A Beginning

For a long time I have been a fan of Earth Class Mail and their excellent service. However, I was shocked last month to learn of their massive and outrageous price hike which they are forcing on not only new customers, but the loyal customers who helped establish the company in the beginning.

Earth Class Mail = No Class Mail for their despicable treatment of loyal customers in such an outrageous manner. Founder, Ron Wiener throws his loyal customers to the wolves, perhaps in order to finance his Bonanza B36TC?

Raise prices fine, but at least grandfather in those of us who helped you get established at a reasonable rate!

Are there other disillusioned Earth Class Mail customers out there?

UPDATE 8/24/2009: I've heard from Earth Class Mail former CEO Ron Wiener who seems to be the same decent person that we all saw in the "StartUp Junkies" show. The price increase was not his fault, nor did he have any input. Re: the price hike, he has tweeted to me:

Let's just say that it is not consistent with my own business philosophy, so it is shameful to see my personal rep sullied by it.

That's reasonable, right? See below for another posting dedicated to Ron. And since he is not to blame, who is? The VCs and Earth Class Mail COO, Sarah Carr:

The Truth About Earth Class Mail's Pricing

On August 24, 2010, Sarah G. Carr posted a blog entry on Earth Class Mail's site filled with half truths, deceit, and downright lies.

That blog entry can be read here.

The majority of the lies appear in the chart that Carr displays stating Earth Class Mail's competitors information and prices. Carr displays the chart with this caveat:

The chart below shows the entry-level plans of some of our competitors – please check their sites directly for the most recent information and other plans they may offer.

This is ironic because clearly Carr and her staff didn't even bother to go to the competitors sites themselves to check the most recent information! Either that, or the lies in the chart are particularly bold and brazen. This blog posting that you're reading is being done a mere three days after Carr's blog posting. Could it really be that riddled with "mistakes" that quickly? Doubtful. More likely, Carr and Earth Class Mail are deliberately trying to mislead and deceive potential customers.

In the past, we've seen how Earth Class Mail cowardly "revised" (ie: deleted) Wikipedia's chart that displayed their competitors information. Just so the same thing doesn't happen with their own blog posting, here is a full copy of their chart exactly as Sarah Carr posted it on August 24, 2010 (click on it for a full view):



Let's start with Earth Class Mail's own pricing. Carr claims it's "The Truth" in the title of her posting. Yet, on the chart, it's $19.99, when in reality on the site if you sign up, it's $19.95. Initial commitment shows $44.95. It doesn't even match. Wrong pricing and calculation. The CEO can't even do the math properly! Given that, how can Sarah Carr even run a business well? Lehigh should be ashamed of her.

Also, if you really do take the time to check the other services prices, you'll see that the commitment is wrong on many of them. As one example, Virtual Postal Mail doesn't have a $29.97 commitment....but Sarah Carr's chart says that they do! Initial commitment would only be $5 for the first month. I wonder how the people at Virtual Postal Mail feel about being misrepresented by Sarah Carr and Earth Class Mail? Sarah Carr is wrongfully representing other services information to make Earth Class Mail's prices look good! Despicable.

As for Bongo, it's $45 (3 months x $15), not $50. Again, completely inaccurate and totally misleading on the part of Sarah G. Carr.

My US Postbox has an 800 live toll free support, which Carr failed to mention.

USA2Me has a local will-call service which Carr conveniently chose not to mention in the comparison.

Carr touts "live toll free support," for Earth Class Mail. Most (though not all)of the other companies listed do offer live phone support, just not with a toll free number. The way Carr presents it, she makes it sound like the other companies don't offer any live support at all. It's extremely misleading and shady. The entire chart is inaccurate and misleading. It's basically false advertising.

The bottom line? Earth Class Mail STILL cannot be trusted, STILL have betrayed loyal customers, and STILL are a company to stay away from. This false advertising at the expense of their competitors is shameful.

People seeking a service, should still run to any of the Earth Class Mail alternatives, and research them individually, rather than relying on Earth Class Mail, Sarah Carr, and her deceitful chart.

A list of Earth Class Mail alternatives can be found here.

Laughable Quote from the Heinous Sarah Carr

"When I am figuring out how to make a business successful, I start with the customers that are most loyal to us." - Sarah G. Carr

Carr is either a liar, a bad business woman, or both! The above, laughable quotation is taken from an article in Xconomy Seattle published this week. Carr's despicable treatment of loyal customers of Earth Class Mail shows that she is either baldy delusional given the above quote, or she's an outright liar, but most likely a combination of the two.

Sarah, if you'd like a hint about how to make your business successful, here's a little advice: don't blindside your loyal customers with a massive price hike of over 100%. Your actions, and your delusional interview, remain reprehensible. Lehigh should be ashamed.

Another question: how did such a quote get by Jen Gehrt, the PR Queen who concocts the Earth Class Mail Kool Aid?

Also Sarah has gone and bleached her hair! At least she's no longer smiling.

Mike Simmons’s Posterous - Earthclass mail's epic fail. Please stop the madness!

A big salute to a fellow unhappy Earth Class Mail Customer who was betrayed by the company!

Mike Simmons has written an open letter to Earth Class Mail CEO Sarah Carr, and it can be seen on his site by clicking here.

Thank you Mike! Also, based on Mike's twitter feed, it seems that he was treated with indifference by Earth Class Mail customer support. Earth Class Mail's vile mistreatment of customers continues.

Thanks for keeping us posted Mike!

Check Deposit Warning

Peeps, just a quick word of warning. As many of you know by know, Earth Class Mail betrayed their loyal customers with a massive price -- in many cases, a hike of over 100% of what their loyal customers were paying when they signed up for the service.

These days, Earth Class Mail is trying to pimp a check depositing service, for which surrendering your bank account information will be necessary.

Needless to say, if Earth Class Mail could not be trusted to fairly treat their loyal customers -- who helped the company get started -- then they certainly should not be trusted with any matters of money, banks, or checks.

Property owners in particular, should beware of this new scam on the part of Earth Class Mail.

Word from Sarah Carr !!

It's about time.

I've heard from another Earth Class Mail user who feels betrayed by their outrageous price increase. While Earth Class Mail President and COO Sarah Carr has been too cowardly to post to Twitter or comment to this Blog about Earth Class Mail's vile price hike on loyal users, you can imagine my amazement to learn that she replied directly to one of the loyal users she betrayed. That user contacted Earth Class Mail directly about ECM's reprehensible actions, and received a reply from none other than Sarah G. Carr herself.

Here are some choice words, straight from Sarah Carr:

Thank you for being a loyal customer of ECM. I am sorry that the price increase is causing you to reconsider continuing your service.

Come on Sarah, are you really "sorry" that loyal customers are reconsidering? With a price increase of over 100%, what did you expect?! And if you you really want to thank loyal customers of ECM, you would grandfather them in at a reasonable price. Actions are louder than words. They should have taught you that even way back at Lehigh. Carr continues:

Unfortunately we cannot continue to serve our customer base at the size it is without raising our prices.

Funny, here is a whole list of alternative online postal mail services which offer their services at sometimes half of what you now do! So clearly it is possible.

Our cost to serve our customers is out of line with our current pricing and we need to bring them more in line.

Unfortunately we cannot grandfather our existing customer base, as we could not maintain that base at current pricing and stay viable.

Well, that's the heart of it all right there. Fine. But why then did Earth Class Mail allow users - and worse - encourage users, to change all our addresses over to Earth Class Mail? You sell us the service at one price, then lock us in by having us change all our addresses over to your service, and then you brazenly more than double your prices? Is that even legal?

Again, you have this great concern about staying "viable," but St. Brendan's Isle, Bongous, My RV Mail, Paperlessmail, UK Postbox, Private Box, Virtual Postal Mail and Zumbox all seem to be viable companies without shafting over loyal customers. Earth Class Mail stands alone at having betrayed the trust of their loyal customers and raising prices on them over 100%.

I hope that you will continue to value our service and stay with us, but I also understand that you may no longer see the value in our new pricing plans.

You MUST be kidding. What did they teach you at Lehigh? Actions speak louder than words and any "hope" you have would be far better placed in being reasonable with your loyal customers. We valued your service tremendously at the prices we originally signed up with. We valued it still when - at Earth Class Mail's encouragement - we changed all of our addresses over to our Earth Class Mail addresses. We stopped valuing your service when you indecently raised prices on us over 100%. Your actions are reprehensible, so yes, you had better believe that we "no longer see the value" in your new pricing plans.

Sarah G. Carr, you should be ashamed of yourself and the way that you have mistreated and misled the loyal customers who helped Earth Class Mail get started. You remain a fine example of what's wrong with corporate America and how not to treat customers.

Chris Anderson's "Free" - A Solution for Earth Class Mail?

Earth Class Mail have betrayed their loyal customers with a massive price hike of over 100%. This is obvious and has been well established.

Chris Anderson, the editor of the exceptional publication, "Wired" has written a New York Times best seller called, "Free: The Future of a Radical Price" - addressing the Freemium economics that technology has helped accelerate (and which clearly no one at Earth Class Mail has paid any attention to). One of the Freemium Economics models could perhaps rescue Earth Class Mail from their price hike scandal.

So, Sarah Carr et al, how about it? Give us loyal individual customers a break, and charge the companies and businesses that want to use your service and need all of the extra features? We've all lost a tremendous amount of faith in you, but here is a chance to make this right.

Sarah Carr and Earth Class Mail VCs, I challenge you. You can of course buy a copy of "Free" and read it that way, or you can preview it below. Also, the audio book is available complete and unabridged entirely for free, here at iTunes - put that in your iPod Sarah Carr!

It's a bit of a lost cause on my part, I know... but I just wish Sarah Carr would get with the times and learn how to treat customers properly. Instead of moving Earth Class Mail backwards, move it forwards into the future....and treat your loyal customers with the respect they deserve: