Short-paid reconciliation systems and methods
AssigneeQuadient Technologies France
InventorKirk Lane Wilson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods are provided for enabling third parties, such as authorized vendors, to reconcile short-paid adjustment requests initiated by service providers such as, for example, the United States Postal Service, in response to customer non- or underpayment for services rendered. In an embodiment, a method includes the steps of storing a short-paid adjustment request from an initiator, identifying a source for the short-paid adjustment request, generating a request to a VBI meter system for a short-paid adjustment request based on the source identified, storing the VBI meter system response to the short-paid adjustment request, and generating a file to the initiator based on the VBI meter system response.
Claims19
A method for reconciling a request from a postal service provider for at least one short-paid adjustment to a value bearing item (VBI) meter system including one or more registers, the short-paid adjustment request for payment for delivery of a mail piece to a recipient, the method comprising:
- performing, by a computing system, operations comprising:
- storing the at least one short-paid adjustment request from the postal service provider;
- identifying at least one source for the short-paid adjustment request;
- generating a request to the VBI meter system for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on at least one of the at least one source and a prior request for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment, wherein the short-paid adjustment request causes the VBI meter system to update at least one of an ascending register value and a descending register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request;
- receiving a VBI meter system response to the request from the VBI meter system;
- storing the VBI meter system response to the request for evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment;
- based upon a determination that the VBI meter system response includes evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system, generating at least one file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment;
- and
- providing the file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment to the postal service provider;
- wherein the update to the at least one register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request is performed independently of delivery of the mailpiece to the recipient.
A system for reconciling a request from a postal service provider, the system comprising:
- a value bearing item (VBI) meter system, capable of being configured to communicatively couple to a network, for generating evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the VBI meter system, the short-paid adjustment request for payment for delivery of a mail piece to a recipient;
- and
- a processor capable of being configured to communicatively couple to the network and capable of being configured to:
- store the at least one short-paid adjustment request from the postal service provider;
- identify at least one source for the short-paid adjustment request;
- generate a request to the VBI meter system for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on at least one of the at least one source and a prior request for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment, wherein the short-paid adjustment request causes the VBI meter system to update at least one of an ascending register value and a descending register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request;
- receive a VBI meter system response to the request from the VBI meter system;
- store the VBI meter system response to the request for evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment;
- based upon a determination that the VBI meter system response includes evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system, generate at least one file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment;
- and
- provide the file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment to the postal service provider;
- wherein the update to the at least one register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request is performed independently of delivery of the mailpiece to the recipient.
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a plurality of instructions which, when executed by a processor, perform a method for reconciling a request from a postal service provider for at least one short-paid adjustment to a value bearing item (VBI) meter system including one or more registers, the short-paid adjustment request for payment for delivery of a mail piece to a recipient, the method comprising:
- storing the at least one short-paid adjustment request from the postal service provider;
- identifying at least one source for the short-paid adjustment request;
- generating a request to the VBI meter system for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on at least one of the at least one source and a prior request for evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment, wherein the short-paid adjustment request causes the VBI meter system to update at least one of an ascending register value and a descending register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request;
- receiving a VBI meter system response to the request from the VBI meter system;
- storing the VBI meter system response to the request for evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment;
- based upon a determination that the VBI meter system response includes evidence of a short-paid meter adjustment to the one or more registers of the VBI meter system, generating at least one file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment;
- and
- providing the file containing the evidence of the short-paid meter adjustment to the postal service provider;
- wherein the update to the at least one register value of the one or more registers of the VBI meter system based on the amount in the short-paid adjustment request is performed independently of delivery of the mailpiece to the recipient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.