@Orrymain wrote:

That would be very helpful. My suggestion is just to add it to the description -- USPS blah blah - reg or USPS blah blah - DIM ... etc. :}

The problem is that both shops are on the same form, so it's the same description field for both. We may be able to figure out another way to do it though.

I tried! LOL That's the problem with not really knowing what goes into posting the shops. I have confidence you'll figure out something! :}

The DIM weight one requires more out of pocket which is harder for some....

In addition, not everyone is quite ready with a destination because shoppers now need to find folks in zone 5-8 (ideally zone 5 to get full reimbursement according to the instructions). On top of that, the "C" shops require a box of certain dimensions. More than that not everyone who does these shops really wants to to do the "C" shops.

I'm sure you can find a way to let us know which shop it is before we apply.

Yes, I too would like to know which shop it is before I accept. ( The guidelines do say if the fee is $12, it's a regular box shop and if it's a $15 fee, it is a Dim Weight, but there is no mention of a bonus fee) I live in a 3rd floor walk up, with outside stairs. Those bulky Dim Weight boxes, on a nice day, test my balance and I think I should just stay away from them! Thanks!

Do not take what I say as the truth but to me shipping from a different zone means just that. You are standing in a post office that is in a different zone than the address you are shipping to. Let's say I am away in another state and I want to ship a package to myself in my state. It fits the requirement for the msc of being a different zone so it is okay. I do need to put a return address on the package but I see no reason why it could not be my personal home address as the FROM which is the TO address as well. I have not done this and would check with the msc before doing so but I see no Post Office problem with this. People on vacation ship things to themselves frequently. They certainly would not want the item to be returned to what ever hotel they were staying at 4 days ago. I doubt the post office requires a return address to be in the same zone as where you ship from. If I go across town to a different post office I can still use my home address as the return address.
AS for zone 0, I looked this up for my very first job. Many Los Angeles zips, of which there are probably 50-100, are in zone 0 for me. There are quite a few different zip codes that go to the same processing center and all of these would be a zone zero for me. I would not be able to ship by priority mail to any of them as they do not offer priority mail when you do not go beyond your local processing center. Small towns and cities may have different zoning.

Which brings up the old return address mail scam. People used to mail letters putting the return address as the receiver's address and the receiver's address as their home address. They would then conviently forget to appl postage stamp(s). I doubt this would work on packages but who knows. When your scamming someone the federal gov't would not be my choice even thou the post office is privately run (yes little known fact).

My feeling is that people should follow the guidelines and the intent of the guidelines and not try to bend the rules to fit what they want to do.

@Orrymain wrote:

My feeling is that people should follow the guidelines and the intent of the guidelines and not try to bend the rules to fit what they want to do.

absolutely

The post office does not check return addresses. The only requirement is that there BE a return address. I have shipped packages to myself with my own return address often when I am out of town. This is not bending the rules. The rules are the package must be physically shipped from one zone to another. The return address on the package is irrelevant to the physical location you are currently in when shipping the box.

Just saw my payroll statement for USPS shops I did last month. The listing shows the fees, but not the postage reimbursements. Anyone have any insight into this?

@bashfulbabies wrote:

Just saw my payroll statement for USPS shops I did last month. The listing shows the fees, but not the postage reimbursements. Anyone have any insight into this?

I just checked mine and it shows the same thing.

From how they have done other payments they pay the reimbursements in a seprate payment. Don't know why but they are close together.

I'm frustrated. I used to do hundreds of these shops and now I'm lucky if I can get assigned one. Never flaked. I'd love to know how they decide who gets the job. I wish we could self-assign!

Help, I've got a shop due in a day and can't find the right sized boxes anywhere. I've tried Staples and Target but no luck finding boxes in the required sizes for the dementional shop.

I got mine from Walmart when I did the shop for the other MSC.

@wwin wrote:

Help, I've got a shop due in a day and can't find the right sized boxes anywhere. I've tried Staples and Target but no luck finding boxes in the required sizes for the dementional shop.

Try UPS and Fed Ex. If that doesn't work consider ordering them from Staples.com and having them delivered.

All the ones near me are offering $12 for what I used to do for $25-40. I will just let them sit there.

@sandyf wrote:

Do not take what I say as the truth but to me shipping from a different zone means just that. You are standing in a post office that is in a different zone than the address you are shipping to. Let's say I am away in another state and I want to ship a package to myself in my state. It fits the requirement for the msc of being a different zone so it is okay. I do need to put a return address on the package but I see no reason why it could not be my personal home address as the FROM which is the TO address as well. I have not done this and would check with the msc before doing so but I see no Post Office problem with this. People on vacation ship things to themselves frequently. They certainly would not want the item to be returned to what ever hotel they were staying at 4 days ago. I doubt the post office requires a return address to be in the same zone as where you ship from. If I go across town to a different post office I can still use my home address as the return address.
AS for zone 0, I looked this up for my very first job. Many Los Angeles zips, of which there are probably 50-100, are in zone 0 for me. There are quite a few different zip codes that go to the same processing center and all of these would be a zone zero for me. I would not be able to ship by priority mail to any of them as they do not offer priority mail when you do not go beyond your local processing center. Small towns and cities may have different zoning.

Not true. They only offer Priority Mail to ship within the same processing center. I wasn't allowed to purchase any other option.

My guidelines said I could ship anywhere as long as it wasn't the same zip code as mine. The first package I shipped was in the same zone and same processing center. It was approved even though I thought I did it incorrectly. Before I did my shop I checked the link in the guidelines to check the zone pairing. It said it was zone 1, but after some research it looks like it is the same zone. Where is zone 0?! Did USPS just get rid of 0 and start at 1?

My statement shows some shops being paid the reimbursement and not others, so not sure that it is supposed to come on separate checks. Pretty bogus if so imo. I am now doing dim weight shops and so far will be up to $300 plus in postage just for the 12 I have assigned and I may take more. If I am going to have to wait for reimbursement, I may rethink the dim weights at least. The survey for dimweight now has a calculation to add the reimbursement on the bottom of the survey. This is done automatically, don't add your box cost to it.

DONT have them delivered!!! Old MSC did not reimburse for shipping of the boxes, only the actual box cost. Shipping cost is typically more than the cost of the box as they're relatively heavy, so you get screwed. I bought 100 boxes from a place that was very cheap, and the freight was the largest part of the total. They would not reimburse a penny of it, even though I had gotten the box cost down to 37¢ and even with the frieght was much cheaper than buying locally. I asked but no one answered about this issue, but I think policy is still the same, as the MSC is really still the same, just the company scheduling is different.

@Nataliekorn wrote:

. Where is zone 0?! Did USPS just get rid of 0 and start at 1?

There are zone 0 locations in Los Angeles. I do not know about any other cities. I had to send something locally a few weeks ago and the post office website told me it could not be shipped priority. Regular mail is often delivered overnight here so to pay extra for 2 days would not be useful.

In case anyone is interested Office Depot is having a buy 2 get one free on boxes sale this week. I guess if you needed a box for your own purposes this would be useful as you would probably not get reimbursed for box #3 as it was free.

Shipping is free from staples with a key tag.

@onepotatotwo wrote:

DONT have them delivered!!! Old MSC did not reimburse for shipping of the boxes, only the actual box cost. Shipping cost is typically more than the cost of the box as they're relatively heavy, so you get screwed. I bought 100 boxes from a place that was very cheap, and the freight was the largest part of the total. They would not reimburse a penny of it, even though I had gotten the box cost down to 37¢ and even with the frieght was much cheaper than buying locally. I asked but no one answered about this issue, but I think policy is still the same, as the MSC is really still the same, just the company scheduling is different.

What is a key tag? I looked at staples and don't see anything...BUT did see that they will ship for free to your local store, so that is an option.

Does anyone know if there will be ReadyPost shops?

@onepotatotwo wrote:

Does anyone know if there will be ReadyPost shops?

I don't know. I loved the Ready Post shops! I hope that there will be more of them in future...

I think that "key tag" refers to being a Staples Rewards Member. I am, but I choose to ship to a Staples store (also for free) for convenience. The downside is that to get the box sizes required for the Dim Wt scenarios, you need to order 25 boxes. I have done that. I have a lot in storage now. I don't know anyone in Zone 5, and until I figure out how to overcome that issue, I am avoiding the Dim Wt scenario.

@myst4au wrote:

I think that "key tag" refers to being a Staples Rewards Member. I am, but I choose to ship to a Staples store (also for free) for convenience. The downside is that to get the box sizes required for the Dim Wt scenarios, you need to order 25 boxes. I have done that. I have a lot in storage now. I don't know anyone in Zone 5, and until I figure out how to overcome that issue, I am avoiding the Dim Wt scenario.

how about what i do with the Dim assignments. I find a food bank (shelter, etc) in zone 5 and send the box. I put a can of vegetable broth & a 1 lb pkg of pasta in the box along with paper from a local alternative newspaper (free) and send the box. You will spend less than $2.00 for what you are sending and...you may feel good about helping those less fortunate (tax deduction too, btw). You don't need to send a box to someone you know.

If you have the "C" destination(s) from the last company, you should have an address of a food bank in Zone 5.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/11/2015 09:02PM by vlade5394.