Email a copy of 'PC Postage Comes Under Scrutiny by USPS Watchdog' to a friend
Loading ...
Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.
We don’t need any on line shipping outfit for our stuff. A 55 cent stamp sends it all. A sharp seller can buy them for about 40 cents each.
I wonder if that’s why the USPS site only includes retail rates now — so more shipping services would be encouraged to join PC Postage. It doesn’t make sense, really. If they can get the same level of business from their own site, offering the same 24-hour label-printing service, then what difference does it make if shipping services join?
Although, I guess that was the point — to increase the level of business through these sites. Still, I don’t understand why they couldn’t just do that through the USPS site. People are more familiar with the USPS than they are third-party shipping services.
The only postage services I’ve used are PayPal, Etsy labels, and PirateShip. I used to use Click’n’Ship all the time when they still offered commercial rates, but haven’t used it once since they moved to retail rates. I even have an account with the USPS, so I don’t understand why they couldn’t at least offer commercial rates to their account holders. What was the point of shifting my usage from their site to another site?
The fact that it’s a long, arduous approval process may explain why some sites (ie, eCrater) don’t offer commercial rates via their shipping calculator. Sellers there are so used to it being set up that way that they don’t want to shift to commercial rates now because they like having that cushion. Personally, I do not mark up shipping at all as all other expenses are accounted for in my item price.
So I find it extremely detrimental to my business by not offering commercial rates. Especially when your listings are being compared with others on sites like Google Shopping. eCrater’s system doesn’t even display the calculated rate in GS — just the flat rates from the matrix, which can greatly differ between zones and results in higher flat rates to ensure you’re not losing money.
So, while the USPS is trying to push more users to third-party shipping services, they should also be pushing marketplace sites to offer the discounted commercial rates rather than retail rates. It’s not like eCrater is making money on the higher postage rates because they only apply their fee to the item price. So it makes no sense why they wouldn’t offer commercial rates unless it’s the USPS that’s creating the barrier.
Here is an idea..skip the middle men and give small to medium businesses direct discounts…instead of send us to middle men who keep a portion of the savings for themselves.
I seriously question how so many idiots are chosen to run things
@Monkposty – USPS USED to have a “Click-N-Ship For Business.” I already had a C-N-S account so was delighted to get into it because it offered options unavailable in CNS and also a nice local downloaded software. I was really happy to get into the CNSFB. THEN – USPS then some time later changed the requirements for parcitipants (I can’t honestly recall, it was a couple of years ago) so that I was unable to meet them – the only way I would have been able to continue was to get into using a postage meter (and my experience using those at a number of workplaces was not good, to say the least). So I and others who did not comply got kicked out.
Looks like they may be trying to resurrect some parts of CNSFB (?). After canceling my CNS account as well, I got into Stamps.com which to me is worth the small price. It’s paid for itself many times over, both in time savings and making record keeping tremendously easier for me.
I finally caved and tried PirateShip. Not impressed. Didn’t get a full label or any e-mail notifications. What a joke.
You need to learn how to use pirateship. The cost savings are immense if you use the site correctly.
I would suggest first starting with turning on email notifications.
I’ve only used them a few times, but didn’t have any problems. I remember it being rather easy to use. I agree you should go through your account settings to make sure everything is set up the way you prefer.
I did that prior to creating a label because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t wasting labels. I’m a tree hugger and paper equals trees, so wasting paper is a huge pet peeve of mine. LOL I even recycle all of my paper waste, including the shredded stuff.