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MyDakotaAddress.com is shutting the doors


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I just read on another forum that MyDakotaAddress is closing down with the last mail going out July 31, 2018. The post includes a quoted email from Terri Lund confirming the shut down.

http://www.rvforum.net/SMF_forum/index.php/topic,115731.msg1046457.html#msg1046457

Dutch
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2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
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When Ron at My Home Address got really sick, he smartly set in play the transition of the company to his son-in-law.

It truly the risk of these small businesses when the person gets sick or dies.  I remember a mail forwarder in the east that had the operator fail and there was mail locked up for over a month.

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3 hours ago, sandsys said:

That can be a problem with small businesses that have no plan in place for the owner not being able to continue. I hope this does not mean Terri is terminally ill.

Linda Sand

I wish Terri well also, but she isn't the owner. Jon Knuths is listed as the owner and operator of the business, Terri is the manager. I don't know if they have any other employees. It's odd that there's nothing on the website about the shutdown, but I did find a mention on the Your Best Address site:

http://yourbestaddress.com/sd-residency/my-dakota-address-going-out-of-business/

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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With any small, one owner business there is a clear possibility that it will end at some point unless the owner has family that wants to take over that business or they choose to sell. That happens with many small businesses when the principal owner wishes to retire or has health issues. 

Quote

CONTACT US:
Dakota International Services, LLC.
110 E. Center Street
PO Box 137
Madison, SD  57042
Toll Free:  1-866-202-2163
Phone:  605-427-5863
Fax:  605-427-9626
Email:  info@mydakotaaddress.com

 

Edited by Kirk Wood

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Thank you Dutch, so much for bringing this to our attention.  I've been away from the online world while in Canada and just pulled into an RV park with good wifi and was catching up on email and websites.  I won't be back in the states until after the 31st but should be able to get things done tomorrow on-line and or phone if necessary.  Very glad to have heard about this now and not after I got back.  Thanks again. 

 

 

 

 

 

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You're welcome! I haven't seen any explanation as to the cause of the shut down yet, but it must have been something that happened with little notice.

Dutch
2001 GBM Landau 34' Class A
F-53 Chassis, Triton V10, TST TPMS
2011 Toyota RAV4 4WD/Remco pump
ReadyBrute Elite tow bar/brake system

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1 hour ago, Dutch_12078 said:

but it must have been something that happened with little notice.

Life happens.  Thankfully they gave notice.  

We have been with Dakota Post / Alternative Resources for 5 years now.  It's been a great company to work with.   We do 99% of our "Talks" online and have never had an issue.  

I'm more than willing to recommend them.

Alie & Jim + 8 paws

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This sucks.  I always wondered what I would do if Terri got sick, if she had a backup plan.  Not quite the scenario, but this is the worst case I suppose.  I have had a mailbox here for several years, and have not heard of this from Terri.  I have a feeling she will NOT be informing her clients directly, and folding up as quietly as possible.  I will also be calling her first thing in the morning!

If any of you know of any thread/fb groups/etc where people are actively chatting about this and perhaps have more information to share, please do let us know where these are, as I'm sure all of us who are in this boat would much appreciate it!

Also, any ideas on who may be the largest/well funded/least "mom n pop" mail forwarder in SD?  If I'm making the switch ,last thing I want to do is have to do this again anytime soon.  

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5 hours ago, rynosback said:

I guess I will be calling her tomorrow.

 

3 hours ago, dartmouth01 said:

I will also be calling her first thing in the morning!

It would probably be helpful if one of you would share what you learn with the forums. I would also suggest you consider the Escapee's SD mail service.

Good travelin !...............Kirk

Full-time 11+ years...... Now seasonal travelers.
Kirk & Pam's Great RV Adventure

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10 hours ago, Alie&Jim's Carrilite said:

Thankfully they gave notice.  

From everything I'm reading here, it appears they have NOT given notice...too many customers who are just finding out about their closing from discussion forums like this one.

5 hours ago, dartmouth01 said:

I have a feeling she will NOT be informing her clients directly, and folding up as quietly as possible. 

That was my feeling after reading all of these responses. 

LindaH
2014 Winnebago Aspect 27K
2011 Kia Soul

 

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I spoke with Terri yesterday.  She said that there was still a chance that the business might be sold and she said that she would know that today (Thursday).  I decided that I wasn't going to play around and worry about whether or not they would stay in business, so I opened an account yesterday with YourBestAddress in Sioux Falls. Tanyel (605-334-5313) is the person to talk to there and she was very helpful and efficient.  They offer roughly the same services as Terri was providing at similar prices.

FWIW I know for fact that MyDakotaAddress was not a sole proprietor business (at least not initially).  Terri was an employee but I don't think she was an (original) owner.  At the 2011 Escapade in Gillette I happened to meet a guy who identified himself as "one of the owners".  He was a faculty member at an SD university, although I don't remember his name.  That always gave me "confidence" that the business had some staying power.  So much for my sense of confidence!  I'm not sure what happened to the business but closing your doors in less than a week without any form of formal notification to customers is a dreadful way to do business.

FWIW USPS requires mail forwarding services to provide forwarding of additional pieces of mail for, I believe, 6 months (at your expense) after a termination.  However, if the business is no longer functioning I'm not sure what can be done about this. From USPS's perspective, this is in lieu of the fact that it doesn't provide "change of address" service to people using PMB's.

One reason for going with YourBestAddress is that the Sioux Falls address allows me to retain the East Coast DNS feed from DirecTV.  We aren't grandfathered into both feeds and didn't want to end up with the West Coast one which, I think, is what would happen if we chose a mail service in the western portion of the state which is on Mountain Time.

 

Edited by docj

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4 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

 

It would probably be helpful if one of you would share what you learn with the forums. I would also suggest you consider the Escapee's SD mail service.

I was looking at them also.  I have a message out to Teri, I’m sure that she is SWAMPED in calls.  I really just wanted to make sure that they were in fact closing.  Based on all of the fake news these days.  As I did not get an email from them stating that they were closing.  I would even think that Teri would take over/buy the business as she is very well known in what she does.  I will update any information I find out.

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20 hours ago, Dutch_12078 said:

I wish Terri well also, but she isn't the owner. Jon Knuths is listed as the owner and operator of the business, Terri is the manager. I don't know if they have any other employees. It's odd that there's nothing on the website about the shutdown, but I did find a mention on the Your Best Address site:

http://yourbestaddress.com/sd-residency/my-dakota-address-going-out-of-business/

Jon and Terri recommend clients move to http://yourbestaddress.com for uninterrupted South Dakota service. YBA is FMCA's preferred mail forwarder. They will drop the sign-up fee and keep your same box # if possible. MBA's home page should reflect this shortly. Tanyel (605-334-5313) is the one to talk to at YBA. Prayers go out to Jon (and to the clients who are finding out on such short notice!)

Edited by CantDrive55
additional information came to light
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3 hours ago, LindaH said:

From everything I'm reading here, it appears they have NOT given notice...too many customers who are just finding out about their closing from discussion forums like this one.

That was my feeling after reading all of these responses. 

Interesting as I had mail forwarded less then a month ago and she said nothing to me about this..

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2016 Mobile Suites 38RSB3

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Moving to another mail forwarding service isn't automatic, the Post Office won't let you submit a Change of Address away from a forwarding company.  The Post Office won't pick out your mail from the high volume of mail going to the forwarding business, in effect they'd be doing the forwarder's job.

Under normal circumstances, the forwarder is supposed to have a grace period where they continue to forward your mail while you notify all of your correspondents of your new address.  I don't know if this applies if the entire operation is going out of business.

If you're lucky, MyDakotaAddress will arrange for another forwarding service take over their entire business so they can have ALL their incoming mail forwarded to the new company.

If they don't, when they close their doors all of their incoming mail will be marked as undeliverable and returned to sender.  It will be up to you to contact all of your correspondents, update your address with them and request re-issuance of any returned mail.

Then rinse and repeat if the new Mom and Pop forwarding company has a similar situation arise in the future.

It's much less likely that a major mail forwarder like Escapees or FMCA will have these issues.

Edited by Lou Schneider
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5 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

 

It would probably be helpful if one of you would share what you learn with the forums. I would also suggest you consider the Escapee's SD mail service.

Kirk,

some questions  about the differences.

Escapees 

Are the tax, registration and insurance prices different from Madison county (Teri Lunds) to Escapees Pennington county?

When calling Escapees, they said that I will be using there Livingston, TX address for evrerything else. Like retirement accounts, banking, credit cards as it is not known as a “mailing service” for the Patriot Act, is this true?  

Interesting how it sounds like they use a mailing forwarding service in SD for vehicle, voting and licience but the Livingston, TX address is the true mailing address for everything else.

 

I am sure I will come up with more questions and understandings, angles on this.  

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2016 Mobile Suites 38RSB3

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8 minutes ago, Lou Schneider said:

Moving to another mail forwarding service isn't automatic, the Post Office won't let you submit a Change of Address away from a forwarding service.  The Post Office wont pick out your mail from the high volume of mail going to the forwarding business, in effect they'd be doing the forwarder's job.

If you're lucky, MyDakotaAddress will arrange for another forwarding service to take over their entire business so they can have ALL their incoming mail forwarded to the new company.

If they don't, when they close their doors all of their incoming mail will be marked as undeliverable and returned to sender.  It will be up to you to contact all of your correspondents, update your address with them and request re-issuance of any returned mail.

Then rinse and repeat if the new Mom and Pop forwarding company has a similar situation arise in the future.

It's much less likely that a major mail forwarder like Escapees or FMCA will have these issues.

I would agree.  That is why I am looking at different angles with mailing services.  I did it 4-5 years ago.

2015 Ram 3500 RC DRW CTD AISIN 410 rear

2016 Mobile Suites 38RSB3

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Update from a call with Terri today at around 11AM PST:

1) The deal to possibly sell the business is not going forward, so 7/31 is the last day

2) You should have any mail forwarded ASAP.

3) No mail will be forwarded after 7/31

4) She recommends Dakota Post

5) She does not know of a way to do address changes online for licensing and registrations.  She said the next mail forwarder should be able to handle.  My concern with not handling sooner is that if any traffic tickets may be sent via mail, that we won't get them.

6) Apparently Your Best Address is advertising themselves as recommended even though Terri hasn't given her blessing.  Sounds a bit predatory to me, but if they're a good service, whatever I suppose.

 

 

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