Refund of postage on Estamp electronic vault (from free HP Deal)!

[Insomniac]

That CSR may say that you'll get your money (the one I spoke with 4 months ago did), but when they receive it, they will look up your account and see that the remaining balance was form the free $50 and you won't get a thing. Believe me. I'm just telling you this so you don't get your hopes up for that check.

If you have the E-Stamp packaging with the UPC intact, you can send that back for a refund.

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

anyone try to get a refund from the post office?

 

[FrontlineWarrior]

hey guys you better send your vault back. the CSR told me the USPS can charge you a $500 fine because the vault is on "loan" from the post office. Also, for sending the intact software back, it must be purchased after September, so even if you have the UPC from June, no dice.

 

[Sesopedalian]

That doesn't make sense. Most CSR's have an agenda that is looking out for their best interest and not yours. The rest haven't a clue.

 

[RandyL]

The part about the vault being on loan from the USPS can't be true. In yet another rediculous attempt to expand their customer base in October or November, E-stamp sent unsolicited vaults and software for free to everyone they ever heard of. The cover letter even said feel free to pass it on to a friend or, if you aren't the addresee go ahead and use it. If the vaults are on loan from the USPS how can they expect to get those back? I agree you may have an obligation to send an activated vault back but its not because they are owned by the post office and I doubt very much that there would be any fallout if you didn't send it back at all. If you decide to save the postage by not sending it back, I'd hold onto it though just in case ;-)

 

[zeppelin]

Can someone please email me or provide me the upgrade (ver. 1.2b w/ the new rates) for W2K. They just took it off (Jan. 7th). I didn't think I had any money left ... but I checked today and I had $34. Might as well milk this deal for all it's worth. Thanks.

I believe the deadline to use up your postage is March 1, 2001.

 

[SIGKILL]

I thought Version 1.2 was the latest, but I can't find V1.2B now. Does anyone have it? Can they please email it to me, Puhlezzz? Anybody have it on their I-drive/X-driver? Thanks.

 

[buybye]

Yeah, I had downloaded the 1.2 update as per their e-mail and thought I was good to go. Tried to use it on the 7th and it wouldn't print at the new rate. Called their customer service and was told I needed to click on the "update software" button. Tried but it couldn't access their site. Called them back and was told that they were in the process of closing down their servers for good and that I may or may not be able to get it done. Basically, if I couldn't it was just too bad for me as far as they were concerned. I tried again a few hours later and it actually went through. It was some kind of cab file with a name of 1.2c, I think, that automatically installed itself. I looked for a file to save afterwards but couldn't figure it out. Anyway . . . I saw over on another poplular forum a thread on this same topic and that someone has posted a file on idrive or some similar along with some info on files to back up first. You might check that out.

 

[morkinva]

can't you just pick the 'additional postage' with the old program and enter any amount you like? I used to do that before I used my postage up.

 

[buybye]

Yes, you can use the additonal postage thing. You have to flip the envelopes over and print the additional stamp on the back. I think it would be a lot less trouble to just add a 1-cent stamp but I'm not sure if that's acceptable to the Post Office. I asked E-stamp about it but the CS said he didnt' know.

 

[alyosha]

Anybody had this problem :
I updated 1.2 version, it won't let me to print postage- so I clicked on update software from the menu in the program- it did download "version12c", then it would go smoothly untill I press print my postage, it would suddenly give an error message that the was a problem identified and I should do update of the software. Then it would only print the address and no postage. The update button doesn't work second time. Any ideas?

 

[TheBigZ]

I read in an email they sent that they WILL NOT refund any of the $50 free promotional postage you got from setting up your acct.

If anyone was looking for a replacement internet postage program (besides that bs that EStamp tried to steer us to, where you have to buy equipment)... Pitney Bowes has online printable postage now. And as far as I can tell from their page, you only need an inkjet printer. But I was hoping to find a place that would use this blasted Dymo label printer & labels I bought.

 

[draggingbelly]

I had $49.67 in my account but I thought they would not refund it
since it was from PROMOTIONAL $50 that can not be refunded as many of you pointed out.

But... Here is what I did.
I printed $49.67 amount of stamps (with random address)
and report to estamp that I MISPRINTED the stamps.
According to their policy, the misprinted stamps can be refunded.
You have only to fill in the form for refund.

I am not sure if this works or not, but seems better than just send the vault
asking for refund.

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

Same problem here. I updated the software, and suddenly e-stamps doesn't work. I've got $20 of postage locked up in the thing. The error message I get is that my certificate is out of date, which it isn't.

I called tech support and they were no help.

I was hoping I could print out one big stamp for the balance, because you can take that to the post offfice and they will give you a cash refund. Yessirm its true.

I even tried to revert back to 1.1 see if that works, and it didn't. It apparently screwed up the electronic vault. It still reads the balance, but you can withdraw any cash. Sounds intentional too me.

 

[CinderElmo]

Central Please explain how to print one big sum of postage out and then take it to the post office. I have a feeling that any day now no one will be able to get it to work...and I would like to "cash out" immediately (I got in on the HP deal but postage is postage).

I upgraded to 1.2B (win2k) yesterday and immediately got a message that my vault was no longer valid. But I restarted the software and on the second try I was able to get in and print .34 stamps. However, I don't want to press my luck any further than that. (30+ postage remaining).

 

[CentralScrutinizer]

The post office gives refunds to holders of postage meter licenses (which you have, as an e-stamp user) for misprinted or unused postage. Just print out a stamp, go to the post office, tell them the truth, or some story like I meant to print $5 and printed $50 instead, and they will refund the postage.

Because the Post office is like any other bureacracy, you better call you local post office first and make sure I'm not leaving out some crucial detail. Just tell them you accidentally printed some postage on your postage meter, and ask how to get a refund. They'll give you the necessary steps to follow.

 

[858diver]

Careful:

The USPS will direct misprinted internet postage to the vendor (E-stamp), and charge a 10% fee.

 

[railer]

Eoes anyone know if the 1.2 upgrade is floating around the net somewhere? I can't find it anywhere. I didn't update by the 7th and still have some postage to use. Thanks.

 

[zeppelin]

I have the upgrade on my site: v1.2.
I've heard that some people were having problems installing it because it needed to be "authenticated" with the E-Stamp servers which are down permanently. Please let us know if you've successfully installed it after Jan. 7th. As for me, I just downloaded it but I haven't had a chance to try it because I'm at work now.

Here is another link to a discussion about the e-stamp thing: other discussion

Here's what someone said: "Before you upgrade your Estamp software, save its MSMAIN.INI file because it contains your postal certificate. Sometimes the upgrade process writes a new MSMAIN.INI file without this certificate, making your Electronic Vault useless, and because support has been withdrawn (before the advertised date), you won't be able to reinitialize it. But you can copy the certificate from the old MSMAIN.INI file and paste it into the new file."

What I might end up doing instead of upgrading, is just printing "additional postage" (found in a pull-down menu on the right side of E-stamp window). If you print the correct amount (i.e. $.34), I can't see why USPS wouldn't deliver it.

 

[nooch]

Instead of printing "additional postage", why don't you just tell the software to print stamps for 2 oz. letters? That's a 55 cent stamp under the old prices. That way you can get rid of unused postage and screw e-stamp at the same time!!! I've got over $40 of postage in my account and I sure as hell won't be able to use it up before March.

 

[Terrymc]

Has anyone gotten their refund back from E-stamp yet?

I got a RMA # and sent back the vault. I still had $49.67 on it, and yes
it was from the promotion..

 

[luv2chill]

Terrymc

You're not going to get anything back from e-stamp. Promo postage is not refundable--straight from the horse's mouth.

Sorry dude.

l2c

 

[corgidog]

I have the v1.2b upgrade installed. I cannot figure out how to print a .34 cent stamp. It only shows a letter as 33 cents and then I have to flip the envelope over and print 1 cent additional postage on the back. What am I missing? I want to use up the rest of my free postage.

 

[morkinva]

I have never put the 'additional postage' on the back of anything. I've used it for $20+ packages and just put it right on the front of the package with no other printed postage and it ships just fine.

 

[CinderElmo]

corgidog Are you using Windows 2000? I *THINK* win2k needs a 1.2C version to get the updated postage rates. At least that is what I remember on my box.

As soon as I closed estamps and went back it it showed .34 stamp. Not sure what else you could try besides add additional postage. At this late juncture I wouldn't try upgrading anymore...unless you save your files as illustrated elsewhere in this thread.