Vent post - read or not, reply or not, or whatever lol

[southern*sweet*tea]

I have a package ready to ship that weighs 16.04 ounces. Can't safely lighten it up any more. It's really irritating.

FCM cutoff is 15.99 ounces...these fractions of ounces are a real pain, aren't they!

I soooooo want to just risk it and ship  FCM, but I know I can't get that lucky. I wouldn't mind the AVS or whatever the thing is called since it would be deserved, but I don't want to risk my buyer getting a postage due notice.

Ugh...I hate when this happens 😖

[sg51]

You've got two things in your favor.

1. Most contexts grant you more than 1/400 of slack.

2. If you buy your label from ebay, you will probably get the overcharge rather than buyer even if they were to be that picky.

[paradiso*bella*a*venire]

when I used to sell on Mer car i that used to happen to me all the time but every time I took them in to be shipped, they were always  pushed through...never had anything come of  it so I thought they didnt stress those few ounces

coukd also be we have lazy workers here and they didnt check the weight

[hurryagain]

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@paradiso*bella*a*venire wrote:

when I used to sell on Mer car i that used to happen to me all the time but every time I took them in to be shipped, they were always  pushed through...never had anything come of  it so I thought they didnt stress those few ounces

coukd also be we have lazy workers here and they didnt check the weight

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Yup...pretty likely this is the case...

...however, I as a bigger buyer than seller needs to point out one little thing...The PO workers on the other side (buyers side) might pick up the shortage in postage and tag the package with "postage due"...

...ask me how i know...😁

[paradiso*bella*a*venire]

Oh MAN!   well, I never had anyone come back and say anything but now I feel like a heel cause there couldve been times it did happen, buyer just did t say anything because they were just too kind too or whatever....

geeez, Im an awful person for that!  wasnt intending to be  

I wont ever do that again....and not only because I wont ever sell again  😋

[buyselljack2016]

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@paradiso*bella*a*venire wrote:

when I used to sell on Mer car i that used to happen to me all the time but every time I took them in to be shipped, they were always  pushed through...never had anything come of  it so I thought they didnt stress those few ounces

coukd also be we have lazy workers here and they didnt check the weight

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Most packages are now checked by the APV.

Accepting clerks, last I knew, were instructed to scan, and press on. Not their concern to verify weight.

Most workers on the delivery end are not going to be standing there hefting every package, and looking at the label to decide if they should send it over to the scale to verify postage.

They do catch some that are easily spotted like 1st Class label on a heavy package, or on a 1st Class label on a Priority box. 

I know from experience.

[hurryagain]

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@paradiso*bella*a*venire wrote:

Oh MAN!   well, I never had anyone come back and say anything but now I feel like a heel cause there couldve been times it did happen, buyer just did t say anything because they were just too kind too or whatever....

geeez, Im an awful person for that!  wasnt intending to be  

I wont ever do that again....and not only because I wont ever sell again  😋

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@paradiso*bella*a*venire 

You are an AWESOME person!  Awful people would not care.  😁

Happy to have you on the boards!

[hurryagain]

The PO workers at my post office catch them every time!  They are sticklers for that!

I always pray that my sellers don't try to slide it through b/c my PO gets them...how many times I would have to go back to the buyer...

...I hate to tell you that my PO...then i include the pics of the red postage due stamp on the package...

...sigh...😣

[paradiso*bella*a*venire]

@hurryagain 

🤗 Thanks  Sugs!......Happy to be here among such great people  ✌️

[buyselljack2016]

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@hurryagain wrote:

The PO workers at my post office catch them every time!  They are sticklers for that!

I always pray that my sellers don't try to slide it through b/c my PO gets them...how many times I would have to go back to the buyer...

...I hate to tell you that my PO...then i include the pics of the red postage due stamp on the package...

...sigh...😣

---

My compliments to the workers at your office.

Some do check, some don't. May depend upon the size of the office.

I hope that the ones that are getting the red postage due stamp are being checked on the USPS intranet to see that an APV charge back has not already been done.

[parkersparrow]

@southern*sweet*tea  If you pay for the postage through ebay/paypal then the post office will charge or credit your paypal account if there are any weight discrepancies.  It's happened to me both ways. I've been given a credit as well as charged by usps in the past.

[buyselljack2016]

16.04 should round down to 16 which goes as 1st Class, and prints as 15.99

[buyselljack2016]

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@parkersparrow wrote:

@southern*sweet*tea  If you pay for the postage through ebay/paypal then the post office will charge or credit your paypal account if there are any weight discrepancies.  It's happened to me both ways. I've been given a credit as well as charged by usps in the past.

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Possibly, possibly not.  Not assured that all packages will be getting an APV scan on any given day, at any given processing facility.

[oldwestgold]

Most packages are photographed and weighed as they travel through the mail distribution conveyors now. If it is overweight the difference will automatically get billed back to you if generating your postage online. I am not sure what, if any, tolerances are allowed.  The clerks are not supposed to be checking anymore as it simply is not cost-effective. I had one clerk continually checking every incoming and outgoing packages on her own that drove me crazy. She would stamp packages postage due for a couple of cents.  She was costing the Post Office money considering her wages and lost productivity.  I never could get it through her stubborn head though. As an IT Mgr one of my responsibilities was to check ever phone bill for 350 offices in our District each month for employee calls to their Aunt in Florida or such. I would have to contact the office and get reimbursement from the employee. The PO finally wised up and had me stop doing that requirement because again, it was not cost-effective for me to waste so much of my time just to recoup a few bucks a month in personal phone calls. By the time I would get done reviewing 350 phone bills I would get the next months. It made sense to me after a while but some people still have issues in understanding that businesses simply cannot continue to do financially wasteful practices such as these as they did years ago and survive.

[7606dennis]

If memory serves, the USPS has always calculated rates by weight up to a specific amount.  If the shipping weight of an item is even a fraction over that amount it is over and must go up to the next level.  If going to that next level means the item must be shipped via a different service that is the way it is.

I would probably advise against trying to get by with underpaying for shipping.  Frankly, if I were one of your buyers and received a package from you postage due, I'd not be a happy camper.

Of course, I believe the USPS has automation in place to help catch such things and bill accounts directly.