Americas Mailbox - Growing Pains

[TechScott]

I recently used Americas Mailbox in Box Elder to establish South Dakota residency and register a newly purchased truck and travel trailer.  Although the folks at Americas Mailbox were friendly and knowledgeable, the experience was far from flawless.  From the beginning, of my interaction with Americas Mailbox I was clear that my residency change had to happen quickly as I had only 36 hours to be in Box Elder, SD. and since I would only have transit plates on my new truck getting the permanent plates processed and back to me at my winter location in Texas quickly was paramount. as otherwise, I'd be without transportation.  

I sat with Carla who skillfully guided me through the raft of state and federal paperwork necessary and paid my fees and funded my draw account.  All that was necessary to complete my residency change and vehicle registrations was a copy of my new South Dakota drivers license and their employee that handled registrations and titles could process my plates in the next 48 hours.  I went to the DMV and got my new license in 15 minutes (yes, 15 minutes) and returned to Americas Mailbox.  The young lady at the front desk dutifully photocopied both sides of my license and jotted my mailbox number on each.  Bureaucratic hurdles complete without undue stress or bloodshed, I left for my winter place in Texas successfully outrunning Hurricane Ike and battened down and ride out the storm.  Fortunately, Ike veered East and missed my area completely.

I then waited and waited for my truck and trailer plates to arrive.  I called, left messages and emailed with no response.  Finally, I got through to Carla who told me they were holding my registrations waiting for a copy of my driver's license! But I had already done this within an hour of my finishing my account set-up!  They had no record of this, could I send them another copy.  No, I needed a solution faster than the US Mail as I was without legal transportation.  A drawn-out conversation then ensued about what they couldn't do but in the end, I took a photo of my driving license with my phone and emailed it to them (individual employees don't have email boxes the use a communal email box) and my plates were processed and shipped via Fed-X within 48 hours.

My take on Americas Mailbox?  Good folks but explosive growth have exposed flaws in their systems and management.  My lost driver's license copy set me back 5 days because they didn't get to notifying me of the issue until after my registration should have been processed.  I seemed to me Americas Mailbox is no longer a Mom and Pop operation yet they are attempting to manage the business in that manner.  The systems in place are very manual, very basic and assume employees are knowledgeable and responsible.  The growth in the size and diversity of the business has created a management vacuum that needs to be plugged.

The bottom line: I would use them again but I would check-up on the progress of my transactions daily to ensure important detail don't fall between the cracks in their internal systems.

 

[frater secessus]

Thanks for writing this up; America's Mailbox and Escapees are my two main focuses, depending on where I end up domiciling.

If it is growth related hopefully they can work out the kinks soon.

 

[galladanb]

I'm not. Following the timeline here very well...

Is there some reason why the plates had to be mailed out, other than you left for Texas?
Is there some kind of waiting period tween the time you apply and when the plates are issued?
If you had remained longer, would you have had the delay getting the plates?

If we do the residency change, we would plan on a extended stay there, but don't want goofy complications... Does that make sense?

Anyway, thx for the information! I'm sure it will be helpful!

 

[deadwood]

I use Americas Mailbox in Box Elder for a while and have been there a few years now. I do agree that they have grown quite a bit over that time but I haven't had any issues with them at all. As to registering a vehicle in SD it might be easier to just do it on your own. The Pennington County Treasurer is the department that handles car registration is pretty easy to work with and almost everything can be done over the phone with them.

The hardest part for me was that I bought a new van in AZ and was registering it in SD. But if you buy in AZ it gets titled in AZ. I had to wait quite a while for my financing company to request my title be sent to SD so that I could get it registered there. If you own your van/truck with no lien is should be a fairly easy process to do.

I rarely get mail and when I need it Americas Mailbox has it sent out the next day. I primarily use it so that I have a valid legal address in South Dakota. It does sound like they dropped the ball in helping you get things done quickly but my experience with them in two years has been very good.

 

[TechScott]

I'm not. Following the timeline here very well...

Is there some reason why the plates had to be mailed out, other than you left for Texas?
Is there some kind of waiting period tween the time you apply and when the plates are issued?
If you had remained longer, would you have had the delay getting the plates?

If we do the residency change, we would plan on a extended stay there, but don't want goofy complications... Does that make sense?

Anyway, thx for the information! I'm sure it will be helpful!

Is there some reason why the plates had to be mailed out, other than you left for Texas?
No.  In fact, I had Americas Mailbox do everything because I was so pressed for time.

Is there some kind of waiting period tween the time you apply and when the plates are issued?
No.  Again I could have processed and picked-up the plates myself (if I had the time).

If you had remained longer, would you have had the delay getting the plates?
No.

If we do the residency change, we would plan on an extended stay there, but don't want goofy complications... Does that make sense?
If you do the full residency change yourself it shouldn't take more than 2 days.  South Dakota requires a properly formatted receipt showing you stayed 1 day in SD.  The rest of the process is simply going to the registry of motor vehicles for your title and plates (the title does get mailed) and over to get your drivers license.  Of course be careful of state and federal holiday and the beginning and end of month rush but otherwise, it should go quickly.  BTW, if you have Americas Mailbox do your registration and file your title it actually takes longer than doing it yourself!  Why?  Because they are limited to the number of registrations they can have their rep process in a day!

 

[TechScott]

I use Americas Mailbox in Box Elder for a while and have been there a few years now. I do agree that they have grown quite a bit over that time but I haven't had any issues with them at all. As to registering a vehicle in SD it might be easier to just do it on your own. The Pennington County Treasurer is the department that handles car registration is pretty easy to work with and almost everything can be done over the phone with them.

The hardest part for me was that I bought a new van in AZ and was registering it in SD. But if you buy in AZ it gets titled in AZ. I had to wait quite a while for my financing company to request my title be sent to SD so that I could get it registered there. If you own your van/truck with no lien is should be a fairly easy process to do.

I rarely get mail and when I need it Americas Mailbox has it sent out the next day. I primarily use it so that I have a valid legal address in South Dakota. It does sound like they dropped the ball in helping you get things done quickly but my experience with them in two years has been very good.

I agree that things would have gone better if I had done the registration process myself but I was trying to outrun a hurricane.  I wrote the post to warn prospective Americas Mailbox customers that they need to stay on top the process and make sure AM makes their deadlines as they appear to be having growing pains.  I've chatted with a couple of other folks that had similar issues, all of which were resolved but caused significant delays for those involved.

 

[TechScott]

Thanks for writing this up;  America's Mailbox and Escapees are my two main focuses, depending on where I end up domiciling.

If it is growth related hopefully they can work out the kinks soon.

 

[MrNoodly]

Although the folks at Americas Mailbox were friendly and knowledgeable...

In my dealings with them (all simple requests) they've seemed cranky, preoccupied, and put-upon. Also, after determining my mail volume would be a lot less than I had anticipated, I emailed them at renewal time and said I wanted to downgrade to the next level of service. I got a long, whiney, shaming reply (which I think was their form response) about how I shouldn't do that. Not the best way to run a service business.
My SD driver license is coming up for renewal in a few months and I'm considering changing my residency, partly just so I don't need to deal with them any further.
To their credit, they got me set up with residency, license, registration and insurance rather easily.

 

[TechScott]

I looked at Escapees also. After chatting with them I was left with the impression that they weren't nearly as experienced as Americas Mailbox. A lot of their answers to questions and documentation was ambiguous, obviously coached by a lawyer. This made me uncomfortable even though Escapees operates arguably the best RV and most experienced service in Texas.

If I could do over the whole process I'd likely still use Americas Mailbox.

 

[Headache]

My experience using America's Mailbox cost me money, lost time and memories with my dad and them blaming me every step of the way for their mistake. Luckily I kept every email sent and received during the entire registration period and after a few initial conversations I did not call them again so I had an email record of all communications. The issue was rather than registering my motorhome as one they registered it as a truck.

Finally after 3 years SD gave me the corrected motorhome title.

I understand that mistakes happen and can be forgiving, but not when I was blamed every step of the way. I missed taking my dad camping and fishing before he died and I was literally told by them(in an email that I still have) that I could still take him because the registration was current. Why would they tell me to do that when it was improperly registered which meant my RV insurance wouldn't be valid if something happened?

I cannot recommend them to anyone. Had they taken responsibility and not repeatedly pointed the finger at me my opinion would probably be different.