PMG DeJoy ends USPS 30-year discount postage program

[bargainsandbaubles]

It predicted this would impact a number of companies, including Stamps.com and Pitney Bowes, which have been offering the discounted prices to customers.

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/pmg-dejoy-ends-usps-30-year-discount-postage-pro...

If this idiot allows this to happen, kiss your eBay postage rates goodbye. Pitney Bowes is who provides the discounted prices to eBay.

[valueaddedresource]

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@bargainsandbaubles wrote:

It predicted this would impact a number of companies, including Stamps.com and Pitney Bowes, which have been offering the discounted prices to customers.

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/pmg-dejoy-ends-usps-30-year-discount-postage-pro...

If this idiot allows this to happen, kiss your eBay postage rates goodbye. Pitney Bowes is who provides the discounted prices to eBay.

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@bargainsandbaubles  - in 2019 it was revealed that eBay was the #2 USPS retail customer, behind Amazon.

They may use Pitney Bowes to power the technical side of things but that doesn't necessarily mean the rates they are given come from Pitney Bowes or are the same as other customers who may use Pitney Bowes - USPS can and does negotiate those contracts heavily and it's possible that big dogs like Amazon and eBay will still be able to negotiate those deals.

It's too early to tell what impact this may have on eBay rates in particular, there are no details yet on if marketplaces will be impacted the same way as resellers like Stamps.com and Pitney Bowes direct consumer products.

I will be keeping a close eye on this one though. 👍

[southern*sweet*tea]

Great. 😟

"A 2019 report by the Postal Service’s Office of Inspector General about the program was highly redacted, but it noted there were “allegations, at a high level ... that certain PC [personal computer] Postage providers were working with resellers to route shipments from existing USPS customers through resellers’ discounts on a massive scale.

All this was occurring amid “the soaring financial fortunes of these PC Postage providers at a time when the Postal Service is doing less well,” the inspector general’s report said. ”"

In other words, cheaters who aren't satisfied with what they have, they want more and don't mind stealing it from someone.  Always, always a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel for the rest of the honest folks out there.   Look for the free shipping supplies to go away next, and I wouldn't be surprised if Media Mail went bye-bye as well.  Thanks a lot, postage cheaters.

I swear, people make me sick.

[tools*]

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@bargainsandbaubles wrote:

It predicted this would impact a number of companies, including Stamps.com and Pitney Bowes, which have been offering the discounted prices to customers.

https://www.linns.com/news/us-stamps-postal-history/pmg-dejoy-ends-usps-30-year-discount-postage-pro...

If this idiot allows this to happen, kiss your eBay postage rates goodbye. Pitney Bowes is who provides the discounted prices to eBay.

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What's happening with the USPS Board of Governors and why is he still there?

[m60driver]

The long term goal of DeJoy and his peers is to privatize the postal system so that it becomes as efficient as our privatized healthcare system which results in very poor outcomes (death) for far more per capita expenditure than any other industrialized nation.  The irony is that it will be the more rural red state folks who will pay the highest price as they are already the highest subsidized for postal service and just about all other infrastructure.  And the beat goes on.

[monroe67]

"I swear, people make me sick."

Indeed.   SMH.  

And more than a few cheaters, back in the early days, who were not caught by eBay while engaging in Fee Avoidance is the reason why our Final Value Fees now are based on an amount that includes postage.   

This lesson should have been taught -- and learned -- in elementary school. 

[powell-memorabilia]

To me, this move makes sense.  Stamps.com is a middleman where one isn’t needed.  That is far different from sellers using eBay commercial rates.

[bargainsandbaubles]

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@monroe67 wrote:

And more than a few cheaters, back in the early days, who were not caught by eBay while engaging in Fee Avoidance is the reason why our Final Value Fees now are based on an amount that includes postage.  

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What they should have done was cap shipping costs. I remember that time frame, 99 cent laptops with $500 shipping.

Shipping costs are actually capped in some categories like video game consoles, books, etc.

But that wouldn't of made eBay more money, now would it of?

[chapeau-noir]

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@m60driver wrote:

The long term goal of DeJoy and his peers is to privatize the postal system so that it becomes as efficient as our privatized healthcare system which results in very poor outcomes (death) for far more per capita expenditure than any other industrialized nation.  The irony is that it will be the more rural red state folks who will pay the highest price as they are already the highest subsidized for postal service and just about all other infrastructure.  And the beat goes on.

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Yep, and just like our health care system, we'll be paying more per capita than anyone else in the industrialised world, with the poorest outcome.

@bargainsandbaubles  I well remember eBay capping shipping costs - but it didn't work very well, though I'm not sure if it was possible, given the myriad items sold here, to do any better with it. For instance, in categories, all items in that particular category were averaged out and the shipping capped.  So, my car-top bike rack (heavy) was factored in with OEM nuts and bolts, fork holders and single towers, all of which were pretty light, and my shipping for that bike rack capped at $25 - it actually cost more like $55, even in those days, to ship.  Media was awful - particularly if one as shipping several books.  I think eBay just gave up trying to monitor that and just slapped the FVFs on shipping.

[katzrul15]

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@southern*sweet*tea wrote:

Great. 😟

In other words, cheaters who aren't satisfied with what they have, they want more and don't mind stealing it from someone.  Always, always a few bad apples spoil the whole barrel for the rest of the honest folks out there.   Look for the free shipping supplies to go away next, and I wouldn't be surprised if Media Mail went bye-bye as well.  Thanks a lot, postage cheaters.

I swear, people make me sick.

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Don't forget the people who cheat and use MEDIA when it the order never qualified for it.  I feel like I get the side-eye from the postal gal every time I take a stack of media mail items into the PO.  

And yes, ours do qualify for media, but many, do not.

[vintagecraze50]

Dejoy is still there because of his wealth and all his cronies who support him. Like it or not, the postal service will continue to up their prices to stay afloat and expect more to come as far as increases in prices.

[chapeau-noir]

IMHO, the media mail cheats and the supplies cheats, as much as I abhor their dishonesty, is not sinking the USPS, that's chicken feed compared to a lagging infrastructure, logistics problems, necessity for fleet updates and the rest of it - infrastructure repair is billions alone, no less the drop in first class letter mail. I'm not sure if cranking up prices as if the USPS is some kind of for-profit company rather than the public service it actually is, is going to do help. 

[the_fancy_fox]

And more than a few cheaters, back in the early days, who were not caught by eBay while engaging in Fee Avoidance is the reason why our Final Value Fees now are based on an amount that includes postage.   

There were other ways to fix that problem but ebay chose the route that made them more money.

[mam98031]

@bargainsandbaubles 

Pitney Bowes is the provider Ebay uses for the shipping labels, but the rates Ebay has are negotiated directly with USPS.

It is also important to know that the rates we get for USPS First Class Package and Media mail are not negotiated and are the rates that USPS sets for Commercial Rate customers.  So we won't lose these rates.

[femmefan1946]

I remember that time frame, 99 cent laptops with $500 shipping.

Yes but.

We non-US sellers don't have the very low postal rates that USPS customers enjoy.

You pay rates low enough that there are businesses here in Canada which charge a fee to carry parcels across the border and ship through USPS.

Even with the time delay and the service fees, the price difference is enough to make the service very popular.

I shipped an 82gr envelope today using Canada Post Tracked Packet USA and was charged $15.13 for the privilege.

Caps don't work well.