USPS Shipping - paying for postage and labels online and then shipping question

[evident]

I just sold a ton of stuff on ebay. normally i just pack everything up and take them to the post office, but now that i have a digital scale i wanted to do the online label printing thing and pay for postage via paypal, since it seems so much more convenient (no longer have to individually write each package's shipping address, etc)

one important question though and i think i might be missing something. what if i miscalculate my postage weight? this is the first time i've used this scale so it may happen. I will probably take everything over to the post office this time just to make sure i didnt fuck anything up, but theoretically say a package was off by an ounce or two?
How would they charge me, the shipper? would the package just come back to my doorstep?

 

[DeviousTrap]

Shipping is rounded to the pound, ignore the ounce measurement for practicality sake.

If you mark it at 1lbs 4oz, you'll still be charged for 2lbs. Just round up and you'll be fine. And if you mark it 2lbs and it weighs 2.1, nobody will blink and eye and it'll still get there.

 

[blinblue]

In my experience the post office really doesn't care. But if they do care, they will send it back to the return address and request more postage.

But I'm sure your scale is accurate enough, and if you are worried just round up by an ounce.

 

[Merad]

I worked for UPS years ago. Nobody will care unless it's blatantly off. Eg, a 50 lb package that you try to send as 20 lbs... They will probably notice. 3 lbs sent as 2... Meh.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Shipping is rounded to the pound, ignore the ounce measurement for practicality sake.

If you mark it at 1lbs 4oz, you'll still be charged for 2lbs. Just round up and you'll be fine. And if you mark it 2lbs and it weighs 2.1, nobody will blink and eye and it'll still get there.

For the most part the above is true but for First Class, both domestic and international (up to 4 pounds), you don't round up to the nearest pound.

Since you have a digital scale it is likely accurate to at least .5 oz and more likely .2 oz until you get to 10 lbs or more (depends on the scale). As the poster above already mentioned, a mistake of .5 oz to 1 oz usually won't cause any problems.

 

[Tweak155]

I just sold a ton of stuff on ebay. normally i just pack everything up and take them to the post office, but now that i have a digital scale i wanted to do the online label printing thing and pay for postage via paypal, since it seems so much more convenient (no longer have to individually write each package's shipping address, etc)

one important question though and i think i might be missing something. what if i miscalculate my postage weight? this is the first time i've used this scale so it may happen. I will probably take everything over to the post office this time just to make sure i didnt fuck anything up, but theoretically say a package was off by an ounce or two?
How would they charge me, the shipper? would the package just come back to my doorstep?

I've shipped nearly 600 orders (or more?) via post office and never get anything back, and I'm sure I've made mistakes. The tricks I've learned:

- If you don't know what regional rate boxes are, learn about them. They have saved me lots of money on shipping. Regional Rate A boxes give you the 2lb price for items up to 15lbs if they fit in the box. Regional Rate B gives you 4lb price for up to 20lbs for items that fit in a box roughly twice the size of regional rate A.

- Padded flat rate envelopes recently became available. These are great because they expand and can fit quit a bit while offering protection. $4.95 to ship them. The downer is the PO only lets you order 15 at a time.

- If you keep shipping you'll learn what weighs what and you don't have to use a scale. For example if I know something is at least 2lbs and I'm using regional rate A, slap 5lbs on the label without having to waste time weighing it (because I know it is 2-4lbs). Good time saver when you pack 15-20 orders on some days.

- Sign up at fedex.com and you get free shipping labels you can put it any inkjet / laser printer. Order 800 as they are 100% free (unless you have a label printer, if you have a label printer you get free label-printer style labels at ups.com 🙂)

 

[vailr]

Don't forget the "over 13 ounce, post 9/11 secure USPS mailing" rule: any package weighing over 13 ounces must be taken to a live USPS employee for shipment. Cannot simply put in a mail box, or else the item WILL likely be returned to your return address. And: never use Priority Mail boxes for some lower cost service, such as Parcel Post. The package WILL likely be returned to you.

 

[Merad]

Don't forget the "over 13 ounce, post 9/11 secure USPS mailing" rule: any package weighing over 13 ounces must be taken to a live USPS employee for shipment. Cannot simply put in a mail box, or else the item WILL likely be returned to your return address. And: never use Priority Mail boxes for some lower cost service, such as Parcel Post. The package WILL likely be returned to you.

That's BS. I've probably shipped 150-200 priority mail packages since 9/11, and almost all of them had labels ordered online and used carrier pickup. 0 returns and 0 complaints from any of the recipients.

 

[blinblue]

Don't forget the "over 13 ounce, post 9/11 secure USPS mailing" rule: any package weighing over 13 ounces must be taken to a live USPS employee for shipment. Cannot simply put in a mail box, or else the item WILL likely be returned to your return address. And: never use Priority Mail boxes for some lower cost service, such as Parcel Post. The package WILL likely be returned to you.

The signs I see say packages weighing over 13 ounces that have stamps aren't allowed. If you print off a shipping label you are just fine. At least I've shipped plenty of things weighing more than 13 oz and not a single one has been returned. Shipping labels are traceable to the purchaser (well, at least a credit card I would assume), stamps of course are pretty much anonymous.

And yeah, anything with the priority mail logo on it can only be shipped via priority mail.


And random tip, but they fairly recently added a padded envelope to their Priority Mail flat rate envelopes. They are free, pretty high quality and great for shipping things.