Post Office Issues: Paying for Postage via eBay

[Buythatcard]

I have been creating postage labels via ebay for quite some time. Never had a problem until today. I mail out over 100 items a week and for some reason one package was returned to me.

This package contained 1 card and was in a bubble envelope.

When I created a postage label via eBay for this item, I chose the following:

First Class Package/Thick Envelope
Package weighed 1 ounce.
Package was about 1/4 inch thick.

Cost was $1.22 for the S/H + .19 for delivery confirmation(You must take delivery confirmation.)
So, total cost was $1.41.

Post Office returned it stating that to use Delivery Confirmation, the envelope must be atleast 3/4 thick and it must be first class parcel. I was told that I need to send it Priority mail which will be an additional $3.49. I complained to the PO and they said that sometimes it gets through and sometimes it gets stopped. If you want to use delivery confirmation, you need to send it Priority mail.
I told them that was absurd. I said that I am forced to take delivery confirmation when I create the postage labels online. Their response was well thats the way it is.

Has anyone else experienced such nonsense and if so what did you do?

[vintagechris]

Yes. All you have to do is add a packing peanut to it to get to the correct thickness. It is questionable as to if one card in a bubble mailer is 1/4 ince. Just put a packing peanut in and you have no problems. Doesn't change the weight either.

Chris

[Buythatcard]

Chris,

Sounds like a good plan. I assume that if I tape it to the middle of the top loader that will be sufficient.

[D. Bergin]

Overzealous postal employee who doesn't really know their own rules. A couple years ago I had a 1st Class Mail package to Philadelphia that got similar treatment. Only this time they made my customer come pick up the package himself and pay the difference in postage.

It was embarrassing enough to me that I refunded his shipping charge in full along with the amount he was forced to pay by the USPS.

For a little while I took to shipping my flats with a piece of packing popcorn to reach the 3/4" thickness threshold. It bothered me enough that I questioned this ridiculous practice at my Post Office.

One of the women who works there has always been very helpful to me and she promised me she would look it up in the handbook for me.

Next time I saw her she had a copy of the actual rule for me and it turns out it's an either OR thing. 3/4" inch OR the package is Rigid. Being marked "Do Not Bend" seems to help. I always use a rigid backing with my flats, so I was relieved I didn't have to put a packing peanut in there, which in my mind actually subverts the effectiveness of a rigid backing by shifting the weight to several weaker spots if something gets loaded on top of your flat.

This qualifies for the 1st Class Mail "Package" rate, which is a little more expensive then the "Letter Rate".........and you can include Delivery Confirmation with this.........which you cannot using "Letter Rate".

BTW, Ebay and Paypal label printing tools automatically use the "Package" rate...........so it should not have been an issue with you.

[rp12367]

I have had this problem before as well. Every time I get this one lady at the post office she makes me open the mailer and ball up a piece of paper and reseal the envelope, she says it has to be 3/4" thick. Every other postal clerk will accept bubble mailers and not even second glace them. So now I won't even go to her, I always let someone else go if I'm up and she's the teller...

[Anthony S.]

What a dippy rule.

[Leon]

It is a rule on the thickness and is checked at all of the places I use to send USPS. Whoever said you can't use Delivery Confirmation on 1st class is just plain wrong. I use it almost daily, including today. BTW, that sure is a cheap delivery confirmation price. regards

[vintagechris]

Originally Posted by Buythatcard

Chris,

Sounds like a good plan. I assume that if I tape it to the middle of the top loader that will be sufficient.

I don't even do that. I just put one in there. It works fine for me.

[buymycards]

Remember, if you use the packing peanut to qualify for delivery confirmation, you can't use the letter rate or the flats rate, because this item is now a parcel. A 2 ounce parcel is $1.39.

If your package is rigid it does not qualify to be a letter or a flat. It is a parcel.

If your package is not of uniform thickness it becomes a parcel.

If your parcel is thick enough (3/4") to use delivery confirmation, then it is too thick to be a letter, and it is probably too rigid or not of uniform thickness, so it becomes a parcel.

These rules don't seem to be uniformly enforced by the PO clerks, partly because they don't understand the rules, or they don't want to upset the customers, so some clerks just take the easy way out and don't enforce the rules.

I understand the reasoning behind these rules, except I have never understood why the item needs to be 3/4" thick in order to use DC, unless it is sent by Priority Mail, and then the thickness rule no longer applies.

Rick (Postmaster-Prairie du Chien WI)

[bobw]

I would think it is because if it wasn't 3/4 of an inch thick, it would go through machine sorting and DPS and then the carrier might not see the Delivery Confirmation sticker in his letter trays of mail to scan it as Delivered.

[lharri3600]

don't go to the window, just print the label and drop it in the box at po. haven't had a problem in 7 years. just a thought!

[Buythatcard]

I never bring it to the window. Have been dropping them in boxes for over 8 years. This was the first time I ever had a problem. It's the delivery confirmation that started this whole thing. I tried to explain to the clerk that the USPS website via eBay automatically includes the delivery confirmation regradless of my package size.

For now, I am just going to drop the single peanut in each envelope and drop the mail off in another neighborhood.

If any of my customers wonder why there is a single peanut in their envelope, I hope they are members of Net54 and they read this post.

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by buymycards

Remember, if you use the packing peanut to qualify for delivery confirmation, you can't use the letter rate or the flats rate, because this item is now a parcel. A 2 ounce parcel is $1.39.

If your package is rigid it does not qualify to be a letter or a flat. It is a parcel.

If your package is not of uniform thickness it becomes a parcel.

If your parcel is thick enough (3/4") to use delivery confirmation, then it is too thick to be a letter, and it is probably too rigid or not of uniform thickness, so it becomes a parcel.

These rules don't seem to be uniformly enforced by the PO clerks, partly because they don't understand the rules, or they don't want to upset the customers, so some clerks just take the easy way out and don't enforce the rules.

I understand the reasoning behind these rules, except I have never understood why the item needs to be 3/4" thick in order to use DC, unless it is sent by Priority Mail, and then the thickness rule no longer applies.

Rick (Postmaster-Prairie du Chien WI)

The way it was explained to me............and the clerk I talked to found this way in the recesses of the USPS handbook, it comes down to this.

If it's a letter.......it can't have Delivery confirmation, if it's a Parcel, it can.

The 3/4" of an inch thing was just to determine if something can be sent letter post, instead of parcel post.

Maybe it's been changed since, I don't know.......but it makes no logical sense as it seems to be being interpreted by many.

At least if they're using it to determine letter rate and the more expensive parcel rate, there is some logic to that. It seems to me it's just getting misinterpreted by many within the Post Office as it is.

Why would USPS give Paypal/Ebay the go ahead to use the 1st Class Parcel Mail option in their software and not be perfectly clear about an alleged 3/4" inch thickness requirement on all packages sent that way?

[autograf]

If you do the ebay thing and print your postage through paypal and either drop at the post office or take to a window, they don't scan the package there, so you have no proof they received it. If you go to file a claim and there's no scan at the origin and the receiver never got it, guess what? You don't get paid if you paid for insurance because they don't have proof you ever got it to them other than the transaction in paypal and guess what? They won't pay.....had that happen on a $100 item and I was out. SO.....I go to the window and have them do everything there now. It's a royal pain in the ass but I have proof that they received my item on both the delivery confirmation slip, insurance slip and then on the register receipt. 99.9% of the time you won't have a problem using ebay and printing it out but when you do, it could be costly. Maybe $100 is a hit you can afford to take but I was basically pissed off and now I clog up the windows getting everything processed. They used to scan the paypal processed packages in but now they refuse to do that. Just my experiences..............

[Exhibitman]

I pack everything with rigid cardboard wrapped around it; never a problem.

[vintagechris]

Originally Posted by buymycards

Remember, if you use the packing peanut to qualify for delivery confirmation, you can't use the letter rate or the flats rate, because this item is now a parcel. A 2 ounce parcel is $1.39.

If your package is rigid it does not qualify to be a letter or a flat. It is a parcel.

If your package is not of uniform thickness it becomes a parcel.

If your parcel is thick enough (3/4") to use delivery confirmation, then it is too thick to be a letter, and it is probably too rigid or not of uniform thickness, so it becomes a parcel.

These rules don't seem to be uniformly enforced by the PO clerks, partly because they don't understand the rules, or they don't want to upset the customers, so some clerks just take the easy way out and don't enforce the rules.

I understand the reasoning behind these rules, except I have never understood why the item needs to be 3/4" thick in order to use DC, unless it is sent by Priority Mail, and then the thickness rule no longer applies.

Rick (Postmaster-Prairie du Chien WI)

So if I send a card in a top loader and bubble mailer that weighs less than an ounce, how much is it supposed to cost? I have one lady that sort of tries to bend the package to see if it is rigid and then charges me $1.22. I have the other two guys who charge me the letter rate. I think it is 61 cents. If I try to mail the card myself by putting a 61 cent stamp on it, most of the time it gets there without problems but sometimes it comes to the buyer postage due. It's kind of frustrating that Postal employees are using different rules and I don't know which is correct.

[tbob]

Originally Posted by Buythatcard

Cost was $1.22 for the S/H + .19 for delivery confirmation(You must take delivery confirmation.)
So, total cost was $1.41.

19 cents for a delivery confirmation????? That's weird that it so cheap. Every time I use a delivery confirmation on a package it is much more and is standardized.

[buymycards]

Chris, if the item is less than 1 oz but it isn't a letter, then there is a "non-standard" surcharge of 17 cents in addition to the 44 cents. This is because this item won't go through the letter sorting machine (at 30,000 letters per hour) and it has to be processed by hand. That is assuming that the bubble mailer isn't rigid, which would make it a parcel that needs $1.22.

This is as confusing as hell. We can't expect our customers to understand it when many of our clerks don't get it.

We need a simpler system, but the reasoning behind the various prices is in the way the different classes of mail are handled. Rigid items go through a machine that is made specifically for parcels, and if a rigid item goes through the flats machine or the letter machine, it may jam the machine and ruin the parcel, along with causing some serious down time for the machine. I would rather pay $1.39 for my 2 oz package and have it go through the correct machine instead of trying to save a few cents and have my package shredded by the flats sorter.

Here is the way that I mail single cards, and I have not had a problem with this after mailing hundreds of cards. Put the card in a top loader. Put the top loader in a team bag, and put empty top loaders on each side of the card for extra support.. Seal the team bag, and add a piece of tape to the seal. Put the team bag in a bubble mailer and add $1.39 for postage and you will be all set.

Rick