5 ms·

The bandwidth question has already been asked, but my next question is, what do you put as your permanent address for mail? Since you run a company, I assume y

by mey 17y ago

The bandwidth question has already been asked, but my next question is, what do you put as your permanent address for mail? Since you run a company, I assume your are sending everything to your lawyer or other service. Any suggestions or tips on that front?

callmeed 17y ago
Check out http://www.earthclassmail.com http://www.earthclassmail.com
- SwellJoe 17y ago
  According to reviews Earth Class Mail is among the worst of these services (though they have better web design and better PR). PaperlessMail.com and sbimailservice.com are better reviewed, and the prices end up being a lot lower. I don't have enough experience to say what is best, or whether Earth Class Mail deserves its bad reputation, but I did spend a lot of time reading up on it, since it's pretty important that mail works right for me to be able to keep running Virtualmin.
SwellJoe 17y ago
This is both simpler, and more complicated than you'd think. It is simpler, because there are a number of really good services that will accept mail on your behalf. I chose St. Brendan's Isle, and I pay less than $20 per month for all of my names (I get mail to both Joe and Ronald) and my business name. They scan the covers of all non-junk mail, and I can then request scans of the contents of the mail or physical forwarding (for a small per-piece fee). The fact that they'll simply recycle any junk mail I get, automatically, makes me wish I'd always used a service like this. I hate junk mail and I hate paper, so having everything shredded or digitized and never having paper except for what I explicitly ask for, is miraculous. And it's more complicated than you'd think because the postal service requires a notarized form, along with multiple forms of ID (and those forms of ID beyond drivers license are strange, and I only had one of them, so it was a close call) in order to permit someone to open your mail. So you have to file a form for every name and business name that receives mail at the forwarding service. My primary line of defense is to simply not get mail. I've switched to paperless statements from my bank and credit cards, I already had all of my other services setup with automatic withdrawal and such (and have canceled a lot of them). Even so, California still sends me crap all the time about payroll taxes and such. There will be other issues. I need to read up on operating in California now that our address is in Florida. Jamie is still in California, and will remain a CA resident (while I'll be claiming Florida as my home this year, for no state income tax and lower vehicle registration fees). I don't know what we'll do about our various taxes for the business. We're a Delaware corporation, so that stays the same...but how we interact with California might change. I'll figure it out soon. Another complication is that my new address is in a town I've never visited and in a state I haven't been to since I was a kid. I'll have to visit Florida at some point to register my RV and get my FL drivers license and voter registration. I should go visit the Wufoos, anyway, so this isn't a major hardship. But, it feels a little weird telling people my address and using it for billing address and such.
- fortes 17y ago
  I've been using EarthClassMail for two years now. It's worked for my needs (serves as a registered address for business as well), but it's quite expensive and the web UI sucks. I'd love to hear more about your experience with St. Brendan's. How is the scanning? Does it work for all your business needs (registered address, etc). Any tips? My parents live in Florida, so that could make residency there easier as well.
- lancebt 17y ago
  Some very very unhappy customer of Earth Class Mail put up a blog about their awful customer service. He listed some alternatives for viewing and managing postal mail online at his site: http://unhappyecmcustomer.blogspot.com/2009/09/earth-class-mail-alternatives-part-2.html http://unhappyecmcustomer.blogspot.com/2009/09/earth-class-m... St Brendan's Isle is on there, as are some other ones like Virtual Post Mail, Paperlessmail, and US Global Mail. It's definitely good to check out the different services. Everyone appears to be in different states so they may offer something that may fit your usage. For example, Virtual Post Mail is located in California and from what I read, they also provide Registered Agent services for CA corps and llcs. That's something to consider if you're looking to setup a corporate presence in the State. On a related note, if you do hire people reside in that state or supposedly do business in that state such as having a warehouse there or something, then you normally would need to register your corporation (delaware in this case) as a foreign corp in that state. So then, you end up paying basically two annual fees. Imagine what Microsoft has to pay every year. :)

by mey 17y ago

callmeed 17y ago

Check out http://www.earthclassmail.com http://www.earthclassmail.com

SwellJoe 17y ago
According to reviews Earth Class Mail is among the worst of these services (though they have better web design and better PR). PaperlessMail.com and sbimailservice.com are better reviewed, and the prices end up being a lot lower. I don't have enough experience to say what is best, or whether Earth Class Mail deserves its bad reputation, but I did spend a lot of time reading up on it, since it's pretty important that mail works right for me to be able to keep running Virtualmin.

SwellJoe 17y ago

This is both simpler, and more complicated than you'd think. It is simpler, because there are a number of really good services that will accept mail on your behalf. I chose St. Brendan's Isle, and I pay less than $20 per month for all of my names (I get mail to both Joe and Ronald) and my business name. They scan the covers of all non-junk mail, and I can then request scans of the contents of the mail or physical forwarding (for a small per-piece fee). The fact that they'll simply recycle any junk mail I get, automatically, makes me wish I'd always used a service like this. I hate junk mail and I hate paper, so having everything shredded or digitized and never having paper except for what I explicitly ask for, is miraculous. And it's more complicated than you'd think because the postal service requires a notarized form, along with multiple forms of ID (and those forms of ID beyond drivers license are strange, and I only had one of them, so it was a close call) in order to permit someone to open your mail. So you have to file a form for every name and business name that receives mail at the forwarding service. My primary line of defense is to simply not get mail. I've switched to paperless statements from my bank and credit cards, I already had all of my other services setup with automatic withdrawal and such (and have canceled a lot of them). Even so, California still sends me crap all the time about payroll taxes and such. There will be other issues. I need to read up on operating in California now that our address is in Florida. Jamie is still in California, and will remain a CA resident (while I'll be claiming Florida as my home this year, for no state income tax and lower vehicle registration fees). I don't know what we'll do about our various taxes for the business. We're a Delaware corporation, so that stays the same...but how we interact with California might change. I'll figure it out soon. Another complication is that my new address is in a town I've never visited and in a state I haven't been to since I was a kid. I'll have to visit Florida at some point to register my RV and get my FL drivers license and voter registration. I should go visit the Wufoos, anyway, so this isn't a major hardship. But, it feels a little weird telling people my address and using it for billing address and such.

fortes 17y ago
I've been using EarthClassMail for two years now. It's worked for my needs (serves as a registered address for business as well), but it's quite expensive and the web UI sucks. I'd love to hear more about your experience with St. Brendan's. How is the scanning? Does it work for all your business needs (registered address, etc). Any tips? My parents live in Florida, so that could make residency there easier as well.
lancebt 17y ago
Some very very unhappy customer of Earth Class Mail put up a blog about their awful customer service. He listed some alternatives for viewing and managing postal mail online at his site: http://unhappyecmcustomer.blogspot.com/2009/09/earth-class-mail-alternatives-part-2.html http://unhappyecmcustomer.blogspot.com/2009/09/earth-class-m... St Brendan's Isle is on there, as are some other ones like Virtual Post Mail, Paperlessmail, and US Global Mail. It's definitely good to check out the different services. Everyone appears to be in different states so they may offer something that may fit your usage. For example, Virtual Post Mail is located in California and from what I read, they also provide Registered Agent services for CA corps and llcs. That's something to consider if you're looking to setup a corporate presence in the State. On a related note, if you do hire people reside in that state or supposedly do business in that state such as having a warehouse there or something, then you normally would need to register your corporation (delaware in this case) as a foreign corp in that state. So then, you end up paying basically two annual fees. Imagine what Microsoft has to pay every year. :)