iPostal is a provider of remote mail management, virtual mailbox services, and document scanning services with a network of over 2,750 physical mailbox providers located around the United States, Canada, and Europe. iPostal1 advertises that they allow customers to receive mail and packages from any carrier, including USPS, FedEx, and UPS.

iPostal1 officially offers a variety of services, including mail and package forwarding to any address, mail scanning, and a client mail management dashboard where you can preview what’s in your virtual PO box. You’ll get to claim a real, physical address for all your mailing purposes, and you can even have checks deposited by mail to your bank while you’re away.

Or so iPostal1 says, anyway.

Because, as I’ve learned, after you sign up for their services, what you can expect to receive vs. what you have signed up for can be vastly different. It’s a reason why I have an open complaint with the BBB with iPostal1 at this very moment.

But before you make any buying decisions for yourself, you should at least hear my story first. After all, it might interest you that the actual physical provider of mail and shipping services to which my account was assigned in NW Florida actually outright refused to fulfill one of iPostal’s listed services, and then went totally silent when asked about it.

The really sad part about it: it dealt with a much-needed paycheck to deposit that was dangerously close to eliminating my buffer from absolute dire financial straits.

How about I just show you the proof.

My Experience With iPostal1: a Customer Review

And as of right now, iPostal has taken 10 days with this issue and has never once gotten back to me like they said they would have. I’m starting to see a pattern here with customer service in general these days. Just tell the customer to go away and someone will contact them by the end of the day.

But no one ever does.

As of today’s writing, it’s October 5th, a full 8 days later from my initial follow-up by email, and one to which no one from iPostal1 responded, and 10 days after the initial issue was reported to their customer support team.

Here’s what Maria had to say to me today:

For perspective, let me start off with my brief experience with remote mail management and virtual mailbox services before through other providers who promised everything that iPostal1 does, but actually delivered on all or most of them consistently.

The first service I used was called Earth Class Mail (ECM), recommended by some entrepeneurs I was doing some internet marketing with at the time, and the author of “The 4-Hour Workweek,” a book by successful internet businesman Tim Ferriss.

Earth Class Mail: My First Virtual Mailbox Experience

ECM was pretty fantastic– but only at first. The first couple of years with them were truly golden. I was traveling around the western United States, camping out under the stars with my SUV parked nearby in any given National Forest you can imagine in that part of the country, and running a successful online business.

I was able to do all my official mail correspondence, check deposits, package forwarding, and document scanning/processing at a reasonable fee, and it was always reliable. Additionally, what you saw is what you got, regarding what you signed up for and what options you could select in your client dashboard.

No miscommunications. No run-arounds. No deceptions.

Just pure, hard, mail management at a 5-star level.

And no complaints.

After three or four years with Earth Class Mail, I got an email from their female CEO, or someone claiming to be really high up in their company, that notified me that they’d be raising their monthly prices. It was kind of a disappointment and a shock, but what was worse was the underhanded way in which it was sold as a benefit to us, the customers.

The tone-deaf “We’re so glad you understand and you’re happy with our services” arrogance was enough to make me cancel a month later and after several years of loyal patronage, I just don’t want to do business with phonies or someone who can’t just own up to things, or pretends that no one would have any objections, or consider using a free market alternative.

Canceling Earth Class Mail 4 Years Later and Seeking a New Remote Mailbox Provider

A year passed and I figured it was time to get another of these services. It turns out you can buy a pair of Levi ‘s jeans on Amazon.com and have it shipped to South Korea and it’s still cheaper than buying a pair of Levi’s there. Same goes for Nike running shoes. Anyway.

I found a new mailing service. I can’t remember their name, nor do I care to remember. All I know is it was based on the west side of Houston, TX. During their onboarding and orientation, done remotely by Zoom meeting, while I was in Kyoto, Japan, their very diverse company representative got defensive and asked me in a hostile what I had said as if I had misspoke and offended her somehow.

After you’ve gone through all the trouble of setting everything up and getting the identify confirmation meeting set up for remote meeting, it’s difficult to tell a rude customer service rep off and pursue another option- and boy do they know it. Just like the folks at the DMV.

And as always, just as diverse too.

So I got through the Zoom meeting and got things set up. I only did a few shipments with them, one to Korea, Russia, and Estonia. But, they got there ok and I was able to retrieve them somehow.

Then, things started to get a little strange. The new company started to send me emails, this time, from the female wife of the CEO or President of the service, can’t remember exactly, claiming that she was the unofficial CEO in a joking manner, and addressing all of us, the peasant customers, in a totally unnecessary chain of emails that reeked of unprofessionalism.

And again, this person was very, very diverse.

I ignored those emails, put them in spam or just blocked them, but I got rid of the annoying little voice in my email box, for now at least. A few years later I realized just how horrible they were when I tried to ship a package to Georgia (the country near Turkey and Russia, not the US state) and I never got it. Immediate return to sender.

When I returned to the US and used this same service domestically, I quickly saw how bad the quality of their service had gotten. The FedEx employee had to dig through a box for an unmarked package with no visible name, address, or any other characteristics which turned out to be mine. They clearly were being as lazy as possible and not putting a clearly discernible label on the package. All my packages before had lots of data points so people could identify it quickly and get it into my hands.

Though I can’t prove it, I’m not going to rule out their overall unprofessionalism in contributing to the failure to receive mail in the country of Georgia.

So, I immediately cancelled their service as well.

Present Day with iPostal1 i Digital Mailbox

I was sure I was done, but the prospect of dealing with USPS employees regularly at a physica. PO box was just a little much for me, at this point in my life. I’ve been into the post office lately and their once again super diverse staff do not seem to take a liking to me. That’s another reason I avoid it.

Enter iPostal1.

They offered everything that my previous virtual mailbox providers had and were affordable. Their high A+ rating with the BBB seemed like they were a sure thing. In hindsight, that has turned out to be anything but an accurate representation of reality.

Shipping Services with iPostal1?

The mail service, a UPS store in Florida run entirely by women, thus making it nearly as diverse, was not aware that you could not send a USPS package to FedEx for a customer traveling who needs to receive a shipment. I was, because I have experience in this sort of thing. So, I had to call the actual location and remind them, hopefully to stop the shipment before it got sent out and returned to sender, which would have added unnecessary time.

And so, this place, iPostal’s mailbox contractor, proceeded to tell me that iPostal1 did not alllow them to use FedEx. I later confirmed with iPostal chat support that this was in fact not true.

Anyway, iPostal’s vendor changed their tune after a challenge on my part and sent the package via FedEx. It was proudly rejected by a very divere employee at a customer-facing FedEx site and sent back to the FedEx city hub, which I had to drive all the way across town in order to intercept the package. All this after dealing with a rude, but very diverse, gaslighting foreigner who barely spoke English on the FedEx customer service phone line, and bribing/rewarding the guy $5 to get my package, in direct contradiction to what FedEx’s own customer service rep had told me.

Check Deposit with iPostal1?

I had a paycheck that I needed deposited while I was away on work for several months and my bills were piling up. It showed up in my virtual mailbox, and iPostal1 makes you request a scan in order to deposit the check by mail. It makes sense, so that way the people doing the deposit can see the check and fill out the deposit form.

iPostal1’s vendor did the scan for me. So, I went into my client dashboard on iPostal1.com and selected the option for check deposit, entered my banking info including the address for their check deposits through mail, and paid the $5, figuring that was that.

I was temporarily relieved, because it had not been easy to track down that paycheck from my previous employer, whom I gave two-weeks notice and Murphy USA gave me the run-around.

That relief turned out to be only temporary, as iPostal1’s physical mailbox contractor immediately cancelled my order and said they didn’t deposit checks, as the banks were all on the other side of town in Pensacola, FL over a big bridge. That bridge seemed to be problematic for the mail center staff member, even though the check deposit was supposed to be sent by mail.

I objected via email and asked why they couldn’t, as it was a service that iPostal1 clearly offered and I’d signed up for. I got no response from the person who’d rejected my deposit check request. I asked them if they could help me get that check sent to me once again on the road, but to a place where they would know for sure wouldn’t reject my shipment outright like the last time.

The person sent an email back saying “Will see what I can come up with.”

I didn’t hear anything back and I gave it about 3 business days. In the meantime, I contacted iPostal1 customer support to see if they could intervene.

iPostal Customer Support

iPostal customer support chat agents confirmed that their vendor was supposed to provide check deposit by mail services, and that they’d contact the business and then get in touch with me once things had been resolved. They said 1 – 2 business days.

And, iPostal never got back to me in that time frame. So, I contacted them after 2 business days and got another chat agent. This person, Michael, said he’d annotated my account and someone would get in contact with me by the end of the day from the support team about this support ticket and let me know what was going on.

And again, I heard nothing back from iPostal1.

Each time you get a communication from iPostal1, either their email or representative says something to the effect of “We’re really busy right now because our digital mailboxes are in such high demand. We’re working to add customer support staff.” So it’s another situation where the business has not scaled its operations properly and, to save maximum profit for themselves, they simply say they are busy right now because they’re just so cool, not that terrible at customer service.

iPostal on BBB

iPostal’s 4.25/5 star rating on BBB is surprising, considering all I’ve dealt with. Still don’t have my paycheck or any information on its status. I had to beg and plead with the iPostal mailbox vendor to help a disabled veteran get their paycheck, and they finall got back to me. But I shouldn’t have to do that. I shouldn’t have to get down on my knees and say, “Please help this hard working disabled veteran deposit his paycheck.”

What is the world coming to? The most productive and commerce-friendly shoulder all the burden but get none of the benefit.

And, it would seem that iPostal1’s BBB score is changing regularly, which shows they’re more concerned with losing future business by finally getting around to dealing with unhappy customers but only when there’s some type of visible, negative public consequence. Businesses like this will still make money so long as they keep people around for two or three months for perpetual billing. As long as they see a path to profit on their balance sheet, as long as they bring in more new people every month, they’re making money.

And if no one sees them lying to their customers about literally everything, they’ll just keep on bragging about the size of their network and not delivering. People who can’t do the right thing because it’s right, but consistently deceive you and tell you untrue things so long as they can get away with it, really show their true colors at the end of the day.

So, I filed a complaint on BBB against iPostal1.

And I’ll be updating this review later with the final outcome. But for now, Maria is closing the current chat and the matter is resolved, as far as she is concerned.

Conclusion: iPostal1 Managed Mailbox and Business Registered Agent Services

When all was said and done, iPostal1 eventually got back to me, though a total of three weeks after the initial inquiry. They continued to make excuses and deflect responsibility. At one they offered me a refund paper check sent to my reactivated iPostal1 mailbox at the same place which had been so incompetent the whole time, after I’d already cancelled services.

They are just as I suspected, a digital mailbox company that employees a very diverse, likely foreign staff overseas, with very little real-world experience giving customers and clients what they’re really after.

At the end of the day, iPostal1 refunding me $30 (which they did without my asking, I’d only requested $9.99 refund) was a noble conciliatory gesture, but too little, too late. $30 in no way compensates me for all the stress that I endured, not knowing if I’d be able to cash a very crucial paycheck and worrying several nights if I’d be in a financial situation that most would prefer to avoid.

Now, imagine if you were a digital nomad or business owner traveling the country or overseas like me, and consider if iPostal1 is the right digital mailbox or registered agent service for your business.

It’s bad enough being stranded in the country you’re from. But what if you were in a foreign country, or what if your employees were depending on your ability to competently mail them parcels and documents without resistance and a three-week absence on behalf of iPostal1 in responding?

It just goes to show their initial message of “Sorry, we’re busy because our services are in such high demand!” is just one component in their churn and burn customer acquisition and retention policy.

After all, they just have to dupe three new customers to compensate for what they lost in refunding me, and clearly, that’s what their priorities are anyway.