
Mail a Letter Online - wglb
http://www.mailaletter.com/
======
megakid
I used a service similar to this in 2011 after I moved back from Australia to
UK. Australian banks charge a monthly fee if you don't deposit your salary
into the account so after a few months I realized my now-defunct Australian
current account was very close to $0 (I had left a few dollars in there when I
left). I emailed them and asked them to close the account to which they
replied I needed to send a snail-mail letter - I used a service like this
(with scanned signature no-less) to do so because it was easier than sending
my own international letter to them. I got an email back saying they needed me
to send a real letter with a real signature. I replied saying they could keep
my account open but I wouldn't be paying for any fees, the reply was swift
"Your account is now closed".

~~~
jwr
In Poland the law theoretically mandates that a digital signature is just as
good as a pen-and-paper one. But, when dealing with banks, one quickly finds
that the law is one thing and the stone wall of your bank is another.

Here's how a typical discussion unrolls:

Bank: "To do X or Y, we require you to visit us in person or provide a written
statement".

Me: "Here's my statement with a digital signature, attached as a PDF."

Bank (ignoring the PDF): "To do X or Y, we require you to visit us in person
or provide a written statement".

Me: "The law says (specific citation goes here) that I have just provided a
written and signed statement. Here it is again."

Bank (ignoring the PDF): "To do X or Y, we require you to visit us in person
or provide a written statement".

By the way, I had this kind of stupid back-and-forth with mBank, which tries
to position itself as a "modern and innovative" bank.

The only next step is to sue, but who would bother.

~~~
ThrustVectoring
regulatory complaints work wonders too

------
__shedlife__
I'm the founder of [http://handwrite.io](http://handwrite.io), which allows
you to use your own real handwriting to send out cards in about 30 seconds a
card. Our robots use real pen and paper to write in your actual handwriting.

For every card, your handwriting is generated from scratch so it's unique
every time and not a font like other services. And if you don't like how your
writing looks, you can always use one from our selection.

We've got a Zapier integration which has been a game changer for us and
clients as well.

~~~
et2o
This is really cool. Have you thought of doing on-demand pricing? I'd send a
few cards, but I don't want to pay $30 a month for a service I might only use
intermittently.

~~~
igornadj
Seriously, the only reason this is priced per month is to make money off
people who don't use the service/forget to use it or forget to cancel it.

Why is this not just

10 cards = $30

20 cards = $50

50 cards = $100 ?

Shady business tactics.

------
tdurden
The last time this site was submitted to HN was over 10 years ago:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449964](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=449964)
\- it doesn't appear to have changed much since then.

~~~
itronitron
wow, that has to be some kind of record

------
moxplod
I created [http://simplepostal.com](http://simplepostal.com) a year and a half
ago. Just never knew how to get it on top of hacker news :)

~~~
isclever
You need to get on the HTTPS bandwagon as well
[https://doesmysiteneedhttps.com/](https://doesmysiteneedhttps.com/)

~~~
falcrist
Brian Lunduke inadvertently found an exception to this. He wanted to make his
site accessible by very old browsers... So he stopped using https.

[http://lunduke.com/](http://lunduke.com/)

It's a dumb exception, but you guys might find it mildly amusing.

~~~
baroffoos
Great, compromise the security for the 100% of users to keep the 0% reading
linux news on IE2 able to visit.

------
LethargicStud
We've actually been working on something similar. Our goal is to make it as
dead simple to send a letter as possible in USA. We'd love any feedback people
have!

[https://papermail.in](https://papermail.in)

Feel free to drop us a note at support@papermail.in if you have thoughts :)

~~~
mrkstu
If targeting US customers I'd avoid using a foreign TLD. If you're targeting
Indian customers wanting to send to US addresses it should be fine.

~~~
myself248
I agree; I wouldn't even think to click that unless I wanted to send a letter
in India.

------
rgovostes
Apple used to have an iOS app called Cards where you could snap a photo with
your phone and it would arrive as a handsome postcard a few days later. I
thought it perfectly fit at the intersection of Apple's obsession over digital
experiences and tangible products. Sadly, Apple has since abandoned all of
their printing services.

Bill Atkinson, the storied early Apple engineer, has an app for this as well,
but I have not used it and can't vouch for it. But it's worth noting that when
Bill himself went to have his own photography book printed by a publisher, he
made modifications to the printing equipment before he was satisfied with the
quality.
[http://www.billatkinson.com/aboutPhotoCard.html](http://www.billatkinson.com/aboutPhotoCard.html)

------
junipertea
I wrote a letter to a friend on the website because I honestly thought it
would be amusing. But then at the address page I kinda stopped, because I
didn't actually feel very comfortable with writing my friend's address and
full name on a random webpage. I wonder if there is anything that can
alleviate this paranoia?

~~~
polygot
Depending on where your friend lives, you can address it to a post office.
However, your letter would still need your friends full name on it to get it
picked up.

------
alasdair_stark
My first internship in 2009 was for a company with a similar business model in
the UK. We developed a Windows application, a web application and an API which
allowed letter templates to be uploaded and then sent out to large mailing
lists using mail merge.

Most of our big customers were real estate agencies where it felt pretty
spammy but the selling point was that people were more likely to open a
personalised letter compared to an email. Some of our marketing focused on
poking fun at people using franking machines!

I remember a more interesting customer that sent out parking violations to
individuals. Along with the basic mail merge, the letters would include images
of their vehicles parked where they shouldn't be.

The biggest problem we had was with consistent print quality. We sent batch
files to be printed out by different printing companies but there would often
be problems with things like alignment and image quality. Even though we had
test letters sent to our office every day we'd always be stressed out when a
new customer was coming on board and testing the service - they'd often
receive a couple of dodgy letters!

In the end the company was absorbed by a larger IT business - I think they
just wanted the developers. They wanted me to come work full time for them but
I went back to University to finish off my degree and did some part-time
remote work for them. Can't find any trace of the company online now.

------
marton_s
In Germany - where the bureaucracy is massive and mostly paper based -
Deutsche Post the national postal company runs a similar service
([https://epost.de](https://epost.de)). Works both ways, you can send and
receive paper-and-envelope letters in digital form. The user interface is
surprisingly modern and they do use https;) It even includes a DropBox-like
storage space for your documents.

------
rmbryan
This makes it look like there are some unresolved challenges with fulfillment:
[https://www.bbb.org/us/wa/seattle/profile/international-
mail...](https://www.bbb.org/us/wa/seattle/profile/international-mailing-
services/mail-a-letter-1296-22825175/complaints)

~~~
woofie11
I've been using it for many years with no problems with fulfillment. I like
that there is a record the letter was sent.

The biggest annoyance is the horrible UX for entering recipient's address. I'd
like to type the two lines on the envelope. Instead, I need to go through this
form adding them as a contact, with fields for e.g. city and state. Most of my
letters are one-offs, and it's a bunch of cut-and-paste work. Still beats
doing my own mailing, though.

------
charlieegan3
I've been looking the something that's kind of the opposite of this. I'd like
to be able to use an address in my city for all my mail - when a letter
arrives I'd like to get a scan as an email attachment.

I usually get parcels delivered to amazon lockers or my office since I'm out
all day.

~~~
xeromal
There's plenty of those services.

This one is recommended usually.
[https://travelingmailbox.com/](https://travelingmailbox.com/)

You'd have to live in a decently sized city to get an address in your town
though. You can definitely get one in your state. UPS also has mail services.
They don't scan, but if you're wanting to protect your address, it's a good
option. They run about 200 a year in LA so maybe 130 or so somewhere smaller?

~~~
aiyodev
I love Traveling Mailbox. Been using it since I moved to Seattle. One
overlooked feature is that you can have mail sent to multiple email addresses.
So I don’t have to worry about a family member opening an important letter and
losing it or forgetting to tell me about it.

------
adamw2k
So many companies have come and gone in the "print on demand" space. The
barriers to entry are low and the market, while shrinking, is still quite
large... If you consider the market those that send stationary (cards,
letters, etc.). Having started a company in the space (engreet.com, since
renamed
[https://www.thegreetingcardshop.com](https://www.thegreetingcardshop.com) by
its new owners), the fallacy is that most folks that send offline won't make
the jump to digital. It's a different demographic that is slowly dying
(sadly). From cardstore.com to Minted, there's still a market out there, but
it's a fraction of the offline spend.

------
caseyw
I was looking online for some resources for sending mail online. I came across
this thread and thought I'd add a repo to keep the links together. Thanks to
all those who responded! Here's the repo: [https://github.com/caseyw/snail-
mail-websites](https://github.com/caseyw/snail-mail-websites)

------
dmitrygr
_For the fastest payment service, Mail A Letter provides customers with a
MailBank. Add funds to your MailBank with a VISA, MasterCard, American Express
or Discover credit card or PayPal. Payment from each order will be deducted
from your account automatically and you can avoid entering in your payment
information for each order. You can add any amount (minimum $5.00)._

Uh huh, and i bet the money in said "money bank" is not refundable, so really
it is $5 minimum

~~~
CamelCaseName
Seems reasonable given the payment processing fees.

I'm spitballing here, but ordering a single $1.54 letter would cost $0.30 +
$0.03 in fees, $0.55 for the stamp, $0.03 for the envelope and maybe $0.25 for
the labor, paper, ink, machine maintenance, overhead, etc. And that's before
advertising and other costs.

So it seems pretty reasonable that they want to reduce that $0.30 fee,
especially if a large number of people only order one card.

And in all honesty, if you're willing to avoid their service over worries of
losing $3.46 in credit, you're probably not their ideal customer.

------
jawns
This site looks like it was designed back in the 90s, but the actual service
sounds quite useful.

If you mail letters infrequently and/or don't own a printer, you're saving
yourself the trouble of buying envelopes, buying postage, printing at Staples,
etc.

But I bet the site could greatly improve its marketability by investing in a
refresh of the site design.

~~~
LeifCarrotson
I wonder if they've done some testing to compare designs.

A site that looks like it's designed in the 90s is probably highly attractive
for many users. This "Mail A Letter Online" site, if compared to a
2019-looking snazzy SPA "smail.io" Bootstrap site and mobile app, probably
wouldn't do as well for some audiences. But if their target demographic likes
this style better, then this site is what they should be using.

Also, nothing prevents them from also starting up Photoshop and designing a
snazzier sister site that's fulfilled through the same physical service.

~~~
McDev
Judging from the fact that the "How did you find us?" box on registration
offers options like "Yahoo!", "MSN Search", "Ask", I'd say it's actually quite
old (not saying that's a bad thing)

------
timsco
This is similar. I've never used it but it looks fun:
[https://handwriting.io/](https://handwriting.io/)

~~~
flanbiscuit
this is pretty cool. I would love to see a service takes writing samples in
your own handwriting and produces a letter that looks like you wrote it.

~~~
vageli
> this is pretty cool. I would love to see a service takes writing samples in
> your own handwriting and produces a letter that looks like you wrote it.

That would personally be horrifying to me. Imagine, someone can make it look
like you said _anything_.

------
2shortplanks
My Grandmother loved the physical paper mail I used to send to her back home
in the UK from [https://www.pc2paper.co.uk/](https://www.pc2paper.co.uk/)

She commented once that it took almost no time for the letter to get from the
US to her. That's because, of course, I just uploaded the PDF for printing in
the UK.

------
CobrastanJorji
Cost for taking a physical document and transporting it across the country to
any arbitrary home or business in the United States, including Alaska and
Hawaii, within about 3 days: $0.55.

Cost to print a text file, attach a stamp, and put it in a box outside to
await the first company's arrival: starting at $0.97, and $0.47 for each
additional page.

------
pmtarantino
This website isn't new, as most comments say. However, I've been using in the
past a lot of times and works very very well. In fact, I used a lot the option
to add a return stamp so if the other person wants to reply (mostly offices),
they don't need to pay anything.

------
lceni
I've created one similar service some time ago for Brazilian market called
www.cartacarteiro.com.br however, after running it during some months with
Google ads, the only visitors were my sister and some few friends. P.s. none
of them paid a penny for the service at all.

------
pkghost
[https://hello.pixinote.com/](https://hello.pixinote.com/) is a properly
beautiful product in this vein, though input is restricted to a square-cropped
photo and a few lines of text

------
foobaw
I've been using [https://www.mailform.io/](https://www.mailform.io/). I see a
lot more options on here. Which one is the best and why? To be honest, I just
want the cheapest.

~~~
kunle
<shameless plug>

Thanks! Mailaletter.com is great, and we (Mailform) are a competitor. There's
a few others you could check out:

click2mail.com

[http://simplepostal.com](http://simplepostal.com)

neopost.com

clicksend.com

papermail.in

letterstream.com

pingen.com

elipso.eu

postalmethods.com

sendovernightmail.com (also owned by us btw)

They're all pretty different along cost, features, delivery speed, etc.
Cheapest probably depends how you define it (mailaletter is one of the
cheapest if you're sending a single letter, click2mail is probably the
cheapest if you're sending multiple, etc)

here to help, team@mailform.io :)

------
vladletter
This post makes me think of the Railway in US. So late compared to Europe
haha.

------
based2
[https://www.laposte.fr/lettre-en-ligne/telecharger-
document](https://www.laposte.fr/lettre-en-ligne/telecharger-document)

------
lamby
There is also [https://letterbug.co.uk/](https://letterbug.co.uk/) in the UK.

------
sucrose
I remember using this service to send mail to an incarcerated family member
about 7 years ago. Works great with ASCII art too!

------
klyrs
Is there another service, where I get a PO box, and they automatically scan my
mail and send me PDFs via email?

------
mikece
Too bad there's not a postcard option...

~~~
wallawe
[https://lob.com](https://lob.com) probably has what you're looking for. I've
used their service for awhile and it's amazing.

~~~
mherdeg
Yeah I use Lob for a lot of my "write up a letter, print, and mail it with a
written record of what I sent and when" correspondence. They make it super
easy to send letters about as easily as an e-mail.

I am very clearly not the intended customer and appreciate that they're
willing to take my business anyway.

I also used them for holiday cards two years back, which was

* Fantastic -- super straightforward to write up a small script to call their API and send 1 card to each person on our holiday-card list

* A little weird -- sending 70 holiday cards involved instructing their API to download an identical .pdf holiday card template from a remote server where I hosted that one file 70 times

* Cheap -- they printed and mailed glossy postcards at a very affordable price

* Ever so slightly disappointing -- we got to see maybe 10 of the actual mailed postcards from this run (on family's fridges, in the test copy we sent ourselves, and in the 3 or 4 postcards that we thought were addressed correctly but which were returned to us with an invalid address) and every single one of them had the same printing defect, what looked like a big scuff across a photo. Not sure what the deal was or why it was so consistent on every image. We didn't write in to support because I am pretty sure we are not the target audience.

Great service, A+, huge time saver vs. manually writing so many addresses,
still a big fan.

~~~
dmlittle
Glad you like our service! In the future don't hesitate to reach out to us
through support (I work at Lob)!

The scuff marks that you saw in your mail are most likely due to belt rollers
in the USPS sorting facilities. We've tried a lot of different combinations of
paper, ink and protective coatings to minimize the chance of mail pieces being
damaged but we haven't found a combination that 100% removes the chance of
damage during the USPS sorting process.

Throughout the mailing lifecycle a piece of mail will go through several
sorting facilities. Each facility has similar sorting machines but they might
be in different conditions. There's a chance that a certain sorting facility
has machines with more worn out rollers that cause higher damage rates than
others. This would manifest in mail pieces going to a certain zip code
experiencing higher damage rates. For mail that is returned to the sender it
has to go through even more sorting facilities (both when being delivered and
back) that causes an even higher damage rate.

Here's a video showing you the type of sorting machines each mail piece goes
through:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB7QOK1bd3U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gB7QOK1bd3U)

------
dicroce
I tried to do this about 12 years or so ago... domain was quickymail.com.... I
probably gave up too soon.

------
citilife
It uses http, not https for this -_-

------
hsnfirooz
I like the idea!

------
gwbas1c
No https?

That's a major concern. It's 2019, (almost) everything needs to be https.

~~~
Nux
Why?

Also there is https on the more sensitive parts of the site (login etc).

~~~
mholt
Doesn't matter, it needs HTTPS on the whole site.
[https://doesmysiteneedhttps.com](https://doesmysiteneedhttps.com)

