6 replies
Anyone have a lot of experience sending small parcels via first class mail? I have a few questions to ask.
#questions #usps
  • Profile picture of the author RhondaG
    I will say that last week I sold several items on eBay and had no idea about shipping. I looked online at the rates and their free boxes but it was confusing. So....I took a trip to the post office and they were wonderful. They showed me different sizes of boxes, most of which were free if you ship priority mail. Some are flat rate no matter how much things weight. If you have something to ship that is over 13 ounces it can go parcel post which is cheaper in most cases. Please take a trip to the post office and let them help you. It saved me lots of time for sure.
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  • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
    What kind of questions do you have? I shipped half a million packages out last year.
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  • Profile picture of the author BenFromSoMo
    Here is my main question:
    Will small parcels under 13 ounces sent first class be delivered into someone's home mailbox like the rest of the mail or does someone have to be there to pick it up like if it was sent UPS?
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    If you do any kind of blogging and want to try the next big thing, PM me.

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  • Profile picture of the author Silas Hart
    I responded to your PM.
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  • Profile picture of the author czilbersher
    Originally Posted by BenFromSoMo View Post

    Anyone have a lot of experience sending small parcels via first class mail? I have a few questions to ask.
    I have so much hate and disgust for the U.S. Postal Service that I have a hard time even writing this. My wife's eBay business depended upon the U.S. Postal Service for the past eight years to deliver her products to Germany via first class airmail which consistently took about 2 weeks...up until 6 months ago. That's when the USPS layoffs and early retirement, downsizing and restructuring started to occur. Suddenly, the time-sensitive products my wife sold on eBay were taking 6 to 8 weeks for delivery via our "glorious" postal service as they were held up in processing facilities in New Jersey. Her customers began cancelling their orders, demanding refunds for which we had to pay return shipping, sending threatening and sometimes desperate emails, you name it. It wasn't their fault; they were in the right. It shouldn't take products 6-8 weeks send via first-class airmail to arrive in Europe. Our competitor's products sent from China were taking less than half that time!!! Meanwhile my wife was literally breaking down in tears every day because she would wake up each morning to hate mail from livid customers who rightfully expected their time-sensitive merchandise to arrive in a reasonable amount of time and they were emailing threats, calling her a liar (and much worse names), and making her life a living hell. And all she wanted to do was make a few extra bucks to buy some clothes and feed our kids. (I should point out that her customers love her products once they receive them, and that the complaints are solely around shipping times. Her eBay ads state that the products are shipped from the US via first-class airmail, and that their estimated times are stated as 2-3 weeks.)

    The US Postal Service is nothing short of an embarrassment. I pray they collapse under their own weight and die a miserable and horrible death. If this is the start of economic collapse in the US, then I'm a witness to it beginning with the US Postal Service.

    (By the way, this story actually has a happy ending: We contacted FedEx and negotiated a shipping rate that, although more expensive than USPS, allowed us to send our packages to Germany in 2-3 DAYS rather than 6-8 weeks. Is there anything that the government does better than the private sector? Anything? Anybody? Crickets??? Yeah, I thought so. Privatize the US Postal System or let them die as they should. I have no sympathy for the incompetent USPS.)
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    • Profile picture of the author Baystreet
      Originally Posted by czilbersher View Post

      I have so much hate and disgust for the U.S. Postal Service that I have a hard time even writing this.
      I'm sorry to hear about your problems with the USPS but I have not experienced anything you have.

      I ship 50-75 priority packages a day to customers here in the US and they
      are delivered in 2 to 3 days. And they have only lost one package in the last three years. I don't do any international shipping but I have a number of friends that do Ebay and sell lots of stuff to international customers with few problems.

      Without getting into a political discussion I will just point out that the post office's bad financial situation was in large part created by congress. The USPS is required to prefund their employee retirement cost for the next 70 years. Every January they start the year off 5 billion in the hole to pay retirement benefits for employees that have not even been born yet.

      I for one hope you don't get your wish for them to die as I don't really want to pay UPS $10-15 to deliver a package the USPS will do for $5.
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