USPS Dimensional Shipping - Don't fall into pitfall like I did.

[finepedlar]

Put my item up for sale and thought nothing of it till a person outside of my shipping zone asked me why the astronomical shipping prices.  I researched and learned of dimensional USPS price hikes.  I adjust my dimensions and buy 18X14X6  on Amazon to avoid USPS new dimensional shipping price hikes that went into effect June 2019.  I sold item, and paid EBAY the approximately $12 to ship my 3lb package.  I go to the post office to drop off (to ensure it gets into the tracking system) and they say my box is 18X14X6.5.  They say their rule is to always round up, so 18X14X7 which means I now pay $33 to ship my package.  This is such a ripoff!! Beware of buying boxes that you think get you by dimensional shipping price hikes, even if the box states its own measurement.  USPS is getting out the tape measure.  I don't know why I'm not hearing more yelling about dimensional shipping price hikes.  Should be on the evening news. Should it go from $12 to $33?  Why such a huge jump because of .5 inch?  And what's this I hear about parcel retail vs parcel select?  Online vs in-line counter?  I think even in line at the counter they are charging higher dimensional prices. 

[nobody*s_perfect · Accepted solution]

The big price jump is because the rate is figured differently.  Dimensional rates are applied to packages that are over 1 cubic foot (1728 cubic inches) if they are shipped via Parcel Select Ground or Priority Mail.  Your 18x14x7 package, with a volume of 1764 cubic inches, is just a little bit over the limit.  The formula is volume divided by 166, so 1764/166 = 10.6 and your package will ship at the 11-pound rate.

Parcel Select Ground is an online rate; the retail equivalent purchased at the PO counter is called Retail Ground. Both services used to be known as Parcel Post.  USPS currently does not apply dimensional rates to Retail Ground, so it can be significantly cheaper than Parcel Select for larger packages.  

BUT the rule for Retail Ground is that if you are shipping to Zones 1 - 4 it can only be used for contents that require ground shipping, such as hazmat or live animals.  The prices you referred to are for shipping to Zone 6, so you could save a lot by shipping via Retail Ground.  However,  your listing offered Priority Mail.  If you had offered Parcel Select, it would have been OK to ship via Retail Ground.

There was a lot of yelling about the new dimensional policy last October when it was announced, and again a month ago when it went into effect.

Sellers of boxes often specify the inside dimensions rather than the exterior dimensions, since potential buyers are often more interested in what they can fit into the box, rather than what the exterior dimensions are.

[finepedlar]

Thanks for the informational reply.  

I did originally have the listing as retail ground, but when I thought I had a box that was within a cubic foot, I up it to priority mail to give my customer faster service since it was just a little more.  I'm a novice at this, but I'm now gun shy to try the retail ground for fear that I will still pay dimensional shipping overages.  So am I understanding that if I ship retail ground I should be able to take my 18x14x7 box and get a reasonable shipping price? I'm not sure why I wasn't told that at the postal counter. All I was told was that I would have to find a smaller box to get a good rate.

Thank you for clearing up the dimensions printed on the box.  I didn't realize that it's the inner box, but now I know. 

[nobody*s_perfect]

Yes, your box should ship at the regular weight-based rate for Retail Ground. For 3 pounds to Zone 6, that would be $12.54.  

The postal clerk might not have realized that Retail Ground isn't subject to the dimensional rate, or perhaps she inferred that  you were committed to using Priority Mail.

[lintbrush*]

Was it actually 6.5"?

If so, yeah, they round to 7"

If it was 6.4" it's considered 6"

For Dimensional Weight - round to the nearest whole.

I'm surprised they bothered to measure it.  My post offices (I use a few) no longer bother checking any of the info on the label because of the APV program (automatic postage verification) which is supposed to catch weight & dimension errors.

[finepedlar]

Yes, they got out a tape measure and measured it at the postal counter - all dimensions.

Thanks for all of the explanations as I'm now better informed. 

[finepedlar]

And yes actually 6.5"

[buyselljack2016]

Yup, a little difference in the size of the box can be problematic.

A few years back USPS had some retail boxes that were 17 X 17 X 17. That turned out to be an oopsie because the length + girth came out to 85".  lots of room in the box, but once a box went over 84" there could be quite a price jump.

That size was discontinued.

[johnrj1226]

@finepedlar 

USPS  has been  using the  round up policy even  for  just a tiny pit over  the last whole  increment for  dimensions and  weights for as long as I can remember like 20 plus  years or more.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Weights are measure in whole pounds, that's not rounding.

As noted in one of the posts above, the policy for package measurements is to round OFF, i.e., to the nearest inch.  So 6.3 inches would be counted as 6.

https://pe.usps.com/text/qsg300/Q120.htm

[pilotmike05]

This is eBay at their finest... I spent hours on the phone today with eBay & the USPS. The USPS rep stated this is ebays choice to use parcel select, which is twice the USPS rates. The eBay rep was going to check into it to see why it is more expensive to ship parcel select than priority. There is either a glitch in the system or eBay is taking a very greedy approach in this matter.

[nobody*s_perfect]

Maybe the reps didn't understand your question.  Parcel Select isn't "twice USPS rates''; eBay charges the published USPS rate for Parcel Select.  And Parcel Select doesn't cost more than Priority.

[finepedlar]

I too called the reps at EBAY when a potential buyer wanted to know why her calculated shipping charges (using parcel select ground) were so astronomical.   I originally had no idea what the problem was.   The Ebay rep was not very helpful, and simply kept saying (repeating) that the USPS tables for parcel select were correct.  They could not tell me why the amounts were so high, and they did not inform me at the time about dimensional shipping.  I then began what took me about 4 hours to research to figure out what was going on. (Just a thought - an informational box should pop up for any EBAY seller when they are listing their item and the dimensions exceed 1 cubic foot explaining all this). I'm sure novice Ebay sellers are going to be faced with this in the months to come.  But as I found out at the post office when I dropped off what I thought was a $12 to ship package, parcel select and priority are both expensive when your package is greater than 1 cubic foot and your shipping outside your zone.  Truth is  I'm thinking it's just not worth it to sell some of my bigger items  because I have no idea the zone that houses any potential buyer.  I don't want to be in the "educate the buyer" business when they see their calculated shipping amounts.    But I am going to stop by my post office and ask them directly about parcel retail ground just to see what they say.  I'm still not convinced that they are not applying dimensional shipping to that as well given the interaction I had with the postal clerk.   But given  that to zones 1-4 it's only for hazard chems and live animals even retail ground doesn't seem to be the answer.  

[finepedlar]

Thanks for the info, but this makes me even more sad.  I paid $33 vs $12 because of a .1 " difference in my box on one dimension.  I didn't understand that at the time, or I would have been more livid than I already was.  That pricing structure makes no sense.  I'm sure I'm preaching to the choir.  I did fill out my survey for my visit to the post office and did a lot of complaining.  Seems however this should be a fight that EBAY as a whole should take on.  I don't mind paying extra, but that difference is just highway robbery.  Time to take my stuff to goodwill.