Rate Change Roundtable 2009

[karios]

Lori,

We have a DM200l postage meter. I received an email notifying me of the update on April 20. I completed the update on April 28 by connecting to the download center on my machine. I don't think any software updates downloaded at the time because the download took less than 5 minutes. The meter displayed that the download was successful; I confirmed this on the PB website by logging into my account. The conversion to the new rates went very smoothly on my machine.

[PB-Lori]

Hi Karios,

You're the first person that stated you verified your rates by logging in to My Account.  This makes me very happy. 

Thanks for the detailed feedback,

Lori  

[awc123]

I downloaded prior to the effective date.  Instructions were received by mail and email as you specified in the process.  The download was easy and took very little time, no errors were encountered.

[PB-Lori]

Hi Awc123,

Great!  Glad to hear the process went smooth for you.

Lori

[Insureme]

Our update did not go well at all.  No contingencies were made for failed attempts beyond connection problems.  We tried prior to May 11 to update and it failed we tried over the next 2 days and they failed as well. Each failure took about 45 minutes to complete. When we called and told CS what happened, they made us go through the process, even thought we had the error codes and file that was failing. 8 attempts were made before we called. The attempt with CS failed and he us we had to call someone else and gave us the number that makes you go through the whole initialization process again. I called thought again and told them I was not going to go through the process anymore and wanted to know what the error code was.  He said he had to connect me to someone else and promptly disconnected me. I then went to the website and found a published number to call for upgrade problems that was different than the one on the mailer. I called that and was put on hold due to high volume.  I put the call on my speaker phone and continued to work. 2 1/2 hours later, it was time to go home and I was still on hold with the operator thanking for my patience and letting me know some one would get to me shortly.  Well, I went home but left the call still active. To my surprise, 12 hours later I was still on hold. (I am not making this up) Now the message was saying that someone would get to me in 15 minutes. After another hour, I went to another phone, called a third number from the website and did get to speak to someone.  The third number on the PB website was 1 digit different than the one still on hold.  I let the person know that they had a mistype of a help phone number on the web. I then asked to be elevated to a second tier tech support. Finally I got someone who could tell me that the error code told them that the meter was bad and needed to be replaced. Then she said that the rep had to come out and go through the whole process himself. She would not order the meter. Only he could. I called the rep and luckily he is a sensible person. He ordered the meter, and came out the next day to install it. The upgrade then through the first time with the new meter. Again, no contingencies were made along the line for real problems. 

[RBoyce]

I use a DM400c.  This is the second rate change I've had to perform on this particular machine and it went just as smooth as the first.  I appreciate getting the letter in the mail (about a month before the change date) reminding me of the rate change as we all can tend to forget things when we get busy. 

I downloaded about 2 weeks out of the change date without a glitch.  Yes, my machine also did a software download at the same time, so the length of time was extended, but not unbearable.  After setting the machine to give daily reminders of the impending rate change, I received a confirmation email from PB (I believe the same day) that I had downloaded successfully. 

On May 11th, the rates changed without a problem.  I really wasn't looking forward to updating all of my presets, however I only had to do a couple as the rest updated automatically.

To be honest, I really never checked out PB's Rate Change Central except for download instructions which are quite easy to understand.  I always use USPS.com when I have questions concerning rates or I will speak directly with my local post office.

I did not encounter any problems during this rate change download.

[PB-Lori]

Hi RBoyce,

Your feedback makes me really happy!  I'm glad the software update and rate download went smoothly.

Thanks for the post,

Lori  

[PB-JG01]

The download process works fine...it is the PB connection that is always a mystery?  Even with adding postage, getting a connection can take several attempts and at times even days.  It tooks four days, approximately 5 to 6 attempts per day just to complete a successful download for this rate change.  Every month a similar situation occurs for refilling the postage meter.  Have taked with C/S and have been give a different number, but still having the same experience.  It has been very frustrating!!

[laurahrcu]

One thing that complicated things for us is the fact that our business has 4 postage machines.  At the main office where I work and am in charge of the machines we have a DM900.  Normally this updates automatically for postage changes, software downloads,etc...  But this time it didnt do that.  when I got the reminder emails and letters in the mail I honestly did not know what machine they were for.  On May 11th then it came time for the new postage I didnt realize it was the day and ran all of our mail through the machine with .42 cents.  So then I had to make .02 tapes to add to over 300 pieces of mail.  Then it took me about 45 minutes of trying to figure out how to update the postage. 

It would be nice if it would automatically update when the machine gets turned on.  We turn our machine off each day since we only use it once a day.

[PB-Lori]

Hi Laurahrcu,

I'm sorry for the confusion.  We put the model and serial number of the machine on the letter and email but I know this can still be a bit confusing.  We are actually working on your suggestion;having the rates automatically update.  Stay tuned........

Thanks for your post,

Lori