USPS charging extra for a media mail shipment?

[johdevas]

I had recently sold a drybox cooler and it included free shipping. Based on the buyer's location it was going to cost me $100 for Priority mail or $37 for UPS, I couldn't afford either so I chose the media mail option which was like $8.50. 

Now the customer is emailing me saying USPS wants to charge them $120 for him to get the item? I checked the shipping and it's almost as if they shipped it priority cause it was saying initially like a week for it to get from Orlando to NV and it only took 3 days? 

The label said Media mail, not priority and had all the proper dimensions and weight when I placed the order so what's going here?

The only odd thing here is that when I checked the tracking it said that the item was undeliverable at the buyer's address. Could that have something to do with it?

[wastingtime101]

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

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And on another note, the best thing that could have happened and what I wish had happened is that the item would have been delivered to the buyer and USPS would have notified ebay of the $120 underpayment and ebay would have charged @johdevas 's account. 

That way, the buyer would get what he/she expected and wouldn't have been inconvenienced by the seller's wrongdoing.

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That's an interesting take on it, but at this stage I don't believe it's systematically possible. When USPS manually catches a postage due situation, there is no way for them to submit that through the APV. APV is automated by machines. Until/unless USPS builds the system to allow clerks & sorting center employees to submit postage errors or fraud through APV, there will be no automatic charges to the seller's account for a manually caught MM misuse.

[donsdetour]

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@wastingtime101 wrote:

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@albertabrightalberta wrote:

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And on another note, the best thing that could have happened and what I wish had happened is that the item would have been delivered to the buyer and USPS would have notified ebay of the $120 underpayment and ebay would have charged @johdevas 's account. 

That way, the buyer would get what he/she expected and wouldn't have been inconvenienced by the seller's wrongdoing.

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That's an interesting take on it, but at this stage I don't believe it's systematically possible. When USPS manually catches a postage due situation, there is no way for them to submit that through the APV. APV is automated by machines. Until/unless USPS builds the system to allow clerks & sorting center employees to submit postage errors or fraud through APV, there will be no automatic charges to the seller's account for a manually caught MM misuse.

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Hmm some of the added charges to sellers from eBay shipping: may mean the USPS is double dipping; from some of what I have read; Charge the purchaser and send it forward with postage due..

May be wrong on this, but some of what I have read makes me wounder...

[nobody*s_perfect]

I have never heard of a case in which the seller was charged for underpaid postage via the APV and the recipient was also charged Postage Due.  Underpaid postage for inappropriate use of Media Mail is detected by actual humans, not by the APV system, so it's handled in the old-fashioned way: Returned to the sender or delivered with Postage Due, depending on how far along it is when the problem is detected.

IIRC returned packages are not charged both ways if they were sent via Priority Mail, so the sender in this case would only have to pay $120 to ransom the package when it arrives at his local PO. Since the item apparently will not re-sell for that amount, he'll probably be better off abandoning it.

[buyselljack2016]

The office doing a "postage due" is supposed to check the USPS intranet to determine if a charge back has already been assessed for a "short paid" item.

[donsdetour]

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@buyselljack2016 wrote:

The office doing a "postage due" is supposed to check the USPS intranet to determine if a charge back has already been assessed for a "short paid" item.

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yep dat blue section is the key all right......LOL

[wastingtime101]

APV has been around for several years. If there was an issue between manual postage due duplicating APV charges, we would have heard an uproar about it long ago. You're worrying about nothing. If it happens, it's gotta be 1 out of millions - a rare occurrence, and a seller could very easily appeal.

[soh.maryl]

"The issue is the box size, not the weight."

Sorry -- have to disagree.  The issue in this case is that the OP (the seller) chose Media Mail for an item that is in no way categorized as media.

[deserdog]

If you are a seller, it is up to you to know the ins and outs of shipping. That is what we have brains for.

[soh.maryl]

Your message is addressed to the wrong person.

[wastingtime101]

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@soh.maryl wrote:

"The issue is the box size, not the weight."

Sorry -- have to disagree.  The issue in this case is that the OP (the seller) chose Media Mail for an item that is in no way categorized as media.

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You took what I said entirely out of context. The above quote addressed the OP's confusion about why the non-MM rates were so high for an 8 lb package. The rates are high because of box size, not weight.

[aproudparent2010]

He hasn't came back so I assume this was all a joke now...

[buyselljack2016 · Accepted solution]

I suspect not. I believe it to be an honest post, by an uninformed seller that has been enlightened to the facts.

Were it me, I would probably come back at this point (actually long before this) to admit my part in the mix up, but that's me.

Nothing to be gained except for possibly a bit of respect if they were to come back to accept the fact that, indeed it was their error.

Should the OP have known better?  One would think so.

Did the OP know better?  It appears not, but we may never know.

Will someone else do the same thing? Without a doubt.

[aproudparent2010]

Almost 10,000 feedbacks as a seller? Doesn't seem like someone who should be uninformed

[asset_liquidators]

I have never flown a jet before. It's not my fault it crashed...

[gadgetmans_attic]

you just graduated shipping school now pay your tuition and move on