Cranky Customer

My company has used Pitney Bowes for years. When an offer of upgrading our machine was made (besides the fact that the machine we had would be obsoleted anyways), there was an incentive of $50.00 free postage. No problems with the machine, but when I inquired for several months about the free postage, every customer rep. gave conflicting information. We make a payment to the reserve account every year so we are not charged a fee for using postage through their purchase power program for which they charge a fee. Why pay extra?

Well, after finally bitching enough, they screwed up and ended up giving us $100 credit. I called and asked if we could use that credit for supplies since I already had funds in our reserve account for postage and was told I could. I did order some supplies on line; and to make sure that the credit we had would be applied to that purchase, I emailed them. I was told it could only be used for postage. I wish their reps would be trained to know what the policies are.

Besides horrible customer service, their website is almost unnavigable. Trying to find a phone number for the right department is near impossible. In the long run, it is cheaper going to the post office and buying postage; but if you don't have a scale, you might end up overpaying postage. If there was a survey re: pitney bowes, I would love to participate and tell everyone how terrible it is to deal with them.

We finally dumped Pitney-Bowes. They were overpriced and a hassle to deal with. Like when I upgraded from Windows 2000 to Windows XP on better hardware, they had to send a service tech out to get it working on the new machine. The tech was befuddled by the new software and he couldn't get old data transferred to the new machine.

The service tech took away the old hardware, which was nice. But then months later after we closed our account, Pitney-Bowes told us that they wanted their old hardware back that the service tech took away! That company is rather dysfunctional. \Avoid them.

Well to all you people complaining about pitney bowes, I am a former employee. I was forced to quit without another job because I could not stand the ethics of the company. Aside from not receiving a paycheck...TWICE...there have been many other issues. I have been lied to by that company more times than I can count. It's mortifying having them on my resume.

Oh and to make matters even better. I am still waiting for a paycheck, so the waiting game apparently is their favorite thing.

My experience falls along the same lines. Lack of comm. by the co. reps. Misinformation by this co. is an understatement. I am a retired mortgage auditor, and have been involved in business accounting to keep busy. My client ask me to cancel his contract (within 30 days). After reviewing the documentation, and pkg. I took on the task of canceling, and returning the meter (Meter pkg. never opened). My P.B. service rep. assured me a return address kit would be sent to my client. That never occurred.

In addition to this fiasco, P.B. was deducting their monthly fee. Although promises were made, actions were not. I finally got to the "Office of the President", and talked to a Al Ewell. I was assured this man would satisfy my client 100%, and if not, I was to call back to the "Office of the President". My client was not satisfied, and I received a call from their legal dept. instead. I am now in the process of contacting the U.S. Attorney Generals Office, and will update this site as it unfolds.

As I have read the stories all have conveyed about their disappointing experiences with Pitney Bowes, I can truly say I'm glad I'm no longer with the company.

I serviced PB machines for 13 years. I can honestly say I was a dedicated technician who truly cared about the customer. I had a unique position, in that I serviced a large rural area. I was called a resident point service technician. Most days I decided where I would be, what customer I would go to next, and what to do in each situation. Many times I would side with the customer in regards to billing in order to keep what I considered "MY" customer base. The only time I had trouble was when the local manager had one of his "mandatory" meetings that everyone needed to attend. Most of the meeting were focused on how all of us service reps weren't doing enough to keep the numbers where they needed to be so he could get his bonus. Most of these "numbers" were computer generated reports of response times, call backs, travel time, etc. In most cases, these numbers were bogus. When I cleared a call, I could tell the dispatcher whatever I wanted for repair time etc.

You may have already guessed, where is the service when these meetings are going on!? Your right! There all in the office being yelled at by the pencil pusher who is now only interest in his bonus.

Unfortunately, the people in charge are more concerned about how the stock is doing rather than taking care of customers. I started with PB in 1988. We had 6 service people working out of the Sioux Falls SD office with one extra who was the "expert" staying in the office. On occasions when a rep was "stuck" on how to repair a machine, the "expert" came along to help. At the end of most days, the service reps would gather at a local pub for a beer, and go home reassured that tomorrow would be another day at the office.

As the years passed, those who run the company, made changes to benefits and policies that truly made moral go down the tubes. Profit sharing was eliminated, Insurance coverage's went to "flex" accounts, retirement plans changed.

Many changes that also occurred were directly related to Pitney Bowes desire to be politically correct. You no longer have a wife, she is called a "significant other". Comments about sexuality and religion are off limits, save the old growth forests, save the Wales, yada yada yada.

I think most of the decisions made by these people are of no surprise. Since the company is based out of one of most liberal states on the east coast. Gay/lesbian relationships are considered commonplace. These "life styles" are more or less forced to be accepted by all PB employees nationwide. This may be one of the main reasons I said good bye to PB 7 years ago, and started a masonry business. I have done well.

I can say with pride, I took care of the customers to best of my abilities. I truly believe that the company could have been ever more successful if they would have put more service reps on the streets that shared my convictions.

Finally, confirmation:
http://www.crankycustomer.com/pitney_bowes_the_pits_comments.php?page=6#comment-3514

Since 2000, I've noticed that you're more likely than not to get a late fee on each billing from these dopes, whether it be postage charges or leasing fees. Maybe because you usually receive the damn invoices 2 days before they're due. Hmmm..

I Googled "Pitney Bowes complaints" and found this thread, and I feel so much better now that I know this is not an isolated problem. Right now I'm looking at an invoice that has past due amounts, but from what?! We paid the balance on the previous invoice! $50 bucks because payment was a day late, because we didn't receive an invoice on time?!

Crooks.

The saga continues. I had posted my "PB tale of woe" a few months ago, back in August '07. At the time I had had my fill of them, had canceled and returned the meter (which still had roughly $12 worth of postage in it, but anything to get rid of dealing with this company) along with a required $100 check for the right to return it (extortion?) and a final letter canceling our "Postage by Phone" account.

I knew it wouldn't be that easy. Sure enough, I was invoiced an annual account fee of $40, 5 days after the effective date of my cancellation. In a charitable mood, I wrote a quick letter that stated the facts and asked for a credit to zero out the account.

A month later, received another bill, with interest and late fee applied on top of the $40. Hmmm, wrote another letter, included a copy of the first letter and proof the account was canceled. Month later received another bill, with another set of late fees and interest applied. This time I ignored it.

Then received a dunning letter with a phone number for me to call "to arrange payment." I called that number and after waiting on hold for 15 minutes I hung up in frustration.

Received a call this morning on my voicemail requesting payment, they left a phone number. I called and after just 5 minutes actually spoke with a person. She asked me if I was ready to pay the past due balance. I bit my tongue, explained why I hadn't paid and she said she would credit the balance due.

I'm not holding my breath....

As a retire from I have heard these stories mant times, ( retired 10 years worked in service 31 years )the cause is created by both the PB salesperson and the customers.
The sales person wants to get the sale the customer wants the cheapest price.

Pitney Bowes provides very good equiptment to its customers through a sales force and I can tell you that if PB when and if they find out that a sales person is not selling to there high standards even if they are the top sales rep in the country they will fire that person.
If the customer bought the machine ( that needs a meter to operate ) they can do as they please with the machine, throw it away, sell it etc. but the meter can only be leased ( per USPS Licesening to PB )the customer is libable for payment of the lease (rental)of the meter to the end of contract!!!! and to give PB at least 30 days notice before end of lease( rental) THIS IS THE AMERICAM WAY !!!!!!!!!!ASK ANY LAWYER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LEASE when the customer leases machine and meter throught a leaseing company or PB they must pay till the end of lease And PB cannot pick up that equiptment until the lease is satisfied ( if the only way a PB salesrep. could get the customer into equiptment was to use a third party leaseing company because of customers CREDIT or CUSTOMER REQUESTED CHOICE OF LEASE COMPANY OR SOME COMPANY, THE PB SALES OR LOCAL SALES OFFICE USES ) and than the leaseing company giving PB notice to pick it up and than making arrangments with customer.

Before this all happens the customer is given notice the lease is comming to its end and they have four (4) options
1. Buy the equiptment for a set amount
2. Keeping leaseing it for xxxx amount per year (less than they were paying)
3. Replace with like or different equiptment depending customers needs ( remember that this takes a sales rep and they are paid by commissions on a sale if your has your interest in mine ( come on what sales rep no matter what you buy car, house, mortage, TV, etc. has your interest in mind) that is not to that some do not there is the few sales that do.
4. Or have it picked up once all parties are sastified that lease has been satisfied.

THIS ALL SHOULD have been understood at the time of the SALE, but in my experence the customer has trusted the sales rep too much, or was only interested in get something that they precieved they needed at the leased expence to do a job for them. A customers in responsible to READ I SAID READ and UNDERSTAND THE CONTRACT before signing

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I left your semi-literate blame-the-customer diatribe as you wrote it. If you're representative of what the company was 10+ years ago, it's plain that the issues with PB started much longer ago than even I thought. Your final advice, however, is correct: READ and UNDERSTAND the contract -- then walk away. Anyone who goes with PB after reading this entry and the many comments with similar (or worse!) problems is nuts, if not stupid. -rc

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.

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.