Do USPS really check weight on prepaid labels ?

james13v · #23 10-12-2015

It's beyond me that people are so pissed off because they are being charged the correct amount for their postage...

Hey, I ship things that are slightly over what I paid for it. But I'm not going to whine that the post office decided to charge me for something that I KNEW WOULD COST MORE, but I chose to be cheap and try my luck. Jeez. Talk about entitlement generation.

dealagreeproceed · #24 10-12-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by james13v

It's beyond me that people are so pissed off because they are being charged the correct amount for their postage...

Hey, I ship things that are slightly over what I paid for it. But I'm not going to whine that the post office decided to charge me for something that I KNEW WOULD COST MORE, but I chose to be cheap and try my luck. Jeez. Talk about entitlement generation.

hey come on now james I thinks its more so just about how annoying it is to have some duche with no life who takes his job too seriously, send your item back for a few ounces I mean comeeeeeeee on

yankee · #25 10-12-2015

Myself and four other major sellers in my City were under postal investigation two years ago. My sample was 4800ish packages in a day and had exactly 48 come back short on postage. 6 were drastically over weight and the remainder were 0.01 ounces over. I sent them ALL back in the mail the next day with no added shipping.

Long story short, sometimes it is 0.01 ounces and sometimes it is a 25lb postage paid priority label that is impossible to know what the paid $$$ at the counter on a 35lb box.

We still do not weight every 3 once package for a 1 in 1000 chance the random package comes to 3.01 onces and we still occasionally place a 25lb label on a 32lb box seeing as it is impossible for a clerk to know what was paid on those...But we do not do it intentionally or regularly.

If the random package comes back in the mail, no big deal.

dallis · #26 10-17-2015

They photograph/record every label/package as it goes through the address reader, so it's not too much of a stretch to believe they also check the weight of every package.

That's why, as Jeff says, if you do it a lot they'll start rejecting your packages.

At my post office if you hand a package with online postage to a clerk, the first thing they do is throw it on the scale then look for some reason to reject it.

I take mine to the business district, where they have a huge volume and throw it in the blue drop box, it gets dumped into a truck and taken right to the regional bulk mail center and nobody even looks at it.

Once it's in the mail stream no human touches it again until delivery, and by then it's done and over with.

That said, they'd surely to notice if everyone's package was 2-3 ounces over, then when they load the truck it's overweight at 3/4 full... if this happens a lot you know they're going to crack down on it.

vogeltron · #27 10-18-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by james13v

They complain, because then they don't get credit for it unless it's shipped from a zipcode in their jurisdiction

I have heard that before I think it is completely B.S. For lack of a better word it is Postal Nazi's who have nothing better to do. For the post offices that actual scan in the acceptance they know where it was picked up, etc. To this day and I have heard that since like 03' I think that is nonsense.

vogeltron · #28 10-18-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallis

Once it's in the mail stream no human touches it again until delivery, and by then it's done and over with.

Not 100% true. Sometimes in smaller areas you get people with nothing to do that will check packages before they go out for delivery. If you have ever had a buyer complain about postage due on delivery than this has happened. It is rarer but it definitely happens.

From what I have seen it tends to be more on first class mail than anything else.

xxrange · #29 10-18-2015

They do check, you may get away with it sometime sometimes you get a lost package. Try to keep it as legit as possible

rsot · #30 10-18-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by xxrange

They do check, you may get away with it sometime sometimes you get a lost package. Try to keep it as legit as possible

Agree - they can check and if you have a package returned, your shipping times will be screwed up +/- buyer complaint

ScotlandHouseBuyers · #31 10-18-2015

Hi,

I send the odd stuff via UPS just this week posted n Airer over 1.2M in height but weight was 8KG. However they normally don't take anything over 1.0M but arrived next day.

However I am aware random sample checks are done and then they can charge you extra if under declared or less postage paid.

Thanks

james13v · #32 10-18-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallis

They photograph/record every label/package as it goes through the address reader
.

and where'd you get that little tidbit of information. And, for the sake of argument, lets assume a camera takes a picture for information purposes, I'd like to see where it says they keep a record of every label.

GhostOfAmazon · #33 10-19-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by dallis

They photograph/record every label/package as it goes through the address reader, so it's not too much of a stretch to believe they also check the weight of every package.

Thats false....this is only done on LETTERS, not parcels...

and a machine does it, not a human being....

Put your tin-foil hat away now...

solefoodbk · #34 10-19-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by GhostOfAmazon

Thats false....this is only done on LETTERS, not parcels...

and a machine does it, not a human being....

Put your tin-foil hat away now...

What does a tin-foil hat do?

Magic??

Chuckchamberlain12 · #35 10-19-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by solefoodbk

What does a tin-foil hat do?

Magic??

MagicHat · #36 10-22-2015

I had a postal employee tell me that if it is 8.1 oz in weight and you pay for only 8 oz, they can return it to you. It is ALWAYS rounded up if over the weight. I think it depends on your local post office too. I use to just get mail from my local route carrier, and had to pay "postal charges due" pretty much every month (order lots of stuff on eb). Got a PO box the next city over, haven't paid a "postage due" charge in over 6 months...

GhostOfAmazon · #37 10-22-2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagicHat

I had a postal employee tell me that if it is 8.1 oz in weight and you pay for only 8 oz, they can return it to you. It is ALWAYS rounded up if over the weight. I think it depends on your local post office too. I use to just get mail from my local route carrier, and had to pay "postal charges due" pretty much every month (order lots of stuff on eb). Got a PO box the next city over, haven't paid a "postage due" charge in over 6 months...

Yes, that's right. If you have a postal Nazi, you'll have issues....but 95% of postal workers are too overworked/don't care enough to bother unless you're grossly underestimating the weight.

dallis · #38 10-24-2015

I used the word 'package' to mean first class mail, which includes first class package.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mail_I...l_and_Tracking

My kids had a one of those 'how it works' videos about the post office and how it works, and it was shown in that.