Can I use medium flat rate box for regular priority mail

[wendychen2000us]

For some light items, regular priority mail is cheaper than flat rate box. So I covered the "medium flat rate" with priority mail stickers and send by weight for regular priority mail. I had no problem before, but lately I have a customer had post office asked her to pay the difference between regular priority mail online price vs. retail flat rate box. Is this right? I think I have the medium flat rate box word covered and I am using it as a regular priority mail box since it is always free for priority mail box.

Any suggestions?

Thank you.

[wakitiwa]

You have to specify for every single item if it goes on priority regular or flat priority, some post offices don't care but there are times that the package goes trough an usps inspector they can report the package and make the customer pay. Once I had to pay for a customer like $1.25.. So yeah, it's better to specify on each item with different types of priority mail.

[wendychen2000us]

Not sure what you mean specific on each item. I printed shipping label with stamps.com and shipping method is priority mail when I choose the service from drop down list. Weighed with stamps.com scale and print the label.

Originally Posted by wakitiwa

You have to specify for every single item if it goes on priority regular or flat priority, some post offices don't care but there are times that the package goes trough an usps inspector they can report the package and make the customer pay. Once I had to pay for a customer like $1.25.. So yeah, it's better to specify on each item with different types of priority mail.

[bluegrass1]

no flat rate box is only for flat rate shipping ..If ur needin priority boxes that size go to usps.com they are free and delivered rite to ur door . Hope this helps ..

[bluegrass1]

Ps.. usps.com also is the ONLY place u can get regional boxes so if ur address is close to where ur shipping it to u can send it that way and save .. I think the little box is good for up to 15 lbs region A just means upto 15lbs region B is more and cost more , but u get the idea if ur trying to save here and there on shipping it is handy to have the regional boxes around when u see addresses on ur side of the country . it really saves the ones the live in central Us like Colorado

[wendychen2000us]

Thank you. I thought as long as I covered "medium flat rate box", I can used it as a regular box for priority mail by weight.

[Chuckchamberlain12]

Originally Posted by bluegrass1

Ps.. usps.com also is the ONLY place u can get regional boxes so if ur address is close to where ur shipping it to u can send it that way and save .. I think the little box is good for up to 15 lbs region A just means upto 15lbs region B is more and cost more , but u get the idea if ur trying to save here and there on shipping it is handy to have the regional boxes around when u see addresses on ur side of the country . it really saves the ones the live in central Us like Colorado

Not true. I order all of my Flat Rate/Regional Rate boxes off of Stamps.com. They let you order A LOT more in a single order than USPS.com. I do recommend the regional rate boxes for the OP's issue though. I ship a regional rate A box for $5.84 (if the customer is in the right region), rather than paying $11 and some change for a medium flat rate box which is only a little bigger.

[wendychen2000us]

If I have something light weight for example 1lb, do I have to pay regional rate box B if I need a big box or I can cover the regional rate box letter and use as regular priority mail box?

Originally Posted by Chuckchamberlain12

Not true. I order all of my Flat Rate/Regional Rate boxes off of Stamps.com. They let you order A LOT more in a single order than USPS.com. I do recommend the regional rate boxes for the OP's issue though. I ship a regional rate A box for $5.84 (if the customer is in the right region), rather than paying $11 and some change for a medium flat rate box which is only a little bigger.

[Chuckchamberlain12]

I'm sure that could be considered some type of mail fraud, but I'm also sure you could get away with doing that sometimes. It depends on your (and your recipients) mail carrier. Some will probably let that fly, and some will probably not. I wouldn't do it though. You risk packages being delivered "postage due" which results in dissatisfied customers. Plus (in my experience) the regional rate is usually lower than the "use your own box" priority rate.

I have a trick I commonly use for orders that are small but still over 1lb. I probably shouldn't share but I don't think it will give anybody much of an edge.. I package the goods in the USPS 9-1/4" x 6-1/4" x 2" "VHS" Priority box, place that box into a Priority mail padded mailer (for protection, and to obscure the shape of the box), and then place the padded Priority mailer into a Tyvek Priority envelope. That way instead of having to pay $9+ to ship a Priority package, I pay $4.95 and ship as a Flat Rate Envelope. I've done well over 100 orders this way and there has never been a problem.

[Chuckchamberlain12]

You could also just order some regular (not flat or regional rate) Priority boxes from USPS.com or stamps.com.

https://store.usps.com/store/browse/...pping-supplies

This box is 12"x12"x8" so it is bigger than a Medium Flat Rate box and a Regional Rate B box. Using this box you would not have to worry about covering up any identifying information on the box. You just enter the Weight and Dimensions of the package and the postage is calculated for you. This would probably not be the cheapest way to ship though. Regional Rate boxes have almost always been the cheapest to ship for me..

[wendychen2000us]

Thank you for sharing. I did not know that we pay $4.95 for priority tyvek envelope. Is this go by weight or it is part of flat rate envelope? It did not say so on envelope.

Thank you.




I have a trick I commonly use for orders that are small but still over 1lb. I probably shouldn't share but I don't think it will give anybody much of an edge.. I package the goods in the USPS 9-1/4" x 6-1/4" x 2" "VHS" Priority box, place that box into a Priority mail padded mailer (for protection, and to obscure the shape of the box), and then place the padded Priority mailer into a Tyvek Priority envelope. That way instead of having to pay $9+ to ship a Priority package, I pay $4.95 and ship as a Flat Rate Envelope. I've done well over 100 orders this way and there has never been a problem.[/QUOTE]

[Chuckchamberlain12]

It's the Top-Rated seller Flat Rate Envelope price

[jfulcer]

Originally Posted by Chuckchamberlain12

I have a trick I commonly use for orders that are small but still over 1lb. I probably shouldn't share but I don't think it will give anybody much of an edge.. I package the goods in the USPS 9-1/4" x 6-1/4" x 2" "VHS" Priority box, place that box into a Priority mail padded mailer (for protection, and to obscure the shape of the box), and then place the padded Priority mailer into a Tyvek Priority envelope. That way instead of having to pay $9+ to ship a Priority package, I pay $4.95 and ship as a Flat Rate Envelope. I've done well over 100 orders this way and there has never been a problem.

Except that Priority Tyvek mailers are NOT flat rate. The only things that the post office considers Flat rate have printing on the box/envelope that say Flat Rate.

[link2benson]

After reading all the posts insisting that you cannot cover a flat rate box with brown paper and send priority mail, I was alarmed, because I had been doing this. As a former postal supervisor of mails, I could not believe that the post office could get away with charging a flat rate for a box covered in brown paper, especially since there was NO WARNING of that anywhere on the box. I wrote to USPS.com and was given the answer that, "Yes, you can do that" in response to my question about using the box and covering it with brown paper in order to send regular priority mail. So, felt I should share this with all my ebay friends. I would suggest that if anyone were challenged by any postal acceptance clerk, request to speak with the Postmaster or the Manager of that station. You shouldn't even be dealing with a clerk at the post office if you are using ebay labels.

[phaz0rz]

^^ Agreed, it's totally allowed. I cover regional rate boxes every day because it's cheaper for me to ship by weight.

[wendychen2000us]

We need to cover the whole box instead of just use priority mail stickers to cover the regional rate letters, right?

Originally Posted by link2benson

After reading all the posts insisting that you cannot cover a flat rate box with brown paper and send priority mail, I was alarmed, because I had been doing this. As a former postal supervisor of mails, I could not believe that the post office could get away with charging a flat rate for a box covered in brown paper, especially since there was NO WARNING of that anywhere on the box. I wrote to USPS.com and was given the answer that, "Yes, you can do that" in response to my question about using the box and covering it with brown paper in order to send regular priority mail. So, felt I should share this with all my ebay friends. I would suggest that if anyone were challenged by any postal acceptance clerk, request to speak with the Postmaster or the Manager of that station. You shouldn't even be dealing with a clerk at the post office if you are using ebay labels.

[newjerseymax]

As long as the weight matches I use whatever box I please... I have done this ten of thousands of times and never had a issue. I have even brought them to the counter this way and they just weight they box to be sure it is correct.

[phaz0rz]

Originally Posted by wendychen2000us

We need to cover the whole box instead of just use priority mail stickers to cover the regional rate letters, right?

No, you don't. I use "Priority Mail" stickers to cover up "Regional Rate Box ..." part of the box and send by weight every day. It takes 3 stickers per box since the box says Regional Rate 3 times. The post office doesn't care at all as long as you're paying for Priority postage.

[Dmshark25]

I have used the stickers the same way before.

Covering priority boxes becomes an issue when you use a covered priority box with First-Class postage, this is where you will cause a problem and your orders will not be shipped or buyers will be charged

[tvandang]

Originally Posted by newjerseymax

As long as the weight matches I use whatever box I please... I have done this ten of thousands of times and never had a issue. I have even brought them to the counter this way and they just weight they box to be sure it is correct.

I used priority mail option(2-day) and put in the weight and the dimensions, and it comes out about $6ish and flat medium priority mail will cost me about $11ish. so i used the medium flat rate box to pack but i use the priority mail option. would this cause a problem? did you put stickers on the box covering the priority mail labels? there are 3 places on the box. with the shipping label, i covered one, and the other twos, i covered with stickers(CAUTION HEAVY, 35lbs and over). is it better to schedule the box to be picked up online?

[jakobrockz]

Did you even read the thread?

[stressed08]

... just order the proper boxes online for free? They come in 4 different sizes that are very similar to medium flat rate.. with one of them being exactly the same

Even if you cover up everything there is still the 6 digit box code on it, 3 or 4 UPC's, not to mention that any one of us would notice what you did immediately... and we don't even work for the post office. Luckily the workers are typically busy and dumber than any of us.. which is why you've gotten by as long as you have... but just order the right boxes for free. You can also order free bubble mailers and never pay for bubble wrap for Priority items again.