Shipping labels: receiving weird notice when selecting "FedEx Ground Economy"
Anyone have experience with this?
"To avoid having your package confiscated by USPS, please ensure that your package is dropped off at a FedEx location"
I'm reading conflicting reactions online to using this selection and even when following directions. Is this trustworthy shipping label to purchase?
7 comments
simba6
·8 months agoThat is just to let people know you can't drop those packages off at USPS.
44012
·8 months agoUSPS used to handle much of the Fed Ex Economy before they didn't.
You could just drop it off at the counter.
At my PO there is actually a sign telling you not to drop them off anymore.
44012
·8 months agoIf you buy a Fed Ex label you can't drop it off at USPS anymore.
You have to take it to a Fed Ex.
USPS will not deliver it and probably won't return the package either with a Fed Ex label on it.
There have been posts about this over the 2025 year, maybe earlier?
taffgiraffe
OP8 months agoWhy would someone ever take this to USPS if it's a FedEx shipping label?
ebay needs to update that notification. That notification message is nonsense. ESPECIALLY if it's a change recently. "Starting {month / day}, USPS will no longer forward shipping to FedEx" or whatever ebay speak they'd rather see. It needs to be logical to new people too.
jonathanbrightlight
·8 months agoThat notification is exactly what it needs to be, because what it describes is exactly the very negative consequence of trying to drop off that package with USPS, which far too many sellers have tried to do and then posted here about their package being confiscated and completely losing the item and having to refund the buyer.
wastingtime101
·8 months agoIt doesn't help that FedEx and UPS haven't yet removed the USPS barcode from these Ground Economy and Ground Saver labels, which they were required to do over a year ago! They really need to get their act together.
lacemaker3
·8 months agoFedEx Economy used to be handed off to the USPS for the "last mile" delivery. FedEx would basically deliver the package to the closest local USPS sorting center, and then USPS would make the final delivery, usually just 5 - 10 miles. Because of this, there were two tracking numbers and bar codes on the label, one for the FedEx tracking number, and one for the USPS number.
Because there was a USPS number and bar code on the label, some people would just drop the package off at a post office or blue box. And, post offices would accept it, even if that meant that the USPS had to transport the package hundreds or thousands of miles instead of just a few miles.
However, unless there was a FedEx scan on the package first, then FedEx would not transfer the payment to the USPS for their part of the delivery. So when these packages were dropped off at the USPS instead of a FedEx location, then USPS never received any payment for the delivery.
When USPS realized this, they started to confiscate the packages because they had never been paid for the shipping labels. They called them "counterfeit labels". Post offices stopped accepting the packages, and some posted warning signs on the chutes in the PO lobby where people would drop off their packages. A lot of eBay packages got caught up in this, and the sellers were on the hook for the items not being received. That's why eBay has warnings now when you purchase a FedEx Economy label.
That's the rest of the story.