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New USPS Rant

I swear these boobs are out to send us all to FedEx or Joe's Delivery.
 
Anyone been to the USPS website since Feb 1? Good effin' luck. TWICE now I spent over an hour trying to compare shipping rates on various locations for Priority Mail Medium boxes, NOT flat rate. NOT Express. The frikkin' hoops & ladders, graphs and idiot requirements to get a simple answer to a SIMPLE QUESTION is insanity at it's best. Took 20 minutes alone to get one rate for one recipient in one "zone" FOR THE WRONG PACKAGE TYPE!!
 
And. Not. One. Stupid. Map. To determine these "zones" you have to play their idiot game, address after address after address.
 
I could just get in the truck and deliver this stuff on my own for the aggravation I'm getting served up.
 
...and I'm not even upset yet...
 
 
 
Oh, and their rates went up again. :doh:
 
Go to paypal.com/shipnow. You can get the rate and print a label for first class package or priority mail to anywhere. Just put in an address, postage type and weight and tell it to calculate.
 
The rates go up at the end of January for quite a few years now.
 
If you get a USPS account you can use Regional Rate boxes (provided free) which usually end up being a lot cheaper than the Flat Rate scam. Flat Rate is great for super heavy stuff.
 
Also FedEx's rates for Home are good these days. FedEx Home also delivers 7 days a week (that's why they call it Home, Ground is for commercial).
 
stettoman said:
I swear these boobs are out to send us all to FedEx or Joe's Delivery.
 
Anyone been to the USPS website since Feb 1? Good effin' luck. TWICE now I spent over an hour trying to compare shipping rates on various locations for Priority Mail Medium boxes, NOT flat rate. NOT Express. The frikkin' hoops & ladders, graphs and idiot requirements to get a simple answer to a SIMPLE QUESTION is insanity at it's best. Took 20 minutes alone to get one rate for one recipient in one "zone" FOR THE WRONG PACKAGE TYPE!!
 
And. Not. One. Stupid. Map. To determine these "zones" you have to play their idiot game, address after address after address.
 
I could just get in the truck and deliver this stuff on my own for the aggravation I'm getting served up.
 
...and I'm not even upset yet...
 
 
 
Oh, and their rates went up again. :doh:
 
 
Well somebody has to pay for upgrading & streamlining  their site for the ease of use you experienced. 
 
These days been doing mostly FedEx (Home or SmartPost). That or Regional Rate from USPS. I rarely do FR anymore, too $. Unless I am clown car boxing some heavy sauces. ;)
 
I use ShippingEasy for USPS labels.

It probably wont help you for just looking up a regional rate, I haven't been to the USPS look up a rate thing in a while. I have used it periodically to give customers shipping quotes. I can type in the address and type of box and get rates from SE. I have a commercial account which is $30 month. Totally worth it when I was selling 2-5 pure evils daily on Amazon. Orders automatically uploaded, just click the print button and the labels spit out. Slap it on the pre-packed boxes, off to the PO.

I use it about once a month now, so it's really not worth it, but I keep it as it is convenient and a business expense.
 
USPS Click-N-Ship is $17.99/mo. you don't need a 3rd party. If you sell on eBay it's free (basically you are using their Click-N-Ship account PLUS they discount the shipping).
 
Personally I'd look into FedEx. Been using it a lot and happy.
 
FRB is good for clown car boxes. Did that for the secret satan box to Down Undah.
 
Yeah FR is great for hot sauce/BBQ. Those boxes can get quite heavy.
 
Sorry I forgot this was a rant! :lol:

Back on topic.


Why those....
Dirty
Rotten
Lily-livered
Yellow-bellied
Goodfornothing
Wankin
Egg-suckin'
Two-timin'
Back-stabbin'
Cradle-robbin'
Impotent
Machavelian
Vapid
Obsolete
Trivaling
Abhorrent
Capsaicin-intolerant
Dweebs!


I have a very good friend who is an ultimate chilehead, all around good guy who is an USPS employee. I'm also ticked at our new local po worker. It's a one person show, so we are stuck with who is in the office.

:sigh:.....gotta train another one....

Hope the rant helped.



Edit I didn't get scolded for hijacking! :lol:


Edit is it A USPS or AN USPS? First version was A, but then it is a U, which is spelled "you", but is a U which is a vowel so should be AN.....????
 
DWB said:
Go to paypal.com/shipnow. You can get the rate and print a label for first class package or priority mail to anywhere. Just put in an address, postage type and weight and tell it to calculate.
 
That's the site I've used when I dabbled in ebay, very happy with it....
 
salsalady said:
Edit is it A USPS or AN USPS? First version was A, but then it is a U, which is spelled "you", but is a U which is a vowel so should be AN.....????
 
Um A. Do you say AN united force? You mad drunky!
 
DWB said:
Go to paypal.com/shipnow. You can get the rate and print a label for first class package or priority mail to anywhere. Just put in an address, postage type and weight and tell it to calculate.
 
The rates go up at the end of January for quite a few years now.
 
The_NorthEast_ChileMan said:
That's the site I've used when I dabbled in ebay, very happy with it....
 
Same company PayPay owns eBay or vice versa.
 
wise up, friends. only suckers pay retail for USPS  ;)
 
for the vast majority of packages, here's how you get the best rate:
  • use a usps reseller that gives you commercial pricing (formerly called commercial base/plus pricing) without markup at a good price. what price is competitive? between $0 and $0.05 per package AND without monthly fee. also, they need to give you access to priority mail cubic!!
  • try to get the package under 1lb so you can ship it first class package service. this will always be cheapest.
  • if under 1lb is impossible, use priority mail cubic. there are some exceptions i explain below.
The Hot Pepper said:
If you get a USPS account you can use Regional Rate boxes (provided free) which usually end up being a lot cheaper than the Flat Rate scam. Flat Rate is great for super heavy stuff.
 
regional and flat rate are consumer/retail products... rise up and seize the savings, comrade

afaik, regional rate is never a good deal
https://www.pirateship.com/usps/priority-mail-regional-rate
 
flat rate is almost never a good deal. sometimes it's cheaper than priority cubic if it's quite heavy and fits in a flat rate envelope or SFRB. otherwise no.
https://www.pirateship.com/usps/priority-mail-flat-rate
 
The Hot Pepper said:
USPS Click-N-Ship is $17.99/mo. you don't need a 3rd party. If you sell on eBay it's free (basically you are using their Click-N-Ship account PLUS they discount the shipping).
 
Personally I'd look into FedEx. Been using it a lot and happy.
 
click-n-ship is a joke
 
last i looked, fedex and ups mostly made sense for international shipping, but usps is cheaper for the stuff i mail domestically.
however, i have not looked deeply into fedex and ups resellers. maybe it gets competitive with very good commercial pricing. hell, amazon must use them for a reason (especially ups). if anyone can recommend resellers or share pricing anecdotes, i'd be very curious. thanks in advance.
 
salsalady said:
I use ShippingEasy for USPS labels.

It probably wont help you for just looking up a regional rate, I haven't been to the USPS look up a rate thing in a while. I have used it periodically to give customers shipping quotes. I can type in the address and type of box and get rates from SE. I have a commercial account which is $30 month. Totally worth it when I was selling 2-5 pure evils daily on Amazon. Orders automatically uploaded, just click the print button and the labels spit out. Slap it on the pre-packed boxes, off to the PO.

I use it about once a month now, so it's really not worth it, but I keep it as it is convenient and a business expense.
i've used several usps resellers. i used to use shippingeasy, but their pricing is not competitive, especially for average joes.
in their free tier, they mark up the commercial pricing postage they resell: https://shippingeasy.com/pricing/
 
they also don't give you access to priority cubic iirc (and neither does paypal btw).

also, you can't schedule pickups for first class packages because their integration with USPS' API is broken. to do a first class pickup, you have to login to usps.com. very stupid, and they just don't care about fixing it. priority pickup request works fine though.

who can i recommend?
 
for normal people (either non business users or business users with simpler needs), i suggest pirateship. they have an easy to use UI, best possible rates, and no monthly fees. my main gripe with them is they don't have an address book feature, but supposedly they're working on one. i recommend this service to all my friends and family for everyday shipping because it's not possible to get better rates, it's easy to use, and you can schedule pickups -- no need to ever go to post office again.
 
if your needs are not met by pirateship, then i suggest shippo. shippo has an inferior user experience imho. it's clunkier, but it provides more extensive e-commerce integration and customization tools. they charge $0.05 per package on their free tier.
 
personally, i use pirateship as a 'regular person' for everyday things and shippo for some special integrations that are all automated.
 
I just compared pirate ship USPS to FedEx SmartPost for the same thing and USPS was more.
 
I only suggested Click-N-Ship cuz SL said she way using a 3rd party. Going direct is cheaper.
 
When I use Regional Rate it's only in eBay and they give you a discount.
 
But wise up man! Wise up! :lol:
 
salsalady said:
Sorry I forgot this was a rant! :lol:

Back on topic.


Why those....
Dirty
Rotten
Lily-livered
Yellow-bellied
Goodfornothing
Wankin
Egg-suckin'
Two-timin'
Back-stabbin'
Cradle-robbin'
Impotent
Machavelian
Vapid
Obsolete
Trivaling
Abhorrent
Capsaicin-intolerant
Dweebs!


I have a very good friend who is an ultimate chilehead, all around good guy who is an USPS employee. I'm also ticked at our new local po worker. It's a one person show, so we are stuck with who is in the office.

:sigh:.....gotta train another one....

Hope the rant helped.



Edit I didn't get scolded for hijacking! :lol:


Edit is it A USPS or AN USPS? First version was A, but then it is a U, which is spelled "you", but is a U which is a vowel so should be AN.....????
Egad Ann, you must be the best neighbor in neighbordom...

We have a two person show at our po, the master-ette and the mail lady. Mail lady is a peach, master-ette is a Twilight Zone refugee; if you go in, you don't come out. She will talk you to oblivion, but never back....
 
And for the record, I just wanted to compare rates between $15+ for flat rate medium boxes and by weight (under 2 lbs) in a Priority box the same size. They've come up with a system I'm sure is designed to get ord'nary joes like me to give up and pay the $15....
 
The Hot Pepper said:
 
 
Same company PayPay owns eBay or vice versa.
 
Always amazing how the printed word doesn't convey the posters thoughts. What I meant was....
 
1.) When I sold an item on ebay you printed an ebay label as it used your buyers address assuring delivery to the correct addy, paying through  paypal. 
2.) If it was a sale outside of ebay I used the paypal/shipnow URL so I did't have to go to the post office to pay for shipping as I couldn't use ebay..
 
This was in the mid to late 80's.... They merged in the late 90's/early 2000's I believe...
 
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