USPS Rate Hikes.....

[RandyT]

Most people know about this already, but I suspect few have looked into it enough to understand the ramifications of the changes for our community, who tend to get a lot of their goodies through the mail system.

I just went through the whole mess so I could understand it better, and see what I could do in the way of adding more of the new services to the store's shipping options.  It wasn't fun, but i think I have a handle on it and did what I could.  Because it is so complicated (compared to previously), I thought I would share what I have learned over the last couple of days.  You can also see what I wrote on the subject at the GGG store home page and more detail at the Shipping and Returns Info Page.

For the most part, domestic customers don't have too much to worry about with the normal sized items.  The rates went up on Domestic Priority Mail by about 15 to 20 %.  It's a little bit of a sting, but not that big of a deal.  There is also the addition of the evil "dimensional weight" that complicates, and raises the cost of, shipping large items like monitor bezels.  So those who were using that loophole in the system for those types of items, be aware that it is now quite "plugged."

International customers are going to be hit the hardest.  The Global Priority method is gone and there is nothing that comes close in both delivery time and cost.  You can have similar cost, but at much longer delivery times, or the same delivery times with the new Priority Mail International option, but at a much higher cost.   Canada and Mexico are less expensive to ship to using PMI than destinations across the globe, so folks from those locations won't be hit quite as hard.  However, PMI shipping to EU and other destinations costs almost %100 more (or double) what it used to with the now defunct Global Priority mail.

One benefit of the new services, and possibly one of the biggest reasons for the hike, is the long talked about inclusion of tracking and minimal indemnity services for Priority and PMI options.  Now that they offer the same service as the independents, they appear to be pricing themselves closer to them.

In any event, those are the highlights.  The worst part is that the USPS is still cheaper than most other options for the same level of service, so there really still isn't much that can be done other than to just bite your lip and deal with it.

I hope this helps those who are interested better understand how the changes will affect them. 

RandyT

[Kaytrim]

Thank you Randy for that explanation of the rate increase and changes.  As I sell on eBay internationally this helps me to understand and be prepared for the influx of issues that will hit my international sales.  Especially when it will now cost more to ship some of my things than what the customer is paying for the item itself.  I used GP almost exclusively for all my international shipments.  Now I am going to have to make some serious decisions and changes to my auctions and store items.

TTFN
Kaytrim

[shardian]

global priority was awesome. I shipped stuff to germany in a flat rate box for like $5 some time ago. Oh well. Right now, I am more pissed that I have a whole book of 39 cent stamps and a half book of 37 cent stamps. I HATE those 1 cent make-up stamps.

[SavannahLion]

Just a small note on the flip side of the coin, not trying to steal any thunder.

There's internal dissent within the USPS about some of the changes. I try to avoid tracking the political sewage the USPS operates in, but from what I can gather, not everyone is thrilled. There's also hints that there is/will be additional machinary to automate handling of the "evil" bulky packages. I figure the FRAGILE sticker will get a lot of usage.

Some (all?) offices are pushing harder to tack on extra fees to packages, whether you need them or not. Many of the older employees don't give a rats ass about extra fees, but some are not telling customers all of the shipping options for their packages. Know your oprions before you go in.

No, I don't work for the USPS. Too much work.

[BobA]

It will definately add extra cost to shipments to Canada.  Still cheaper then UPS and their added customs clearance fees.

BobA

[Jeff AMN]

Yeah, this sucks for me as I sell a lot of stuff online as well. It's not my business, but it's enough of an income source that it will have an effect on my extra cash for hobby expenses.

[bleargh]

It will definately add extra cost to shipments to Canada.  Still cheaper then UPS and their added customs clearance fees.

Heck, anything is cheaper than UPS.  I've skipped on tons of stuff on eBay simply because the shipper would only ship via UPS...  I figured one out recently that would've been ~$10 via USPS, ~$30 via FedEx, but UPS wanted $80 to ship the package.  Scariest part?  The item in question wasn't even worth $80... auction finally ended at around $35.

And then there are the customs clearance fees, which add up to another $30 when the package arrives.

And after all of that... you're lucky if the package even arrives in good condition.  We've had to regularly send back packages shipped via UPS as the box had been damaged.  Delivery guy says we can either (a) sign for it in "good condition" and give up our option of complaining or filing for damages, or (b) have it returned to the shipper so they can check for damage and then re-ship back to us.

Worst of all, though?

Up here in Canada, UPS will not issue you a receipt for any delivery fees charged, and on more than one occasion they've managed to lose their own records of our paying the fees.  Gee, like its hard... you won't even deliver the package without the fees being paid on the spot.  Buggers sent it off to collection one time and their lawyers wouldn't accept anything short of a receipt as proof of payment for the fees, even when they acknowledged that they knew that UPS doesn't issue receipts for delivery here.  Extortion anyone?

Additional postage fees are bad, but UPS is just evil.

[SavannahLion]

IRT bleargh

Don't feel bad. I live in the U.S. and UPS happily destroyed a stereo system. I purchased it from one of the smaller mom & pop stereo manufacturers (before they all disappeared) during a trade show. It was a monster of a system with 8-channel surround sound with a 200-watt rating per-channel. Turning the stereo up too loud would dim the lights. Owning this stereo system was a freaking nightmare.

Something was wrong with the two speakers and the amp so they blew. Called the shop, under warranty, no problem, send it in. They wanted UPS, OK, no problem. Went to UPS, got approved packaging, sent everything in.

The speaker boxes were sent to a seperate facility. The jerks there "repaired" them by hotgluing everything together. No phone call asking why, nothing. Then they sent the speakers back to me in the original shipping boxes. They arrived a crushed wood particle and hot glue mess.

The amp itself fared no better. It was sent back with the wrong remote back. The box was opened during the shipping process and all packaging material was removed/lost.

I called the manufacturer and they stated it was, "my problem," since the warranty expired by the time all of it returned to me. ---smurfs---. At least I had the foresight to insure the entire thing so I put in a claim with UPS for it.

So the UPS guy comes out and laughs, tries to tell me the packaging was not UPS approved. Nevermind it was precisely what the UPS people sold to me, I had the receipt still. Then he tried to say there was no such thing as a 200-watt x 8 channel stereo, despite the damaged one sitting right there before him. Showed him the manual. Then he tried to say there was no such thing as a 200-watt speaker box. Same thing. This, "discussion," went for about a month before my mother offered to call a lawyer. He approved the reimbursment.

Took more than nine months to get the check. The only good thing was that by that time, the company who original made my stereo went out of business so I ended up going with a better known company.

Nowadays I avoid UPS like the plague.

(The whole setup would eventually get destroyed two years later when a dip ---Cleveland steamer--- friend of mine would blow the whole thing to hell.)

Edit: shortened post

[QuixoteQuest]

Other rate categories got hit much harder than 20%. Being in creative and marketing, we will be cutting our lists to contain as much of the cost increases as possible-- which will probably be better for our list management efforts in the future. But we will be making sure we give USPS as little extra business as we can. We can't afford to see our mailing costs soar 35%. We also will be passing higher costs on to our customers, as this is too great to absorb. You're probably right Randy that we will just have to bite our lip. But more and more clients who give USPS big business are assuming more and more work themselves in order to buy down lower rates with USPS. USPS still posts record profits and does less service for the money (in my opinion). And the reason the rates still go up is that they have absolutely terrible, uncompetitive labor management. Well I'll shut up before I rant any more. I ceratinly don't have pleasant feelings toward USPS these days.

[Kaytrim]

I had to ship a package last night.  I use PayPal's postage printing system to make things nice and easy.  However with the stupid changes I had to manually go in and add the dimensions of the box I was using.  Even though it was one of the standard cube boxes that USPS supplies free for eBay sellers.  I used to offer combined shipping rates but now I don't know if that is feasible because of this 'Volume Pricing'.

Kaytrim