As much as I really love this idea - mostly because i don’t like to deal with my junk mail - yuck i can’t stand junk mail, i don’t really think it will catch on. Earth class mail is essentially switching your snail mail to e-mail - sort of. The reason i doubt it’s potential is I don’t know too many people that are comfortable allowing someone else to handle their snail mail including yours truly. I would love to give it a try though but i would feel more reassured if i could hear from anyone out there that has used/is using this service? Care to chime in and tell us your experience or perhaps the experience of someone you know using it?
Yeah I would love to hear those testimonials as well. I am definitely going to give it a shot once I get to a stage where I will be receiving a lot of snail mail. As for now though fortunately almost all my mail is email so not much need.
I think it will catch on, but not on a mass consumer level but it will be more of a niche service especially for young, Western yuppies and professionals.
Interesting concept. Folks do seem to get much more unsolicited snail mail in the US compared to Europe…another one of the America wonders.
I wish someone would file a lawsuit against all the junk snail-mailers for the time I waste shredding stuff with my name all over it.
We use Earth Class Mail for our US Postal Mail. It seems to work fine for us. The most difficult part is the initial form that has to be filled out. After that pretty smooth sailing.
Bill
Another perspective on Earth Class can be found here:
http://locationindependent.com/blog/2008/04/17/review-earth-class-mail-receive-your-postal-mail-online/
and she also spoke about the tedious nature of the intial forms.
I’ve been using the service for about 8 months. I really like it. It’s very useful to me for the following reasons:
1. I have a few different companies/corporate entities as a self-employed person. Even though I don’t get a ton of mail for anyone company it’s very helpful to aggregate it in one place that I can “collect” my mail from anywhere.
2. Mail comes everyday in various quantities and of various quality. (e.g. Junk mail, invoices that you don’t need physical copies of) It is absolutely the biggest clutterer (is that a word?) of my desk.
I’ve move and travel just enough to make it a total pain to have to change addresses and manage forwarding. The USPS premier mail forwarding service you can buy is $40 per month to forward all your mail to wherever you want permanently but you’re still stuck with having the clutter of mail plus you can’t access it when traveling.
Anyways. I like it. It’s cheaper than the USPS premier forwarding and I’ve found that I only need to forward less than 2% of my physical mail.
I have a long review here: http://vacantdesk.com/review-of-earth-class-mail/
Greetings to Seinlife,
In the spirit of full disclosure I’m Earth Class Mail’s PR guy. I’ve really enjoyed exploring your site, and thanks for your interest our company.
If I might I’d like to help clarify a few things about the service. Regarding other people handling your mail, Earth Class Mail takes every security precaution possible to ensure your privacy and does not open mail or take any action on it without your permission. We first scan the outside of the envelope, front and back, and then send you an email alert that you can view the document at a secure website. At that point you can choose to discard (recycle/shred) which is chosen 62% of the time, forwarded to you wherever you are in the world, or have it opened and scanned (selected 32% of the time).
The opening of your mail occurs only at your direction and is done in a clean room environment where scanning employees with the civilian equivalent of Department of Defense clearances (most are in fact veterans or disabled veterans), wearing pocketless uniforms, under video surveillance open and scan the mail. Soon you will even be able to watch your own mail being opened online through our patent-pending Documentary system.
As I’ve said, we’ve employed strict security protocols implemented after consultation with insurers, the USPS, FBI, and lawyers, so we exceed HIPAA, Sarbox, FTC, and SEC standards. This is why our service is used by major corporations, government agencies and the military, not just consumers and small businesses.
We have quite a few case studies, testimonials, and third-party reviews, as well, if you’re interested in seeing them I’d be happy to forward them to you.
Feel free to contact me directly if you would like more information.
Thanks,
Jeff