topic Re: Postage in Selling

Postage

pats_treasures — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 03:33:54 GMT

I have been posting with my own packaging and paying the flat rate.A parcel taken to the post office today was cubed and the postage was so high that is not possible to post so I will have to cancell the sale. I contacted Aus. Post and they tell me that the flat rate only applies if Satchels are used.If using own packaging and cubing postage is higher than the flat rate that is the postage that is charged. Is this correct? Perhaps I misread something. Please make allowances for old age 89yrs. this year! Patricia.

Re: Postage

twyngwyn — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 03:48:57 GMT

have a read here:

https://community.ebay.com.au/t5/Selling/New-postage-costs-system/m-p/2268790/highlight/true#M190898

Re: Postage

eol-products — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 03:49:01 GMT

Any parcel using your own packaging is always cubed if it weights over 1kg. If it is excessively large and under 1kg they reserve the right to cube, it would need to be quite big or the staff to be new and just read the traing manual.

Re: Postage

imastawka — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 03:55:48 GMT

Use your own packaging.

Just put it inside a satchel to get the flat rate.

If it packs, it posts -

https://auspost.com.au/flat-rate-sending

Re: Postage

curraone — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 04:07:05 GMT

For your larger items the old Bx4 box option is still available on ebay and might work for you

Australia Post Parcel Post Extra Large Box

Up to 5 kg

Max. 43cm x 31cm x 19cm

$18.50 plus the cost of the box (using ebay labels, it might be a little less)

Re: Postage

tennis_bagel — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 09:24:50 GMT

I Have found over the years some Post Offices cube some items or everything over 500g and some do not. I never go back if they cube my items as it costs a lot more to Tas or WA ect. I believe they have always had the right to cube in the terms. Luckily I found a good PO that never does and have lots of others around here. As for cubing items that that are not square or rectangular >> it is theft.

Re: Postage

davewil1964 — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 09:33:13 GMT

@tennis_bagel wrote:
I Have found over the years some Post Offices cube some items or everything over 500g and some do not. I never go back if they cube my items as it costs a lot more to Tas or WA ect. I believe they have always had the right to cube in the terms. Luckily I found a good PO that never does and have lots of others around here. As for cubing items that that are not square or rectangular >> it is theft.

They have no volume?

I use AP satchels. Simple. Up to 5kg, if it packs, it posts.

Plus, I don't have to muck around with calculated postage.

Re: Postage

digital*ghost — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 11:23:56 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
As for cubing items that that are not square or rectangular >> it is theft.
They have no volume?

Yeah, but AP charge for volume that often isn't there when an irregular package is cubed, since they'll measure the extremities and cube that.

Re: Postage

davewil1964 — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 11:35:21 GMT

Sounds fair to me. They take up as much room in the truck as a 3-d rhomboid would.

Re: Postage

digital*ghost — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 12:04:19 GMT

@davewil1964 wrote:
Sounds fair to me. They take up as much room in the truck as a 3-d rhomboid would.

An L-shaped package wouldn't - neither would many other shapes.

Can't tell me the workers don't play a little Tetris when loading the trucks.

Re: Postage

davewil1964 — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 12:10:38 GMT

I wouldn't know.

I imagine if they are on wages their Tetris would have a fair bit of airspace. Like mine.

If paid by the parcel, maybe less so.

The OP sells tennis stuff, a lot of which are racquets that definitely won't fit in AP packaging, but don't weigh much. But aren't L-shaped. Therein lies the rub.

Re: Postage

digital*ghost — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 12:28:11 GMT

For the OP, maybe, doesn't detract from my point in general, though - a package can easily take up considerably less room than AP charged for - L shapes and Tetris involved or not.

Re: Postage

lyndal1838 — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 16:14:20 GMT

@digital*ghost wrote:
@davewil1964 wrote:
Sounds fair to me. They take up as much room in the truck as a 3-d rhomboid would.
An L-shaped package wouldn't - neither would many other shapes.

Can't tell me the workers don't play a little Tetris when loading the trucks.

Does anyone really think that trucks and vans are loaded carefully, one parcel at a time?

In real life the drivers use pallets, cages, flash bags and various types of crates, depending on the size of the trucks/vans.

The majority of drivers load in order of delivery address, not by size of the parcel.

Re: Postage

minimum_56 — Tue, 07 Jan 2020 20:22:37 GMT

Another thing to note with regards to 'Own Packaging' & Aus Post.

I was sending multiple sets of books from Vic to NSW & I was using the Aus Post postage calculator to quote postage to the customer.

Parcel was 10.2kg in weight - but the price was changed depending on the dimensions of the parcel!!
There was a difference of about $8 depending on how I packaged the books...

Side by side versus single stack

Re: Postage

digital*ghost — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 01:15:39 GMT

@lyndal1838 wrote:
Does anyone really think that trucks and vans are loaded carefully, one parcel at a time?

In real life the drivers use pallets, cages, flash bags and various types of crates, depending on the size of the trucks/vans.
The majority of drivers load in order of delivery address, not by size of the parcel.

Parcels don't have to be loaded one at a time in painstaking effort to maximise the space of the truck, and again when they're not, parcel shape and volume will affect how they haphazardly fit together anyway.

Besides which, you're not the only person with inside knowledge of parcel delivery practices, nor the only one that I get information from - lots of mail carriers joke about it, often facetiously, while some of them post pics of their Tetris acheivements.

Re: Postage

Anonymous — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 06:10:14 GMT

I believe AP said quite a while ago that odd shaped parcels would be cubed based on the longest sides. If it's in their terms then people have to accept it. The people we have to thank for this rule are the thieves who deliberately made their parcels an odd shape in order to avoid having them cubed.