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Comments:
Have produced numerous duplicate invoices which they refuse to credit. Have wasted days trying to communicate with these people. Is there a complaints procedure to Royal Mail? They should loose their license.
Why is this UK franking machine cartel allowed to exist in any case. I shall be making a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading
This company is by far the worst I have dealt with in 30 years.
We terminated a contract with them in January and they picked up the machine some days later (Fortunately we kept the receipt of collection). Since then we have been plagued by request for payment for rental for a period after the machine was collected. There customer service team admit the mistake is there and keep issuing us with reference numbers to say they will sort it out.
Topday we received a letter telling us they intended taking us to court for non payment
i am a customer of pb since may 2010. and i wish i never signed contract with them.i never met company in my life who treats customers in such bad manner.they are very nice until you signed a contract. after you will receive service worse what you can expect. on many occations pb pushed me to reniew contract. Since the moment i signed contract story changed. i was treated with disrespect.just today i called to pb and asked to transfer my call to cancellation team. i was waiting for it over 15min. lady who was dealing with call transfer told me 6 times i will transfer your call now. and it was again and again. i suppose in this matter pb expecting to loose your patience and drop phone?????
please think very carefully if you would like to sign contract with pitney bowes!!!!
Once again this awful company rips me off - this time charging me £60 to update the postage rates on my machine. This is a ridiculous charge and they rig the software and machine to prevent you doing it yourself without creating ongoing problems. I will NEVER enter into another contract with Pitney Bowes.
Our franking machine is with Pitney Bowes and recently we started getting a message "battery low" on the display of the machine. I phoned Pitney Bowes who got our account manager to call me. He told me that a franking machine would only last 5-6 years and that as it was 6 years old, we would need to replace it. I was shocked as the machine worked perfectly otherwise - and why did it need a battery? It was mains operated! I was told that the battery wasn't worth replacing. When I asked how long it would last for, I was told that it could be days, weeks or months - they just couldn't be certain. So I thought I would run the machine until the battery died but I was told that the memory would be wiped along with any credit that was on the machine. So, I started going through the process of getting some quotes. After much to-ing & fro-ing, I decided on Neopost. Once I had signed with Neopost, my Pitney Bowes account manager emailed me to say as the old machine was ours, would we like to look at replacing the battery?! I was flabbergasted. When I questioned why I was not given this option before, he just told me to contact a service engineer for a price. I'm not going to bother frankly - I don't want anything more to do with Pitney Bowes.
Very bad Company to deal with. Last year they decided that we had to dial into there system once a month so they could check our franking machine. As this was an 0845 I objected and they said it was a requirement of the Royal Mail. When I contacted the Royal Mail they said it was not. So Pitney Bowes must be making a nice fortune out of thousands of customers dial 0845 number for no other reason but make money for PB
I am a customer of Pitney Bowes and I really wish I had chosen another supplier. Its just too much hassle to change over which I think is what they rely on when setting their customer service and charging policy. I have so many issues with them that are too long to list but my advice to anyone thinking of using a franking machine - DONT use Pitney Bowes, Any one of their competitors would offer a better service.
We are pleased to say our 5 year contract is nearly complete, but let me tell you why we are pleased. Pitney bowes replaced our machine with a top of the range machine which we were told was the only machine that would handle pricing in proportion (this was 3-4 months before that came into effect). Well the sales rep went through it all and I pointed out the pricing seemed alot higher than their first machine, however he said we pay for no updates and the filling of the machine each month is fre, the fee not the postage of course (saving us £10 a time then, and £12 or so now). He also said we can sign up for two years and if its not right we can change it. At that time my wife worked full time for the business and I worked elsewhere so the rep knew I would need to be informed before hand of his visit so I could be there. Well the next day I get a call from my wife saying the rep is back and she has to sign the contract then or we will not have the machine in time for pricing in proportion due to the volume of people taking them. So she signed and everything seemed fine. Well a month later the machine arrived, some 5 months earlier than we were supposed to get the replacement, which also tied in with our previous agreement ending. Well I kicked up and said come and take the machine and cancel our contract, and they agreed we would keep the smaller machine and not change until the other contract started, however the FIVE year agreement could not be cancelled now. I was horrified that the agreement was now 5 years and not the two years we were promised, also it was not until the machine arrived we got our copy of the contract etc and had already missed the 14 days cancellation period. Well we had no choice we sent out alot of parcel so thought hay ho lets just get on with it, its not much higher in price, when you remove the fill up fees and update fees and the apparent fact the same priced cartidges were twice the size so half price ink (damn their rep was good). Well alls fine until we got a letter a year later saying that they had forgot to charge us for filling each time and we now owed £120. When I pointed out our contract had free fillups they said no ones has this and we owe the money, unless we could prove the rep said this. The damn rep had lied, and also the machine we had originally (the small one with seperate scale) although would need an upgrade or replaced with similar model was still available for pricing in proportion, we were well screwed over. I must have spent 100 hours over the last five years with this company, their other trick is send no invoice and then charge you for being late paying the invoice (and its not just a few pence). This has been the worst company we have had to deal with and believe me we deal with a lot of companies and have grown from 1 man band to a larger business over five years and no one else has come close to the lies and tricks this company has pulled. a friend of ours works for them now and we have learnt the rep has a much higher position within the company now (certainly 10 months ago this was the case) so it shows the grade required to advance through the ranks there. So for god sake do your self a favour and go else where, we have heard good thinks about neo post, but better than that talk to royal mail, they have alot of options which are cheaper than stamps and far easier than franking. And as Pitney Bowes will come across this posting I will qualify it with them by saying look up our company Clever Cut Limited and you will see our full history of dealings with you guys. So yes THANK GOD our dealings are coming to and end and for the last four years and until the day we cease trading we are telling everyone that listens about the day Pitney Bowes darkened our doorstep and took the sparkle out of being a small business!
Yes they are a rip-off. Has anyone looked in to DSA postal services? Simply negotiating with the various postal companies and purchasing an advanced digital postal scale, such as the Excel Mail Monitor?
Literally the worst company I have ever dealt with in my 15 years working in an office environment. I see a 'Sales Rep' has jumped to the defence of Pitney Bowes, if only my account manager was as keen to please as he says he is, as soon as mine had hoodwinked me into signing the most ridiculous contract I never heard from him again, he simply took the commission and ran and left me one of the biggest headaches of my career - you would not think that a franking machine could suck up so much valuable time and money. I could not bore anyone with the details of the problems I have had with this company as there have been numerous and they have been painful, basically they are more expensive than you could imagine, they promise to be cheaper than buying stamps but with all the hidden charges, expensive consumables and the hours of time you waste every time you have the smallest of problem, you would be batter off taking a trip to Timbuktu every time you needed a stamp than to sign a contract with these people.
Though maybe not quite evil, Pitney Bowes are certainly the worst company I have ever had dealings with in 30 years of running small businesses in the UK. Oddly enough things were fine for the first 8 years of dealing with them, but after a move, and a change of machine, things went rapidly from not-good to bad to terrible. Their new machine had a firmware/software fault which they were unwilling to acknowledge, and then after several unsatisfactory calls, we decided to terminate the relationship. Watch out if you ever wish to end a Pitney Bowes contract ahead of schedule, the fine print is such that even a top lawyer recommended that I give up. They will come after you with a meat cleaver to get their pound of flesh, they have no interest in even attempting to maintain good relations with a long-standing customer. I came to see that they are a money-grubbing operation which happens to have found a way to legally fleece customers across the globe. They just happen to lease franking machines, but their core business is sucking all of your hard-earned income from you like a parasite. We switched over to Neopost, with whom we have never had any problems, and who give really a pretty damned good level of customer support and service. But I will shout from the rooftops and hills, avoid Pitney Bowes like the plague if you value the health of your small business!!!
Do not touch this company with 10million barge poles tied together!! (Not allowed to write in capitals!!). Prices are extortionate, charging for rental, postage topup, ink, stickers, postal rate chips etc. They take legal action for unpaid invoices which they make up! They hide behind an unresponsive corporate brick wall. Take my advice and go to the Post office-far cheaper, far less stress.
had a bad experience with pitneys at a previous company and they have never made a positive impression on me since. we lease our machine now from neopost with much better service and less cost.
I only wish I'd reseached Pitney Bowes and found these comments before I'd signed a contract with them in 2008. The catalogue of errors that have happened has been a complete joke, it all started with the first trial machine that never worked properly.
Trying to sort out the problem took more phone calls than I care to remember and it was months before it was sorted.
The hidden charges were a bit of a shock to a small company (1 person) like mine. Yes I'm guilty of not reading all the small print but all that was needed was the person whom I asked "are there any other charges that I should be aware of" to have told me, yes every time you put credit on your machine you are charged £6.75 per transation. Luckily I did get the charges back and put on the whole amount for a year.
However that was only a minor thing compared to:
1) Putting an incorrect name on the paperwork
2) Trial Franking Machine never worked properly from day one and the frank die was not set up on any of the machines.
3) Called more times than care to remember, took weeks to get cleaning instructions, ended up buying expensive ink, which STILL didn't solve the problem
4) In summer 2009 asked for a replacement franking machine and set up Direct Debit in Sept for payments
5) New machine never arrived told I had to buy new ink at about £97! Eventually after more phone calls and emails received machine in October.
6) Still have ink left over from 1st machine, as 2nd machine is a different one I can't use the ink!
7) Direct Debit was never set up.... started to receive letters for outstanding amounts. Contacted PB on numerous occassions to try to sort out their error. Finally PB sorted out DD in December - during all that time I was receiving letters threatening legal action!!! More phone calls and eventually, eventually, someone actually apologised and said it was their error. But not before I was made to feel very belittled and spoken down to.
8) Second franking machine set up, but postage credit isn't automatically transferred, so had to pay out for more postage! A few weeks after installation machine shows a fatal error - so rang PB who have sent out a 3rd franking machine.
9) Installed 3rd Franking Machine today and guess what - it doesn't work.
Sorry I know this is long winded but I'm exasperated with PB and their horrendous service.
All my credit is tied up in machine's 1 and 2 and I'm so fed up of trying to get any sense out of anyone at PB.
How they manage to run a company I just don't know. I would definitely NOT recommend this company to anyone. Maybe I've just been unlucky with the machines, but if the customer service back up was there then I wouldn't be commenting here.
Think long and hard before using Pitney Bowes - needless to say I won't be using their service once contract expires, I'd rather go back to standing in post offices for stamps - all less stressful!
Well Joshob..........I am not a happy customer of Pitney Bowes having dealt with them for about 9 years. I find their customer service to be off hand, arrogant , condescending and ineffective.
What they charge for ink is outrageous.
When you have a problem they refuse to assist.
When you call they will say they will ring back and then do not - problems go unsorted for weeks and it takes many phone calls to get anything done.
After 9 years with them I am so frusrated that I am looking at finding another provider.
i am a sales rep for pitney bowes, all my customers are very happy with their machines, i work in telesales. I give my customers STRICT instructions to call MYSELF only (not customer service, i am on a non-premium rate number), to aviod unnecessary charges listen to what we tell you. Dont top up £10 everyday top up as much as u can. the top up fee is the same regurdless if you put £10 or £1000. also dont pay fees late then you wont have charges. if one of my customers has an incorrect invoice i can sort that out with one email or phone call. so my point is stay friendly with your sales rep and they can sort out any problem in a matter of minutes. sometimes machines take a long time to get collect which has nothing to do with pitney bowes, why would the company leave a machine just sitting in your office, not making the company money. we want them back to give to other customers. It is UPS and DHL that collect and deliever.
Also to the person who said we charge high postal prices, it IS CHEAPER than stamps and ROYAL MAIL arrange the prices not pitney bowes. IF you think its to expensive deliver them your self.
so basically listen to advice from your sales rep, they will help you, we dont get paid for every machine that goes out, its based on the ones that stick and are happy, the sales rep will advise you on the most cost effective way of using the machine.
One of the worst companies I have had dealings with. We was offered a machine on a 30 days free trial and decided after one day of using it, it was far too slow. I was told to phone back next week?!
They seem to charge for everything, re-crediting fees, very expensive ink costs and terrible customer services I Was on hold for 10 minutes on an 0870 number, when I finally got to speak to someone I was told it was not their department. It was so frustrating.
I would avoid this company at all costs, and please before you sign anything read their terms and conditions!!!! Or you may regret it!
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Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
Why is this UK franking machine cartel allowed to exist in any case. I shall be making a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading
We terminated a contract with them in January and they picked up the machine some days later (Fortunately we kept the receipt of collection). Since then we have been plagued by request for payment for rental for a period after the machine was collected. There customer service team admit the mistake is there and keep issuing us with reference numbers to say they will sort it out.
Topday we received a letter telling us they intended taking us to court for non payment
please think very carefully if you would like to sign contract with pitney bowes!!!!
Be very aware
SmartyPants at 5th Apr 2010, 05:05PM
Trying to sort out the problem took more phone calls than I care to remember and it was months before it was sorted.
The hidden charges were a bit of a shock to a small company (1 person) like mine. Yes I'm guilty of not reading all the small print but all that was needed was the person whom I asked "are there any other charges that I should be aware of" to have told me, yes every time you put credit on your machine you are charged £6.75 per transation. Luckily I did get the charges back and put on the whole amount for a year.
However that was only a minor thing compared to:
1) Putting an incorrect name on the paperwork
2) Trial Franking Machine never worked properly from day one and the frank die was not set up on any of the machines.
3) Called more times than care to remember, took weeks to get cleaning instructions, ended up buying expensive ink, which STILL didn't solve the problem
4) In summer 2009 asked for a replacement franking machine and set up Direct Debit in Sept for payments
5) New machine never arrived told I had to buy new ink at about £97! Eventually after more phone calls and emails received machine in October.
6) Still have ink left over from 1st machine, as 2nd machine is a different one I can't use the ink!
7) Direct Debit was never set up.... started to receive letters for outstanding amounts. Contacted PB on numerous occassions to try to sort out their error. Finally PB sorted out DD in December - during all that time I was receiving letters threatening legal action!!! More phone calls and eventually, eventually, someone actually apologised and said it was their error. But not before I was made to feel very belittled and spoken down to.
8) Second franking machine set up, but postage credit isn't automatically transferred, so had to pay out for more postage! A few weeks after installation machine shows a fatal error - so rang PB who have sent out a 3rd franking machine.
9) Installed 3rd Franking Machine today and guess what - it doesn't work.
Sorry I know this is long winded but I'm exasperated with PB and their horrendous service.
All my credit is tied up in machine's 1 and 2 and I'm so fed up of trying to get any sense out of anyone at PB.
How they manage to run a company I just don't know. I would definitely NOT recommend this company to anyone. Maybe I've just been unlucky with the machines, but if the customer service back up was there then I wouldn't be commenting here.
Think long and hard before using Pitney Bowes - needless to say I won't be using their service once contract expires, I'd rather go back to standing in post offices for stamps - all less stressful!
What they charge for ink is outrageous.
When you have a problem they refuse to assist.
When you call they will say they will ring back and then do not - problems go unsorted for weeks and it takes many phone calls to get anything done.
After 9 years with them I am so frusrated that I am looking at finding another provider.
Also to the person who said we charge high postal prices, it IS CHEAPER than stamps and ROYAL MAIL arrange the prices not pitney bowes. IF you think its to expensive deliver them your self.
so basically listen to advice from your sales rep, they will help you, we dont get paid for every machine that goes out, its based on the ones that stick and are happy, the sales rep will advise you on the most cost effective way of using the machine.
They seem to charge for everything, re-crediting fees, very expensive ink costs and terrible customer services I Was on hold for 10 minutes on an 0870 number, when I finally got to speak to someone I was told it was not their department. It was so frustrating.
I would avoid this company at all costs, and please before you sign anything read their terms and conditions!!!! Or you may regret it!
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