Pitney Bowes: The Pits
by Kit Cassingham
My office had used a Pitney Bowes postage machine to help us more efficiently handle our business mail. It worked well, though it did have the inconvenience of requiring a trip to the post office to refill the postage. Also, we were told that it was legally required that they "inspect" the machine twice a year -- presumably to ensure we had not tampered with it. It was definitely a bother to have the guy come by every six months, but it was better than standing in line at the post office every day.
When postage systems became available through the Internet, we shifted to one of those systems and cancelled our account with Pitney Bowes. One odd thing we suddenly realized was that the "inspector" hadn't shown up in quite awhile -- maybe a couple of years. But that didn't matter anymore: having cancelled our account meant Pitney Bowes had to retrieve their machine, and we'd be done with it once and for all. We had a home office, so we made it clear they needed to call first so that we would be there for them. We never heard from them, and the postage machine became a nuisance in the office because of the space it consumed.
A year later we moved our office. Sure enough, one of the things we had to pack up and move was the dusty postage meter. We had called Pitney Bowes a couple of times during that year; they always promised to come get the machine, but never did. At least they had stopped charging us for it!
By now, I was fed up with this big, old, clunky mechanical machine constantly getting in the way, so I decided to get aggressive about getting rid of it. I called again, and Pitney Bowes claimed to have tried to pick up the machine, but that nobody was at the office. I replied that they were supposed to call first, and clearly they hadn't. And if it's so important to ensure the machine hadn't been tampered with, why hadn't they bothered to check on it anytime in the past three years?! I forged ahead with the demand that they come get it -- now, please!
They asked me to confirm my address, but I decided to take the tack that if they didn't know where the office was that they would have to call first, so I refused to confirm or deny the address they had on record -- and told them why. OK, they said: they promised to pick it up by the end of the week, which of course meant that someone would be calling us to find out where the machine was. That was fine -- I could stand a few more days of the machine sitting by the door, waiting for them.
Of course nobody called, so Monday I called again. I told the clerk that I was going to call every day until the machine was gone. She promised me I'd hear from somebody that day. No one called. I called Tuesday, and we went through the same dance. By Wednesday she was so frustrated with the situation she told me she'd have her manager call me. Progress! Well, maybe not: the manager didn't call either.
By Thursday the poor gal was almost in tears. Heck: if she was this upset after just four days, imagine what we had been going through for well over a year! I told her if they didn't want the machine, I'd leave it on the curb for the garbage truck to take away. She said that we couldn't do that, it was "illegal"! I retorted that since they didn't know where the office was, they couldn't very well report us! She finally cracked and begged me to tell her what I "wanted". Ah, at last.
I said that I "wanted" the machine to be picked up that day. I would give the person who was coming for it my address when they were on their way, just to make sure they didn't try to claim nobody was in the office when they came for it. Simple! Yeah, well, it still took a couple of calls, but finally the Pitney Bowes manager called, and I was able to relay my problem. He took care of it: the delivery person was on his way within two hours. I finally had the machine out of my office, with only about 10 days of daily calling -- but over a year of waiting!
Pitney Bowes does still seem to be in business, which is hard to believe considering their lack of customer service. They left me in a difficult "Catch-22": it was supposedly illegal to throw the machine out, but they didn't seem to want the obsolete postage system any more than I did. So why did I have to deal with their inability to keep up with the times? I don't know if they ever did catch up, but I don't care: their leaving me to deal with the problem means I'll never do business with Pitney Bowes again.
>:-(
Kit Cassingham is the founder of Environmentally Friendly Hotels, a directory of the top lodging properties with environmental practices, and ECOnomically Sound, a site promoting environmentalism in the hospitality industry.
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Comments
Where do I begin, I was at near the end of my term of the lease of my old outdated meter heads to fit a old style Pitney high production meter base model 6100. I know that my meter was decertified buy the post office, but I was not ready to pop for the $25,000 for a new digital system just yet. I wanted to shop Hasler / Neopost as well as Postalia.
Pitney said, no problem, if you give us a $2500.00 manufacturing fee, we will give you a B906 meter to fit your old base that will tie you over till the deadline (end of 2008) then refund it back to you when and if you buy a new system from us. Two things so wrong about that. First, this is a rental only item, I can’t own it, why pay them a fee. Second and the real pisser, the meter was really a plastic B900 not a B906 (they just put a sticker on the front of it, but the back said B900). I found out later, the B609 does not exist, try to find it on the web site. Well the plastic meter broke down monthly. I am getting my equipment elsewhere. Add this to the fact that the sales rep came in 24 months before the lease was up and telling us “our lease was due” only after repeated calls did I get a copy of the paperwork to prove we had many months to go.
Posted by: Bill, Washington D.C | March 26, 2008 2:30 PM
I worked for PB for over 7 years in a technical support role. Most people in the "Customer Care" call centers truly want to help the customer, but are hamstrung by company policy. I wish someone would start a class action suit on behalf of all the customers that have been affected by the dishonest business practices of PB.
They sell certain consumable supplies that damage the newer digital mailing equipment when used in the manner prescribed by PB. One is a tape roll that is too large and as a result, misfeeds and jams. The other is EZseal Plus. This corrodes a styrofoam float in the sealer reservoir and as a result, causes leaks and specific error codes. There is also a problem with required software updates. They cause sensor problems, particularly with the Weigh on the Way modules. PB is fully aware of this and reps are specifically told not to inform customers of the cause of their problem.
The bad part is that if a customer has no maintenance agreement, they are charged for the phone call or the field service call even though PB is the cause of their machine's failure. If they do have a maintenance agreement they lose money in lost time and productivity.
These concerns fall on deaf ears when expressed by the call center associates. We would often complain of dishonest sales practices and the fact that PB doesn't disclose everything to the customer at the point of those sales, especially telemarketing sales.
The field service reps are overwhelmed and have little support from their district offices. Their service areas have become so large as to be virtually unmanageable. I could go on, but the fact of the matter is that until frustrated customers and former customers band together to sue PB and hit them where it really counts (their bank account), nothing will change. They talk big about customer service to the front line troops and then walk away leaving the poor call center agents and field service reps without the tools needed to honestly serve the customer.
Posted by: Liam, Washington | May 23, 2008 3:01 AM
Oh Pitney Bowes. Yeah, I cannot wait to get rid of my lease. I cannot find a copy of it, and of course they won't send one to me, but it looks like I am on the hook until 2011. And since signing the lease in 2005, my situation is changing and I would really really REALLY love to get out of the damn lease, or at least downgrade to a cheaper model. Since I cannot seem to get a copy of my contract, does anyone know if there is a termination clause in there? I was told by the CS rep that I needed to find another sucker to take over the lease, but considering how crappy PB is, I cannot imagine anyone taking it over. Even if I paid them.
Posted by: Karen NJ | June 25, 2008 12:41 PM