Junkies? Obviously, the increase in prices means the company is drowning and desperately struggling to keep afloat.
Really, this service is pathetic and only attractive to anyone over 65 without a blackberry/computer. We live in the computer age… all companies are paperless-online billing from utilities, credit cards, banking etc. Maybe for the once a year Christmas card but $540/yr for a few cards??! I move every 6 months and would NEVER require a service like EMC. As a wise character once quoted on Wayne’s World: “get the net”.
Thank you. I was considering this company prior to your review.
I have been with ECM as a customer from the very beginning. The fees at the start were great, too great apparently. This is not unusual for an innovative new service. Without making the fees cheap in the beginning the business likely wouldn’t be able to attract the customer base to test and expand its business model. The fee hikes were a pain but not unexpected. It was too cheap. In the beginning I couldn’t understand how they were operating at a profit. I was given plenty of warning before the fee increases and chose to stick with them. I’m still am a customer and likely will be for years to come. The service provided is innovative and makes my life as a frequent traveler (sometimes away for months at a time) much easier. I use the cheapest plan, keep nothing stored, and don’t even bother to scan all mail. I only scan things I need or am curious about. The rest gets trashed without having been scanned to keep the monthly expense at a minimum.
Todd, I’m in total agreement with you. I’ve used ECM for several years and it’s been wonderful . . very convenient. It’s unfortunate that they had to raise prices, but no big surprise. Maybe when they have a bigger client base economies of scale will allow them to lower their prices. As far as the service goes, it’s made my life easier. Every time I move, which is often, there’s only a handful of people that I inform of my move. All of my mail just continues going to my PO Box in Los Angeles. I think a couple of Evan’s complaints are his own fault and caused by his lack of getting all the facts before he started. I’d been on ECM’s website and saw the notice about depositing checks and it made it very clear that you had to have a special account and be with Wells Fargo. And the USPS form requirements is made clear on the website too. As someone else stated, it’s a USPS requirement, not ECM’s.
Please don’t let the negative comments sway you. Do your research and consider it if you think ECM’s service might fit your lifestyle.
I totally agree about ECM. I live overseas and have been with them for two years. When they first started, the prices were reasonable and they didn’t charge for simple scans. Recently, they jacked up their prices big time 200% or more. It went from $9.95/mos and free scans to $19.95 mos and $1.50 a scan. Plus they have a long list of exorbitant fees which are like a minefield to try to avoid. Because I live overseas, I have to have a physical US address for credit card and banking reasons but otherwise I get very little mail so what I pay for the service I need is excessive. Thank god I haven’t had to have any packages sent to me overseas because their postage and handling rates are insane. They charge $1 an item for forwarding and consolidating packages not including postage. And they refuse to use USPS International First Class Small Box delivery and other relatively economical services which cost $10-$13. It’s just FedEx no matter how small the item is which guarantees a minimum charge of $30-$40. So if you wanted them to forward, say, a credit card, they would gouge you close to $40. They are out to gouge and ripoff as much as they can from their customers. And Evan Fell is right, they conceal a lot of the negative aspects of their service on their website and you only find out after you sign up. If you live in the US, you really don’t need their service. Do without it and save a ton of $$. I live in Central America. If anyone knows of a more economical service, maybe in Miami, with scanning services, please advise.
Their service is designed to maximize money extraction from their customers. Let’s say you live overseas and want to buy a few items from time to time but store them at ECM to send them in a consolidated shipment to save money. Well, ECM charges a $1/lb/month for parcels so you can’t save money by waiting to accumulate a few items. Plus if you,say, accumulate ten items to forward to yourself, ECM will charge you a $1 per item handling fee plus the exorbitant postage. But if you have things sent to you one at a time as they arrive, you will go broke with their FedEx shipping fees which start at $12/lb for the first pound and $12/lb for each additional pound. They have truly mastered the art of the ripoff.
They READ your mail?!?! WTF?!
I had been a customer ever since their beginning. They lure you in with low rates and then bet on you not wanting to change your address so they can go for blood and raise their service fees by triple. They will keep jacking up your rates. DO NOT SUPPORT THEM!
glad i found this because i almost signed up for it. ecm’s massive price hike out of the blue is a troubling business practice. will go elsewhere.
Thank you so much for your review, I am currently looking at options and based on your review and the information I read on their legal agreement on their site I’m looking elsewhere.
I was with earth mail for a while. It was great, but then money got tight and I had to cancel it. I tried canceling it for 3 months, I even got the cancellation confirmation email, but they kept taking money out of my bank account, I had to have the bank block them.
I’m active duty military and have had ECM since early 2009. I love the service! It’s great to go through all the duty stations I have (Bahrain, Germany, Monterey, etc.) and not have to change my billing or mailing address ever! When I call my bank, or insurance, or any other company, I never have to think – “what was the last mailing address I gave them?” or “did I remember to update my address since I moved.” They will forward anything and everything to an APO/FPO address, which many retail companies won’t do. ECM has saved me, so many times, from buying a more expensive item, just because the seller will ship to an APO. I’m currently living in Germany, and it’s amazing all the different options I have to receive my mail. Depending on how fast I want something I can choose to have it sent using international USPS (a little more expensive) or to my APO address (costs the same as a US address). I love the service and recommend it for military members who constantly PCS/move!
Chris, Naval Officer
I also have been a customer for a couple years until they started charging me three to four times as much as I use to pay without any sort of notice.
I want my mail scanned, that is all, that’s why i got this service. Now they are charging me per scan…
This company does not look out for its customers and does not run an honest business in my opinion.
Thank you so much for posting this honest review of Earth Class Mail!! Now I know to avoid them!
The mail forwarding from Atlanta takes up to 2 weeks.
They sounded suspicious to me when I saw that they have an initial setup fee. Any company that expects to keep its customers takes the initial hit for profit in the long run. Customers that expect customers will leave once they start using the service ask for a setup fee.
Here’s a copy of one of the last emails I sent to Earth Class Mail (I’ve redacted the account, my forwarding address and last name). It pretty much sums up what a failure I think Earth Class Mail is. Their street address plan is a total rip-off. Overall I was very dissatisfied.
Subject: Frustrations with Earth Class Mail
Date: November 23, 2010 10:15:06 PM PST
To: support@earthclassmail.com
Dear Earth Class Mail,
I’m so dis-satisfied with Earth Class Mail. Every time I try to do something with Earth Class Mail I’m reminded about how much I dislike the way Earth Class Mail is run.
The idea is fantastic. The execution is terrible.
Here’s some feedback…
1. I subscribed with Earth Class Mail to get additional access to my mail through a variety of means. But Earth Class Mail is open less days than the post office. Strike one.
2. I paid extra for a street address so I could pick up mail in person when I’m in L.A. But the hours are less frequent than a post office box. And UPS or other mail services give out keys so you can get mail after traffic has subsided. Strike two.
3. Then when I do want to pick up mail I have to schedule my pickup online a day in advance. Even after scheduling a pick up it still takes about 15 minutes for the Earth Class Mail representative to gather my mail and hand it to me. No time savings there.
4. I lost trust in Earth Class Mail when you abruptly and substantially raised your prices. I got higher prices and less access to mail than I expected when I signed up. When I signed up I was assured prices would not go up. I asked about this a lot because I was entrusting you with as my mail service for the long-term. Again, the increased cost was not appreciated, but the trust issue really made me look at you differently. Once you had me on your hook (as I had notified everyone of my address with Earth Class Mail) you then gouged me on pricing. Poor tact.
5. The billing address for my credit card recently changed. Instead of a call or an email from you asking me to update my billing address you instead IMMEDIATELY suspend my Earth Class Mail account and access. I cannot even schedule to come in and pick up the mail I have with you. Your billing policy obviously means you don’t trust me but you want me to trust you with handling, scanning and forwarding my mail.
I have gone into the Earth Class Mail website and figured out how to update my billing information. Even after doing that my account is still suspended. You can immediately suspend account but you can’t immediately restore an account.
So… I am writing you with specific instructions. Please schedule all physical mail in my account #—– for pickup tomorrow, Wednesday, November 24. Please do this without requiring me to log into my account again. Please call the West Hollywood office and ask them to pull all mail for me and have it ready for me when I come in so I don’t have to wait 15 minutes while my mail is found. If for some reason you cannot authorize me to pickup the mail without me logging in and requesting a pickup then please do this in the alternative:
1. Call West Hollywood and ask them to get all my mail ready for a pickup.
2. Restore my account to active.
3. I will go into my account while in the West Hollywood store and officially request the pick-up. Then the staff there can hand me the mail that they have already pulled.
Please let this email serve as my official 30 day notice to cancel my Earth Class Mail account. Earth Class Mail is such a great idea. I wish the company behind the idea could work out the glitches and create better business practices.
I’m sending out change of address notifications to the people and companies I know. My forwarding address (working now) is PO Box —-, Los Angeles, CA —–. I’ve noticed that your official policy is to dispose of any mail you receive for me after my account is terminated. I encourage you, as one gesture of good will, to forward any mail (there shouldn’t be any but something is likely to get overlooked) that comes to you after my account is terminated to the PO Box I just provided. My is you won’t even be willing to do that.
With all the criticism I’ve written here (and it is all very much warranted) I do want to say that the staff at Earth Class Mail has always been very courteous.
Sincerely,
Ryan
Hi, I’m from Argentina. I have ECM but I’m not pleased with service. I’m looking for a Forwarder that uses USPS, in a State without taxes and package consolidation service. Any ideas ?? Thanks
ive been with earth class mail going on to yrs except for the change plans on me a few week after i sign up and the nickel and dime you. on a scale to 1 to 10 they are a strong 6. if you looking not to be nickel an dime earth class mail is not.