we use networked accounting software, it tracks everything, sales, reorder points, PO's, taxes etc. we can have several people entering sales information if needed, when we receive monies from a buyer they are entered into the accounting software, this is the only time we have to actually type anything for the order.
(I am playing now with a online form that will basically collect all the info like some of the other services out there I am just slow to use it as there are so many people that say they hate them. also I'm playing with a way to barcode my packages and inventory, I have a 40,000sqft building in Idaho(I live in California now) and once I get it all together I plan on doing some order fulfillment services for companies selling on the net)
anyway you refer to me filling out the labels and return address labels like I'm doing it long hand or something, I use a HP line printer with as I said already 228c labels, once everything is ready to print it takes about 4 minutes to print out 100 sales. if you read again you will see that for every order is printed onto 2 self adhesive address labels. one has all the info for the front of the box, to and from, auction number etc. and I could even squeeze in the DC and a postage paid stamp/bit map in the corner, so I could manifest my mail which would eliminate having to have any other software at all, and no stamps just a check when I mail, just no DC not that I might not be able to figure out how to get it anyway.
once printed they go to the warehouse, don't want to have computers there so we don't, if we need one there for some reason we haul the laptop over. the items are picked and boxed one label inside the box one for the front. nothing to "fill out" and the return address is already on the label. everything is placed on a table next to a post office provided fan scale, throw it on the scale slap the postage put it in the white postal tubs. one real advantage this has is when, as many people do, combine shipping items, we don't always know the exact shipping price when we are entering this stuff but we do when it's boxed, I wouldn't want to enter the stuff that way anyway as you'll never develop a rhythm . most of the little guys that I have seen that use postal meters pick an item, box it, put postage on it and then start over again you never get in a smooth rhythm and you will loose time, I know as I use to do piece work soldering circuit boards you would never put in one piece and solder it then the next. you do all of one operation and then move to the next, just one example.
everything is done in stages so you get in a grove and handle everything as a separate task, another reason for this is last Christmas we were running over 400 packages a week and we had help, it's way easier to give a new person one task than say ok here is the envelope with the money, enter it, do this do that stick this and then you stick that.
I've test bought from about 20 big sellers on ebay, you can't believe how some of the people with shooting stars package their stuff, scraps of paper taped to the top of the box, hand written address, crazy. the way I've put everything together for use works awesome, of course for us, but I'm always looking for some ways to make it better, like the free DC big plus.
I'm curious to know what software your using that you don't have to type in the buyers info and it handles your accounting as well. I've tried them all and even have betas on some stuff that should be released soon from some popular people that is going to knock some socks off, really cool stuff. but not one company that I can find will handle the accounting and business management side of out business, if something exists out there I would love to see it.
posted on May 30, 2001 10:54:17 AM new
Devari asked:
"I've kept another PC Postage account open in addition to Endicia because they can print special labels for windowed envelopes. Any plans on adding this functionality?"
From the DAZzle menu, select Layout|Media. You will see a choice for "user defined" size -- basically you can add a media type to the list. So you *should* be able to print on virtually any label stock.
If you have trouble, mail me a few to mess with and we'll see if we can come up with LYT file that handles this configuration. If you want to do this, email me and I'll give you my mailing address ([email protected]).
posted on May 30, 2001 11:27:52 AM new
Airguy asked...
"Is there anything in the works to make your software a plug in for any of the accounting software companies out there? also is there anything in the works that will allow users to manifest there packages and to use the reduced insurance? will your software work with the 228c label it is smaller than the 228".
Sounds like you've developed quite a nice operation there! It's amazing what you can accomplish with a bit of strategic in-house programming!
Let me work from back to front. You should have no problem printing to the 228C. I don't think we have that label explicitly in our list of media, but you can tackle this in one of two ways.
Choose Layout|Media. You can either choose "User Defined" or choose "Label" and then press the New button. When you do the latter, you can completely define a complex (or simple) label configuration, assign it a name ("My 228C Label", and then store it permanently for future use. Using either of these approaches should allow you to configure the 228C.
We have some interesting duplex postcard media configurations (Labels -- Duplex Postcard) that you might also explore given that you are actually printing two labels for each container.
When you are looking at duplex postcards, add a Rubber Stamp to the design. Look at the properties of the rubber stamp and you can see that you can link a rubber stamp to dynamic data in a database. If you populate a database with the relevant customer ID, auction number, etc, and link a number of rubber stamps in your label design to these fields, you can then print the entire database in batch mode and have not only the address change on each label, but the information in the rubber stamps change as well. Contact me off line if you want more information on this.
Regarding insurance, the USPS claims that they will be expanding their Web tools API interface (the one we use for the Priority Mail DC) to handle insurance, signature confirmation and other services. And they are evidently going to be combining barcodes so that a single barcode will embody both insurance information and DC. As soon as they have these services in place, we will put them in our software. (Note that our latest production version does allow you to compute and apply postage for insurance. But that's the extend of it -- you still need to go to the PO with the package to do the paperwork.)
We actually wrote a manifesting interface for our list management mailing software (Envelope Manager) circa 1994. We did it because of the very slow response the USPS had to our 1991 proposal/demonstration of PC Postage. The manifesting program was already approved and we used it interally for about a year for packages, envelopes -- just about everything. Manifesting is similar in many way to PC Postage, but to us it had the drawback of having to take your mail to the PO every day, the fact that we had to have our procedures reviewed/audited (I think that process took several months alone), the requirement of 50 lbs min per day (no problem in your shop I'm sure), and the fact that it involved a reasonable amount of paperwork. As I recall, there was some sort of annual permit fee as well.
In a high-volume, production shipping environment such as you describe, manifesting probably makes a great deal of sense. I haven't revisited the rules in a number of years -- do you have to take the mail to the PO at day's end, or do they pick it up for you? I heard from some PostMasters that if the shipper's volume was sufficient, they would come out and pick up manifested mail.
We are definately looking at interfacing our postage technology with higher volume shipper environments and existing software solutions, perhaps via consulting contracts. And there are some "hooks" in DAZzle that can be used to move data from one program environment to ours (like the Rubber Stamp links I described above).
I just started using endicia.com yesterday, and so far I'm VERY impressed! It took a little while (and lots of test sheets! LOL!) to get the labels set up, but once that was done, the rest is simple.
So far, out of the 10 or so packages that I've prepared for shipping, one of the addresses comes up as "address not found" when it tries to verify it. Does this happen a lot? What should I do in that case?
Also, I'm not quite following the "date correction" post. Let's say I prepare my packages the evening before I plan to ship them, and something happens the next day and I'm unable to make it to the post office. I assume I need to do a "date correction" then? How do I do that?
I like how professional it makes my packages look.
posted on May 31, 2001 01:26:55 PM new
thedewey asked...
"So far, out of the 10 or so packages that I've prepared for shipping, one of the addresses comes up as "address not found" when it tries to verify it. Does this happen a lot? What should I do in that case?
Also, I'm not quite following the "date correction" post. Let's say I prepare my packages the evening before I plan to ship them, and something happens the next day and I'm unable to make it to the post office. I assume I need to do a "date correction" then? How do I do that?"
Let me start from the back once again. All PC Postage software gives you the opportunity to "date-advance" the indicia image. I think you can date-advance up to 5 days. If you post something after 5 PM with our software, it will remind you that you *might* want to date-advance if you aren't going to drop off the mail that evening.
Frankly, I consider the USPS date-advance "requirement" goofy and fairly unenforceable. I (and others in the postage industry) have been lobbying for the USPS to eliminate this requirement -- it's used for delivery performance statistics and then only on a random-sample basis. If somebody gives the same package to the USPS using stamps, there's no date associated with the stamp! So why pick on meter users <g>!
The only time you *might* be challenged is if you bring the posted piece to the PO and the counter person is overly 'enthusiastic' *and* is paying attention. If you drop that piece in a collection box, it will *never* be challenged. And with metered packages, you CAN drop them in a collection box -- even if they are over 2 lbs (as long as you can fit them <g>. A metered mailer is a "known mailer" according to the FAA and USPS, and therefore can bypass that security rule.
Now let's tackle addresses not verifying. This is a BIG topic, and I'll try to be as brief as I can. We have been doing client-server ZIP+4 verification over the phone lines and internet since 1990 -- we even have the name 'Dial-A-ZIP' trademarked! So we know *way* too much about this topic <g>.
Let's do some demonstrations. You can do these by going to the web page below or, if you have the DAZzle software, by just submitting the test addresses I give you.
Verify this (my office) and you will get a precise ZIP+4 match. Note I used a trick to save typing --I just put the ZIP5 on the last address line rather than typing out the Palo Alto, CA. I could have also omitted St in this case, and the address coming back would put that in too.
Test 2:
Test
2000 High St
94301
This one fails verification. That's because there ISN'T a 2000 High St in Palo Alto, CA.
Now watch how we can use the USPS ZIP+4 lookup engine to figure out a bit more about High Street.
Test 3:
Test
High St
94301
This is an INVALID address (no street number) and the USPS calls this formally a "multiple response" scenario. But it will trigger a software response which shows you all of the building numbers on High Street. Give it a try! Now you can see that there isn't a 2000 High Street -- maybe it should be 200 High Street (which IS shown). This technique at least gives you some idea of what that street layout is like. It will even show you firms on that street that have been given their own unique ZIP+4 because they get a certain amount of incoming mail.
Now you may have other situations where the street name you have doesn't come up in the ZIP match. In that case, try different suffixes -- e.g., change High St to High Ave to see if you get a better response.
If the address is in your town, ask your mail carrier or PostMaster for help. If they don't know, they can contact the USPS District AMS office. AMS = Address Management Systems -- these are the folks in your area which assign/maintain ZIP+4's.
Some of our more advanced presort software has further query capabilties which we will probably put on the Web in the near future. For instance, if you give me a ZIP5, I can tell you all the street names the USPS knows about in that ZIP5. Or, if you give me a city and state (e.g. San Fran, CA), I can tell you all of the ZIP5's in that region. Or, if you give me a ZIP5, I can tell you the city (or cities) served by that ZIP5.
HTH
Harry
[ edited by HarryWhitehouse on Jun 5, 2001 03:31 PM ]
posted on June 1, 2001 09:21:32 PM new
Hello everyone,
First of all, I would like to give HUGE Thank you to Harry and his staff. Harry kept in touch with me over e-mail to help me work out the bug in the Dazzel 2001. While his tech support spend some time on the phone to work it out. What a great support. I was getting a bit frustrated over weekend try to work it out and was ready to close my account and go back to old ways. However, on Monday after talking with them on the phone and following instructions that Harry sent me, I am keeping my account open.
After using the softwear for a while, I absolutely love it, free DC is a huge plus (25 packages sent $10.00 saved, the programm paid for itself already for next month fee during trial and 3 weeks more to go, WoW)
And they are currently working on another bug that my Lexamrk driver creates if you spool more then one label at the time. I never got such a personal attention from a softwear company. Plus Harry gave all of us a lot of educational info about some USPS business, which helps us with questions "Why? Why? Why? Why?" when we print envelopes and lables.
avaloncourt
Thank you for your suggestion. I accually did it a bit differently. I use the same label. I just use the Priority Layout and switch the media to, I think, 1998 label. Works perfect.
[ edited by LINGERIECORNER on Jun 1, 2001 09:23 PM ]
[ edited by LINGERIECORNER on Jun 1, 2001 09:33 PM ]
[ edited by LINGERIECORNER on Jun 1, 2001 09:34 PM ]
[ edited by LINGERIECORNER on Jun 1, 2001 09:35 PM ]
My last post regarding address ZIP verification and hunting down "addresses that don't match" got me in gear yesterday and I wrote some server code to present the streets in a specified ZIP5.
LET ME SAY UP FRONT THAT THIS IS A TOTALLY BETA SITE!! It will be "prettied up" and modified as we do more testing on it. But it might help some of you folks in the meantime and I could always use some early feedback:
Note that you need https to get here for now-- we have it in an SSL-protected directory for testing. In the end, it will likely be a menu pick from the www.endicia main page.
If you just put in a ZIP5 and press the button, you will just get a list of ALL street names in the city/state served by that ZIP5. Note that you will often get streets in adjacent ZIP5's because many times a city will have more than one ZIP5. (Really this scan is showing all streets in a USPS "Finance Number" -- an internal accounting number assigned by USPS to that town.)
If you put *something* in for a street name (even just a first letter), you will get a much more detailed listing. The listing will often list a street name several times, giving you the range of valid numbers on that street as well as the ZIP+4 and Carrier Route.
When you put in a street name, JUST PUT IN THE STREET NAME ITSELF -- *** NOT ** THE SUFFIX. IOW, if you are looking for High Street in 94301, just type in:
HIGH
NOT
HIGH ST
Or you can just type in
HI
and you will get all streets beginning with HI in the city of Palo Alto, CA.
If you have questions, comments or suggestions, just email me at [email protected].
Now I have a question for you folks. How do you get words in your messages in BOLD font. Do you use HTML-based commands?
Best
Harry
[ edited by HarryWhitehouse on Jun 5, 2001 03:29 PM ]
posted on June 3, 2001 09:32:57 PM new
airguy: Sorry I haven't been around the last few days to reply. It's been pretty busy here. We use AuctionTrakkerSE for the auction side of things and QuickbooksPro-Network version for the business side of things. We have created a conduit to link the two together to determine status of an order and all of the bookkeeping associated with it. We have certain computers with limited quickbooks network access to handle order fulfillment and the endicia software to handle all of the postage.
We use 4 x 3.33 labels for all of the labeling no matter what class it is.
I definitely understand your comments about the "big sellers" on ebay. Yikes! Some are pretty scary. Earlier this year I bought an SVHS mastering deck from a seller on ebay. This is a pretty delicate piece of equipment and needs to be handled fairly nicely. It arrived in a typical cardboard box. When I opened it I was horrified. There was a single sheet of 3/8" bubble wrap on the top and the bottom with peanuts in the middle. The problem was that the tape deck hadn't been wrapped in anything. It arrived filled with peanuts. It took me 2 hours with a pair of plastic tweezers poking around in the case to retrieve all the peanuts that had wedged themselves into every possible crevice.
We update every order with emails in every step of the way. We get many thank you emails and feedbacks about how we handle the orders. And... until last Friday, we had never had an item arrive damaged. This one almost seems on purpose. This is an item that is not easily broken. The buyer wrote me about it and said it looked like someone had literally forced the mailer to bend in half to break it. Knowing the strength of the item it surely took some torque to snap it in half. So, overall we're happy and our customers are happy.
HARRY: Just use B in [] brackets to start it and /B in [] brackets to end it.
[ edited by avaloncourt on Jun 3, 2001 09:39 PM ]
posted on June 4, 2001 01:32:52 PM new
After reading this thread, I'm seriously thinking about usine Endicia. A question though...
I know you can put postage on just about anything that you can fit in your printer, so does this mean I can just print on regular paper and tape it to my package? Is there any kind of USPS rules that would keep me from doing this? I would think this may be cheaper than buying labels too.
posted on June 4, 2001 02:08:29 PM new
Also, if I don't want to pay to have the USPS pickup my packages at my door, what's the easiest way to ship my packages when they already have postage on them? I ship mostly items in boxes. I know some just drop them off at the post office, but I'm wondering where at the post office? I don't want to wait through the line to give them my packages...
posted on June 4, 2001 02:29:29 PM newCircuitmatter
The USPS rules specifically require that you use a "pressure-sensitive" adhesive label for postage. Ostensibly, this is to prevent people from making copies of postage labels, or to somehow use a single postage "label" twice. I'm not sure I agree with their logic, but that's the current USPS position.
Regarding the issue of getting your packages to the USPS without dealing with the lines, several options come to mind. If your local carrier stops by everyday to deliver mail and he/she has a truck, you can generally convince them to take the packages. That's how it works in our office and I think that's pretty much a USPS rule.
The second approach I've used with success --particularly in the 4-6 PM time slot -- is to simply drop my mail off on the back loading dock of the Post Office. You'll have to make your own judgment call here, but here in Palo Alto, CA it's a very common process. I see mailing tubs filled with mail from law firms, lots of packages...just about everything. Typically, there is a USPS employee on the back dock doing *something*, so that has always given me the confidence to leave mail there. And the USPS Inspection Service is pretty thorough about covert surveillance in and around USPS buildings.
Thirdly, if you are doing any kind of volume at all, you might schedule a meeting with your local Postmaster. Sometimes they have "ways" to get around the pickup fee. I know one PM who really wanted to get a dentist office's package business, so he ended up putting a collection box right in front of the office! The USPS rules gave him that flexibility, but were more restrictive on permitting a "free" pickup. PM's are under the gun to win back package traffic from UPS and Fedex so, more than ever, they will try to "work with customers".
Hope this is helpful...
Harry
AvalonCourt Thanks for the help on bolding!! I think I've got it!!
[ edited by HarryWhitehouse on Jun 4, 2001 03:20 PM ]
posted on June 4, 2001 02:40:49 PM new
Thank you so much Harry! I'll check with my postman that comes by first, then I'll try the others you suggested!
Thanks for the detailed explanation of how address verification works.
One more question, if I may. I'm having trouble getting my local post office to understand about free Delivery Confirmation when it's done electronically.
I've printed out both the page from the Endicia website as well as the text about electronic Delivery Confirmation from the USPS website and took it to the post office last week, but they don't seem to understand.
Do you have any suggestions as to other information I might could point them to?
They're supposed to be "checking on it", but as of today, still weren't convinced that electronic Delivery Confirmation is free for Priority Mail. It's a small town post office, so maybe they're a little "behind" on this. (Heck, they didn't hardly know how to handle international packages until I came along. LOL!)
We've had pretty good success in getting USPS Headquarters folks to call the local PM's when the USPS web documentation doesn't sway the counter personnel. In every case so far, the PM's were pretty aware of things but admitted that their staff probably wasn't up to speed.
If you would please EMail me the PO name and location, as well as the PM's name if you can get ahold of that, we'll ask HQ to do their magic again ([email protected]). Or I might give the PM a call myself -- that has worked on several occasions.
BTW, we are very sensitive to the fact that you are going to have to live with the PM and his staff for months or years to come. So we really strive to make this a positive, informational communication to the PM. We've had 100% success on that front, and most PM's actually ask us to send them brochures so they understand more about how their local customers can do their own PM with DC!
As a further aside, having end users create their own DC labels is really a win-win situation for the local PM and the customer. You've already experienced the benefits to you. The PM ends up with fewer people standing in line for the DC service (and better lobby performance numbers as a result), and yet his PO is fully credited for the package (because your meter account is linked to your/his ZIP5). When this dawns on the PM's, they become big supporters of this new technology!
Best
Harry
[ edited by HarryWhitehouse on Jun 4, 2001 03:31 PM ]
I found a website called SmartShip.com that offers free DC. You can't print your postage from there, but you can print your label with the free DC barcode and then either affix your own stamps at home or take them to the counter. The latter kind of defeats the convenience aspect, but it does give you something for free that the USPS would glady charge 40 cents.
There are no quantity maximums or minimums, and it is no-strings-attached. There is a database of your shipments and free email notification when your package is delivered.
I have no interests in the company, but thought I would share a good service with my fellow auctioneers. Try it out, and let me know what you guys think. I've suggested user-configurable labels, but I've yet to see them offer that.
1) Only Priority Mail (as far as USPS is concerned)
2) No address verification through USPS AMS or Endicia's "Dial-A-Zip" -- so, already one more step is added in that ya have to goto the Zip+4 site & first look up the Standardized address (which is the doohickey which really speeds the delivery)
Considering that Endicia is only $9.50/mo, the advantages certainly (for me) outweigh the costs.
My only fear: Their CS right now (from Harry, right on down) is truly fantastic -- please don't repeat Stamps.bomb's mistakes; they were great a year ago & went phoooooey!
1) Looks like you're right - I hadn't even looked at anything but Priority.
2) Not having the time to read the entire thread, can you briefly explain USPS AMS? You say it really speeds up delivery, but I haven't had any packages go longer than three days before delivery.
Thanks for your input. I hadn't even heard of Endicia until I started on this thread - so I really apperciate the knowledge you guys have to share.
I'm always bring new postal technology into the post office here. They generally see it from me long before anyone else is using it. They love it. They like to see what's new out there and always have fun showing things around and explaining something new to the people in the back.
When I first brought in the free DC to the counter I explained that it is already entered into their system and nothing needs to be done with it. He thought it was great that it could be done. He set it aside to show to the supervisor. The supervisor thought there was still some fee attached to it.
I stopped back on another day and asked what he had found out. He had looked up the electronic rate approval number and saw there was a reduced fee for standard mail and free for priority.
As Harry said, you need to have them on your side so it would be very good if you could nicely convince them to look up that electronic rate number and then it should become very clear to them.
The USPS maintains a database of EVERY KNOWN address in the good ole USA tied in with their ZIP+4 program.
By using the STANDARDIZED ADDRESS plus ZIP+4 plus BAR-CODE plus PRINTING THE ADDRESS, you can vastly speed-up your delivery times!
Many of my PRIORITY items are delivered overnight & many of my MEDIA MAIL items are delivered in 2-3 days!
GOTO the USPS web-site's page labeled LOOK-UP ZIP -- it will give you the ZIP+4 & STANDARDIZED ADDRESS -- Word will create the BAR-CODE; or just do what I do...
posted on June 5, 2001 04:45:07 PM new
Thanks Harry and Avaloncourt!
I sent my husband to the post office with today's packages, and it looks like everything has worked out. I'll drop you an e-mail if something else comes up.
posted on June 5, 2001 05:22:37 PM new
I want to think the fine telephone tech support person who helped me get going with endicia.com this morning. There are a lot of picky technical requireemtns that the post office imposes on label layout, understandably, and even with endicia's own "blue arrow" labels, I was having trouble getting things exactly right. A little experimentation iwth the person on the other end suggesting a couple of different settings, and VOILA!!
This is a great service. I have been a loyal user of stamps.com for some time, and I will continue to use them for regualr first class mail postage as I have a number of their flourescent labels and my printer simply doesn't do a good job on envelopes. But, for everything needing DC, the endicia program works just as advertised. I printed out a label for a book, media mail rate, paid 12 cents instead of 40 cents for DC, took it to the Post Office, and mailed it with no problem. I am curious as to how long it will take. As with most post offices, there seems to be one windpow person out of the bunch who really odes know what is going on, and he said that he had heard that mail with electronic delivery confirmation was in fact getting shipped faster than regular parcel or book rate mail, though that wasn't supposed to be part of the deal.
All in all, I am very pleased with the service. I certainly could not have asked for anything more from technical support. I would have preferred to just buy labels from Office Max, but there didn't seem to be a commercial package available that would handle all of the inofrmation needed. I see from other posts that it is possible to use the design feature of the software to overcome these limitations, but for me that sort of thing is harder than reading Greek. In other words, the software/label aspect of the package could be a little more "idiot friendly" but the tech support compensated for that.
Thanks a lot to Dr. Whitehurst for posting the information here, nad for the experiences shared by the other AW community members.
posted on July 24, 2001 02:38:24 PM newImportant Note on Delivery Confirmation
I just received an EMail from a USPS Program Manager in the Delivery Confirmation area who solved a minor mystery for my crew at Endicia.
Folks have reported to us that if they happen to go to their Post Office with an electronicly-generated Delivery Confirmation label, and the counter clerk attempts to scan the DC barcode, it won't scan!
Well it turns out that the retail counter scan guns are not programmed to recognize the electronic version of Delivery Confirmation.
The USPS figured that there was no reason to scan electronic DC at the counter, because all of the relevant data had been communicated to the USPS at the instant the label printed. (I'm going to revisit that with them, because I think a scan at the retail counter can be of value to the customer.)
So, if you want to check the readabilty of your DC barcode for any reason OR if you want to electronically "record" the fact that you have transferred a DC package to a USPS representative, have a MAIL CARRIER scan the package for you, NOT a retail counter clerk.
The carrier's guns ARE programmed to recognize both the electronic and manual DC barcode.
Best
Harry
[ edited by HarryWhitehouse on Jul 24, 2001 02:39 PM ]
, and then store it permanently for future use. Using either of these approaches should allow you to configure the 228C.
