FMCA Mail Forwarding Shutting Down?

[nostlerab]

Was just wondering why the mail forwarding service is shutting down. Lack of interest?

[FMCANationalOffice]

We are looking at efficient mail forwarding service alternatives that can enhance the service for members. Realizing the cost of new technology, we have decided to look outside of FMCA for a service that will maintain FMCA's affordable rates and excellent service.

[wigginsjsr]

I recommend Escapees mail service. We have used it for 5 years now. Very good and responsive.

[lmsooter]

X2 on Escapees. We have used it since 2011 and never had a problem. Even received our mail on a trip to Alaska in 2012 with no problems.

[sjmondl]

Well, it’s official. In an email dated 07/28 from our Executive Director Jerry Yeatts, it was announced that FMCA Mail Forwarding Service in Cincinnati will cease operations effective October 1st. We have been using this valuable service for close to 15 years and have enjoyed extremely reliable and trustworthy mail forwarding from our motorhome association. We have no children so we rely entirely on FMCA Mail Forwarding to receive our mail. We are very disappointed to learn that this essential service will be outsourced.

FMCA plans to outsource this member benefit to a company called DakotaPost. DakotaPost is not a member of the BBB. DakotaPost has been in business less than a year and is under new ownership as of January 2014. FMCA officials expect us to trust this unknown company with our mail.

Now that FMCA will be closing the Cincinnati Mail Forward Department, what will be next? The Round Bottom Rd. building was used mostly by the Mail Forwarding Dept. and used by our Executive Board to park their motorhomes while conducting FMCA business. Maybe if the building goes unused, should FMCA sell the property? Oh, that's right... our board uses a meeting room in the back of the Round Bottom Rd. building for pot luck dinners, also.

And what about those loyal long-term FMCA staff members that faithfully ran the Cincinnati Mail Forwarding Dept.? My wife just called for our mail. She was told that the FMCA Mail Forwarding Dept. employees are in shock and did not expect to lose their jobs on Sept. 30th. This employee stated that she was not offered a job with the new mail forwarding company in South Dakota.

Have there been discussions or articles written to notify FMCA Members regarding this closure? To my knowledge, members that use the Mail Forwarding Service were never asked if we wanted "mail forwarding service alternatives that can enhance the service for members". We have not been contacted regarding our thoughts on this essential Member Service. We never received anything from FMCA asking us if we were satisfied with the current mail forwarding service or ask if we were interested in any enhanced mail forwarding services. Who is making these decisions? We thought the backbone of FMCA were its Members.

FMCA Mail Forwarding Service users were given a 60 day notice to transfer our mail to a new mail forwarding service. This is not enough time to notify all of our senders of our new address. Magazine subscriptions take a minimum of 90 days to process a change of address. It has been stated that decision makers were told by the mail forwarding staff that 60 days was not enough time to forward non-first class mail. Magazines will not be forwarded by the Post Office. Who chose the date of October 1^st for closure? Why didn’t the decision makers listen to their staff’s comments?

Why is FMCA rushing to eliminate the Cincinnati Mail Forwarding Service? Members need to call Jerry Yeatts immediately to voice their opinion on the outsourcing of our FMCA Mail Forwarding Service to a private company in South Dakota.

To say the least, my wife and I are very unhappy with this decision. We are considering joining Escapees RV Club as they have an excellent reputation and a trustworthy and reliable mail forwarding service.

What FMCA Member benefit will be outsourced next?

Steve & Jan Mondl, F147279

[RVerOnTheMove]

You have been around a bit longer than I have (192XXX) but you are seeing the same stuff. FMCA set themselves up to fail when they limited there membership to a small percentage of a small market (small market = RVers. Even smaller market = self powered RVs). If nothing had happened to the economy they would likely be doing great and we would all be multi-millionaires by now. However, it did and we all did not.

I used the Escapees mail forwarding service for many years and we were very pleased with their service. If you are looking for a recommendation, I would suggest you use them. You do not need to be a TX resident or use TX for anything other than your mailing address as long as you have some other physical address to use. We were FL residents while we used the TX address but we moved our residence to SD and we now have SD drivers licenses and a SD mailing service. Last week I became suddenly unemployed while in Las Vegas so I don't know what they he11 I am going to do now, but that's something to be dealt with later!

[medico]

There are many mail forwarding services around. We personally use St. Brendan's Isle in Green Cove Springs, Florida since we also used this address as our physical address when we changed our Domicile to Florida.

I wonder if the 15 site campground will be closed as well??? this was a great member benefit as well.

[rossboyer]

I would not be in a hurry to jump ship. FMCA is going to go to outsource the service due to about $80,000 loss per year. You would not do that either if you had that loss. Also, don't worry about getting all addresses changed all by the date of October 1st, the USPS requires that mail forwarding services continue to forward mail received for 6 months. The newer service providers offer optional services that may be of interest to you. The expense of upgrading for the limited number of members FMCA was serving was also prohibitive.

[Xplorer]

Used SKP's mail service from 06-10,

Started FT again last year, seriously considered FMCA mail service, ultimately decided to return to SKP's.

I started thinking about changes FMCA has made in membership, including the elimination of the med assistance which was the reason for my initial membership.

My 3 year membership just expired, and I am having trouble determining the value of spending the $40 to renew for one year. FMCA just does not offer anything unique that can't be obtained in other orgs at this point imho; whether it's campground discounts, rally's, forums, etc. I most likely will not renew. Just glad I didn't decide to use the FMCA mail service.

I currently maintain 2 memberships in other RV orgs, one a Charter Life membership, the other a 3 year membership. I will eventually get down to one.

I use FMCA less, including the forum. Sorry, I wish FMCA well.

[rossboyer]

The medical evacuation benefit called FMCAssist is being proposed to the Governing Board of FMCA at Redmond, OR in August to be provided for all members included in the yearly membership.

[sundancev]

I was just browsing and saw this thread. I must tell you, I have been in many social and business organizations for many years. None compare in quality or overall service to FMCA. Frankly I am embarassed at some of the comments made in this thread. FMCA has saved me thousands of dollars in the past 5 years just in forum topics alone. The advice freely given by members has simply been priceless.

With an $80,000 operating loss for this item, I think we the membership could well put the $80k to use somewhere else. If Escapees can do it well, sign up folks but please do not bad mouth this wonderful organization simply because they are giving up mail forwarding. There is too much other good about it to complain. Oh, I forgot us old folks must complain, it is our job now that we are retired.

God Bless you all.

Paul

[ddoody]

Just a heads up to FMCA members using Dakota Post as their mail forwarding service....Got up yesterday and found an alert from my credit card company regarding a transaction at 5:30 AM from ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES $296.77. I hadn't purchased anything, and after checking with my wife to verify she had not purchased anything, I immediately suspect my credit card has been compromised. I googled Alternative Resources, and a marijuana business came up. I called my CC company, and they were unable to determine who Alternative Resources was, so we agreed to cancel my credit cards and reissue a new one, since it obviously had been compromised.

Today I received an email from Michele at Dakota Post advising that Dakota Post DBA: Alternative Resources had processed my yearly subscription for $296.77! I called and spoke to Michele and to say the least, did not receive a satisfactory explanation. When I suggested that Dakota Post notify subscription holders IN ADVANCE of this transaction, her reply was "Do you know how difficult that would be?" Probably as difficult as it will be for me to wait a week or more till my new cards arrive, and then having to contact all my creditors and change my CC information with them to get my monthly bills paid!

So everyone needs to file away: DAKOTA POST bills as ALTERNATIVE RESOURCES. It seems to be way too difficult for them to bill as Dakota Post???

Safe travels everyone!

Dennis

[kingfr]

296.77 seems kinda pricey, when compared to Escapes Mail Service!

[sjmondl]

$300 is VERY PRICEY. What ever happened to Dakota Post promising to keep the same mail forwarding rates as FMCA Mail Forwarding was charging for the next 3 years??

Back in July 2014 I wrote in this forum that my wife and I were changing to Escapees Mail Forwarding. We did the move in August 2014. It has been a year now since our change and I can tell everyone that we are extremely pleased with Escapee Mail Forwarding Service. When our year's subscription fee was due, I got an email in advance advising that the annual mail forwarding fee of $115 was going to be charged to my credit card.

My wife and I are very pleased with the service that we receive from Escapees. I would rate it as good if not just a little better than the quality service we received from FMCA Mail Forwarding. We had the FMCA mail service for almost 15 years.

If anyone is looking for a dependable, reasonably priced mail forwarding service, go with Escapees. The organization as a whole is a top quality RV Association.

[JYeatts]

Dennis: I am sorry that you had a less than satisfactory experience with Dakota Post. The FMCA Mail Forwarding Service does offer the basic service at the price negotiated last year when the Mail Forwarding Service changed to Dakota Post as the provider.

It appears you opted for the enhanced Virtual Mailbox program on May 16, 2015, and signed an authorization to have this amount charged.

If Michelle at Dakota Post made the statement about how difficult it would be to inform everybody of charges in advance, then I certainly apologize for that statement being made.

FMCA Mail Forwarding powered by Dakota Post remains a reliable and affordable service for our membership.

[ddoody]

To update what has occurred with Dakota Post the last few days.

I've received several emails from Dakota Post including Bill Linsenmeyer, General Manager for Dakota Post, and had a pleasant phone conversation with Greg Kalesa, one of the owners of Dakota Post. As a result of these conversations, Dakota Post will be working with their bank to add Dakota Post to their charge statements, and they will be working with their IT provider to add notification to their customers just prior to annual account charges.

I'm confident that these actions will prevent my situation from occurring in the future. I was also impressed with their handling of this incident, and I'll continue to use their mail forwarding services.

Also, my fat fingers must have got in the way....the total yearly subscription was $228.96. Sorry for the confusion I caused.