Cranky Customer

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.

I believe that PB used a kind of bait and switch on us when we "had to upgrade" our old non-digital machine to the new electronic mailing machines. When we first rented the PB meter machine 10 years ago, I was told that I could return it at anytime but I would be billed every three months. Fine.

Then three years ago, we received a call saying we "had to upgrade" to the new digital machines. There was no mention that we were changing from our rental to a binding five year lease.

Yes, I signed the blurry fax and I did not read all the blurry fine print as I believed it was still the same terms, as there was no mention by the sales rep that I was changing from a rental to a lease. I also was told that it was mandatory and that Canada Post was requiring new electronic meters.

I find the electronic meters a pain and find doing my parcels with Canada Post online way easier.

However, PB now claims that I cannot get out of this lease. I believe this practice was a bait and switch because on their website, they say that one can rent equipment. Why not give the customer the option of renting or explaining the difference.

I have seen on previous posts that people have refused to continue paying on leases. I am curious to know what happens.

I signed up for the purchased power account over the phone since the rep told me I could continue to pay my bill through my Credit Card. The first bill I received I found out that the rep did not tell me the truth, you can not pay for it with your credit card. I cancelled the Purchased power account and told them to put everything back the way it was. Month after month it is the same thing, extra charges added, they refuse to cancel the purchase power account even when I paid it off. This is the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life. It is almost comical, Jerry Seinfeld could have fun with this company. I sent back the postage meter, the rep pleaded with me to stay with them since I did a lot of business with them. I sent it back and told them why, because of the billing. The next month I still get a bill from Pitney Bowes. I make a call and they apologize and they said it is taken care of. Today the next month I get an automated phone call from Pitney Bowes saying that my account is overdue. This is a never ending problem. How can a company this size still be in business treating their customers this way?

Never again.

I have read some of the most recent complaints and would like to clear up some misconceptions. I want to start off by saying that I am in no way defending PB. As a former employee I am aware of deceptive sales practices, untenable billing situations and knowledgable release of sub-standard equipment and supplies.

First I need to explain that the old non-digital machines had to be inspected by the USPS as per their regulations. The meter manufacturers had no say in this. PB and others were forced to go to digital meters because USPS forced more of the responsibility on them in order to save money. That is why the old meters were decommisioned and taken out of service. That is also why there was such a huge push to get people to switch sooner rather than later. Having said that, PB service reps would also do physical inspections of the machines because as the manufacturer they are required to maintain the meters, NOT THE REST OF THE MACHINE (ie. feeders, transports, sealers, stackers etc.) Now with the new generation of machine this can be done using a secure link over an analog phone line. A physical inspection is no longer needed.

The other issue I wanted to address is the maintenance agreement. Have you ever leased a car? Service agreements aren't automatic. That is a seperate cost. That is reasonable. Any problems stemming from the controller (meter) portion of the machine must be covered by the manufacturer. The problem is that the maintenance agreements are expensive, but a non-covered service call with PB is a minimum $405 just to have the serviceman walk thought the door. OUCH!!!

PB had slowly been losing their market share, but the problem is that the other manufacturers are no better. They're are just smaller. I and other former PB service personnel would love to testify in a class action suit, but to date I am not aware of any. Former and current customers must take action in order to affect change.

We are a PB customer on lease contract in Toronto. A PB Account Manager visited us this morning. He said that because there was a change of software platform that we need to replace the postage meter that we are currently using. There will be NO EXTRA CHARGE at all. All they need is a signature on an application form. A short dialogue was exchanged between us and nothing more on the application was explained. This sounds good BUT when I look at the details of the contract, it appears to be under the same term as our previous lease contract, which is 66 months. However, when I enquire, the Account Manager said it means 66 months from today.

THIS IS ABSOLUTELY NOT "NO EXTRA CHARGE". This is in fact an extension of the original contract and most importantly is that this was never explained to me. Now if I signed, there will be an extension of the lease contract without me knowing of that. This is not only DISHONESTLY, BAD SALES TECHNIQUE but also an INTENTION TO OMIT important contract details. PB Account Manager has been using this technique at least for a second time toward our account. I have the name of the Account Manager and I am going to complain this to PB. I end up sending him away.

FYI, If you ever have a pitney rep try to get you to sign another contract and not explain the situation in a trueful manner, they should be fired. The Pitney Rep has to sign a "Standards of Professionalism for the direct sales organization". They are to explain all of your rights and options. I worked for this company and they encourage unofficial sharing of tricks with the sales force. The lease is the vehicle to do the most damage. They will tell you what ever you want to hear and then change the contract when they get back to the office. So, if you have a copy of your contract have pbcc send you a copy and then you can compare. Chances are, they will have added something that wasn't on your contract.

In the Professionalism contract they aren't to alter anything or they will be fired. However, it happens all of the time, and they will get second chances if they are good.

The reason I stopped working for the company was for the unethical treatment of the pb customer. I wasn't fired, I was one of their top reps. Stop before you ever sign another PB lease!

TO C.S. in Toronto :

I work for Pitney Bowes in the Global Ethics and Business Practices group and I am very concerned about the activity you have reported. I would be very interested in speaking to you about this issue.

Please let me know if you are willing to discuss.

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(If so, send me an e-mail and I'll forward it to Kevin. -rc)

I have to say this is the most unethical company I've ever had to deal with. They should be investigated for fraud and unethical business practices.

I've followed our contract to the letter and when I gave my 30 day notice to cancel their services I had to deal with vicious customer representatives who thought they could bully and belittle me into renewing the contract. They won't send me anything in writing to acknowledge the cancellation and told me it would take AT LEAST 30 days to send the return box for the meter and the paperwork to terminate it.

We have a current credit in the Postage-By-Phone account and I'm sure it will also be a nightmare getting that money back.

They aren't worth the overly high fees they charge or the frustration of dealing with their extremely poor customer service. I recommend all small business deal directly with the US Postal Service and order postage on-line and buy a $30 scale and use the postage scales you can print from the website.

I can't think of any business in the world that I have a lower opinion of than this sleezey company called PITTney Bowes.

RC who responded to CS in Toronto makes me want to laugh. Pitney Bowes loves to talk ethics and then turns a blind eye when the company does things that are technically legal, but hardly ethical.

They knew shortly after it's release that EZseal Plus was dissolving the styrofoam floats in the sealer resevoirs of the large DM machines.

They new as they were installing them the the new shape based WOW modules were jamming and not sensing properly. This caused ongoing error code problems as well as the incorrect postage to be applied to mail. I personally spoke to boat loads of customers who only discovered this after they had already posted too much on their letters and packages. Sometimes it was literally thousands of pieces.

Because of a software glitch the older DM200 and DM300 machines periodically display a false "waste tank full" message. The company instructs the customer service agents not to disclose that to customers.

Most people don't know that credit card companies make their real money on late fees. So does Pitney Bowes. That's why customers recieve invoices sometimes two days before it's due. You have no idea how many people in the billing and leasing departments have complained about this. They get tired of getting yelled at about this day in and day out.

When you cancel an account, Postage by Phone holds on to any money in the account. You won't recieve a refund unless you submit a request in writing. The retention agents, euphemistically called Customer Relations agents, won't disclose this to you unless asked.

Pitney Bowes knows that it cost far more to gain a new customer than to retain a current customer, so often times we would hear complaints about sales reps who wrote up leases for mandatory updated equipment. The customers were led to believe that the new equipment was just an amendment to the existing lease and then were suprised to find that it was in effect an extension. I KNOW THIS IS TRUE. Last fall a customer faxed me copies of the lease that was left by the sales rep for them to review and the lease that was fianally brought by for them to sign. It was slightly different, but in a profound way. The customer was on the hook for another sixty months. They were furious. It was a seasoned sales rep who did this, but the sales managers pretend not to see. Ethics indeed!

Does enyone out there know that there is currently an effort to create a do not mail list for junk mail just like the do not call list for telemarketers. Pitney Bowes is actively lobbying against this. They do this, not because it is a service for you, but because it would dramatically affect their business.

Believe me, I'm not saying there are no difficult, downright stupid and over-demanding customers out there. I've had my share, but I still gave them the best possible service. This however does not absolve Pitney Bowes of their irresponsible and unethical business practices no matter how big they talk.

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I didn't reply to C.S., I replied to a PB rep who responded to him. I offered to send along a note for C.S., who had complaints. This "makes you want to laugh" why? -rc

As a former PB employee, I can say that I saw my share of customers who were "screwed". The company rates technicians based on "time" spent repairing a machine. You have to lie on your time card to keep your job. If you are sent to training you "better keep up" even if you do not fully understand how to repair the machine you are being given instruction on. Sales reps will do anything to make the sale and will charge different rates to different customers depending on what they are capable of paying. You may end up paying thousands more than another business down the street. Good managers are infrequent. I worked for one who started out really caring, but time and upper management soon "beat that out of him". What a dog-eat-dog, money hungry, profit-over-ethics company. I am glad to be gone, and so are thousands of other former employees who have left the company out of frustration. They have an extremely high turn over in workers.