USPS refusal to scan in items

[bluekrystal1987]

Who has the issue with their local post office refusing to scan in items and making you drop them in a box? I have tried multiple times to have the clerk scan in my items and they get snippy and state that because "we" (USPS) give you (eBay sellers) discount shipping you need to drop off without scanning in. Mind you, they have no idea who I am, what I do, or what type of pricing I pay. I am trying to find the policy within the USPS that corroborates this and haven't found anything. This issue has led to multiple items being considered late shipment and I am just about fed up with having to defend myself for something that shouldn't even be an issue. If I didn't print my label and used the QR code... they would have no choice but to accept the package, thus I am being penalized for making their job easier. Someone shed some light on this without telling me to use the QR code. 

[mam98031]

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@erikstuff wrote:

A few years back there was an article about an Ebay seller (Washington state) who mailed a load of packages of high-value baseball cards in the drop box.  About a week or two later he stated getting notes from his customers asking where their cards were.  He had to issue dozens of refunds.  Then (to add insult to injury) a few months later he saw the stolen cards for sale... on Ebay.  They were graded and were numbered.  If I recall correctly... the thief even used his photos and copied his ads.  The "new" seller was located in a nearby town and apparently just walked out of the post office with them.  I don't know how that case was resolved.  I would NEVER use the drop box.

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Because this happened once when using the drop box, you stopped using drop boxes.  Do you realize how many pieces of mail go through drop boxes successfully every day?

Now I don't use drop boxes anymore for a completely different reason.  They are targets for people that like to vandalize things.  I live in a small town, yet at least once a year the drop box at the PO gets blown up or otherwise destroyed.

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@yuzuha wrote:

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I use the kiosks exclusively. The kiosk scans count as an acceptance scan for the purposes of your eBay metrics.

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If the line is too long i use the Kiosk for the same reason.  I did have a few packages not get scanned by USPS after using the Kiosk for a day(s) later. Usually when this happens, i will see a scan from a sorting facility in a different state. Always worries me but have not had a missing it  when scanning via the Kiosk. I did drop off an item in the drop off bin (no scan) and had a missing package once.

[jewelbiz]

It is a fact that there are an abundant amount of psychopaths working for the U. S. Post office!

 My own mail carrier is one!

 I stay far away from her!

She is unstable and dangerous and is a known fist fighter! 

Best not to rile up post office employees!

[buyselljack2016]

My trim lines 😊

Less tape used, and fits my often used 4 X  4 box nicely with the "trim".

 

 

 

[dbfolks166mt]

@erikstuff wrote:

A few years back there was an article about an Ebay seller (Washington state) who mailed a load of packages of high-value baseball cards in the drop box.  About a week or two later he stated getting notes from his customers asking where their cards were.  He had to issue dozens of refunds.  Then (to add insult to injury) a few months later he saw the stolen cards for sale... on Ebay.  They were graded and were numbered.  If I recall correctly... the thief even used his photos and copied his ads.  The "new" seller was located in a nearby town and apparently just walked out of the post office with them.  I don't know how that case was resolved.  I would NEVER use the drop box.

Because this happened once when using the drop box, you stopped using drop boxes.  Do you realize how many pieces of mail go through drop boxes successfully every day?

Now I don't use drop boxes anymore for a completely different reason.  They are targets for people that like to vandalize things.  I live in a small town, yet at least once a year the drop box at the PO gets blown up or otherwise destroyed.

     The following is about a year old but has some interesting information regarding USPS incidents. 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-postal-service-cracking-down-mail-theft-crimes-against-carriers-... 

[a_c_green]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

My trim lines 😊

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Well, that's odd, because the labels I'm printing daily simply do not have that top banner line on them (nor that little "It's easy!" sales pitch at the bottom, although that second copy of the 2D code does appear). I glanced at a couple of inbound eBay purchases that arrived yesterday, and those labels don't have that banner either. Mine used to show that some time ago, but it quietly disappeared; I don't know when.

I'm wondering if this another case of eBay having multiple places to print labels (either bulk shipping or individual shipments from one's Manage All Orders page; I use the latter), and each place has its own revision level of Shipping form (or the process that assembles the purchased label).

I do recognize the banner line shown in your screenshot, but I have not seen that appearing on my eBay labels for a while now.

[wastingtime101]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@adamcartwright wrote:

Yes, I was talking about the top of that rectangle that says "United States Post Office ... a preferred shipping service on ebay"

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That line doesn't appear anymore. There's just a one-line attribution to its Pitney-Bowes source and Commercial pricing, nothing identifying it as an eBay mailing specifically.

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It appears only for users that click the "print receipt" option with their labels @a_c_green .

[wastingtime101]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

My trim lines 😊

Less tape used, and fits my often used 4 X  4 box nicely with the "trim".

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I realize a lot of people cut off the 2D barcode on the bottom, though I never understood why, short of Jack's example (fitting a label on a small 4x4 box). I feel the need to add:

- Do not trim off that barcode if you're shipping hazmat; it's against USPS regulations.

- Do not trim off that barcode if you're using polymailers or anything without a completely flat side like a box.

[a_c_green]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:
I realize a lot of people cut off the 2D barcode on the bottom, though I never understood why, short of Jack's example (fitting a label on a small 4x4 box).

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Conversely, I never understood why they printed it down there in the first place, as it's the same 2D code that's printed immediately to the left of the Ship To: address. The only reason I can think of is, as you pointed out in your previous reply, if you activate the Print Receipt option for the lower half of that page, the duplicate 2D code will appear at the top of that receipt, for filing purposes.

[wastingtime101]

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@a_c_green wrote:

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@wastingtime101 wrote:
I realize a lot of people cut off the 2D barcode on the bottom, though I never understood why, short of Jack's example (fitting a label on a small 4x4 box).

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Conversely, I never understood why they printed it down there in the first place, as it's the same 2D code that's printed immediately to the left of the Ship To: address. The only reason I can think of is, as you pointed out in your previous reply, if you activate the Print Receipt option for the lower half of that page, the duplicate 2D code will appear at the top of that receipt, for filing purposes.

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I doubt that has anything to do with it. That receipt is an eBay thing. According to USPS the redundancy is for increased readability should any other part of the label get damaged.

Here's the USPS page on the addition of those 2D IMmb barcodes :

https://news.usps.com/2023/01/30/package-deal-2/

And here's the page that has the hazmat reference :

https://postalpro.usps.com/shipping/impb/2d-impb-guide

Shipping labels on irregularly-shaped packages, softpacks, and polybags can easily become distorted or creased during automated parcel processing making reading the traditional, linear IMpb barcode challenging to scan. USPS has developed the IMmb to help overcome these challenges and improve package visibility. IMmb barcodes contain the same data as is in the IMpb barcode; however, they use a more robust, space-efficient robust barcode symbology for encodation. The smaller barcode footprint allows two IMmb barcodes to be added within unused areas of existing standard shipping labels. The result is redundancy of the barcode data giving sorters two additional chances to read the barcode.

The US Postal Service® recommends incorporating the IMmb on all package shipping labels and it will soon become a requirement for HAZMAT shipments.

[b86fiero]

Several years ago I was having an issue getting mail carriers to scan my packages upon scheduled pick ups or by clerks inside the post office. The inside clerks would simply throw them into a bin and refuse to scan them.

I went to the local PO several times and complained. The problem continued. During this time I was getting late shipping defects because USPS employees failed to do their job.

Finally one day I had enough.  I was furious because I had just received 15 late shipping defects for 15 packages all shipped the same day where the carriers failed to scan them. (This was shortly before eBay added the USPS Scan Form option to shipping).

I printed a copy of my eBay dashboard showing all of the defects which were plainly stated as being from no carrier scan and those showing as late delivery because of USPS inadequacies.

I took those two pieces of information to the local PO and requested a meeting with the branch manager.  She immediately spoke with me, I explained what my documents showed, and I explained that USPS failure to scan my packages was damaging my business account and should I lose said account due to USPS failures I would certainly consider holding the individual employees responsible.

She asked if she could keep my printed documents for training purposes. I agreed. Immediately after that my packages were scanned whether they were scheduled pick up or I took them to the PO myself.

Problem solved.

[erikstuff]

Oh... I see.  Only once has there ever been an item taken from a drop box.  Well, that's comforting to know.  What I DON'T like is when I drop a package in the mail box at my near-by Postal Station on a Monday morning before the 10AM pickup... and the FIRST scan is at 1:35 AM on a Tuesday night.  Once the FIRST scan was 3 days later in Philadelphia (I'm in Florida).  The late scan leaves me wondering if it's been stolen... and possibly my customer thinking I'm a slow shipper.

[a_c_green]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@a_c_green wrote:

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The only reason I can think of is, as you pointed out in your previous reply, if you activate the Print Receipt option for the lower half of that page, the duplicate 2D code will appear at the top of that receipt, for filing purposes.

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I doubt that has anything to do with it. That receipt is an eBay thing.

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True... plus, having printed another Shipping label just now, I forgot that the label is actually printed sideways on Portrait paper, meaning that the duplicate 2D code comes out at the upper left of the paper, not in the lower half where the receipt would appear.

I don't print the receipt portion anyway, partly because I have on-line email confirmation of the same thing when I buy the label, and partly because I use half the sheet for the Packing Slip. That gets printed first, then the other half of the paper goes back into the printer (my workhorse printer is an HP Deskjet 5650 that doesn't care whether the paper is shorter than expected) to generate the label.

[djvp53]

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Ebay sellers aren't exactly shining much brighter since they are supposedly seasoned veterans in the shipping department... Just the fact they must have them scan the packages ... Is in fact a good part of the reason I refuse to stand in line at the Post Office, who are we kidding here, they will scan the package(s).

Why this anxiety?

The errors the post office has made with me include:

* Failing to pick up a package from a blue post office mailbox the day it was mailed when I mailed it many hours before the posted pickup.

* Telling me that the mailbox I dropped the package off had been removed and so there were no pickups from that box.

* Promising me that the mail from that box would be picked up the next day, and then failing again to pick it up the next day. 

* Failing to pick up packages at my door when I have placed a pick up request. (On one occasion, my packages were picked up but it was a coincidence. The carrier left his mail package instruction sheet from two weeks prior, so he was really late picking up packages I had already dropped off at the post office two weeks before).

* Failing to scan packages upon pickup. (In fact, I think the only time my mail carrier has scanned them is when I have handed them to the carrier and specifically asked for a scan).

* Picking up packages from my house on two consecutive days but then failing to give them any scans for over a week. (Usually they at least get scanned at the processing facility just after midnight. Note that you can't file a lost package request until they have scanned it.)

* Refusing to scan packages at the counter (although this happens only rarely)

* Telling me a forever stamp could not be used on a package for the current first class postage value - only the original price. (I'm surprised they even knew what the original price was.)

Recently, as a recipient of mail, they reported a package delivered to me except their scan showed it was delivered in another ZIP code.  When I reported the lost package, they told me they would send it the next day.  And they did, except it had already been opened presumably by the first person they gave it to.

The two things that I have never had a problem with are:

* Scanning myself at the self service kiosk and leaving it in the bin, and

* Getting it delivered after the clerk scanned them.

[sextons-sweet-deals]

Cannot help you on your post and comments. 

I'm just guessing your one of those who don't even stop at stop signs in the morning and pass me doing 20 over the speeding limit just to pull in front of me and then 'maybe' put your turn signal or not to get your $10+ coffee.