Review: Earth Class Mail - Receive Your Postal Mail Online
I’ve seen a number of lists around the blogosphere recently from other LIPs, web workers and modern nomads who’re catching on to some of the more essential tools to replace the conveniences of having a permanent base.
I’ve mentioned Earth Class Mail before - it’s the mailing service we’ve been using for a year or so now to help deal with snail mail whilst we’re overseas. In fact, Earth Class Mail (ECM) also promote the fact that having an ECM address is ideal for other things too, including:
- People who move house frequently and don’t want to keep changing their address with numerous services (that would have been us even before we became LIPs!!!).
- RV fans who live on the road with no fixed address.
- Business travellers who don’t get home frequently enough to check the mail.
Having used it for a while now I thought I’d post a brief review and a description of how the service works, for those of you who are looking for a service which lets you get your mail from anywhere.
Here’s how it works:
- You sign up to the service & select your preferred mailing address (you can have more than one in different cities if you like).
- You hand out your new mailing address to the people/companies you’d like to use this address.
- When you receive any mail, you’ll get an email informing you, so that you can log in and deal with the mail.
- For each piece of post, you have a few options:
- Get it scanned
- Get it sent to you (for an additional fee)
- Recycle it
- Shred it
- Archive it
- Transfer it (to another recipient on your account)
- Mark it as not your mail
- Once you’ve selected the action, it typically takes 2-3 days to perform the action after which you’ll receive an email informing you that the action is complete.
Here’s what it looks like:
The Inbox - this is what you see when you log in.
The Detail - this is what you see when you click on a piece of mail for a close-up view.
Scanned Mail - this is the screen of all your scanned mail, allowing you download PDFs of the scanned contents.
Your Addresses - this is where you can manage/add your ECM mailbox addresses.
The Things I Like:
Ease of use
It is pretty easy to use when you receive mail; you simply select the post you want to deal with and then select what you want to do with it. Scanning usually only takes a couple of days and you receive emails to let you know when the requested action has been completed.
Range of address options
You get the choice of having more than one address and if you need a street address (as opposed to just a PO Box), you can have this as well - although it has to be the Beaverton address.
The Things I Don’t Like:
US-only addresses
Being from the UK means most of my post is likely to come from the UK; having a US address is therefore not ideal in all circumstances and US addresses are all that’s currently on offer with ECM. There are a couple of companies who offer similar services to ECM which allow you to have a UK address but none are as good value nor seem as effective or efficient.
The sign -up process
Whilst I know it’s necessary, the sign-up service and having to send in Form 1583* is a pain, as is sending in the forms of ID requested, particularly if you’re in the UK.
* The Application for Delivery of Mail Through Agent is required by the U.S. Postal Service to let Earth Class Mail Corporation receive mail for you.
Overall
For those of us who are location independent - and want or need to receive snail mail occasionally, Earth Class Mail is a must-have service particularly if you don’t have friends or family who can receive mail for you. It is easy to use - once you’ve set up your account - and a pretty efficient way to receive non-urgent mail.
Where it falls down for us at the moment is the non-UK address which means we don’t and can’t use it for all the services we’d like to. Fortunately, we have relatives in the UK who can receive other forms of mail for us which need actioning (cheques to pay in, forms to complete etc.).
For those of you in the US however, I believe ECM may shortly be adding a service which also means they can cash cheques (or checks) for you - so it’s going to be one pretty complete service.
Note: This post contains affiliate links for a product we use and recommend.
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Comments
Funny I was just sitting on my couch watching this show about start up junkies. The company they are following on this HD show (HD not so hot for closeups of stressed start-uppers)is Earth Class Mail- I saw your twitter and then went to your blog where I found this post. These guys are master marketers. I hope the service works well.
Cheers and great blog
Mike
@Mike - they do seem pretty hot at the marketing. Off the back of this post, the PR guy contacted me and asked if I would be a case study. They’ve got a great product though so it shouldn’t be too much of a hard sell to the right markets…
I have been looking at an international alternative, http://www.privatebox.co.nz seem to be doing a very good job.
Nope not seen it - we’re struggling to work out just what’s on when here in Thailand and usually settle for channel 12 which seems to be some guy who rents loads of DVDs and then broadcasts them out for us all to watch!!
Sounds like a great service, but I have a better one and it is called “mum”.