Comments on: Earth Class Mail: An Eco Way to Manage Mail

By: Rony Arnold

Rony Arnold — Fri, 06 May 2011 22:01:53 +0000

Thank you for sharing this article. It’s very informative and interesting.

By: John B

John B — Thu, 21 May 2009 10:16:52 +0000

Hey, I travel overseas a lot and find Private Box Ltd ( http://www.privatebox.co.nz ) do a great job outside of the USA.

By: Zumbox: A Viable Paper Mail Killer? : Sustainablog

Zumbox: A Viable Paper Mail Killer? : Sustainablog — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 21:54:29 +0000

[...] rather than offering a service to remove you from mailing lists, or scan your paper mail into electronic format, or complete tasks like bill-paying online, Zumbox has created a platform that they hope will [...]

By: Evan Fell

Evan Fell — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 01:24:44 +0000

Eco this eco that. This service is awful. They are EXTREMELY slow. They took my mail receipt time from 3 days to 3 weeks or more. They don’t offer check cashing like advertised. I hated this service and had to cancel.

Also, how is this service eco friendly if every piece of mail I get in Boston is sent to Oregon then sent back. AWFUL.

By: Alan Friedrichsen

Alan Friedrichsen — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 17:14:24 +0000

The concept of ECM is great, but the reality is somewhat lacking. For starters, one thing they don’t tell you up front is that it costs at least $10 per shipment to have a piece of your mail physically delivered to you, even if it’s a single envelope! They refuse to use the USPS to forward mail, insisting on using only couriers that provide item tracking. Thus, their cheapest shipping option, even for a single envelope, works out to about $10 when you include taxes, etc. It’s probably more expensive on the East Coast or the farther you get from ECM’s Oregon sorting facility.

ECM is clearly targeting customers who receive lots of mail per week and can take advantage of bulk shipments or customers who can get away with reading their mail online and never need to physically receive it. In my case, I need to physically receive a handful of letters per month (legal documents, for instance), so unless I’m willing to wait until the end of the month to get these (which is difficult, since some of them are timely), I have to pay as much as $50/month extra to physically receive my critical mail. Other services forward through USPS for as little as $2-3/item. ECM needs to do likewise.

I didn’t find out about this limitation until I received my first critical piece of mail. I was forced to pay $10 to ship that piece of mail, but thereafter, I immediately asked ECM to cancel my account … which they promptly did, but they neglected to tell me until the account was actually canceled that they would not be refunding any of the months I had already paid in advance!

Buyer beware.

By: S.O.S. (Save Our Shredders): the Junk Mail Deluge : Sustainablog

S.O.S. (Save Our Shredders): the Junk Mail Deluge : Sustainablog — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:14:13 +0000

[...] Earth Class Mail: An Eco Way to Manage Mail [...]

By: casdhed

casdhed — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:27:04 +0000

Receiving your mail at earth class is good for the environment. The idea is that normally mail will be thrown into the bin, but with services like Earth Class and http://www.privatebox.co.nz mail is recycled in bulk.

By: liljebeck

liljebeck — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 20:49:00 +0000

sounds ridiculous! saving energy????? you are resorting mail that has already been sorted by the post office – you are doubling the energy used for each customer you have!!!
I don’t buy it – I can already pay all my bills online – I don’t even need to open envelopes – so all the paper gets recycled and shredded.
sorry – I am not a believer!

By: Start-Up Junkies – Green Doesn’t Just Mean Money on New Show : Ecopreneurist

Start-Up Junkies – Green Doesn’t Just Mean Money on New Show : Ecopreneurist — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 14:32:37 +0000

[...] Wiener, CEO of EarthClass mail which I wrote about here is the green entrepreneur featured. And while some may, and one commenter did, say that this [...]

By: MC Milker

MC Milker — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 14:15:34 +0000

Joel,

Absolutely! The best way to reduce junk mail is to join the stopjunkmail organizations. But also to recycle things like envelopes, letters, etc. This makes it easier.