USPS Scenario A

They mention a minumin weight on the box and that you have to purchase a box but not much else is clarified in the email/brief. I don't want to sign up for it if it is something I won't be able to do. I have some stuff piling up here that needs to be mailed.

Anyone know what is in this shop?

Create an Account or Log In

Membership is free. Simply choose your username, type in your email address, and choose a password. You immediately get full access to the forum.

You have to use a box...not necessarily buy one.

My idea of an agreeable person is a person who agrees with me.
Benjamin Disraeli

Unlike the C shop, where there is a max of 5 pounds, you can use an A shop to mail anything you need to. I only needs to be at least 18 ounces so it triggers the Priority rate. Less than that and it goes by First Class Parcel.

I think the Priority base rate covers 2 pounds, so if you go over 2 pounds you won't get the full postage reimbursed. But if you needed to send something Priority anyway, it will save you money on whatever you ship.

Time to build a bigger bridge.

The boxes at WalMart range from .48 to .72 (for the DIM weight shops). For schedule A, you can fill them to the -brim, which I have done, and you end up just paying the difference. If you are mailing it to yourself, a pound of pasta and a can of tuna falls right in the middle of the range and you will be good with no out-of-pocket expenses.

I like to send magazines or books back to myself. There is a box at Walmart, about 1.97 for a white box that is about 10x 15x 2, a perfect size for paper, magazines or books. This a great box for A and D shops.

I just use a cake mix or a brownie mix box. When I cover it with wrapping paper they weigh the right amount . If concerned, I add some newspaper to add a bit of weight. Most cake mixes weigh 15 ounces. When the box gets so beat up after multiple shops, I bake it.

I sell stuff on ebay and then get these shops to ship them =)

you might be able to use the free box from the post office...if you are not supposed to..pick some up ahead of time...wrap it in brown paper..and bring it back..

You could probably use the free box from the post office if you wrap it in brown paper, and you wrap it correctly (shipping tape, no string).

Be very careful about the size of any box you use, wherever it comes from. If any dimension exceeds 12", it becomes a dimensional weight shipment and you pay based upon volume, which is not scenario "A" at all.

The "C" shops all specify at least one dimension which is easily determined to be more than 12", but they still often miss it, and sometimes they are so careless when measuring, that the dimensions are inflated by 1" in each direction. When that happens, I make sure to mention it in the report because the fee charged for mailing it will not be what the MSC editor expects.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

I do some merchandising now and use smaller empty boxes from when I put out stock. It's up to me to get rid of the boxes so I take them home.

Her Serene Majesty, Cettie - Goat Queen of Zoltar, Sublime Empress of Her Caprine Domain

Scenario A's don't need a box at all. An envelope with contents heavy enough, or just a sufficiently heavy item wrapped in paper and taped, will work just fine.

elcarev68 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Scenario A's don't need a box at all. An envelope
> with contents heavy enough, or just a sufficiently
> heavy item wrapped in paper and taped, will work
> just fine.

Check with your scheduler first. Mine told me it had to be a box.

eveb Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> elcarev68 Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Scenario A's don't need a box at all. An
> envelope
> > with contents heavy enough, or just a
> sufficiently
> > heavy item wrapped in paper and taped, will
> work
> > just fine.
>
>
> Check with your scheduler first. Mine told me it
> had to be a box.

I think the guidelines now state that you must use a box.

I don't think there is any ambiguity in the current guidelines, it has to be a box (earlier it could be an envelope and I sometimes used envelopes).

"If you do not have a box of your own to ship, you will need to purchase your own plain box from a location other than USPS."

The word "box" is explicitly used in other places in the guidelines as well.

Shopping Southeast Pennsylvania, Delaware above the canal, and South Jersey since 2008

They used to allow envelopes; now they want a box.

I reuse Amazon boxes. You need to take a black marker and mark out any existing words or markings on the boxes (especially any barcodes).

Time to build a bigger bridge.

I'll check with my scheduler again the next time we talk, but when I asked her earlier this year, any package was fine as long as it did not exceed the size limits. I used non-boxes as recently as two weeks ago and there were no problems. I used two non-boxes and one box today, and I'll be sure to report here if the non-box shops are rejected.

I would be really careful with covering a flat rate box (the ones you can get for free at the PO) with paper and sending it any other way. It is illegal.

Shelly Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I would be really careful with covering a flat
> rate box (the ones you can get for free at the PO)
> with paper and sending it any other way. It is
> illegal.

I agree. I once had someone send me an ebay purchase that way and the post office figured it out (size of package) and pulled back the wrapping to check. I had to come in and pay the difference in parcel and priority to pick up the package. The clerk explained that the boxes are one use boxes...even if it had previously been used as a priority box it should not be reused through the postal system in any manner (either as a priority box again or wrapped and used as priority or parcel post). Yes I know it's a waste but those are their rules.

Liz

I use food boxes if I'm mailing something small.

Betty Crocker Family-Sized fudge brownie mix is $1.25 at Walmart, and they're 1 lb, 2.3 ozs, already the perfect weight.

I recently sent my sister a Pandora bracelet through a Scenario A. I just opened the brownie box, slid the bracelet in on top of the sealed brownie mix bag inside, resealed the brownie box, and wrapped it in brown paper.

Bonus points that she collects those Box Tops for Education, and the brownie mix comes with two of them.

------------------------------------------------
Plan the work. Work the plan.

The instructions clearly state you must use a box. If you buy one it is reimbursed up to a certain amount. If you use one you already have, that's fine too if it isn't too big.

Happily shopping Rhode Island and nearby Massachusetts and Connecticut

I use these shops to fulfill gift shop orders for my cookbooks. I wholesale them including shipping and it makes me look good to the client when they arrive Priority Mail.

I'll also do USPS competitor shops for the same reason.

.
Have PV-500 & willing to travel.
"Answers are easy. It's asking the right questions which is hard." (The Fourth Doctor, The Face of Evil, 1977)

"Somedays you're the pigeon, somedays you're the statue.” J. Andrew Taylor

"I have never met a man so ignorant that I couldn't learn something from him." Galileo Galilei

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/08/2014 01:53PM by James Bond 007.5.

The instructions on my shops specifically state "IT MUST BE A BOX", but that could be different for different regions.

elcarev68 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Scenario A's don't need a box at all. An envelope
> with contents heavy enough, or just a sufficiently
> heavy item wrapped in paper and taped, will work
> just fine.

I send my school's box tops. Just divide them into the correct weight.

MissChele - Shopping KY, IN & OH
Thread Killer

Follow up...
My Monday shops were all accepted, with two of them being non-boxes. One was the rectangular item simply wrapped in paper, the other was a variety of loose items place in a bubble protected envelope. For the envelope one, I submitted the receipt with the purchase identified as, "Bubble Envelope."
I'll grant anyone that in the guidelines the word box is used one third of the time and package is used two thirds of the time. Note, however, that the report doesn't ask for the size or shape of the package, only its weight. The packaging has no bearing on the outcome of the shop or the report.
I'm sticking with my scheduler's directive to me which was it doesn't matter, it just has to be small enough to not be dimensional and heavy enough to meet the weight requirement.

Sorry, only registered users may post in this forum.

Click here to login

USPS Scenario A

Create an Account or Log In

Official List of Mystery Shopping Companies

Mystery Shopper Magazine