Postage due on ebay purchases???

[steve B]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

This.

If it's shipped 1st Class Parcel instead of 1st Class Letter, it shouldn't matter the thickness. As long as it has a rigid insert.

I had an issue a couple years ago on a package sent to Philadelphia. The package got pulled and the customer was sent a postage due for a Priority Mail upgrade.

Absolutely ridiculous. A clerk at my local PO looked up the rule for me and found a page about 50 deep into the handbook. It's an either/or certain thickness or rigid package.
The motive is to keep customers from getting free tracking online for tiny letters.............however, if you're paying the Parcel Price instead of Letter Price.......you are already paying extra to cover the confirmation charges.

These Postage Due notices are almost always a case of overzealous, un-knowledgeable postmasters and clerks.

I immediately refunded the entire shipping charge, when it was mentioned to me that one time, because it was a hassle for the customer, and certainly wasn't their fault either.

Nope, for DC on first class the item must be 3/4" thick. Parcel applies to inflexible OR 1/4" and over. But for DC the parcel still needs to be 3/4" or more. I had a big discussion with my postmaster about it and even talked to customer service in Providence, RI. when I had a package returned to me for the postage due. I used Paypal click and ship which makes no mention of the required size.
Funniest part was that they wrote it up wrong, which caused the whole problem in the first palce (As postage due for a required priority upgrade- claiming DC couldn't go on any first class mail!) And to top it off the postage due ammount was for the prior years rate which had been changed over 6 months before.

I did get a neat item for my stamp collection, but had to repack the item in a thicker package.

I still don't get the requirement. The packages I sent out after that with excess bubble wrap or for cards just a single styro peanut in the bubble envelope havegot to be harder to handle than the stiff flats I sent before that.

Steve B