USPS just charged me 42.88 because I sent a package with insufficient postage

[humdec]

I shipped a package that weighted a little more than the postage on label I purchased. I knew this,as I had to add an item in the box. When I took the box to the post office I mentioned it to the clerk. I told her that I needed to buy more postage. She said "they'll just charge you the difference later". I was ok with that, I did not exceed over a pound so I was expecting a charge accordingly. They charged my card 42.88 additional to the 14.78 original label. Are they punishing me? I did try to correct the problem.

[klhmdg]

You should have voided the original label and purchased a correct label.

I cant imagine why an extra pound was over $40.

What was the size of the package?

Weight?

Did you ship Advantage and use a USPS Priority box?

[nobody*s_perfect]

USPS doesn't punish sellers who underpay postage; they just charge the actual Postage Due with no additional penalty fees.  As the clerk explained, the system is set up to automatically charge your account for the extra postage when the shortage is detected by special equipment at sorting centers, rather than tasking the clerks to figure out what you owe.

For the Postage Due to be such a large amount, you must have underpaid for the package dimensions, not just the weight as shown on the scale.  USPS charges a "dimensional weight" for any package that's over 1 cubic foot (1728 cubic inches).

[martin2001 · Accepted solution]

If you think that the extra charge is incorrect, you need to challenge that. I get several such charger a year and the post office was always wrong. I challenged the charge and was always refunded. I use pirateship they have a link to challenge the charge, I don't know where to do it for ebay labels.

I do take photos of all my packages, on an electronic scale, I also take a photo of a calibrating weight on the scale, to show, it weighs accurately. For larger packages, I also take photos with a ruler. I upload the photos to my site and provide a link with a brief comment.

[wastingtime101]

@humdec 

What were the actual package dimensions?

What was the actual package weight?

What USPS shipping service did you use?

What were the ship from / ship to zip codes?

What does USPS say the cost adjustment is for? Just weight or also dimensions, service, or something else?

Was this item 166505793303? The rates on that listing show the retail cost for Ground Advantage, 17 lb billable weight.

[simba6]

Can you tell us the size and weight of that box along with the service used to ship it?    I'm thinking over size?  

[humdec]

Thanks for the reply. I just noticed on the USPS notifications that weight went from 4 pounds 8 oz, to 28 pounds. The actual weight when I took it to the post office was under 6 pounds. So obviously they made a huge mistake which I am disputing now. Hopefully it ca be resolved.

[fern*wood]

You still haven't mentioned the dimensions of the box.  Weight could be referring to shipping weight (due to the dimensions) rather than actual weight.

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@humdec wrote: ... on the USPS notifications that weight went from 4 pounds 8 oz, to 28 pounds. The actual weight when I took it to the post office was under 6 pounds....

Dimensions matter. If the package was over 1 cubic foot (i.e., 1728 cubic inches) then you would be charged a postage rate based on the dimensional weight rather than the scale weight.

For instance, a package that's 20 inches by 20 by 12 has a volume of 4800 cubic inches.  The formula for dimensional weight is to divide the volume by 166. So a package that's 4800 cubic inches would have a dimensional weight of 4800/166 which is 28.9 and it would ship at the 29-pound rate even if the actual weight on the scale was 5 or 6 pounds.