My Post Office no longer accept scanning sheets for shipmernts

[segestius]

On my selling ID I always ship around 40 small bubble envelopes with tracking every Monday.  And of course always print a scanning sheet to make it easier for them.   Today was told by the manager that they will no longer accept scanning sheets...  only individual scans.   Was informed that their staffing allowance is based on the number of tranactions and scans they perform every day, and they would rather have 40 scans rather than a single scan.

Now...  must admit that my post office is always very short staffed and usually has long lines, so definitely understand the issue.   But kind of sad that this backwards process has to be used.

It appears that there will be no more scanning sheets for me.

[ga_open_box_llc]

All I know is that is what she had told me. She had said whatever zip code is used for the ship from address, that's the zip code that gets the credit for the label purchased, not the one that physically scans the package in.

[a_c_green]

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@ga_open_box_llc wrote:

All I know is that is what she had told me. She had said whatever zip code is used for the ship from address, that's the zip code that gets the credit for the label purchased, not the one that physically scans the package in.

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Mmm... yeah, she is simply wrong. No other way to describe that, really. But on the plus side, it doesn't particularly matter what she thinks, as long as she scans the package(s) to reflect that your shipment has gone out.

Regarding what the Ship From ZIP shows on your label, it's just a quick twiddle at shipping time to change it as needed to reflect whichever post office you will be shipping from. (Click the Edit link that's just below the Return To address shown on the shipping form for the package.) 

You can store multiple Ship From ZIP addresses, as the Shipping form explains (emphasis mine): "This address will be used to calculate rates and estimate delivery time (e.g. the address of your post office). By default, this is your Primary ship from address. To modify this address or assign a different Primary ship from address, go to your account Address settings." 

That link above should in turn lead you to this form for storing and selecting Ship From ZIP choices:
https://settings3.ebay.com/address/display?type=SHIPPING_FROM

When entering a Ship From post office that's not in your hometown, you would use the address and ZIP of that post office itself, since that would be the actual origin of your shipment. (Note that the Ship From ZIP Address is totally independent of your Return Address. You're free to ship from one ZIP and collect returns at another.)

[a_c_green]

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@newlifeforoldstuff2 wrote:

You're correct. I can tell you it is because the training stinks! My spouse worked in several different USPS offices. After the initial classroom training which is not much more than the basic dos and don'ts, they throw you to the wolves and you learn on the fly. Offices often call each other trying to figure out how to do things. She was bounced around to various offices because it was cheaper for them to have "relief" workers fill in then to hire someone full time.  

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Oh yeah. You can generally get a pretty good idea real quick about which clerk is new and/or clueless, and which one is the guru to whom everyone else goes for answers. Hopefully your local PO has at least one guru on staff. (We had a great one some years ago until one day, of all things, she won the lottery and promptly retired. Hey, I would, too...) 😉

[buyselljack2016]

Financial credit, actual work credit.

Confusing for some. Don't care for some.

I have asked about the financial credit, as to which office gets that when I ship a package.

Response was..............  don't know. They scan and move along with the process.

When I ship from other than "my zip", even though by the DMM guidelines, I know I do not have to (based on the zips I am using), I always try to use that ship from.

I know that they get "work time" credit base on the fact that they scanned but have not gotten a definitive answer on the financial credit.

Last time at a PO that I am quite sure the PM would have been able to answer my question, unfortunately he was not present, and I doubt if Sarah would know, (or care), and I suspect that Colliene, Linda, Betty, and Kim would not know😁  

[flp]

Would requesting a pickup on line work for you? My carrier and post office do that for me (I think they're supposed to now).  Sometimes, when the substitute forgets, the post office supervisor will come out in her own car to do the pickup. (Yes, I am semi-rural only 3 miles from the post office. But, it's nice they do that .)

[mam98031]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

My carrier (rural carrier) is more than happy to scan more than 5 packages.

Scan 5, hit a button, hit another button, scan some more.  She is paid for each scan that is done.

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Same with my carrier.  I some days I give her quite a workout.  The busier the route a carrier has [more mail pieces] the more that carrier makes, or so I've been told.

[buyselljack2016]

Yup, directly from my carrier's mouth to my ears. Gets 18 seconds of pay credit for each package scan when I ship something. At the same time, she was grousing about how she had not gotten credit for the "bulk" flyers that she had delivered as she had not scanned the code on the bundle. Apparent that was a change from the way things had been done in the past.

[chilie68]

That is absolutely correct. The postal unit which scans and processes the package DOES NOT get Revenue credit on any package they process if the ship from zip is not their zip code. My home zip is different than the unit I mail from which is much closer so I changed my ship from address to the post office address so they can get revenue credit for the work they do.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@ga_open_box_llc wrote:

The actual scan of the bar code is irrelevant.  It all has to do with the zip code that the label has for the ship from address.  So if you drop off your package at a completely different zip code from what is stated in the label, the post office that scans the package in doesn't get the credit, only the ship from zip code from the ship from address. I had to adjust my ship from zip code because the lady at my small post office informed me that her post office wasn't getting credit for the label due to the zip code being different,  even though the other post office is maybe 20 mins away. The one I drop packages off is alot closer then the post office for my actual zip code, so I always use them instead. 

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@ga_open_box_llc  Yup, this is 100% true & I've even had PO's refuse to accept a package that did not have their zip!  More than once.  That said, it's only if you hand it to an employee that it would even get noticed.   Also, it depends on the PO if they care.  I find that big city PO's don't care at all, small rural ones care a lot.  If memory serves me right, I once even had a pkg come back to me b/c the PO I'd dropped it at refused to process it for this reason.   

I haven't had this come up for over 6 years now, but they seem to go in cycles of how much they care about this.  Lately, I haven't heard much about it.  

IDK if this is why OP's PO is refusing to use the Scan Sheet though, but it's a possibility.  It can be easily remedied by changing the Ship From Zip Code or changing the PO you drop stuff at, to match the zip code you used. 

[keziak]

The main Post office in town here gets MOUNTAINS of e-commerce packages. One time I noticed a scan sheet. So that was once. I see the piles when I drop off my own. Sometimes staff drop everything and scan the boxes to make room for mine, no scan sheet. Sometimes they have to give me one of the big tubs (I'm talking for heavy mail days not every day). Anyway, it doesn't appear that scan sheets are heavily used there. 

One time I read that the scan sheet doesn't actually confirm drop-off at the P.O., the actual scans are at the first sorting center. If I wanted that I could just drop off at the loading dock. I want a scan that says I delivered to the P.O. that day. Erroneous information?

[robbie31415]

Scan sheets and kiosks aren't actual acceptance because the USPS hasn't verified they have the actual shipment.

However, for eBay, it satisfies the acceptance validation.

[a_c_green]

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@robbie31415 wrote:

Scan sheets and kiosks aren't actual acceptance because the USPS hasn't verified they have the actual shipment.

However, for eBay, it satisfies the acceptance validation.

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Ayup. That's how it works.

Regarding SCAN sheets, the USPS has a recommendation somewhere in their manuals about checking at least occasionally to verify that the customer has presented the correct number of packages referenced by the sheet, but otherwise it's just an unofficial group acceptance, pending confirmation by a direct in-network scan of each package further down the line, usually at the origin sort facility.

Since that later scan often doesn't happen until the wee hours of the next day, eBay some time ago (grudgingly, I think) started to accept "provisional" scans, such as those reported by a kiosk or on a SCAN sheet, as proof of mailing within the seller's Handling Time.

Incidentally, that Ship From ZIP indication on the label simply does not have anything to do with a facility getting "credit" for handling the package, regardless of how many clerks seem to think otherwise. That's what scanning the package will prove. The Ship From ZIP is purely to indicate correct postage calculation for the origin Zone from which it will be mailed.

Incidentally, if the PO doesn't bother to do an Acceptance scan and simply tosses the package on the truck, its first in-network scan will be at the origin sort facility later on. At that time, the Acceptance record will be attributed to the ZIP code used for the postage calculation, since the system has no other way of determining where the package first entered the mailstream. Thus it's to the PO's advantage to scan every package they receive, so that the system knows that they really did handle it.

[yuzuha]

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@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:

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Yup, this is 100% true & I've even had PO's refuse to accept a package that did not have their zip!  More than once.  That said, it's only if you hand it to an employee that it would even get noticed.   Also, it depends on the PO if they care.  I find that big city PO's don't care at all, small rural ones care a lot.  If memory serves me right, I once even had a pkg come back to me b/c the PO I'd dropped it at refused to process it for this reason.   

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This is very interesting for me to read because during the week I almost always ship my packages from the post office near where I work, which has a completely different zip code. Never once have they complained that my packages originate from a different zip code when they scan them.

[a_c_green]

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@yuzuha wrote:
This is very interesting for me to read because during the week I almost always ship my packages from the post office near where I work, which has a completely different zip code.

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When you say "completely" different, do the first three digits of the Ship From ZIP entry match the first three digits of the origin ZIP code (i.e. of your post office)? If so, you're probably fine.

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@yuzuha wrote:
Never once have they complained that my packages originate from a different zip code when they scan them.

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It's printed in really tiny type and it's generally not something for the accepting PO to worry about anyway. If you did have a significant mismatch between your Ship From ZIP and your actual place of mailing, such that you paid the wrong fee for postage from that location (either too high or too low), the USPS' automated postage verification ("Revenue Assurance," something like that) will catch it during the tracking scans along the way, and either ding your eBay account or credit it for the difference, whichever way the discrepancy goes. I don't think the recipient will get hit for Postage Due charges anymore.

[simply-the-best-for-you]

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@yuzuha wrote:

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@simply-the-best-for-you wrote:

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Yup, this is 100% true & I've even had PO's refuse to accept a package that did not have their zip!  More than once.  That said, it's only if you hand it to an employee that it would even get noticed.   Also, it depends on the PO if they care.  I find that big city PO's don't care at all, small rural ones care a lot.  If memory serves me right, I once even had a pkg come back to me b/c the PO I'd dropped it at refused to process it for this reason.   

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This is very interesting for me to read because during the week I almost always ship my packages from the post office near where I work, which has a completely different zip code. Never once have they complained that my packages originate from a different zip code when they scan them.

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@yuzuha  Like I said, some care, some don't.   If you drop them off, no one cares cuz no one looks at them.  If it's a reasonably large station, they don't care cuz it happens all day long.  If it's a small station, many of them care.  A lot.  To the point that they will refuse to accept it or tell you they'll do it as a courtesy this one time.  
@a_c_green  IDK what true, but this was very well known a few years ago & was pretty common to have PO's refuse to accept it if it was from a different zip.  I remember all kinds of threads about it & I remember being strongly chastised for even attempting to do it & that I should know better & how dare I not care about the UNITED STATES postal service's internal accounting.  Welp, I didn't care then & I don't care now, since it says "United States", I expect to be able to drop my package anywhere in said United States (provided I have the right postage on it), but I can assure you that I have been refused on mutliple occasions & so have others & the reason is always the same.  I'm curious why you think it isn't true?  I will say that I haven't had problems for quite a few years now, but then again, I almost never bother with a human being.