Have you been charged after the fact, extra USPS shipping?

[slathome48]

After 20 years of taking every change on the chin, I have left eBay as a seller.  They owe me $24.01, and here is why.  I ship only with eBay labels, and through the USPS service offered by eBay.  I have at least 4 transactions where AFTER they arrived, another shipping charge hit in some cases, 3 weeks after the item arrived.  They are hard to detect in your PayPal, but I believe it to be a scam after verifying with my USPS locally, that they do NOT charge after the fact.  These are all Priority Mail labels, and have no complaint by respective Buyers.  The charges just showed up, and eBay nor PayPal will do a thing about it, and I made it aware to them both.  I ended all my roughly 300 listings, and SEE YA!  If I am not protected from fraud, why sell here?  Anyone else?

[martin2001]

I don't think it is a good idea to stop selling on ebay and make quick decisions based on something that may not be true.

It appears that USPS charged the label provider (who then charged you) because they determined that you underestimated the weigh, therefore your postage was insufficient. So if you mailed something 1st class, they claim that it had to be mailed by Priority Mail, for example. They may be right or they may not. I don't use ebay nor PP to print my labels.

I use pirateship.com. It happened to me twice that I got a message from pirateship that I was charged extra because my package weighted more. Pirateship also asked me to provide any proof to show that my postage was correct. For quite some time, I have been taking photos of my packages on the electronic scale. I also have a set of calibrating weights to test my scale.

I sent the photo of the package + a photo of one of the weights placed on the scale to show that my scale is 100% accurate to pirateship. They submitted it to PO and after about a week i got a message from pirateship that my account was credited back.

Once it did happen that USPS determined that I overpaid the postage and send me a credit for  the overpayment.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Your local source is mistaken. About 2 years ago, USPS introduced "Automated package verification" in their sorting centers.  The sorting machines are now equipped to check package weight and dimensions, and if packages with online prepaid postage are underpaid then the sender is automatically billed for the postage due. This saves USPS a lot of staff time and energy, and also helps sellers avoid angry inconvenienced buyers. The delay between shipping and billing is about 2 weeks; perhaps some are manually verified.

Naturally there is a non-zero error rate.  Sometimes it's because two items were on the scale together; more commonly this happens with First Class package envelopes. A year ago, there was a batch of Priority Mail boxes which had the wrong barcode on them which led to a large number of errors, but IIRC the programming was corrected to allow for this.

https://link.usps.com/2017/10/05/what-is-apv/

http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/ship-smart/ebay-shipping-partners/avoid-extra-postage-costs....

[kim_y_buran]

It happened to me once, on two packages mailed on the same day.  I disputed it, because the shipping was correct, and the charges were  reversed in about a week.

[southern*sweet*tea]

 No, but I have received a refund for postage that I overpaid.

You're a long term seller, and you're just now hearing about APV?

[nobody*s_perfect]

We still see posts from sellers who are surprised that they can't leave negative feedback for buyers. In both cases , not knowing that the policy changed means that things have been going really smoothly for that seller until now. 

[angwjea]

i got one of those underpaid charges from usps too    i got hit hard on a Priority Mail package that already cost alot  **bleep** me off alot   so i go out of the way to cut the weight off the packages and try not to use Priority Mail so they dont get as much money from me

[slathome48]

This wasn't "Quick".  I have been fighting with them since June when it happened.  I keep getting turned over to another "associate".  I am accurate with my box sizes and get them from USPS.  They are all 6x6x38" and weigh under 2 lbs.  On 1 of the 4 in question, they charged me an additional $9.88.  PayPal is compromised.

[remote_controls_and_more]

https://www.ebay.com/ship/lmng

I have gotten several credits and a few that charged me extra. I disputed all of them and all but 1 was reversed.

[slathome48]

I am aware of all of this.  Again, I ship only golf clubs, and only with USPS Priority Mail boxes(tubes)provided by them.  They are 6"x6"x38" always, and under 2 lbs, always regardless of club being a wedge, or putter.  There are no errors in weight nor length, and all 4 of these happened in June, and never before, nor after.  I also started sweeping all funds out of my PayPal with every payment.  My belief is that someone compromised PayPal, and I informed them of that.  Still; the service I use is eBay Shipping.  Ultimately they are responsible for allowing unauthorized hits to my account.

[jessicasjewelssantarosa]

I've been having issues with this lately as well. Not on Ebay though (I do sell on Ebay), but on Etsy. And now today, I have a message from PayPal for a return label I purchased for a customer. The package was a small 2oz first class package that I paid the usual $3 something for. Today, I got a bill for an additional $5!! Over $8 for a small, light first class package!? I think this is a USPS issue and I want to get to the bottom of it.

[boywonderny]

They just did that to me too. I shipped a Barbie it’s less than two pounds but it cane back said mH box was 2 inch bigger than I reported and it was 12 lbs. I protested the charge via USPS they must have mixed up the package w another my Barbie was 1.3lbs the answer came back was the length was short I have to pay $18 more. If the weight was wrong there was a big chance the package wasn’t mine  usps is highway robbery 

[nobody*s_perfect]

If the package volume is over 1 cubic foot (1728 cubic inches), then the postage is charged by the "dimensional weight" rather than the actual scale weight. So a package over 1 cubic foot could be charged at the 12-pound rate even if it weighed only 2 pounds.

[releasethekraken_1]

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@boywonderny wrote:

They just did that to me too. I shipped a Barbie it’s less than two pounds but it cane back said mH box was 2 inch bigger than I reported and it was 12 lbs. I protested the charge via USPS they must have mixed up the package w another my Barbie was 1.3lbs the answer came back was the length was short I have to pay $18 more. If the weight was wrong there was a big chance the package wasn’t mine  usps is highway robbery 

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What were the dimensions of the box?

[hesari_4]

Same thing happened on Mercari! i walked in the package to USPS and never said a word it was ONE ounce over! They confiscated 2 entire sales and left me in the negative!