Why go to the Post Office? Print stamps at home!
Written: Jan 01 '02 (Updated Jul 29 '02)
| Site Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Setup Ease: |
|
|
|
| Full Review |
As and active mass mailer and shipper I was immediately attracted to Stamps.com for my business. We regularly complete mass mailings of hundred of pieces and have found this product to be god-sent.
The account setup is extremely easy. To establish an account you simply answer a questionnaire regarding you intended use, physical address, mailing address, and payment method. You are given options of payment including most major credit cards or a bank account to purchase postage.
Following account acceptance you download and install the client software, which has the ability to integrate with Word, Outlook, and most major personal information managers. From there you configure you printer to use within the Stamps.com software and print a Quality Assurance Envelop, which is mailed to Stamps.com (the postage is deducted from the $10 trial postage Stamps.com gives you). Once the configuration is complete you can print postage either one address at a time or in batches via an address book.
The Stamps.com software interface allows the user to print on most standard envelop formats, Avery (or similar) labels designed for the software, or standard shipping labels. It also allows the user to configure customer envelopes, which is great for holiday or gift cards.
The downsides are few, and will not affect most home users but are worth noting. First, the import function within the Stamps.com software only allows a user to imports a maximum if 144 address at once. This has caused me to run smaller batches of postage than I would prefer, but has not impacted normal day-to-day use. Next, post card printing (one of my primary methods of advertising) is only available when using labels or purchased forms. To work around this I have done mailings by creating a custom envelop and using standard first class rates—I am able to save a tremendous amount of labor cost but am forced to pay $0.13 more than necessary per item in mailing cost. Additionally, the import and address book method is not terribly extensible. Although it supports numerous address books format it only allows import functionality and doesn’t support open database connections, limiting its ability to connect to legacy data directly. Finally, its integration with Word is very limited and clumsy for mass mailing.
Although they’re a numerous problems, especially for mass mailers, I recommend this product without reservation. Even with its limitations is beats licking stamps!
Update:
Stamps.com just got better! They now offer the ability to print full sheets of stamps on a special form. The form costs about $4 for a pack (I believe it includes 200 stamps) plus postage. This feature allow you to preprint stamps to be applied to return envelops or be used away from your computer as well as print non-standard rates like book or media. This is a great feature if you commonly ship items via USPS.
These are top rate additions!
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
mrohde
|
|
Location: Wisconsin
Reviews written: 11
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.