Postage rates up - USPS paying for election ballots by increasing commercial rates "temporarily"

[alfontso]

If you haven't noticed, our postage costs have just gone through the roof "temporarily" according to USPS. They are quoting all sorts of reasons for raising rates from October 18 (today) through December 27 2020, so all your holiday shipping costs are up, supposedly due to increased volume from Corona Virus related issues. If the volume is up then so is their revenue and there is no need for this increase, other than to pay for tens of millions of unsolicited mail pieces due to the unrequested ballots.

Here is the link to the USPS cost increases. This is not eBay doing it. It is USPS really hurting us!

https://about.usps.com/newsroom/national-releases/2020/0814-usps-announces-temporary-price-increase....

Typically, a Flat rate envelope which was $7.15 yesterday is $7.55 today. If you are working slim margins this can mean the difference between a profit and a loss.

If the unrequested ballots had not been done and only absentee voting with controlled mail ballots in place,  this probably would not have happened.

[angswe_60]

No, had the pandemic not hit and made it so people don't feel confident comfortable voting in person, and had Trump's pal not been made postmaster and screwed things up, this wouldn't have happened

[psfhobbies]

Typically, a Flat rate envelope which was $7.15 yesterday is $7.55 today. If you are working slim margins this can mean the difference between a profit and a loss.

Well said 

[richard1rst]

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@alfontso wrote:

our postage costs have just gone through the roof

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Yesterday, just because the accountant in me was curious, I added up all of the extra fees I was charged for the dozens of packages I printed. The TOTAL of the INCREASED FEES was significantly LESS than 1% of my total sales.

That is hardly a business buster.

I have seen comments from sellers that their margins are "razor thin".

*****Typically, a Flat rate envelope which was $7.15 yesterday is $7.55 today. If you are working slim margins this can mean the difference between a profit and a loss.

If you are working on such slim margins that 40 cents is going to throw you into a loss then maybe you might want to rethink your business model. Maybe just adjust your price up by 1%?

*****If the volume is up then so is their revenue

And so is their labor costs as they have to hire extra people to deal with the increased volume.

Understand, I am not trying to be an apologist for the post office. I'm just trying to get you to get your head on straight and eschew the hyperbole.

[dottrar]

Does anyone know if eBay has updated the rate table to reflect the updated costs?

I use calculated shipping on more than half of my inventory. I'd be nice to know for sure.

[artsy-artsy]

@dottrar 

They updated all of the first class rates but I am finding that the priority flat rate boxes & mailers have not been adjusted...yet...

[annisazzz]

So now we will blame Trump for the postage rate increase... are you serious? Let's keep politics out of eBay. 

[artsy-artsy]

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@artsy-artsy wrote:

@dottrar 

They updated all of the first class rates but I am finding that the priority flat rate boxes & mailers have not been adjusted...yet...

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...And now they have adjusted that too...😞...sigh...

[truck_needed]

Well, I just paid commercial flat rates (thru eB) as follows:

padded envelope $8.15 (v. $7.75)

medium box $15.30  !!!!!!!! (v. $13.20)            $2.10 MORE!!!!!!

This HURTS!

[nobody*s_perfect]

You might want to double-check what you purchased and paid for, since the new price (with the 40-cent surcharge) for a   Medium FRB is now $13.60.

[picknparley]

The main reason USPS raised rates is Jeff Bezos at Amazon. 

USPS has taken it in the shorts so Bezos can get wealthier.  If Amazon paid their fair share we wouldn't be looking at this at all.

[llama_lady]

Give me a break.   Unless you can prove your statement with documentation, you are just blathering. 

[greatvalueveneer]

I about fell off my chair when I saw the increase!  People are not going to want to pay this rate increase!!!

We already ate the last increase.  This one is going to hurt us badly!!!

[uniwarehousewares]

NOT ONLY RATES INCREASING THEY ARE IMPOSING RESIDENTIAL SURCHARGE, ITS SIMPLE INSANE USPS GET FUNDS BY OUR TAX MONEY AND CHARGE US MORE MONEY .

[rock.star]

The Post Office receive no tax money.