USPS - APV - Heavy handed counter clerk ...

[mr_lincoln]

So I shipped a package today and while being 2nd in line I took some pics of the drop off lane and two large cloth bags filled with packages (below) ... when my turn came there was a new or temporary clerk.  I placed my package on the scale and the clerk asked if I wanted a receipt, I replied that I did ... the clerk then proceeded to place their hand on the package WHILE IT WAS ON THE SCALE and scanned it in ... the clerk was oblivious to what they did ... when they were finished I asked them to double check the weight since they had their hand on the package while it was on the scale ... , "Oh!" was their reply ... errnt!  Good catch Mr. L !!! Mine was corrected but who knows how many of those dropped off packages will be under paid for the additional weight that heavy handed clerk may cause ... hmmm?

[sweetpieces4you]

All of my current shipping costs are well within those ranges now without Ebay shipping label discounts !! Again, I don't need or want to make money on shipping !! And I don't mind eating some of the shipping costs and supplies,etc. !! The lower the shipping is kept the higher a bid price may go. Or if it is buy it now I can list at a higher price !! And I have purchased I don't know how many items on Ebay !! ( A LOT ) And I have Never one time Saw the Real Shipping Cost on a Ebay Label !! Not one time. And I just received a package today with no costs shown !!  So then you would charge $5.19 to ship instead of the real cost of $3.82 ?? And pocket the $1.37 ?? Again that's not who I am or what I need or want to do !! What others do is fine by me !! I'm fully aware of the shipping labels. The real costs using shipping labels are not passed on to the buyer!! They are pocketed by the seller!! I don't Play That Game , No Need !!

[mr_lincoln]

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@sweetpieces4you wrote:

All of my current shipping costs are well within those ranges now without Ebay shipping label discounts !! Again, I don't need or want to make money on shipping !! And I don't mind eating some of the shipping costs and supplies,etc. !! The lower the shipping is kept the higher a bid price may go. Or if it is buy it now I can list at a higher price !! And I have purchased I don't know how many items on Ebay !! ( A LOT ) And I have Never one time Saw the Real Shipping Cost on a Ebay Label !! Not one time. And I just received a package today with no costs shown !!  So then you would charge $5.19 to ship instead of the real cost of $3.82 ?? And pocket the $1.37 ?? Again that's not who I am or what I need or want to do !! What others do is fine by me !! I'm fully aware of the shipping labels. The real costs using shipping labels are not passed on to the buyer!! They are pocketed by the seller!! I don't Play That Game , No Need !!

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Absolutely would "pocket" the $ 1.37 ... but wait, ANYBODY who goes to the post office and ships that package personally will pay $ 5.19 ... Buyers do not see Seller's discounts and that discount is given to us as 1) an incentive to use eBay labeling and 2) to defray the FVFs on shipping by both eBay and PayPal ... I take it a step further ...

1. Average packaging material cost per package: $ 0.22

2. Average gas cost to drive to the Post Office and back: $ 0.54

3. FVFs on the Paid $ 5.19 shipping (both eBay & PP Store rate): $ 0.63

TOTAL of costs and fees:  $ 1.39 and that's just on the $ 5.19 example ... imagine that on a $ 23.00 cross country shipment of a 4 lbs item ... you bet I am going to use the discount to defray my costs ...

[hun.ga_43]

You could pass the discount to your buyer...

[sweetpieces4you]

I just did !! You pocket more money as you are not the one driving across country !! The higher the shipping cost the more you pocket from the shipping label !! EBAY gets their take out of shipping and you take what's left !! Hey if that's the way you do business and it works for you !! More power to you. I ship across country ( 3,000 miles ) on a regular basis . All costs the same and I have actually refunded money for shipping costs many times !! And You ?? 

[buyselljack2016]

The weight shown to the system when getting that acceptance scan at a Post Office does not seem to be the primary info used.

On 5/3 I shipped 3 near identical packages from a PO. Did the shipping there as my internet was down, and I had to go to town to access.

2 of the 3 ended up being over the 12 ounce mark. One at 12.10, and one at 13.10

My scale is very accurate. I  confirm my ship weights by getting the receipt. This was a different office than I would normally drop at.

Really did not notice until I was out the door, and at that point with no internet for a couple of days I was just so relieved to get them on their way(a Friday) that I just kept on walking fully prepared to accept the $1 + charge back from the APV when they fell into the next price tier.

Don't know if it was a thumb, or a scale that was not zeroed, but they scanned in over the 12 ounce mark that I had paid for online.

To date(knock on wood) no messages for short paid.  The only other dealing that I have had with the APV charges was a refund for over payment when the item was lighter than what I paid for. That happened within a week of shipping. Still could happen, but I am more than 99% certain neither package was over the 12 oz. mark.

[mr_lincoln]

@buyselljack2016   Thanks for that ... for myself I just did not want to take the chance of the clerk adding more weight and that somehow getting in to the system.  I have also received a number of refunds for Over payment which just baffles me with the last one being over $ 4 ... I think that one was a USPS hiccup on their system, THAT'S a lot of postage to refund ...

[mr_lincoln]

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@sweetpieces4you wrote:

I just did !! You pocket more money as you are not the one driving across country !! The higher the shipping cost the more you pocket from the shipping label !! EBAY gets their take out of shipping and you take what's left !! Hey if that's the way you do business and it works for you !! More power to you. I ship across country ( 3,000 miles ) on a regular basis . All costs the same and I have actually refunded money for shipping costs many times !! And You ?? 

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Oh yes, I refund partial shipping to Buyers when the original estimate is higher then the actual shipping cost, and they thank me for that.  Ahhh, hate to tell you but the higher the shipping cost the higher the FEEs so yes, the discount is higher.

[oleander1993]

Interesting. I find that my main USPS branch downtown is right on the money with my $14.00 kitchen scale. I use it the most plus it’s near my office. On the weekends, I usually go to a smaller branch near my house. Those packages weigh several ounces heavier than my scale says. Obviously, USPS scales should match but there are differences and it could make a real money difference to shippers on packages that are close. I have had some be real close but so far haven’t been burned. That dimensional weight change is going to be a problem for me.

[wastingtime101]

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@sweetpieces4you wrote:

The lower the shipping is kept the higher a bid price may go. Or if it is buy it now I can list at a higher price !!

So then you would charge $5.19 to ship instead of the real cost of $3.82 ?? And pocket the $1.37 ?? Again that's not who I am or what I need or want to do !!

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You set up your shipping options to show buyers the online rate instead of the retail rate within your site preferences. You don't have to pocket the difference, you can pass it on to your buyers. And as you just said - you want a lower shipping cost so you can generate a higher item cost. It doesn't make sense to not use online labels if you have the ability. Let your buyers save a few bucks even if you don't want to.

[a_c_green]

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@oleander1993 wrote:

Interesting. I find that my main USPS branch downtown is right on the money with my $14.00 kitchen scale. I use it the most plus it’s near my office. On the weekends, I usually go to a smaller branch near my house. Those packages weigh several ounces heavier than my scale says. Obviously, USPS scales should match but there are differences and it could make a real money difference to shippers on packages that are close. 

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I have one of those blue plastic battery-powered digital scales from the USPS themselves that they were selling right there in the lobby some years ago, and it's been dead-nuts perfect in agreement with our local PO's own front desk scales to this day. (I run it off its AC power adapter, so I don't have to worry about batteries dying at a bad moment.)

As for accuracy in general, I have long suspected that the USPS has an unofficial fudge factor of at least 0.1 ounces over before they start getting picky, if for no other reason than that a package weighed in order to purchase a label is not going to have that label already applied as part of the weight. (You could simulate that by dropping a piece of paper on the package when weighing, but I doubt anyone really does that.) Also, a package that gets rained on is going to weigh more than the same one dry.

I've also noticed when reviewing a PO receipt that while the package weight is given to two decimal places (e.g. "0 lbs. 8.30 oz." on the receipt I have in front of me here), they never actually show any second decimal; it's always zero. Thus, there must be some rounding going on internally to begin with.

In terms of front desk accuracy, though, some POs are all over the place. Probably the worst I ever encountered was the USPS branch in the basement of Willis Tower in Chicago, where in an instance two or three years ago, for weeks if not months, the front desk scales were over-weighing by something like 3-4 ounces, and their APC machine in the lobby was under-weighing by about the same amount. (I ship identical packages through multiple locations, so it was easy to know whose scales were off, and by how much.)

My on-line report of the problem was initially tossed back with a clueless response by someone who did not appear to understand what the problem was, but about a month later, I noticed that that PO had finally gotten both their APC and front-desk scales back in calibration at last. 

[sweetpieces4you]

It makes sense to me as I offer the lowest shipping rates there are , next to free shipping. With shipping labels you are getting the lowest shipping rates but are not shipping at those rates !! You charge/ship with the usps rate before the ebay discount rate is applied. And after Ebay takes their cut , i lose money on shipping for every item I list. I try to sell a quality product and by doing so I hope to get the highest return on that product !! And I do on most occasions. So that higher return allows me to pass on cheaper shipping rates to the buyers. ( I manually set my shipping costs without the use of any device ) The higher returns pay for any and all added costs that are involved with the selling process !! Such as gas, shipping materials, time ,etc. My way works for me very well !! If your way/ways work for you then that's fine. I buy and sell so I know what's going on !!  I Just Don't Play that Game !! No Need. 

[mr_lincoln]

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@sweetpieces4you wrote:

It makes sense to me as I offer the lowest shipping rates there are , next to free shipping. With shipping labels you are getting the lowest shipping rates but are not shipping at those rates !! You charge/ship with the usps rate before the ebay discount rate is applied. And after Ebay takes their cut , i lose money on shipping for every item I list. I try to sell a quality product and by doing so I hope to get the highest return on that product !! And I do on most occasions. So that higher return allows me to pass on cheaper shipping rates to the buyers. ( I manually set my shipping costs without the use of any device ) The higher returns pay for any and all added costs that are involved with the selling process !! Such as gas, shipping materials, time ,etc. My way works for me very well !! If your way/ways work for you then that's fine. I buy and sell so I know what's going on !!  I Just Don't Play that Game !! No Need. 

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It's not a game, it's business and if your way works for you great and if other ways work for other Sellers great ...

[ersatz_sobriquet]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

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It's not a game, it's business and if your way works for you great and if other ways work for other Sellers great ...

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It sure isn't a game. Shipping fees between ebay and paypal on money that never ends up in our pocket adds up fast. We get charged fees on money we never profit from. So I charge the customer retail, take the comm+ discount, and give nothing back to the customer, EVER. I offer no apology. All costs must be absorbed by someone, and if it's NOT the customer, then that seller won't be in business long. 

[mr_lincoln]

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@ersatz_sobriquet wrote:

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

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It's not a game, it's business and if your way works for you great and if other ways work for other Sellers great ...

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It sure isn't a game. Shipping fees between ebay and paypal on money that never ends up in our pocket adds up fast. We get charged fees on money we never profit from. So I charge the customer retail, take the comm+ discount, and give nothing back to the customer, EVER. I offer no apology. All costs must be absorbed by someone, and if it's NOT the customer, then that seller won't be in business long. 

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Excellent post and worthy of a repeat ... I agree 120% ... its not chump change when one looks at it over time ... just some rough numbers and these are low but using the $ 1.37 on this thread and 2000 shipments on our IDs (that's low but a good round number) over a 3 year period = $ 2,740.00 which would be about $ 913 per year ...

[coffeebean832]

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@sweetpieces4you wrote:

It makes sense to me as I offer the lowest shipping rates there are , next to free shipping.

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If you're offering buyers retail rates then you are not offering the lowest shipping rates. Online rates are lower than retail and you are able to offer those discounts to buyers if you so choose.