From Software Informer
Stamps.com is a Los Angeles, California-based company that provides Internet-based mailing and shipping services. Stamps.com is a public company and trades on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol STMP.
In April 13, 1998, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) and the E-Stamp Corporation unveiled for beta testing the E-Stamp Internet postage system, aimed at providing digitally encoded postage franks or stamps via the Internet.
Although E-Stamp was the first company to get USPS approval for beta testing and successfully brought E-stamps to market, the company did not survive the bursting of the dot-com bubble in 2000. In 2001 its domain and patents were bought by a fellow early entrant in the digital postage market, Stamps.com.
At the launch in 1998, the Postmaster General at that time, Marvin T. Runyon, articulated his vision of postage being "available, on call, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." In the fall of 2003 the likelihood of this improved when Microsoft released a beta version of its office productivity suite of programs, which includes an electronic postage capacity, through Stamps.com.
The likely impact of electronic stamps is reflected in the tenacity with which Pitney Bowes corporation, which dominates the worldwide franking and mailing machine industry, pursued legal suits claiming infringement of patents almost from the day of the E-Stamp launch.
In August 10, 2004, Stamps.com introduced PhotoStamps. This service allows computer users to upload their own photos or graphics, which Stamps.com then prints on custom postage stamps. This had been preceded by Stamps.com having various pictures on its E-stamps, including U.S. presidents Jefferson, Kennedy, Lincoln, TR and Washington, people playing various sports, and world landmarks.[1]
Stamps.com was featured on the April 29, 2007 episode of the HBO original series "Entourage."
Stamps.com is periodically cited by users for what can be perceived as aggressive billing practices. For example, many users object to it's practice of signing up users for "free trials" and subsequently charging their credit cards without notice at the end of the trial period. While the company allows users to sign-up online and delivers a service that is based on the premise of the internet as a viable medium for business, it does not allow users to cancel accounts online for alleged security concerns. Many users complain of long waits and dropped calls when trying to cancel accounts through the customer service call-in number. The customer service number is open from 6AM to 6PM PST.
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