stamps.com US postal service Unknown monthly recurring service fee internet

I needed to mail 1 small item that was to cost me about $5. I was at work and didn't want to use my lunch to go to the post office so I went to www.stamps.com thinking that would be just as good and a lot easier. I must have overlooked the fact that there was a 4 week trial period and that I'd be automatically charged a monthly service fee of something like $15, as I recall it was not made abundantly clear. When I saw a charge on my card from stamps.com a month after I'd first used it, I called in. I was told that the "trial" was over and that the automatic monthly service charge could not be reversed, despite the fact that I was unaware of it and I was only a couple of days outside of their "trial" period.

I don't regularly ship things as I am just a simple consumer and USPS is slow and antiquated anyway so I have no idea why I would need a monthly subscription when a simple trip to a post office would have cost me a third of their monthly fee + the actual charge for shipping totaling about a quarter of what this whole stupid scam came out to actually cost me. The rep was very kind but was quick to point out that I should have read their terms of service. Really?

The polite rep was unable to do anything about the issue do to their "very strict policies on refunds on monthly subscriptions". The whole thing reminds me of the old AOL scam days; I suppose this is how USPS is trying to stay afloat, in addition to the constant junk mail I get and the "special offers" and catalogues they have plastered all over their webiste after you do use stamps.com or do a fowarding of your mail service. SCAM. Go to the post office and save yourself $15 or $20 or whatever their loot was.