Question re new USPS Priority Mail label printing form

[sydnie]

Wrong forum, but it's been discussed here before. I just went to print a label (yes, it's still clearly available for plain old ordinary people) but they have added required fields for package weight. This appears even on form for printing label without postage.

Rats. I don't do this often enough to warrant purchasing a postal scale. Guess it's back to plain old Word labels for me.

Any thoughts? I'm going to ask USPS why they did this, will share any response.

[sharonwhit]

Most information is a two-way street.
You get something useful to you and they get something useful to them! The weight request, in order to get free delivery confirmation, is so the USPS computers can let each city know how much incoming mail volume they will be receiving each night. This enables them to schedule the right number of workers for the expected volume.
I saw a digital scale in wally-world's kitchen section for about $30 last week. Not sure of the max weight but it was several pounds.

[sydnie]

Interesting answer, but presupposes a very sophisticated system. Here is the less-than-sophisticated answer I actually received from USPS:

"This item was added to the form for future applications which may require a
package weight to qualify for these applications. As of now no application
is scheduled however this broadens our possibilities to improve on this
application."

Seems they could have made it a non-mandatory field until they actually NEEDED and could USE the info... OK, [whine mode/OFF]

[jillbert2]

Can't you just make a guess, compare it to some foodstuff or something?

[bubbasmom99]

I just had to ship some stuff I sold on Ebay and got the package weight by the most unscientific method of standing on my scale with the box, and then without, and subtracting to get the difference... when I got to the post office and they weighed it, it turned out to be correct... (We have a digital scale that weighs in 0.5 lb increments, though).

Joy

[Dyllan]

Originally posted by bubbasmom99
I just had to ship some stuff I sold on Ebay and got the package weight by the most unscientific method of standing on my scale with the box, and then without, and subtracting to get the difference... when I got to the post office and they weighed it, it turned out to be correct... (We have a digital scale that weighs in 0.5 lb increments, though).

Joy

I am amazed. I don't think I've EVER heard of a scale that could pull that off.

My Dad's tried that with his bathroom scale, and the same package weighs between 2 pounds and 15 pounds.

-Dyllan

[jyinyang]

Hey all,

Can anyone post the link to this label again? I can't find the original label and I tried searching through the archives for it but to no avail.

Thanks in advance,
Jocelyn

[ILUV2SHOP]

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also I have not had it ask me for shipping weight and just used it today?