What can you send in a First Class Mail flat envelope?
I ship from Canada using a company that takes my packages over to the US and "re-ships" them with USPS.
Almost all my orders fit in flat bubble mailers so I use "USPS First-Class Mail Large Envelope/Flat" which allows up to 3/4" thick envelopes.
However, it seems like for as much as 0.5% of these first class packages the receiver is told they owe $3.60 in postage due when that's about double what the shipping originally cost.
Every time someone says they were charged postage due I check their order and the shipping I used and the shipping I chose was correct for the size and weight.
What's going on here? I did notice they say the package needs to be an "even thickness/not lumpy" and I try to have them as even as possible, would even a very slight variation in thickness cause these postage due issues? Could it be something else? Are they just making a mistake from time to time?
nobody*s_perfect
·2 years agoThe envelope also must be flexible. Here are the specs, directly from USPS, including details about "even thickness" and testing for flexibility:
https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/101.htm#ep1002686
https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/201.htm#ep1096362
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoHowever, it seems like for as much as 0.5% of these first class envelopes the receiver is told they owe $3.60 in postage due when that's about double what the shipping originally cost.
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Possibly someone along the way is being subjective about thickness variation.
Possibly someone along the way doesn't know what they are doing.
Possibly somewhere along the way with mail processing there may become a thickness variation exceeding specs subjecting it to "package" rates
ccrrefills
OP2 years agoIs it possible I'm the one making a mistake and not USPS?
My biggest worry is having to send everything as "thick envelopes" even though they are under 3/4" thick as I would have to significantly raise all my prices, but considering at least 99.5% seem to make it through without issue I'm not too tempted to do that.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoIf most are going through just fine, then likely it is not you. Sometimes it is going to happen for any of those reasons that I cited. I had one come to me that I knew was not postage due, but it was stamped as such somewhere along the way. I was smart enough not to fight the postmaster about it.
1/4" variation may be on occasion hard to maintain during mail processing (not sure how you pack to prevent shifting), or hard for some checking the envelope, to understand.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoMachines process mail. Machines don't care how they handle envelopes. They zip along. Not at the speed of light, but at quite a rapid pace.