Green Letterbox - your post delivered electronically

MadsL

gctest50 wrote: »

For sure, the amount of businesses that would have loved that to bits back then

Interesting to take guesses at how much you probably held up "progress" by not doing so

They would, it was basically like this.
Check email...no email
Check email...no email
Check email...no email
Check email...no email
Check email...no email
Leave it 3 days...read email that arrived one minute after you last checked it.
Fuck.

Ultimately though it was unsustainable since unless you were using a US BB phone calls (the fax calls) were not free.

gctest50

or a board and an old thermal printer

Phoebas

These services seem to be catching on all over Europe. In Norway this is going to be the default way Norwegians get their official correspondence from next year.

http://postandparcel.info/52140/news/it/norwegian-consumers-to-choose-digital-mailbox-providers/

gctest50

I don't see the point of it , just as easy send email to gc@wherever.com as gc@OrangeMailbox.com

Junk-mail companies involved though so you never can tell

Hownowcow

But what will dogs bark at?

gctest50

Bit like if you have no TV - what do you poin tthe furniture at ?

OU812

This should be an opt out government scheme for all official communications.

Obviously there's a percentage of the community who have no access to email/Internet and who never will but that number will fall signigigentlybover the next decade as the population adjusts.

It would be extremely easy over the space if two years to see who reads communication issued to them in this manner, and eliminate the print & post version of that for them. If it's not read then they continue to get P&P.

It would save a fortune.

Unfortunately I can't see the banks signing up to it as much as people would like them to.

Utility companies, yes. There's definite savings to be made & the information isn't sensitive enough to demand bank security.

It would be useful to get the likes of school communication or extra curricular information through it. Can't always trust the kids to pass it on.

Their business plan probably incorporates a payment gateway also down the line which would enable you to pay the bills you receive through it.

I'd hazard a guess there's no companies sighed up to it yet as they need a critical mass of the public signed up to prove concept. Hopefully in January or so companies will start to come online.

Would be a much bigger deal in the US where people still use PO boxes due to moving around so much.

This is a missed opportunity for an post. They really should have included something like this in their my bills.ie relaunch. But even they can't get all the utility companies on board which is a PITA.

Occam

OU812 wrote: »

I'd hazard a guess there's no companies sighed up to it yet

Would tend to agree. Not much point in divulging information to a marketing company unless there is some immediate benefit.

OU812 wrote: »

This is a missed opportunity for an post.

I'm not sure that it is, can't really see demand for it from the public and from a the companies point of view I can't see the motivation. I would imagine their preference would be to just get everyone on Direct Debit and just use e billing as a way to bring customers to their own platform where they could offer recontract\up sell etc.

OU812

For some reason they're refusing to answer a question I've asked via here, FaceBook & Twitter "Is it possible to download a PDF of the file to my local machine or does it have to live on their server. Which makes me think it's not possible which means the service is useless to me.

Phoebas

OU812 wrote: »

For some reason they're refusing to answer a question I've asked via here, FaceBook & Twitter "Is it possible to download a PDF of the file to my local machine or does it have to live on their server. Which makes me think it's not possible which means the service is useless to me.

This could be one of those very early stage companies that haven't actually built any infrastructure yet and are simply marketing for sign-ups. They don't seem to have any business on board yet.

OU812

I hadn't expected them to have anyone fully signed up yet. I expect they've proposed the idea to many companies & have been asked to have milestone signups & that's what they're currently doing. I've no problem with that.

The functionality of the site indicates that it should be possible to download (or print) a file received, however when I tried it with the welcome message, nothing happened.

It appears that they've chosen to ignore my question & possibly delete it from their Facebook page (I can't find it there). & I have a huge problem with this as if the functionality is not possible, then the site is useless & I don't want my stuff going there.

Annasopra

Elessar wrote: »

Has anyone heard of Green Letterbox? Seems to be a new Irish startup. I caught wind of it through an ad while browsing boards on my phone earlier.

Basically you sign up and any post you normally receive (bills etc.) will all come through your "green letterbox". Essentially it's cloud storage of all your bills, correspondence, tax letters etc. so that they're all in the same place and you can pay your bills through the service aswell. It's 100% free.

I think it's a really neat idea. Sure many companies offer their own online service where you can log on and see/pay bills but this brings them all into the one site (and hopefully catches a few who wouldn't normally). Plus less letters coming through the door. They don't have a list up of what companies have signed up yet thats the only thing.

Pretty cool anyway I think. I've signed up.

*I am not affiliated with this company at all!

Yeah but then you need copies of all that stuff to open bank accounts, set up new bills, prove stuff to social welfare

irishgeo

OU812 wrote: »

I hadn't expected them to have anyone fully signed up yet. I expect they've proposed the idea to many companies & have been asked to have milestone signups & that's what they're currently doing. I've no problem with that.

The functionality of the site indicates that it should be possible to download (or print) a file received, however when I tried it with the welcome message, nothing happened.

It appears that they've chosen to ignore my question & possibly delete it from their Facebook page (I can't find it there). & I have a huge problem with this as if the functionality is not possible, then the site is useless & I don't want my stuff going there.

Can I get a hard copy of the documents in my digital post-box?
Yes. Any document in your digital post-box can be easily printed on your home or work PC. They will look exactly like the document you would have previously received as traditional post.

gctest50

irishgeo wrote: »

Can I get a hard copy of the documents in my digital post-box?
Yes. Any document in your digital post-box can be easily printed on your home or work PC. They will look exactly like the document you would have previously received as traditional post.

Still don't see the point of passing your data through a spam mail company

Macers

Now that a few months have passed I'm wondering if anyone actually signed up or is currently using this?

OU812

I signed up & am waiting. It's all gone a bit too quiet. I think they probably haven't achieved the critical mass to persuade utility companies that they need to switch over to using them.

On the 6th January they answered someone on Facebook saying "<snip>We will be sending a letter out to all GreenLetterbox users later today to give a quick status update and to let you know where we are with regards to rolling out digital mail across Ireland. It is a slow process and can take some time.<snip>".

The irony of them sending a letter out doesn't escape me. If so many people signed up, why not just issue a message through their digital mailbox? At least it would be a communication.

I fear that it's not going to work as a concept & really it should be something a company with deep pockets like An Post should have implemented.

To get to critical mass, they had to launch (I'm guessing) without any utility companies on board. The public doesn't appear to have got behind it (their advertising is online only), which means that utility companies will not come...

Phoebas

They're in a chicken and egg situation here; consumers won't sign up without utility companies on board, utility companies won't sign up without a customer base.

It is the future 'though; some EU governments have plans in place to have all government communications delivered through digital mailboxes, but maybe it needs An Post or a big telco behind it here. Maybe Green Letterbox's strategy is to be acquired.

Don't see the appeal, I prefer to the physical copy of my bills, statements etc in the post. I'm not a big fan of all this paperless billing.

fortwilliam

Elessar wrote: »

It's 100% free.

When a service is "100% Free" the product is usually........ you.

Daqster

"I'm sorry but you need to have a fixed abode in order to sign on, Anto".

"Ah that's all sorted as I can get me letters from the cloud now so I can mrs"

OU812

Beau Round Snorer wrote: »

Don't see the appeal, I prefer to the physical copy of my bills, statements etc in the post. I'm not a big fan of all this paperless billing.

Not just with them, but the appeal for paperless billing for me as a consumer is less hassle, less post, less paper, less work (I've always scanned bills & then shredded the original, this just cuts out that step).

I'm paperless on almost everything now. My only gripe about it is despite the companies I deal with having both my email and my mobile number, Meteor & UPC are the only ones who let me know I have a bill to download.

firsttimemammy

I just received correspondence from them, and without even looking for them, spotted two typos that can only be described as lazy and very unprofessional.

The email itself says "open securley" and then when I go into my account, the new correspondence, which is obviously from Greenletterbox themselves, is called "New Yeat" which I imagine should say "New Year".

Oh, and the document itself won't download on IE.

Very definitely not a good start.....

OU812

Over a month since the last update was sent out & there's been no updates since. Twitter has gone dark since December 16th, Facebook since January 8th (& they really should have those two tied together so tat updates populate through both to keep them current).

It's a shame, but it looks like they didn't get the critical mass required in order to convert suppliers into clients. A great idea looks like it's gone bang.

Phoebas

I got an email from them last month saying that I had a letter. When I went online to get the letter, it was just some boiler plate message from them.

But the text of the email they sent me said this:

glb wrote:

"Gas Supplier have just sent you this months g=
as bill through GreenLetterbox."

Of course it wasn't a gas bill at all, so this was very misleading of them. I'd be very reluctant to use them now even if they did manage to sign up the utilities.

OU812

I keep seeing this app being updated, but nothing new on the twitter, Facebook or website. Wonder if they're ever going to start their business...

OU812

Over a year since this thread started & I've just noticed another update for the app with no sign of it starting. How much cash does this crowd have behind it to be able to burn it like this ? Facebook hasn't been updated since January & twitter got a mention in April & something in Poland in June... A full year trading with multiple app updates & absolutely no business done.

Must be like 1999 in that place...

MagicMarker

OU812 wrote: »

For some reason they're refusing to answer a question I've asked via here, FaceBook & Twitter "Is it possible to download a PDF of the file to my local machine or does it have to live on their server. Which makes me think it's not possible which means the service is useless to me.

Why would you even need to ask this question? What possible reason would they have to prevent you downloading a copy of your mail to your own machine?

It's like asking Starbucks if you're only allowed drink their coffee in one of their coffee houses.

AlanS181824

OU812 wrote: »

Over a year since this thread started & I've just noticed another update for the app with no sign of it starting. How much cash does this crowd have behind it to be able to burn it like this ? Facebook hasn't been updated since January & twitter got a mention in April & something in Poland in June... A full year trading with multiple app updates & absolutely no business done.

Must be like 1999 in that place...

Awful idea anyway.

Not everything needs to be digital...

*Zombie thread*

Phoebas

MagicMarker wrote: »

Why would you even need to ask this question? What possible reason would they have to prevent you downloading a copy of your mail to your own machine?

When you're reading a document in your browser its already on your machine.