Stamps.com

[AndyL1]

Hey all,

I've been looking into getting a stamps.com service set up as going to the Post Office and waiting in line is starting to get tiresome. Has anyone used their service on here for shipping out packages? I visited their Facebook page and WOW! a lot of negative feedback from unhappy customers. I don't think I want to sign up for their service after reading some of the posts.

Read 'em and weep:

https://www.facebook.com/stamps.com

Anyway, what are alternatives that don't cost a lot or have a hassle?

Cheers,

Andy

[bruce johnson]

I read the same thing for Stamps.com. It didn't look worth it to me after reading reviews either. I ship quite a bit and do the "Click and Ship" from the www.usps.com website. The site loads a little slow but is improved on features from a few years ago. There is a discount vs. window rates on smaller packages. Get into International Express and it gets to be bigger discounts doing it at home and you can print out customs forms too. I print out on plain paper and tape the label half on the package and file the receipt half. They give me a handful of the customs pouches for the international mail when I run low. I normally drop the packages off at whatever post office is handy. We use a PO box and my wife is at that post office everyday. Most of them either have a drop box or the counter people take them or have a spot for them. Your mail carrier will pick them up also. The only ones I wait in line for are Express Mail and International Priorities and get them scanned and a receipt. Some counter people recognize me at one post office I go to mostly. They call me up as a "non-money, ready to ship" drop-off to bypass the wait if I flash the label at them.

[veedub3]

I print my shipping labels through Paypal and the USPS website. (Where Signup is Free unlike Stamps.com) Also you don't have to go to the Post Office and wait in line, just schedule a pick up by USPS if you have the volume, or as stated above give it to your own delivery man. Also if you have the postage affixed to the package already, you can just drop it off at the post office or politely walk up and hand it to the worker while they are assisting another customer. They don't seem to mind and do it all the time in my area. You will be in and out in a matter of seconds. I have a scheduled pick up by USPS and they stop by my office every weekday between 3:30 and 4pm. Because I ship A LOT of packages, we have a bin next to the door with all out going packages. He walks in grabs the container, scans them all in with his hand held wand before he leaves so that the tracking will show that the Postal Service received the packages, throw his hand up and out the door he goes. I ship on average about 350 packages a month with the postal service and I loose about 10% so now all packages must have insurance, and I no longer just drop the packages in a postal slot and leave, they MUST scan it in. (By loose I mean USPS loose track of, misplaced, send to a different country, end up in someones car, etc.) If they do not have a record that they received the item, then they will not pay for it when it goes missing so I always have them scan it in.

I order all my shipping supplies online at USPS and they are delivered to my Office by my postal carrier. As stated you get a small discount for printing online and free tracking which is the best part of it all.

Karina

Edited January 15, 2013 by veedub3

[Sylvia]

The only advantage to Stamp.com is they give you a free postal scale ... (at least they used to) I mostly use Paypal for shipping... because it allows first class as well as parcel post and priority. It's just more convenient for me.

[billymac814]

I use Paypal shipping as well for all of my online orders, it gives a discount as well as delivery confirmation. I "self insure" because I pay for shipping on all of the items I make and I very rarely have any issues. My average package is valued at 90.00$. So its cheaper to replace an item than to pay insurance on 150-200 packages per month. Larger more expensive items get insured though.

There's a store right beside mine that has a post office in it that I use for phone orders, its convenient since they are close but not as easy as Paypal.

I'm really surprised to here that 10% of your packages get lost. If I lost that many I would be very upset and probably ship a different method. Those numbers are way unacceptable, I'd be suspicious of something or someone if one out of every 10 of my packages disappeared. I used to work with a guy who would order something then when he would get it he would call and say he never got it, most of the times they would send him another. Needless to say he was trash and eventually got fired for stealing from the company.

[AndyL1]

Thanks guys for the input. I've been so busy making orders that it has been hard to find time to investigate shipping options. Definitely not going Stamps.com route... regular USPS account seems the easiest option for me.

[NVLeatherWorx]

Sorry for chiming in so late but I found this a great topic. I was with Stamps.com for over 8 years and never really had any issues with them except that you could only print your postage on the envelope directly or it had to be printed on a specific label which cost additional money. I made the switch directly to the USPS and dumped Stamps.com for several reasons.

The cost of fees, supplies and maintaining postage on the Stamps.com account was ridiculous when you find that the you can do the exact same things directly through the USPS site and get even more features. With the USPS you can actually schedule an item for pick-up, at your door, and they will send your carrier to do it, and it doesn't cost you anything for that service. You don't even have to be there for them to pick it up, just leave it in a designated location and let them know where it will be in the comments.

With the USPS I can actually print my postage on any form of media (label, plain paper, etc.) and just affix it to the outbound packaging. No need for special labels or papers, just print, stick and go. Couldn't do that with Stamps.com, I tried.

And best of all, why should you pay an outside company to provide you access to services that you can get from the "supplier" for free? When you add it all up you find that you spend between 250% to 325% more for Stamps.com than you will ever spend directly with USPS.

If you need a postage scale, they are available at any office supply store and cost an arm and a leg. Besides, most of us don't need one, just use the Priority Mail Flat Rate program and you can ship just about anything you need. We have all heard their tagline, "if it fits, it ships", and that is true as could be. There is only one other limit on this and that is, that you can not exceed 70lbs. per package (4lbs. International) but how many of us would be shipping that much weight? That is a lot of leather (saddles of course would meet and exceed that but they wouldn't fit into the box anyway).

[RMB Custom Leather]

I am sure someone has mentioned it but if you log into your Paypal account you can print shipping labels even if you were not paid via Paypal by going to www.paypal.com/shipnow. It will allow you to just print an label to whatever information you put in. You can also ship 1st class with tracking without making a trip to the post office. It is free with a Paypal account. Sorry if I am repeating something that someone has already said.

[Ryan Barto]

I also use paypal to do all of my domestic shipping. I go to the post office only for the occasional international shipping because I ship first class international with registered mail option for those. I have 3 of those little blue mail drop boxes within a mile of my house, so I just drop domestic packages in one of them. They all have a sign on them that say you can not use the box for stamped mail over 13 ounces, but the labels printed by paypal (and I'm sure other ship from home options) have "metered" postage. The 13 ounce restriction is only on actual stamps.

I needed to buy a scale to help weigh my packages, so I bought this one from harbor freight: http://www.harborfreight.com/digital-scale-95364.html

It says it will weigh up to 11 lbs., but I haven't needed to use it for more than 2lbs, so I'm not sure of its high end accuracy. I round up to the whole ounce on all of my packages and have never had a problem with the weight being off.

[AndyL1]

Thanks for all the great options! I sell mainly through Etsy and now they offer an option to print shipping labels with postage. No added charges or monthly dues required either. I did buy a scale too. So far so good!

Andy

[billymac814]

I too use Paypal. It works well and notifies the customer for me. I bought a scale on amazon that weighs up to 75lbs for about 20 bucks.

[Snpr9696]

I use paypal and usps. I was mainly usuing usps for customers who did not pay through paypal be cause I always have a hard time find the shipping label option for customers not in the system. I still need to make trip to the PO for international order though. USPS charges $20 or so which is still cheaper then Fedex or UPS. However by going to the post office that same $20 package costs me $5. wish i had the option to do that through the website.

[Sylvia]

I recently had an issue with paypal's shipping not connecting with usps and after a several day wait on Monday it still was not working. USPS (online) is worthless unless you want to ship express or priority. A 34lb package at USPS online was $71 priority mail. Pfft... NO thanks. I ended up at Stamps.com and was able to ship it parcel post for $42 with insurance and tracking. Paypal would have been better but I didn't have time to wait while they fix things.

[veedub3]

I remember reading somewhere that Paypal was down while they implemented the new USPS fees and shipping methods. I think a change was made to parcel post to Standard select or something similar but the prices were incorrect on Paypal and they went offline for a bit.

For a 34lbs package I would have shipped it FedEX ground. I just shipped a 33lbs package ground from GA to CA for $31.97 with FedEX. Takes 4 business days to be delivered and you get insurance and tracking.