Concerns about dates on shipping labels!!

[1cheapmom.auction]

eBay community!!! Please help me complain!!

I printed a Priority Mail label last night for shipment and took the package to the PO today. The WICKED women at the PO refused the package since it was dated the night before!!!! 

The policy of REQUIRING that all packages dropped off have labels with the precise date is VERY RESTRICTIVE for eBay sellers. Gosh forbid we either forget to alter a date one night OR get delayed on our way to the post office. Our inability of void labels unless done within hours of label creation, coupled with this strict policy, can really cost us a ton. 

I understand that I can "post date" the labels I print. I have been told (after 40 minutes on hold with USPS) that the purpose of the policy is to avoid complaints by recipients that don't understand delays. But given the fact that packages are (or could be) stamped with a "received" date, it seems imminently clear to me that this argument for strict label dating is unduly budensome on us. 

This is a policy that harms SHIPPERS (which are, after all, the CUSTOMERS OF THE USPS). Please, please complain about this policy with an email to the consumer affairs division of the post office. 

SEND COMPLAINT EMAIL TO:   PRC-PAGR@prc.gov

Thank you. Let's get this policy changed!!!

[mrgranat42]

I have never had this issue!  I use a postal store that deals with USPS, UPS & FedEx.  I drop off there, and the carrier picks up from there.  No issues, no problems ever, except for one media mail pkg that got lost in the Richmond sort facility.

[missramona]

Same with me. I do that frequently. I've been a high volume seller for almost 4 years. Closed at the moment b/c I'm moving but have never had that postal issue.

[femmefan1946]

One of the advantages of Paypal labels for us has always been that labelled parcels can just be dropped into the corner postbox. While not all postboxes take parcels, at worst the ones outside the Post Office or Postal Outlets (privately run) do have the larger openings.

Since the boxes are emptied by drivers who take them directly to the Terminal, no officious clerks are looking at them. Just barcode reading robots.

Why do you American sellers go to the post office? Don't you have PO postboxes? I see them in movies all the time.

[mrgranat42]

It is a very rare occasion that I go to the PO.  I hate waiting, long lines and often grouchy clerks.  But in reply to your question, no there are no neighborhood drop boxes for packages, or even letters anymore.  Even the boxes outside our post office are not big enough for packages, and the package drop inside the PO Box lobby is often locked down on weekends or off hours.  

I live in an area with cluster boxes at the corner.  The out box is not big enough for any package bigger than about 1/2 inch thick at the most, and probably less.  So I have found that the most efficient way to mail is to print and package at home an drop the packages at my local "G*** Post**" store where parcels are picked up every late afternoon by USPS as well as UPS and FedEx.  Fortunately it is next door to where I grocery shop, so I can usually combine errands.

[mrgranat42]

In most areas you can also schedule a carrier pick-up, as long as you are sending at least one pkg priority mail.  

[efaune560]

I never have problem, except for grouchy postal lady who pick up my package.

[mrgranat42]

The big blue corner boxes have gone by the way of the dodo bird--extinct.  I haven't seen one in ages, and I'm always looking for them.

[angiesvoice]

A huge percentage of those boxes were removed as part of the post-9/11 security scramble. They were seen as potential bomb targets.

Re the label dates: I've had occasion or two to drop off the package a day later than I had planned, and never had a problem. At our PO, we can either drop them in the big APS box in the foyer, or walk them into the clerk area and leave them in the counter. I just make sure to make eye contact with a clerk, so they see me leaving it there.

[tripnotic622]

I usually post date my labels for the day after I intend on dropping them off just in case for any reason I don't make it in time.  I spoke with a postal worker at the post office who said that her supervisor had become much more strict with the label dates because it makes the USPS look bad (makes it look like it took them longer than it actually did to process and deliver the package).  I don't know if it is the same for all post offices, but the one I go to allows me to skip the line and drop off my packages, no waiting.  They are thrilled to see me because I make their lives easier by doing their job for them essentially.