Review: The Pitney Bowes MailStation

The MailStation, by Pitney Bowes, is the least expensive in their large line of postage meters. If you've ever used postage meters before, you may know that it is currently illegal to own one, and the machines have to be rented. The fees involved in any postage meter will include monthly rental fees, and the MailStation is no exception. The rental fee is 19.99 per month plus tax, plus a small fee each time postage is purchased. This little fee, $5 each time the meter is refilled with postage funds, is buried in the user agreement and is extremely hard to locate on the website. For a user unaware of the fee, it's pretty easy to run up a few hundred dollars in fees without realizing it.

Another thing that Pitney Bowes doesn't publicize about its meter plan is that there is another payment plan available, but you have to ask for it. For $25 a month you can keep the meter and get an unlimited number of refills all for the flat fee. This is an extremely good deal if you can foresee getting more than one refill a month. The website actually suggests getting enough postage at each refill to last for a few months, but for those of us involved in ecommerce it often isn't possible to gauge how much is going to be needed that far into the future. If you do anything more than just letters at the first class rate, it's worthwhile to get the $25 plan.

The MailStation is an extremely convenient device and is definitely worth the fees for people who otherwise had to make regular trips to the post office. However, in addition to the rental fee and refill fees there are also periodic equipment fees that can eat away at your budget. The red fluorescent ink used in the MailStation is only good for about 800 postage labels, requiring the ink cartridge to be replaced. The cartridges are about $46.99 through Pitney Bowes or 44.99 through Office Depot, but compatible cartridge are available on third-party cartridge websites for much cheaper.

Another expense is the labels required to print the postage for packages. If you have a plain envelope, it can be inserted into the machine and postage can be printed directly on it. But I have found that most envelopes, such as the type that come with bills, have a printed square where the postage should be, telling us where to put our postage as if we needed that reminder. So, I end up using a label for just about anything, requiring regular new infusions of postage labels. These are pricey on the Pitney Bowes site as well, but less expensive, MailStation compatible labels can be found on third-party websites as well.

In all, the Pitney Bowes MailStation is extremely useful if you anticipate wasting a lot of time at the post office or spending too much on postage because you aren't sure of the exact postage price due. In either of these cases, the price of the machine is well worth it. However, those who mainly send small items, such as envelopes that could just as easily use a single first class stamp, the costs of the MailStation are likely not worth it.