First class mail international

[ivancaicedo237]

I have been beating Ebay and paypal over the First Class Mail not being offered for international shipments.

I asked USPS and got the following honest answer(for once in my life).

Geoffrey :  These services may be added on in the future, however shipping methods such as First Class, Media Mail and Parcel Post are based solely on weight and destination. As most consumers do not have scales to enter in weight accurately, packages with insufficient postage would be returned. Once a resolution has been reached for this the services should be available

[StampsCom]

Have you considered using Stamps.com?  With Stamps.com, you can print postage for any mail class, including First-Class International Mail.

For eBay sellers, there is a FREE version of Stamps.com (pay only for postage) that allows you to print postage for all orders imported from eBay.  www.stamps.com/ebayfree1

Chuck

Stamps.com

[JeffOYB]

It is astounding to me that PayPal/eBay would WILLINGLY and BLATANTLY give business to any other company.

(The weight explanation is malarkey.)

Since PP/Ebay are in business, isn't their prime directive to make sure that as many Stamps.com and Endicia.com customers shop from PayPal/eBay instead?

This lack of 1st Cl Internat'l is driving me nuts. It's totally bonkers that eBay lets you sell with that class of postage but won't let you process postage for it. I have to take all of my (many) internat'l orders out of my online/automated system and manually process them and drive to the USPS and stand in line. It introduces huge chances for mistakes. There's no more digital accounting for my processing of those orders! Then the USPS receipt only says "Canada" on it. I send a bunch of orders to Canada every week so if a customer wonders about their package, I'm lost. Sure, I do my best to keep the paperwork, but every internat'l order is TAKEN OUT OF MY NORMAL WORKFLOW: total recipe for disaster. It's insane to have to have two separate processing/shipping tracks! It costs me hundreds of extra hours a year and thousands of $.

OK, I'm going to look into this "get a USPS Account" idea (that two people mentioned previously without any elaboration, as if it was obvious). Altho my local postmasters have never mentioned it. What's up there? I'm not confident that I'll be able to easily see what's involved online. Is "use my USPS Account" the answer?

If anyone here knows how to process PayPal/eBay orders online for First Class International, let's hear it!

Lastly, I hate the idea of paying a private company for postage if it has the taint of monopoly. The idea that Stamps.com and Endicia.com has an EXCLUSIVE on online postage drives me nuts as well. Actually, Click'n'Ship should offer ALL the classes. I note that C'n'S doesn't offer domestic 1st Cl, Media Mail, or Parcel Post. Thus the gov't offers very little online postage. They must sell the concessions to do it. Stamps. com and Endicia.com are the only buyers so far for 1st Cl Internat'l. That's nuts. I suppose it's not technically a monopoly. It must be that PP/eBay just won't bite.

Sure, I could switch to Stamps/Endicia, but that's another new, annoying thing with subscriptions, etc., involved. I hate the idea of doing it just for ONE class of postage!

[JeffOYB]

ps: I just looked into this idea of "I'll just use my USPS Account."

I found these two things:

https://gateway.usps.com/bcg/login.htm

http://www.usps.com/nationalpremieraccounts/paymentaccount.htm

Neither make any normal sense. Neither mention anything about generating online postage or processing PayPal/eBay orders through an Account. (I looked thru their FAQ, etc.)

Anyone know if our problem can be solved by using a USPS Account?

Again: I'll only want to use ONE method to handle all my postage generating for PP/Ebay sales.

[StampsCom]

Hi Jeff,

If you are interested, Stamps.com has a free plan for eBay shippers.  Unlike our other plans, there are no monthly fees assocaited with this type of account.  You will need a special link to sign up: www/stamps.com/ebayfree1

With this account, you wil be able to ship any USPS mail class including First Class International pacakges.

Thanks!

Chuck

Stamps.com

[JeffOYB]

Chuck, that's a bit awkward. Isn't it a repeat of the post just before mine? I read it already. OK, I suppose you can't assume that nowadays, even tho I refer to other posts, and to the thread, and I mention Stamps in my post. Anyway, I know about Stamps.com. I do half my biz via PayPal itself and half thru eBay. So the free Ebay-biz account probably won't work for me. Right? Or can I do all my PayPal biz free thru Stamps.com? That would be interesting.

One stop shopping is what I need.

I'm only trying to get to the bottom of why only Stamps/Endicia offer this ONE particular class of mail and what is the real reason why PP and eBay do not, and why they let ANY business willingly go to S/E. It's not businesslike. "I'm sorry, we can't help you, please go to our competitor."

I may well start using S or E if I can't figure another way out or find out why P/E do what they do. (Or why Click'n'Ship itself only offers limited postage.) Lastly, if I DO find out a sensible reason why the situation is as it is, then I might also start using S or E.

PS: I certainly can't continue to process orders manually and drive in and stand in line just for one class of mail.

PPS: I'm going to open an Amazon Store, too. Does Stamps or Endicia offer one-stop postage-shopping for those orders, too? (I don't know if payment would come thru PayPal at all in that case.)

--JP

[StampsCom]

Hi Jeff,

My apologies; it looks like I had already provided you with that information back in July.

Unfortunately, I don't have any information regarding why it is that free services such as Click N Ship and PayPal do not currently offer certain mail classes.

If you are looking for one-stop shopping, paid services can provide you what you need.  While the free eBay solution from Stamps.com will work for eBay, it sounds like you need a bit more than this.  With our subscription service, you can import orders for eBay, PayPal, Amazon, and many other ecommerce platforms.

If you're interested, I would recommened trying Stamps.com out.  We offer a four week no-risk trial.  Unlike the free eBay plan, the paid version of our software does have a monthly subscription of $15.99/month.  With this version, you will have the one-stop shop you are looking for.

Thanks!

Chuck

Stamps.com