We have been using Simply Postage (Neopost) for our USPS mail service and unfortunately they have shut down their services. Is anyone using a USPS machine that works best for them as far as features and costs?

I know there are a few companies out there such as endicia.com/...etc, however I would like to know if there are any you really like or currently use?

I used to use Stamps.com but then found Endicia.com to have several additional features and better refund handling. I've been using Endicia now for over 2 months and its been great. I would recommend it!

Thanks ultimate. What features do you really enjoy from endicia that is worth it in comparison to just printing the usps postage directly from usps.com.
I like the fact you can hide the cost of the stamp but other then that is it really worth the $179 a year? Just curious to hear your thoughts.

In addition with simply postage we have a "scale" to determine the cost of the package...what do you use with endicia to determine that?

Thanks!!!

I feel it's worth the cost for the features such as stealth postage and online account history/access, etc. I actually use the scale I originally got from Stamps.com

Just a question, but why choose a service and not just UPS? We have just turned on and are about to ship our first item, and I was just going to use UPS online to enter in the weight and print out the shipping info.

Thanks,

We use USPS because we get free boxes & tape on top of priority mail rates starting at $3.85 anywhere in the USA (which is generally delivered in 2-3 days including Saturdays) Also, it's easy to drop off at the local post office. Most of our orders are 2lbs or less and as we are a new small business we don't have a regular shipping schedule. It all works out good for us. When we checked into UPS/FEDEX & Airborne they all charge about $4+ "PER PACKAGE" for a on demand pickups along with weekly or monthly fee's for scheduled pickups. This can dramatically affect the cost of shipping for us. Also, they ALL have 'additional' fees for residential deliveries and rural deliveries which can kick your shipping cost up another $3+. That’s not even getting into 'dimensional weight' where a 3lb box which is 16x8x9 gets charged as a 7lbs shipment. -- this can be another surprise fee if you miss it.

Now, USPS 'does' provide a pickup service for $12.95 'PER PICKUP' regardless of the number of packages but we don't expect to use this unless we have over 30 packages going out (which then figures out to about $0.43 per package extra, not a huge deal) As for additional costs? They are none. Whether it's going to a business or residential address, in a city or in a rural area, the rate is the same. Also, the 'maximum size' for a shipment is beyond anything we send.

Now, you can print labels on the USPS.com website with postage and everything but the Stamps.com & Endicia.com services allow you to due this much quicker and easier along with including additional features we find useful.

Both Stamps.com and Endicia.com now have 'hidden' or 'stealth' postage which does not display the cost (similar to UPS/FEDEX/etc). However, Endicia.com will automatically paste an address into the label program when you copy one into your clipboard (no more manual entry of every customers first name, last name, address, city, state, zip and telephone number) After the auto-paste of an address it can then verify the address, city, state & zip with the USPS database and make corrections, if needed, automatically. It can also be set to adjust the case of the address which makes it look more professional as customers tend to use lower case and bad capitalization. It is also easy to select different services such as signature required, etc plus they provide online access to view reports, tracking numbers, etc anywhere that you've got web access which is a huge plus.

USPS is not for everyone, a lot of businesses don't like the lack of tracking information and 24 hr update delays. However, for our 'ground' deliveries we feel it's not that important. I mean we sell keychains - so where's the emergency . We encourage that any order 'needed' by a certain date be ordered via 'Express' and shipped thru FedEx 2-day service.


Geez - I can ramble! Sorry this ended up being so long, but I hope it gave at least one person some additional insight into shipping options and costs.

I agree...USPS is great for small package deliveries. Its very cost effective.

Thanks for the info Ultimate.

Great post Robert! You're the man!

Robert,

I asked my local post office station about the free boxes for Priority mail and they looked at me like I was an alien. Is there some written policy online that you can refer us to? I could not find it on their site.

Thanks! And thanks for the detailed education.

Yeah, it's a bit tricky to find on the USPS website.

Just visit The Postal Store (from the USPS) and click on Shipping Supplies. They'll send you free tape, forms, priority, express, global express, etc. boxes in various sizes.

Hope this helps

I believe the link should be: shipping supplies

All you have to do is shop like you would and youll get it within a week. Like Robert said, you will save lots of money using these packaging materials.

Found it! It looks like the largest free box is 12" x 12" x 8". Our items tend to be larger than this.

I have found that if you get mail delivered to your place of business you can sometimes talk your mailman into picking up the packages for you. Just get the postage printed out and slapped on the box, leave it at the door or have him come in/ring bell to pickup. Our mailman does this and we are not charged a thing.
We also have UPS deliver and pickup every day and we are not charged for the pickups. We have signed up for a UPS account and we even get discounts on shipping rates.
Go to UPS WorldShip to order, which will allow you to get reduced rates and printed labels, while you are ordering either email/call to ask about UPS pickups and I believe the pickup is free with the program.
It is true though that any box under 2 lbs should go USPS because they are cheaper. But, check out your options, since everything is online you can check the price of shipping via UPS, USPS, and FedEx all within 2 minutes.
Just a thought (not like I do this), but I guess you could also flip the USPS boxes inside out and use them as UPS boxes. Maybe
FedEx so far has seriously dissapointed my business. They charge for pickup, they fight with us on delivery times/dates, and they are not competitive on prices (at least thats my experience).
Just my two cents

Thanks for the info Strapworks

Thanks Ultimate,

The link was something I never found. I have already placed an order for FREE boxes and some stamps to boot. Too Bad There not FREE!

I use both UPS and USPS...My breaking point is 3lbs - anything heavier goes UPS. You can drop off UPS packages lots of places....most office supply stores, and the new "UPS Store" (formerly Mail Boxes, etc.)

I have been using the USPS website for smaller items, and ultimate it right - it's okay when you first start to use it, but gets cumbersome really fast. I'm going to take a look at the other sites Ultimate and Mineral mentioned.

I have a friend who sells mostly large items - 10 lbs or more - and gets the best rates from Airborne express. Robert might give them a try.

I appreciate the referral to Endicia! I've been using UPS and do enough volume that I get a discount. I can see myself saving alot of money using the 3 lb rule and adding the USPS to my shipping option. I imagine it would only take me about 2 months to recoup the annual fee in the savings I'll experience with boxes and shipping.

Do you find that not giving your customers a choice of shippers (i.e. the 3 lb rule) makes for angry customers?

We actually use custom shipping, so the customers don't even know about our 3lb rule. We just inform them that all "standard" orders are shipped via USPS or Fedex Ground. When we pack the order we then determine the shipping method. I would think that the "under 3lb" customers are probably happy to get the item in 2-days and the 3lb+ customers expected it to be about a week via ground anyways.

We use UPS ground almost exclusively, We have an on-line account and can print up labels directly from there, and because we drop it off at the local UPS store we get the cheapest rates. I like being able to track packages. Our product can be weighty and expensive so that works best for us. Anything international goes USPS because it is cheaper. The post office has been reliable but scary when you can't track a missing package. It seems that even when we pay for tracking it is not as good as UPS tracking (Right to the door tracking)

We charge a flat fee of $8.95 for shipping for orders under $300 and no shipping for orders over $300. Sometimes our actual cost is over the 8.95 and sometimes it is under so it works out.

Dani'
www.etoolcart.com

Great feedback!

I am learning so much!

I have had a shipping issue this week. When one of my customers placed an order, they were given a real time ground shipping rate of $4.95. So when I went to ship it on UPS.com, they calculated a shipping charge of $6.45. I called and they verified I was set for the residential rate. But when I called UPS, they said was displaying the daily pick up rate to the customer, not the customer counter rate which I have.

The difference being the daily pick up cost about $10 a week, and you get reduced pricing and a person coming daily to pick up and deliver packages. The customer drop off rate is free, but the shipping charges tend to be higher. may want to add another field for selecting between these two options in V4.0. I had to just add a little money to the ground shipping fee till we get enough orders to justify the daily pick up cost.

I have the same issue that dzielski does. I'm always getting charged more directly from UPS than what the customer sees. I'm quickly approaching the break even point when I'll start paying for daily pick-up. But until then I'm eating the difference. Most of the not finalized orders I see on my website are due to shipping costs. So I'm reluctant to charge more than this.

I did call commerce on this and they suggested adding a handling charge in which would help minimize the difference between what the customer is charged and what we pay.

DetailsArt

Hello dzielski-

That is an excellent idea, and I will let my programmers for v4.0 know about the dilemma and see what there is we can do about it.

I find the best solution to this in the mean time is to add a markup in your shipping manager to mark it up x%. So, in your case, it looks like it's about 18% difference. So all you would need to do is put 18 in the markup field, and check the "Is Percent" box. You may want to contact UPS even to see what the difference is. It looks like it may be a $1.50 charge instead of a percent? I'm not certain about this, but it may be something worth looking into. And we will see what we can do in the next version to avoid this issue altogether.

I added a charge of $2 because that was about the average cost difference for UPS.

What other shipping is supported by dataport?

Yes is Charles going to get FedEx?

I use USPS exclusively... sometimes it's hard to get an idea of the dimensions on the free boxes, but it sure is worth it...I also buy boxes from UPS - their prices are pretty good...I stopped using the UPS website though - and those damn weekly invoices are more than annoying. They need to get their billing together - you should be able to pay a UPS bill online by now....

I also use the USPS.com website to create and print my shipping labels as well - you can also copy paste the tracking number right into the section on the order admin and the number shows up as a link in your 'order completed/shipped' email

My .02


Terri