mail haters

i buy and sell a lot of shit via eBay…

…speaking of, i’ve got some shit to post up there.

(takes break to post eBay items for sale)

anywho, i always ship via USPS priority mail when i can. at this point eBay charges you a percentage of what you charge for shipping in your monthly fees so i just buy my shipping labels from them at a discount, which covers what you pay them versus paying shipping at the post office, and most of the times you even come out a little ahead.

(for all curious, they started charging a percentage of your shipping in addition to a percentage of your sales price because there was a bunch of assholes selling air jordans for a buck but then charging three hundred for shipping because that was dinged…but eBay caught on so we all get to suffer…)

i’ve only had two or three issues in hundreds of transactions, mainly due to shipper error (i.e. they manually wrote down the wrong address versus using the automated confirmed one) and those were typically resolved seamlessly. that being said, i was shocked when i went to order something, didn’t wanna pay $16 to ship a $20 order, but when i tried to select priority mail i got this warning:

If USPS is selected, we cannot offer any guarantee of delivery or accept any liability for lost orders. All delivery issues should be addressed with your local post office. Guaranteed delivery is only available on orders shipped via UPS. If you are concerned about time taken or missing packages please choose UPS shipping.
We now offer free UPS Ground shipping on orders greater than $99 and we continue to offer guaranteed UPS shipping options.
Due to significant layoffs, closures and other changes with the United States Postal Service, it may take longer than the estimated 5-7 business days to receive your package if USPS shipping is chosen.

since i had a slight “issue” with my previous ups order (put in quotes ’cause it turns out i bought legit parts for a bootleg device) i had an email conversation going with a rep so i asked her if she’d known of a history of problems with post office, and she said “no” and that i’d get a tracking number, it was just if anything got lost or damaged i had to deal with the post office, versus ups where they had an account (and therefore probably made a little dough off the shipping). i went ahead and placed my next order with the cheaper shipping, but all went well. wish i knew then (as in when i actually DID pay $16 to ship a $20 order) what i know now ($6 to ship a $35 order).