WARNING - Don't ship with old stock USPS Flat Rate Boxes with no bar codes on them.
WARNING - Don't ship with old stock USPS Flat Rate Boxes with no bar codes on them.
We just got hit with a half dozen Underpaid Priority Charges from $2 to as high as $19.50 OVER the Flat Rate of $14. Most were in the $8 range. Reason appears to be use of Old-Stock USPS Flat Rate Boxes from the storage room that DO say FLAT RATE but DO NOT have a USPS Bar Code. OUCH! We're expecting many more to come with no apparent way to correct it with eBay or the USPS. Any ideas? They get charged to you about a week after you ship with NO NOTICE to you that it has happened. I would not have known had I not reviewed a report of ALL Transactions.
5 comments
mtgraves7984
·2 years agoI thank you for the heads up, too. I have some of the Flat Rate/no bar code boxes... you taught me something!
monica-sells
·2 years agoThanks for the heads-up....
I have some older Flat Rate Boxes with no bar codes on them....
and...when I use the old Regional Boxes with regular priority postage labels, I block out all the bar codes on the regional boxes.....with the Priority Stickers (o;
simba6
·2 years agoSome how the postal service is always the last to learn of their new rules......
wastingtime101
·2 years agoSo weird that this came up as I was just discussing it with @nobody*s_perfect a month or two ago. Her opinion was since there's no barcode USPS might not recognize it as a med flat rate, and I thought with the flat rate text printed all over it might not qualify for weight-based.
Not feeling confident I could ship flat rate or weight based, and since I only had 1, my conclusion on what to do with the old box I had was to cut it up and use it inside another priority box for support material.
Have you filed appeals using the standard APV appeals process @atozworldwidestamps to see if USPS might agree to refund?
Send USPS an email verifypostagehelp@usps.gov with the following details:
In order for us to investigate your dispute we must have the following information:
I 'd also add a description of the problem. Shipped in old Priority Flat Rate box packaging which doesn't have a barcode because of its age, but is branded with Flat Rate text and matches exactly the current dimensions of a Medium Flat Rate Box, so I shipped using Medium Flat Rate Labels. I was up charged for a weight-based shipment.
When you file an appeal, USPS will look at the actual photos taken during sorting and they will see the package.
It they agree to the refund they'll send it to your original source of payment (credit card, bank, paypal, etc). It will not show up in your eBay account.
If you bought the labels through eBay you should be receiving emails from eBay alerting you to the charges and instructions to appeal. Check your SPAM folder. You can also check this eBay page for a summary of charges:
https://www.ebay.com/ship/lmng
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/Automated-Package-Verification-Program
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoYes, this is strong evidence that the APV system doesn't recognize the flat-rate boxes that lack bar codes. How could it? Nevertheless, before applying regular weight-based postage on those boxes, I'd cover up that "flat rate" term (perhaps using the handy free "Priority Mail" stickers) just in case an actual human being sees it.