J. A. Powell, Jr.
In the last column, I wrote that one day we will have a new system for putting postage on envelopes. Well, that day has arrived. There are now two companies that are offering a system to print postage with your printer. One company uses a little gadget that plugs into the printer port of the computer and stores the postage. The other company stores the postage on its server and the postage is downloaded over the internet as it is needed. The advantage of the first system is that the postage is always available even when there is no internet connection. The advantage of the second is that multiple computers can share the same account.
I signed up with the second company, Stamps.com because it did not require any up-front money other than the cost of the postage. I went to their web site, www.stamps.com, and downloaded the software. After installing the software, I had to fill out an application to get a Post Office meter license. That is sent to the Post Office via the Internet for approval. They apparently do not do a thorough check because I was approved. Being the brave soul that I am, I bought $25.00 worth of postage using a credit card. They charge 10% of the postage up to $19.95 per month as a fee. As a new customer, they gave me an additional $25.00 of postage _ an unexpected bonus. I was now ready to print my first envelope.
From within WordPerfect, I called up a letter and pressed the Stamps.com icon on the tool bar. The software immediately searched for and found the address in the letter and requested a password. I typed in the password and a dialog box opened with the address shown in a window. The software requires that the class of postage be entered. In this case I checked the "first class" box and pressed the print button. The software went to the Internet and checked the address and made corrections to the address before printing the postage on an envelope.
This system can print postage for first class, priority and express delivery, certified mail and return-receipt. It uses Avery labels to print postage for packages. A scale can be attached to the computer to weigh the mail. If you misprint postage, Stamps.com will credit your account. The software keeps a log of your postage usage on your computer showing the person to whom it was delivered and the amount of the postage.
A common postage meter must be taken to the Post Office on a regular basis for them to check for tampering. With the new system, an empty envelope is sent to Stamp.com once or twice a year to verify that the system is ok.
The only shortcoming I have found so far is printing postage for certified mail. You must print the extra postage on a label and paste it below the postage printed on the envelope. Stamps.com says that this is a Post Office requirement but they are trying to get them to change that rule.
I have all of my staffs' computers configured to print postage from their desk using the same account. They have been using the new system for about 10 days now and in the next article I will report on their comments. The old postage meter may be headed for the scrap heap.
I have noticed that lawyers are the only group of professionals that do not use pagers. They were the first to use cell phones, email, fax machines and other electronic gadgets, but not pagers. I contemplated the reason for this and I believe that I have an answer. Lawyers like to talk. We are paid to talk or at least communicate in some manner. Pagers by and large send us messages but do not let us talk back ... until now.
A few weeks ago, I was down at Disney World having every penny systematically removed from my wallet when I noticed a young lady using what looked like a pager. The only difference was that it was open up like a tiny laptop computer and she was typing into it. Being nosey, I asked her what it was. It turned out that she was a company rep for Skytel and she was using their newest toy, a two way email pager. The pager receives messages sent by anyone using ordinary email. The pager also send messages to anyone with an email address.
Now for the cool part. If you need to send a message to someone that does not have email, it can dial a phone number and read your message over the phone using a computer generated voice.
The cost for the pager and the monthly service is about the same as for a cell phone. This maybe the perfect pager for a lawyer. Check this out at www.skytel.com.
If you did not go to the seminar put on by the local paralegal association you not only missed out on 5 CLE hours that you did not have to travel to get, but you also missed out on a tremendously fascinating lecture I gave about the internet. I told the attendees about some of the internet resources that can make our lives easier. For instance, did you know that you can find the name of any insurance company on one web site?
If you would like to get a lists of the web sites discussed at the seminar, just send me an email with "Paralegal Seminar" in the subject line and my computer will automatically send the list to you.