posted on January 26, 2002 12:07:02 PM
I don't know if anyone has posted this yet or not, but online Delivery confirmation is now available for Parcel Post and Media Mail. The cost is 12 cents. I don't think you can print the labels from the USPS website like you can for Priority mail. You have to download a program called "Shipping Assistant" V.2.1 You also need Adobe Acrobat 5.0. Both programs are free downloads. Shipping assistant you get from the USPS website, Acrobat from the Adobe website - there is a link from the USPS website.
posted on January 26, 2002 01:18:15 PM
I saw a post on a www.Mootropolis.com Seller's Corner message board about this about a month or so back. No one would comment on it. Musta thought it was a trick post maybe? There was no mention of special software on the USPS link back then, I don't think anyway.
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Here's the post ....
Posted: Dec. 06 2001,01:04
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Here's something interesting I found on the USPS website about Delivery Confirmation rates:
Fees:
Priority Mail Package Services Standard Mail*
Retail Option $0.40 $0.50 N/A
Electronic Option $0.00 $0.12 $0.12
Fees are in addition to postage.
*Service is available only for Standard Mail parcels.
USPS site (link) with the info mentioned
http://www.usps.com/shipping/deliver.htm
Does this mean you can now use the 50 cents Delivery Confirmation for only 12 cents if you print it out yourself?
The USPS has to be the worst run organization in the world. Their employees usually do not have a clue to anything that is on their website.
posted on January 26, 2002 01:38:31 PM
Yes, and you have to be a business to register and use the Shipping Assistant and to take advantage of the "free eDC" and reduced rates on Standard Mail.
Otherwise, you are supposed to use the USPS web site to print the labels - and this is still only available for Priority Mail.
posted on January 26, 2002 03:47:07 PM
I don't use USPS insurance as a rule having been 0 for 1 in good experiences in the past. But I sent myself a 40 lb. box of media mail from LA 2 weeks ago so I gave up the $1.10 hoping that the handlers might take it easy on the box this time. In the past I've learned if it's too heavy to lift without effort, the box gets delivered with rounded corners or worse.
So this time, it looked like it had been through a war, and one side was taped shut and stapmed with official red ink saying the contents had spilled.
Inside videos, cd's and the boxes were smashed and trashed and lots of stuff was missing.
So I took it to my local PO and that wasn't good enough. I was told to take it to the PO which delivers my mail (about 10 miles further away). I got a form, and filled it out and copied the receipts and got in the long line there today and then was told (there were 5 clerks working the window) that the person who handled insurance claims didn't work Saturday, to bring it back Monday.
I explained i could not as I'll be leaving town for 3 weeks early Monday Morning. I suggested leaving the box and paperwork in her office. But noooooo... her office was locked. So I said leave it outside her door. NO again to that idea. I had to bring it back Monday.
5 clerks all willing to sell you insurance...pushing it on you actually, ... a staff that must kick, push, drop heavy parcels rather than treat them gently, and an none of those clerks will pay out. They only rake it in.
Like I say, you gotta be a fool to buy Postal insurance.
Yes, it's 12 cents versus 50 cents for the green sticker DC. Another good thing is that the label generated by Adobe Acrobat is smaller and black and white, no wasted color ink. The shipping assistant software also sends an email to the customer telling them the tracking number.
I routinely have to educate the clerks at my P.O. about new stuff on the website. You'd think they would at least put out a memo to the counter people or something.
posted on January 26, 2002 04:19:58 PM
delivery confirmation buy you nothing against chargebacks if you have a merchant account.
buy you something with paypal if it is under 500 dollars under its seller protection program.
it is redundant if you are taking out insurance on the item.
also waste a lot of ink just printing them,someone has an idea -she will copy to clipboard and reduce it and print from there.
if you ship usps priority,it should be there in 2-3 days,most of the time there is no need to track it,by the time buyer feels like tracking,it should have arrived.
posted on January 26, 2002 04:27:00 PM
I couldn't find any info on having to be a business to register for Shipping Assistant. Where is that info located?
posted on January 26, 2002 05:25:17 PM
If you do enough volume to justify a fee-based PC Postage tool, Endicia does all of these labels with the electronic DC. Here's the ones we do currently:
BTW, the average delivery time we have been monitoring for media mail with DC has been about 5.5 days.
We also have released a beta version of our program which optionally captures "valuation" for each package, stores that in the master postage log, and then can generate a month's end report for U-PIC insurance users.
posted on January 26, 2002 07:59:00 PM
BananaSpider, it is actually in the software.
I downloaded the latest 2.1 software and doc on Friday to review how they actually handle the information upload.
The PDF document states that the company name and e-mail ID are not required for registration.
The registration screen has the fields highlighted in blue - meaning that they are required.
I could not get off that screen without providing information.
I guess (maybe) if you use the 30-day trial, you don't have to fill in the fields. But then again, the labels that are produced all say "Sample"... so you can't use them for mailing.
posted on January 26, 2002 08:06:54 PM
I signed up for the Shipping Assistant in December and have been using it full time for the last month. I can now afford to use delivery confirmation on all the books I ship, whether priority mail or media mail.
I prefer to use delivery confirmation rather than insurance on all books under $50. If the book is over $50 you'd have to use the blue insurance form anyway and that number is trackable on the USPS website.
It takes a little longer to print a label but I don't have to print a separate return address label, and Shipping Assistant has a feature that finds and checks the address online for you, and fills in the extra 4 digits of the zipcode. (I used to look it up separately.) It also enters the DC number into the Post Office computer with the date, helpful to letting the customer know the book was shipped promptly.
With zip+4, and the e-Delivery Confirmation service, the books I shipped have been arriving pretty quickly, no lost books, and have lower postage costs, so I'm quite pleased. Customers seem happy too.
posted on January 26, 2002 11:05:48 PM
Hi Harry - first let me say thanks for your recent help on getting a list to print. Everything works great now.
I am glad to hear about the beta version to help with U-Pic (now just PIC, right?). I use them, and used to go back to the green slips to fill out my stamps log. I realized with endicia I had no way of recording what item was sent, only the addressee and date. I think this should solve that problem, correct?
Thanks again, Di
On a scale of 1 to 10...we'd all weigh a lot less!
posted on January 27, 2002 05:29:10 AMENDICIA: does all this and MUCH MORE!
1) You have a nice accounting of all your postage expenses!
2) Yes, the PO program prints the label -- but ya still have to goto the PO to buy the postage! With ENDICIA combined with PIC-INSURANCE, I just drop the items in the box!
3) At $9.99/mo, this is a real BARGAIN considering I'm disabled & can't drive -- oh please Harry don't get hefty like others (feeBay;Stamps.com;AW)
posted on January 27, 2002 05:50:47 AM
BananaSpider - it is similar to the service as supplied on the Web. The labels are the same size. In fact, there's the option to print the shipping label on one page, followed by the confirmation info on another (talk about a waste!).
It also has a "Name and Address" folder - with address verification. Rate validation, merchandise return labels, and a bunch of other stuff.
The user guide describes a process whereby the N/A info can be exported from a data base in CSV format, and then imported for use by SA. THAT is what got me hooked.
I'm figuring out how to hook up Microsoft's Outlook and Access to provide functionality similar to AW's. I want to provide my own post-sale management processing - and this looks like a nice way to get the labels done "automagically."
Note the requirement: you must be connected to the internet to use this software.
posted on January 27, 2002 11:07:14 AM
tomwiii, I have a Pitney Bowes postage meter and I don't have to go to the post office unless I'm shipping internationally. I take everything out to the loading dock out back sometime between 4:30 pm and 5:30 pm everyday, and just drop it off. The workers on the loading dock told me what time the trucks leave everyday and I time it to usually make the last truck of the day. I only go in the lobby once or twice a week as needed. It's a system that works for me but each seller has to choose the system that works best for them.
Kahml, I suspect the next upgrade of Shipping Assistant will offer even more options to coordinate the data in the CSV file with other apps like Excel. Right now my husband who knows how to program reads the file into an Excel spreadsheet. Other data could then be input on the Excel spreadsheet also, so you could add your accounting data, for example.
posted on January 27, 2002 03:40:40 PM
Di -- The new Endicia version has more fields in the postage log. When you print a label, you can now specify (if you wish) a description of the item, the $ valuation, as well as some other "wild card" fields we've made available (for instance, you could put an auction number or customer number in one of those fields).
Then there is a new "detailed report" option which provides this additional information in hardcopy format. You can use that report option to submit your PIC statement every month. Ideally, we'd like to make that report an electronic one submitted to PIC over the www.
Best
Harry
[ edited by HarryWhitehouse on Jan 27, 2002 03:41 PM ]
posted on January 27, 2002 08:47:53 PM
Hi Harry - that sounds great! Where can I download this new beta?
Di
On a scale of 1 to 10...we'd all weigh a lot less!
posted on January 28, 2002 08:53:47 AM
It was stated: "If the book is over $50 you'd have to use the blue insurance form anyway and that number is trackable on the USPS website. " My experience has been that if I try to track that # on that form, I get the error message, "You have not purchased tracking for this item." Have any of you successfully tracked the blue ins. form #?
posted on January 28, 2002 04:25:05 PM
The problem with the PO INS & the Blue form is that most of the clerks I've dealt with are UNAWARE that they have to scan it!
