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Looks like I used same USPS shipping label twice, was scanned and accepted at counter, now what?
Wanted to send additional item to a user for a completed and delivered order. Went to shipping labels , found last delivered order. Used drop down to purchase another label, page was standard one with package dimensions and weight. My default for QR/label broker was selected . next to label cost I clicked purchase label. Got email notification of QR and saved it. I packaged item and when to post office, they scanned QR code, printed label, attached to package and scanned label. When I got home I wanted to add the new shipment to my informed delivery for tracking. At first I looked at the shipped labels page for the user to see if it had a new tracking number but it shows the same old one, so I looked at my new counter receipt and it has same tracking number I already set last week. I looked at the saved QR code on my I-phone from yesterday @ 10pm and it's also same as QR code received a week ago. Question I have is the counter person scanned label so it was accepted at the counter, nothing barfed. I checked PayPal for a purchase transaction for postage and there isn't any. Did I just mail something for free, will it get there? Can't check the tracking number as it say's delivered. I guess I will have to wait and see. Very confusing
kh-stanley1
·1 year agoHi everyone,
Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread HERE if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.
Thank you for understanding.
simba6
·2 years agoIt will ship to the address on the label. You might get billed for the shipping. It will confuse the tracking however. That entire system is not as " bullet proof " as it needs to be.
kalyoth
·2 years agoIf you do not get billed within 6 months of the scan, while not perfect, ur less likely to see a bill for it. If it was not USPS, UPS & FedEx adjust forever.
digidude66
OP2 years agoIf you have a USPS informed delivery account maybe you could submit a missing mail inquiry. I add all my outbound USPS packages to my tracking list so I have the most updated progress MSG's.
sadieshimek
·2 years agoI did the same thing. However the person who should have received the second package it has not. Will it return to me because it didn't have valid postage? So I sent two packages to the same customer. He returned the first one because it wasn't his product. But he hasn't gotten his product. Will I get it back or is it just dead mail somewhere?
zombiechompz
·1 year ago@sadieshimek did you ever get this sorted out? I am in the same pickle at the moment!
djo1223
·1 year agoWhat happened?.. I worked for a logistics company that handled shipment tracking for a lot of carriers including USPS (we helped them move a billion+ packages a year through the shipping process) Anyway, this happens a lot actually. Sometimes by accident and sometimes on purpose. The group I worked in sometimes would need to investigate anomalies in tracking data. There would be packages that showed tracking in multiple places at the same time or delivered one day and still being tracked somewhere else. Sometimes people try to cheat the system and use the same label to ship multiple packages to the same place or just make up tracking numbers on their own and ship them where ever. It's not a high priority for the post office unless it starts costing them real money and then they'll investigate. Someone in California got caught after they racked up $150 million in fake postage and labels trying to avoid paying postage (there are stories from the April 2024 timeframe in California news feeds for that one.) The thing about the tracking numbers that carriers use is that they get recycled. There's just so many packages that move through the system, a tracking number will eventually get used again. I think the post office doesn't have quite as good a system at detecting this stuff as people might think, and there is only so much that can be done with the volume of packages that get handled even if they do find a duplicate. I wouldn't suggest taking advantage of the system on purpose though, it's some pretty serious charges when you start defrauding the USPS.
annabanana1939
·1 year agoI am currently going through this situation. I unintentionally printed one label 2 times. The carrier pickup flagged it as duplicate. I reached out to the buyer that would receive 2 packages. I asked them if they could do me a favor and "return to sender" the smaller of the 2 packages. The buyer replied that they would do that for me and they did. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the duplicate package comes back. I have reached out to the second buyer that is expecting an item that is not moving through the system. If they can wait a few days I will make it up and refund shipping. Otherwise I can cancel and refund. This is not the first time this has happened to me. It happens periodically and I call it a glitch. I have always caught the duplicate or the counter clerk will catch it but this is the first time one shipped. I only sell one or 2 items a day. But I have sold many items since 2006 this time the glitch got me.
Unavailable member
·1 year agoOld thread from July 2023..
It’s not a glitch it’s user error. Don’t be surprised if your buyers complain that the packages are marked postage due. Or returned to you for insufficient postage.
cwsales43
·2 years agoThis is very odd that the post office still let the package scan in. This should be flagged upon scan in at the post office.
digidude66
OP3 years agoUpdate: customer just received said package and no postage due.
I may have discovered a rip in spacetime or just a glitch in the matrix. BTW I clicked purchase label
not just reprint. Thought it was weird that I got the email "your label is ready" but no ping from PayPal that a charge to E bay shipping happened. Final score, me "1" the man "0"
😉
wastingtime101
·3 years agoYou might see the charge come in a few weeks when USPS APV system catches up. If you don't then yeah, you got lucky and saved a few bucks.
chrissymar61
·2 years agoI literally just done this, I have my receipts and everything. I had 2 different buyers, well I guess I got the qr codes mixed up or something not sure, but the first buyer received their item and approved jt and funds were issued to me. well I 5 days later I mailed another package and for some reason not sure how I used the qr code for the first buyer. well they got tve second package days later, now they just sent a refund notice saying they never got.the first package and that I sent them the wrong item. I have receipts that shows the same tracking number was used days later and that both were sent to them. any suggestions on what to do with the buyer saying they never received?
rfmtm
·3 years agoThere have been a few recent ebay glitches with shipping labels and tracking numbers being messed up, but if the first label was scanned, then any duplication should have been caught when the post office scanned the second label at the counter.
Hard to tell what will happen now. Keep us updated.
@wastingtime101 What do you think about this?
wastingtime101
·3 years agoIf the OP hadn't described the act of purchasing another label I'd say it sounds like they printed another copy of the original label.
My guess is both packages will probably be delivered to the buyer. It's possible one might get returned to sender, or the seller might be billed through APV if it's set up to catch duplicates (I don't know if it is).
Basically I'd do nothing at this point except watch tracking to see what happens. Both packages are headed to the same destination so it's not like the seller has to worry about a package going to the wrong buyer. It will either be delivered or returned to sender.
rfmtm
·3 years agoI would have thought it a duplicate too, but after 24 hours that isn't even an option. What's odd is the scan at the post office didn't flag it as a duplicate label.
wastingtime101
·3 years agoActually @rfmtm , you can reprint up to 5 days even if already printed and scanned. It requires specific navigation to access it though.
I'm not surprised post office didn't flag it. I've had packages returned to me (due to post office error), put them back out for pickup and they get scanned by my carrier and delivered to the buyer with no issues.
I think the package will be delivered without issue, but OP may see an APV charge if the system is set up to detect duplicates.
rfmtm
·3 years agoAre you talking about a reprint through the ebay shipping center? This has always be reported to have only a 24 hour window. If longer, it would save many from having to void and create a new label. Care to elaborate?
wastingtime101
·3 years agoSorry, my above post was wrong about the number of days - reprint is 7 days, not 5. Five is for voiding.
It was 24 hour reprint window for years, but eBay changed it this past Spring to 7 days. It's even mentioned in the help page if you want to look that up.
For a label that hasn't been scanned, select reprint from the actions drop down on the manage labels page.
For a label that was scanned, you have to select purchase another label, then at the top of the next page click reprint.
There probably aren't many cases where a seller would want to reprint a label that was already scanned. What I mentioned above about reshipping due to USPS error could warrant a reprint if the original label has markings on it. Or a seller may want to use reprint to download a PDF of the label for their records. I keep downloads of all my labels which I find helpful in a number of situations, so if I ran into an error downloading at time of purchase then I could use reprint after the fact to download a copy.