Balloon rate for USPS shipping dimensions wrong?

[jase1974]

This seems like a bug in the ebay shipping calculator for balloon rates at 84"

If I enter dimensions 25x21x7 -- 81", it charges balloon rate.

If I enter dimensions 25x20x7 -- 79", it charges balloon rate.

If I enter dimensions 24x20x7 -- 78", it doesn't charge balloon rate.

Note that 26x22x8 would be 86" and 26"x21x8 would be 84".

On the USPS web site, I only get quoted balloon rates on 26x22x8, but not on 25x21x7.

It's as if ebay is tacking on additional inches to compensate for seller error.

My packages are a hair over 24 and 20" and exact on the 7".  So, I know I'm under the 84", but have to ignore ebay's suggestion to round up -- or go to USPS.com -- to avoid the extra charge 😛

Anyone else experiencing this?

[richard1rst]

Are you talking domestic US shipping or international shipping? Because domestic uses cubic inches while international uses United Inches which is what you are referencing. And different countries have different maximum UI maximums.

So what will incur a balloon rate to one country would not trigger it to a different country.