Has anyone used this company? Is it reliable? Do they deliver on time and do what they advertise? Has anyone had any trouble with them?

http://www.4inmates.com/index.jsp

I haven't heard of them or used it, but honestly it seems like an unnecessary middleman that you have to pay to send a letter to someone.. seems a lot easier just to do it yourself.

especially if you live overseas like I do. It would give you a chance to correspond with your pp in a more timely manner. I just sent a letter and it cost me $1.00US from Hong Kong. It costs the inmate 90 cents to send to me.

I sent my first letter on Jan 6, 2007.....my pp wrote her reply on Jan 19th and I received it yesterday, Feb 2.

She indicated that she only gets one envelope a month and that she has to pay the postage for overseas. She has a good friend who also lives overseas that she met while in prison....she only makes $20 a month

I wanted to figure out a way to help out with the postage. With this service I could maintain an account with this company and she would be able to send her messages back thru them and they would email them to me.

Now, I just need to wait until they get the service set up for her prison in OHIO. thanks for sharing this info.

I was interested in this because I live overseas, too - mainland China. It costs me about 7 or 8 yuan (one dollar) to send an average letter to my pp in the US, and it takes about three weeks for it to get to him. If I use these guys, it would cost the same and only take a couple of days. But I didn't want to set up an account if anyone had any negative experiences, money ripped off, mail that never got there, etc. Thanks!

Pepper Cat

I've used www.l-mail.com and they work according to the same principle. You can have an account with them, type up a letter and they will print it off at a printer station in the States and send it to your penpal. It will only take a couple of days (depending on how fast the mail room is working).

Pepper cat -where abouts in Mainland China do you live? I'm in Hong Kong, but travel to the Mainland quite a bit with my husband.

Zosja - thanks for that info. There's actually a center in Denver where my family lives. Hey, I might send them a reply to one of their emails and see if they freak out....how did she do that?

I live in Beihai, Guangxi province. Nice little town, on the sea. I used to live in Henan province for three years. I haven't been to HK yet.

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Heb 13:3: Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering, as though you were suffering as they are.

I ended up going with the L-Mail, since it was recommended. It was easy to set up and I've already sent my first letter through them. Hopefully, my PP will get it OK and let me know how it worked for him. Thanks again.

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Heb 13:3: Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering, as though you were suffering as they are.

OK, now I've had trouble with L-Mail! I opened an account, validated it,deposited money, sent one letter - and then got a email saying they needed my phone number. I sent it, and then noticed I was locked out of my account. I kept getting a message saying my account was awaiting validation, which didn't make any sense, because I'd already done it. I've sent five messages to every support email address I can find on the L-Mail site, and it's been almost a week now with no word and no access. URGH.

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Heb 13:3: Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering, as though you were suffering as they are.

I'm sorry you've been experiencing problems Seriously, I have an account with them, I've sent about ten letters through them and never experienced any problems... I do feel bad, because I mentioned they were good. I hope you'll get it sorted out soon!