The box cost me about $150 to rent for 15 months and I only had to pay the actual postage on the mail they sent me; I was never charged for any other services.

I have a different arrangement this year because my traveling style has changed, but my experience with the UPS store mail management style was positive and I would explore it again in the future if I needed to. It really suited the realities of my lifestyle.

I just wanted to clarify something that can be confusing. There $1.50 charge is per item, not per page.

One of the shortcomings of the previous scanning method is that we had to scan the entire contents, and we counted by page. We still scan the entire contents, but customers no longer have to count or ration pages.

The shredding fee is optional, and most customers avoid it completely by using our secure recycling. Our recycling is not like home recycling where you leave it out on the curb. It is put and delivered in a locked container directly to be destroyed.

When looking around and different mail forwarding service, we encourage people to evaluate the several key aspects of a good service:

Features
Address network
User friendliness
Expertise
Credibility
Customer Service
Security

We believe we are the best in all these key areas and offer the best value in the industry.

I’m now trying Paperlessmail.com and, so far, I’m not impressed with anything but the price. The web site is fairly pathetic and I did not get email notifications on the received mail (although the scans are in the repository). I emailed them about the problem but it’s been three days and I have no reply.

I trust this company’s employees much more than I would trust a postal worker, secretarial service, or a neighbor or employee to open and scan my mail. Check out the “security” section of their website, they are rather innovative about how they protect their customers’ confidentiality, like Swiss bankers.

Netflix and newspapers are not a problem because you’re in control of what mailers have your Earth Class Mail address (I use one on Park Avenue in New York that they introduced last year, which boosted my consulting image which emboldened me to raise my rates to more than cover the cost of the service!); everything else you want to continue to come to your home continues to come to your home. I don’t send my news rags and magazines to earth class when I travel, I just put my residential mail on hold with the usps.

Environmentally I have a smaller carbon footprint since I’ve used this service because a) they recycle or shred and then recycle all of the mail I either discard unopened or discard after scanning. If I have to be honest I probably only recycled a small percentage of my mail before, and I never shredded many things that I should have (I would just bundle them into trash bags with rotting tomatoes as a security measure, but then they didn’t get recycled). Also, it takes less fuel to deliver all the mail in bulk to one of their processing centers as for a carrier to drive to my suburban home every day, where I’d rarely be home anyway.

I’ve tracked this company through the TV show and other press they’ve gotten (like Forbes.com that just did a story on them last week, I just found by googling) and they have launched their service now through some European post offices, who have much higher privacy standards than we Americans have (including, yes, the Swiss!). That’s a huge vote of confidence for me. I plan to stay with the service for the rest of my life. I’ve moved twice since I started with them and neither time did I have to go through the frustration of filing change of address notices with 50 companies and all my friends.

Like my cell phone and my gmail address I intend to keep my earth class mail address for as long as paper keeps trying to find me. I tried going 100% paperless when I moved overseas before this service wa saround. Let me tell you, it’s not possible yet. Unless you live a debt-free, spending-free, tax-free life (and god luv ya if you do!) too many things I need to get are not yet available any other way. I learned that lesson the hard way on previous expat assignments.

Sorry for the long note. I’m rather passionate about this company, their environmental impact, and above all, their customer service which I’ve had to use just twice but they were quick, polite, and solved my problem without hassle both times. They’ve removed one of the highest stresses I had as an international consultant who often has to take off on short notice for an unknown period of time. Mail was always my biggest headache, being single and with no one to slough it off on while I’m gone. I meet a lot of expats in my line of work and I always tell them about it and they always sign up the next day because they’ve all lived with this problem as I have. It’s not for homebodies, but if you move around like I do, it’s a life saver.

I also would worry about security. I’m paranoid about my mail ever since a valuable package I mailed was stolen while still within the USPS system.

Also: Julie (6th comment down) has some excellent tips for reducing your mail. Kudos, Julie!

You don’t have to direct them to automatically shred/recycle Grandma’s birthday card. You can have the things you want to have in hand redirected (mailed to your real physical mailbox) at additional cost. Remember, if they’re scanning the outside, you can tell the difference between another credit card offer and your grandma’s handwritten envelope.

This is a very useful thing for anyone who wants to keep their personal and business matters separate. In my case, my grandma knows where I live, so she would mail her card directly to me, anyway.

I understand that this service isn’t for everyone, but some of the complaints don’t make sense to me because I’ve been using the service, and as Sue pointed out, the website covers all of this. I’m not saying that the commenters should use the service, just that their stated complaints are not the best reasons not to use the service. (With the exception of those who said they didn’t want to spend the monthly fee. That part is accurate and very relevant to a lot of people!)