Common Postage Meter Problems
Postage meters have become an extremely helpful tool for online business owners who need to ship out products on a regular basis. This is because through the use of a postage meter, they are able to cut down on expenses on shipment and spending lesser time to have to go to the post office to buy stamps for them to ship these products.
Postage meters are generally a new service offered by the United States Postal Service. As such, it is prone to a number of bugs and problems. Here are some of the common problems that you would be facing when using postal meters and how to go about remedying them.
Supplies are Used Up
One of the biggest problems faced by online business entrepreneurs using postage meters is where to purchase items such as postage meter inks and labels to restock their supply. The first thing you can do is to check with the online printer supplier store where you rented your postage meter from. Some suppliers including providing you with the supplies needed to create postage labels at no extra charge while some do for a minimal fee. In the event that the terms and conditions with your supplier states that they do not provide you with postage meter supplies, you can get this over the Internet in various online postage meter stores.
Postage Rate Increase
The United States Postal Service is the sole regulator of the postal rates that you must adhere to. Once in a while, the USPS would need to increase the postage rates that online business owners must pay for the shipment. Although this may happen almost immediately, the same is not true with your postage meter. Because government regulations prohibit owners to calibrate these on their own, contact your supplier to advice them you would need to update the postage rates in your meter. Your supplier will send an authorized representative from their office to install the new rate card in your postage meter.
Postage Meter Printing Errors
Another common problem that is faced by owners of postage meters is realizing that the amount on the postage label is incorrect but the label has already been printed. While it is easy to reprint this, the problem lies on the fact that once you print a postage label using a postage meter, the amount is debited from the funds. In case this happens, immediately bring your erroneous printed postage label to your local Post Office. Your Post Office would refund the amount back to your funds in your postage meter. Bear in mind, that there is a time limit for this. Postage labels that are not submitted for refund 60 days from the time that it was printed would no longer be eligible for a refund.
Technical Problems
If you are experiencing some technical problems using your postage meter such as it being unable to print, you would need to contact your supplier for this. This is in line with the fact that government regulations prohibit postage meters to troubleshoot postage meter technical problems without the guidance of a representative.
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Loading ...Tags: inks, labels, postage meter supplies, postage meters, postal meters, printing errors | Category: Printer & Ink Troubleshooting | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL
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November 24th, 2008 at 5:17 pm
Refunds are issued at 90% of face value, and require standing in line (30 minutes today) and filling out a refund form – not counting travel time and mileage to/from post office, if you’re not going there already. Not so nice and easy. USPS also alleges you cannot just take the postage, cut it off the bad envelope, and apply it to some other piece of mail (although I have done this before and the mail always gets delivered just fine).
November 24th, 2008 at 5:19 pm
In addition, the post office is attempting to make it impossible to receive a refund unless $25+ is at stake in any 60-day period (unlikely for most users) – see http://www.thefederalregister.com/d.p/2008-05-09-E8-10358
March 18th, 2009 at 7:19 pm
I spent a fortune replacing the ink in my first postage meter so I could print labels to ship my products out. Before I decided to put more effort into marketing my business (it was part time back then), my ink would run out quickly because I wasn’t printing postage regularly. The company couldn’t offer me a better deal on the ink, and I didn’t like some of their fees, so I ended up getting a postage meter from Stamps.com. They have some great deals with USPS, which reduce my business costs, and I can print postage from my office printer without errors from the meter. It really does make a different in your budget and how often you plan to print postage.