My input after reading all the previous posts and based on my interactions with the local branch of my PO and my carrier:
In multi-order shipping, you need to print the SCAN form BEFORE you print the labels. That's why that button is first!
From what I read in other posts, if you forget to print the SCAN form before the labels, you should be able to print it from the "History" section. Needs to be done same day of course, since only good for one day.
If you mess up any labels and don't use them, throw out your original SCAN form, because it won't match up with the actual packages mailed. I think this is where reprinting the SCAN form really comes in handy.
I believe you can probably print labels several times in one day without the scan form, and then when you're done printing ALL labels for items to be mailed in one batch for that mailing date, you could go in to history and print a SCAN form that would capture all of those packages. The number of packages on the SCAN form must match the number of packages handed over to your carrier or the counter clerk.
The post office doesn't refuse to ACCEPT packages if you don't give them a SCAN form, they just (often) refuse to scan in multiple prepaid items and give you a receipt proving they're now in the hands of the USPS. If you put them in a dropbox, or just give them to the counter person they won't get scanned into the system until they reach 1) the sort facility (which usually isn't the local branch where you dropped them off) 2) the delivery facility and 3) upon delivery by the carrier with their little scanner. Ideally, they're scanned at each of these steps, but sometimes they're not scanned until the carrier delivers it. They say this is acceptable because it's called 'DELIVERY Confirmation', but I think that's bogus, because it's also called 'TRACKING' so you can track it along the way.
At my local branch I was told they can refuse to scan in multiple packages individually because they are individual profit centers and if you have prepaid the postage online, they get no credit for the sale, but they still have the work of scanning in multiple packages. I'm working hard at not going off on a rant at what lousy customer service this is, and since they offer the SCAN form as an alternative, I can understand their point. (Unfortunately, the woman at the PO giving me a hard time about scanning in my multiple items never even told me a SCAN form existed, so shame on her OR the poor training she was given by the PO).
The reason having your items scanned when you take them to the PO or give them to your carrier is to protect YOU and get proof that they are in the system so that if they are later lost or not delivered, you have proof that it was lost after it entered the system, otherwise they'll question whether or not you really mailed it. You will never have this proof if you put your items in a dropbox, or hand them to a carrier, or a counter clerk without having them scanned. I asked the clerk at my local branch what happens if I pay for insurance online, and then put it in the drop box but it gets lost or pilfered before it is scanned into the system and she said, "You're up a creek without a paddle." She was nice enough to scan in my individual packages three or four times when I first began selling, but gave me a progressively harder time about it each time. That's when I went online and researched it and found out about the SCAN form myself. And think about it from the USPS viewpoint: of course they won't honor an insurance claim for something where the postage and insurance were paid for online: a dishonest person could process a shipment online for a large dollar amount, insure it, never mail it, and then claim it was lost so they could collect the insurance. Forget that it would be mail fraud and you'd probably end up in federal prison... that wouldn't stop some folks from trying!
I think I'm done! I have spent a lot of time on this issue since I began selling online a few months ago. I have learned that many employees at the post office have no clue when it comes to how online shipping works. They are not given training about how it works. The first time I asked my mail carrier to scan the SCAN form, she had no clue what I was talking about and said she'd never been asked to do it before. We muddled through together and it worked fine. (Please note, if you have your carrier scan it, the information will not show up in the system until much later in the day after they've returned to the PO and downloaded the information in their scanner into the system.) She's a great carrier, and laughed about it saying, "Look at you having to teach me how to do my job!"
