By Sharon Wolfe Sharon@biznetonline.com |
We Would Tell You To Lick It…… But You Don’t Have To Anymore. BizNet Takes A Continuing Look At Internet Postage. |
Online Postage… The
Continuing Story
INTERNET POSTAGE:
It’s now a real competition, or is it?
(Reuter’s
calls it The Net Stamp Showdown)
In last month’s
article on Internet Postage, we compared E-Stamp to Stamps.com, having already
tested E-Stamp.
This October,
Stamps.com was released to the public – WITH A LOUD HURRAH! and this writer
has it, uses it, and thinks its great! (You can, too. See last paragraph.)
F.Y.I.
1.
Stamps.com and E-Stamp are the only companies so far approved by the US
Postal Service to offer online postage nationwide. Both services allow customers
to buy postage over the Internet and print a bar-code stamp directly on an
envelope in the home or office.
2.
Users of Stamps.com must be logged on to the Internet to print a stamp,
while E-Stamp requires use of a separate hardware "vault" that stores
postage so it can be printed offline.
3.
Stamps.com started its nationwide rollout the week of 10/18/99, and says
it has 100,000 pre-registered users. E-Stamp has already signed up 10,000 users
and has been approved by the Postal Service to extend that to 100,000 customers.
THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT STAMPS.COM IS:
It is easy to download and install –VERY EASY! (Much easier
that it’s E-Stamp.)
It is less expensive that its competitor, both for businesses
and for the under $20/month postage users
Stamps.com has their act together; they waited to release
their product until most of the bugs were out.
In our case, no bugs at all; well,
maybe one regarding the return address printing on an envelope; but Customer
Support was great and easy to reach (24/7 –what a concept!). All I had to do
was download the newest driver for my HP printer and voila! Thanks to Brett
& Vern in Customer Support.
ARE WE HAPPY?
DECIDEDLY SO!
We think that Stamps.com wins hands-down in this competition,
and will re-evaluate it again in a few months.
Meanwhile we are beta-testing for Pitney Bowes on-line stamp program –
will they or won’t they, that is the question.. (More on that in another
issue… Or not??
ADD-ONS: We also
purchased the postage scale (under $50) which connects to the PC (via a serial
port) and interfaces with the stamps.com program; it calculates up to 10lbs.
The instructions are simple (1-2-3); it was extremely simple to connect,
to download the driver, and to begin to use right away.
So, creating perfect postage is now a slam dunk; no more
wasted postage by guessing at the weight, or having to stand in long lines at
the post office.
This comes just in time as the holidays are upon us; and, I
for one will be glad I don’t have to stand in those long lines behind holiday
gift senders to transact shipping and postage for my business.
Stamps.com
web site also gets an A+. It’s complete and easy to use.
MY REPORT CARD FOR THEM IS:
In Fact BizNet Gives It The A-OK Award……………. |
There are plenty of extra services down the pike with Stamps.com,
too. My take is that they are way
ahead of the competition, having come from behind (so to speak), getting out the
gate almost two months later.
This writer got so excited about Stamps.com that she became an affiliate and bought their stock. You can find out more about it and even sign up by going to either of these websites and clicking on the Stamps.com banner.
Sharon Wolfe Is The Owner Of The Squeaky Mouse Computer Training, and her web site can be viewed at:
www.socalmall.com/squeakymouse
and www.socalmall.com/wolfeandcompany
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Last modified: November 08, 2002