Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/21/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We have been in a contract with this vendor for 5 years. We have been satisfied with the service. I sought to possibly extend and reached out to them for a quote. I contacted them without them ever seeking to continue service. Ultimately, we decided to go with another vendor and notified them of such in writing prior to expiration. in fact, the lease runs until the end of June 2023. The owner of AMSS is now trying to enact some sort of auto renewal clause to extend the contract and extract more money from the City of Alliance taxpayers. We have already installed and are using a competitor's product. I'm surprised the owner doesn't acknowledge the end of the lease, rather than try to grab more cash from us. Needless to say, it makes the prospect of ever doing business with this company unlikely, but they do have the option of doing the right thing. Please accept the end of the lease, which is the end of the month (6/2023). Stop attempting to bill the City of Alliance unnecessarily.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/03/2023

  Good Morning

  Please find attached the following documentation regarding this account complaint.  Included is our response, email correspondence back and forth, contracts, terms and conditions, and quote sent for a new and improved machine.  

  Thank you 

   

  City of Alliance 

  April 26, 2023 - ***** ******* from the City of Alliance placed a phone call to me asking for a postage meter proposal to replace his FP Postage Meter that was billed by AMSS starting 5/26/2018. FP's rental agreements require 90 days' notice when cancelling. The agreement was initially set to expire 5/26/2023. This would require notice of cancellation to be prior to 2/26/2023. Since it is April 26th at this point, ***** has called us well after his postage meter agreement had already renewed (because no cancellation notice was given). On this call, ***** never mentioned he was looking at cancelling the machine and never mentioned being unhappy with AMSS as their vendor. Had ***** done this, we would have explained that the agreement had already renewed for the next year. The USPS regulates postage meters very strictly because, aside from the US Mint, this is the only other place/machine in the country that prints US currency. Due to this, postage meters have strict contract requirements that the USPS requires in each contract. One of those requirements is that customer's contracts always have some sort of auto-renewal so that the customer is required to follow USPS regulations. 

  April 27, 2023 — I emailed the requested proposal to ***** and the City of Alliance. I then followed up with several phone calls and emails over the following few weeks to see if ***** had any questions regarding the information I had sent him, but unfortunately could not get ahold of *****. Eventually I was able to get ahold of ***** and it was at this point, several weeks after I had sent him the proposal, that ***** mentioned he was waiting for another proposal. At this point we are well into May of this year (and although ***** mentioned he was waiting for another proposal, he still had not mentioned anything about cancelling our service or our machine). 

  June 7, 2023 — I received an E-Mail from ***** that the City of Alliance decided to go with Pitney Bowes Mailing System. This is actually the first time ***** mentioned that he was looking to cancel our machine. Please keep in mind, his contract was up 5/26/2023, so he decision is well after the 90 day notice requirement to cancel the machine and actually passed the date of his contract having expired even if he had given his notice to cancel. 

  June 9th, 2023 — I E-Mailed ***** with the requirements for cancelling of the postage meter from FP Mailing Solutions and AMSS with copies of terms and conditions. I included both the terms and conditions from FP and from AMSS specifying that notice of cancellation needing to be 90 days prior to the end of the agreement with FP Mailing Solutions in writing from City of Alliance and Conditions for rental cancellation with AMSS. 

  After this, AMSS billed out the remainder of the agreement based on the renewal rental term and told the City of Alliance they would need to contact FP regarding the cancellation charges per their terms and conditions. 

  ***** was unhappy about this, even though it was very clearly stated in the terms and conditions that there were requirements that need to be met prior to cancellation, and ***** said he was turning this over to the City of Alliance Law Director. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/05/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  

  He is choosing to enact and charge for a  renewal clause that he really doesn't need to do. He is aware we have moved on an already to another vendor. 

  Rather than be gracious, he's attempting to extract payment for a service that no one is using. With this type of "service", it would be difficult imagining the City ever doing business with him again. By the way, the correspondence he attempted to send to our Law Director, he sent to the incorrect email address. 

  I have asked him to come and get the equipment, but he has not. Again, please remove your equipment from my office 

  
  Regards,
  
  ***** *******
  
  
  
  
   

  

  Business Response

  Date: 07/07/2023

  Please see attachment

   

  Better Business Bureau, 

  Unfortunately, the response from the City of Alliance does not offer any acceptable solutions to our agreement aside from letting him out of an agreement that was approved by the City of Alliance and ******* predecessor. This is not acceptable to AMSS. While I understand ******* frustration, the terms of the agreement are very clear, and he is asking AMSS to do something that we cannot do. He has read the agreement and clearly understands those terms but is expecting AMSS to disregard those same terms because he made the mistake of not giving his cancellation notice 90 days prior to the end of the agreement. ***** chose to get another vendor in before making his cancellation notice known and without reading the terms of his agreement. In fact, he gave his cancellation notice after the agreement had already started its next year (the 5th year ended in May, ***** gave notice in June, both being well past the notice that would have been required in February). 

  I am not sure why ***** has the idea that we "choose" to enact renewal clauses. The renewal clauses are there for a reason and are automatic based on the terms and conditions. 
  As we have stated to *****, once final payment is received by AMSS, we will make arrangements to pick up his machine. 

  Thank you, 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/13/2023

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and have determined that this does not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
  
  This company made no effort to contact the City prior to the expiration of the agreement, which would probably be considered reasonable customer service. Regardless, I was conscious enough to make a reminder to myself 5 years ago to check in prior to the expiration. Hopefully their other customers are as organized to avoid this entrapment.

  Again, I asked them for a proposal to consider extending. Ultimately we went with another vendor/service. Now they wish to exercise a clause in hopes of charging the City for nothing. What other business seeks to be compensated for providing no goods or services?

  The equipment is sitting here unused. I am asking once again for you to please come and remove it from my office. If not, I am investigating the possibility of placing it in "escrow" with the Courts for safe keeping. You could then seek to request  to obtain it from them. 

  So in summary, I am requesting this business to release the City from a lease from which it cancelled prior to expiration. Cease any billing attempts. Come and get your equipment ASAP. 

  
  Regards,
  
  ***** *******