eBay

itiswhatitis · ‎04-10-2019

Attention Fellow Sellers:

Keep your eyes on your Paypal accounts, your email accounts, and your ebay mail.

Today I received a notice from ebay stating that one of the packages I shipped out over a week ago had an incorrect shipping label attached and that the USPS charged an additional $4.89 to my paypal account.

Now then, here is the long and short of it in detail...... shipped a few trading cards in a 6x9 bubble mailer and it weighed 2 ounces (1.9 ounces according to the scale at the local USPS office where I dropped it off). I marked the shipping label as being 4 ounces as I always allow an extra ounce or two on all my packages. Besides, 1 to 4 ounces in a bubble mailer all cost the exact same amount of money to ship regardless of the weight you put on it between 1 and 4 ounces.

In any event, paid the 1st class postage fee, slapped on the label, took it to the post office to be shipped, they weighed it, and it shipped with no issues.

Now today, 5 days after the package was received by the buyer, I get the email from eBay stating the USPS deemed the package's label to be incorrect and slapped a PRIORITY MAIL label on it and charged me the extra $4.89 for which I can jump through hoops to dispute it with the USPS to get my $ back.

Seems to me that there is absolutely no way they could have done this by error. Seems like a direct ploy to just charge your account an extra fee with the hopes that you do not notice or do not care because you are too busy doing other things.

So then..... I am alerting all other sellers to watch out for this as you could be losing $$$ you work hard to earn all because the USPS is randomly overcharging you for a service you did not receive or ask for.

Bottom line..... Sellers Beware!

coolections · ‎04-10-2019

I believe your mistake was marking the package at a 4 oz. weight which is over the limit for 1st class. Someone else will chime in to tell me I am wrong if so.

dhbookds · ‎04-10-2019

What did you PAY for the shipping originally?

iaintdoingit · ‎04-10-2019

@coolections wrote:
I believe your mistake was marking the package at a 4 oz. weight which is over the limit for 1st class. Someone else will chime in to tell me I am wrong if so.

Yep, your wrong. First Class Package through the USPS is up to 13 ounces and eBay is 15.99 ounces.

Seller since 09/20/01 ~~ this is my posting ID.

goodluckselling · ‎04-10-2019

eBay and the post USPS does have an agreement for charging and or crediting you when a package is found to be incorrect weight wise. You can learn more about this from this link.

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

I also use a 4 ounce weight when I ship items that are less than 4 ounces and have done this for at least 2 or 3 years without any issues.

At one time if a package (tracking) was flat and not the required thickness for package services the post office did upgrade the flat package into a priority mail service, but I have not seen this for some time?

It does sound like an error but probably not worth the fight?

Good Luck Selling!

fern*wood · ‎04-10-2019

Are you sure your item qualified for 1st class package service? If it doesn't meet the requirements, then it can be upgraded to Priority mail. I had a friend that shipped flat patterns with package rate labels and they were all upgraded because they weren't thick or rigid enough.

rdj831 · ‎04-10-2019

I had the same thing happen last fall. 99% of my packages are the same packaging and under 5 ounces. Shipped a "normal" package out with a single item (4x4x4 box under 4 ounces) and received notice from eBay that the USPS slapped a Priority Mail label on it. They took over $13 from my PayPal account.

I disputed it twice with the post office customer service line (as the eBay message stated) with no result nor follow up from the USPS. They ripped me off good. The not-so-funny thing is that the package in question would have cost under $8 to ship Priority Mail to the US based address it went to.

Since then, I have been making sure to input the package dimensions before I pay for the label. It has not happened since.

tools* · ‎04-10-2019

I've used Endicia (Now owned by Stamps.com) as my postage provider for the last 16 years. As I'm the shipper of record, eBay can't just debit my bank or PayPal account on a whim. I deal directly with the USPS.

jason_incognito · ‎04-10-2019

On the flip side, I shipped a large box that weighed alot.

I got a refund. USPS called it a flat rate envelope. It was like 12 x 12 x 16......

"Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything" Colin Kaepernick the new face of NIKE

ohnojoey · ‎04-10-2019

It looks like your multi-card sales were all sent First-Class Package Service, if so, could the zone you shipped to have bumped up the price?

twnpopcards · ‎04-10-2019

@coolections wrote:
I believe your mistake was marking the package at a 4 oz. weight which is over the limit for 1st class. Someone else will chime in to tell me I am wrong if so.

A First Class Package weighing 4 ounce is not over the limit by any means. The first 4 ounces are the same price depending what zone you are i and what zone you are mailing the item to. Prices for a 4 ounce package range from $2.66 to $3.09 if using an online shipping platform. For the USPS to determine that this package needed to be sent via Priority Mail it would have needed to weigh over 15.999 ounces, which does take a lot of cards to hit that number.

It sounds like there was some type of glitch on your package so I would use the appeal option you should have been provided and follow the instructions on to a tee. If your package did accidentally weigh over the 15.999 ounces, then not only would USPS charge for Priority Mail but they would charge you the Retail rate as if you had paid at the counter since they are not allowed to use the Commercial rates.

gdiesel70 · ‎04-10-2019

Happened to me as well. I shipped a watch in a small priority FR box, USPS claims that I used a medium FR box and charged me the difference. It’s ridiculous because the acceptance receipt shows a weight of 3.90 oz. yet an empty MFRB weighs over 6 oz. so that’s not possible. Probably an error with reading the barcodes or something.

I sent an email to dispute it two weeks ago—no response.

berserkerplanet · ‎04-10-2019

It sounds more like it is not a glitch, that this is user error, and OP is shipping FCM flats with FCP labels on them - which doesn't fly - they get bumped to Priority in that case.

6.9 bubble mailer with a couple of cards in it - likely less than 3/4" thick, is uniform, and is flexible - that is a flat and does not qualify as a package.

4oz shipment to zone 5:
FCP = $2.76 gets bumped to 1 lb PM = $7.65 → difference = $4.89 which is what OP was upcharged.

pjcdn2005 · ‎04-10-2019

@gdiesel70 wrote:
Happened to me as well. I shipped a watch in a small priority FR box, USPS claims that I used a medium FR box and charged me the difference. It’s ridiculous because the acceptance receipt shows a weight of 3.90 oz. yet an empty MFRB weighs over 6 oz. so that’s not possible. Probably an error with reading the barcodes or something.

I sent an email to dispute it two weeks ago—no response.

There are a number of posts here complaining about similar problems. From what I remember a batch of small flat rate boxes went out with the codes for a medium flat rate box. You might want to do a search for other posts to see how they got the charge credited back.

threshold.sales.group · ‎04-10-2019

Yes, I think that's what must have happened. Going forward always a good idea to put a little packing in a thin padded envelope to make sure it's at least 3/4" thick. The claim is that every package is sized and weighed automatically as it gets sorted (similar to FedEx & UPS).