Postage meter users in Canada have been busy in the past few weeks getting their postage rate schedules updated due to the changed postage pricing announced by Canada Post for January 17, 2011. Users of postage machines had to follow the rate upgrade plan based upon their meter vendor.
For Francotyp-Postalia meter users simply logged onto their online connection to the postage reset service and did what is called a "zero value reset". This permits the service to download the new software and upgrade the rates for all types of postage, including letter, international and parcel rates.
For most users the rate changes will have been part of their monthly or quarterly contract with the vendor, however for some they will have to pay a rate change fee to do the upload of new pricing. This process pricing is established at the time that you set up your meter rental agreement. It is one of the components of postage meter pricing that I find confuses users the most.
For a general description of the components of the agreements which the three manufacturers of postage equipment in Canada charge you can go to our blog post from last year entitled Understanding the Costs of Postage Meters In Canada.
For a simple piece of office equipment the postage meter seems to create more questions about how the pricing is established and what is included in an agreement than almost every other category of office document focused tool. I sometimes wonder if this is intentional?
Do you understand your postage meter agreement? Do you know when your rental agreement expires or do you count on the vendor to manage this for you? Who do you rent from? What has been your experience? Add your comments below..
Lee K
Right Sizing Your Postage Machine
How to make sure you have the right postage meter system for your volume and postage needs?
Photo from Wikipedia under Creative Commons License
