please stop trying to defraud the post office

[ClosetAvalanche]

Second time this week I had to pay extra for shipping because my items were sent in priority boxes and wrapped in brown paper and sent first class. Starting to get annoyed.

[achab1984]

HOLY COW!!!! Are you serious!!!! That would also make me mad!! I wonder if that is something that could earn a bad seller rating? What so you think?

[NoDivision]

Interesting. I've received items in priority boxes wrapped in paper and have never been asked to pay additional postage. Is the post office removing paper to check what the box is underneath?

[Stormness_1]

ebay/auction site or here?? I'd definitely be reporting that and leaving appropriate feedback. Are they charging you for the extra then are you getting charged twice? or are they only charging you what they pay then you getting charged extra? Either way, I know I calculate the cost of something by item cost + shipping cost. Having extra thrown on is ridiculous,and if the item is sent back, then it's often deemed YOUR fault, which is also seriously wrong!

[HawaiianRain]

If post office suspects they will open and charge. They used to turn them inside out but that stopped once USPS starting printing priority mail on the insides of the boxes. Definitely toss a fit!

[lovesbabysquirmy]

Please let us know who the seller is, if they are not co-operative about apologizing for thier mistake! 

[ponylady]

Interesting???

So they were actually packaged up in a Priority box and then wrapped in a brown bag and sent First Class??

[michelle53]

I send Priority boxes wrapped in brown paper all the time, especially my overseas packages.  I had no idea the post office would open packages that were shipped in this manner.  If anyone has had an issue with the way I shipped, I'd like to know about it so we can make it right.

This is troubling to hear:(

[Bergamot]

Its tempting to ship this way because the Flat Rate boxes are free (sorta!) I think it's actually illegal to use these to ship non-Priority; I seem to remember reading some strong legalish words about them.

[Glacia471]

As far as I know this is actually a pretty common practice, but this is the first I've heard about the PO opening them up to check.

[ClosetAvalanche]

Small sections of the paper got torn, revealing the red/ blue priority box inside. The seller was nice and apologized and refunded what I had to pay, so I'm not going to make a big deal about it, but I liked their note saying 'they've never had that happen before'. I don't understand how people think this is okay to do it over and over- no wonder the po is in such debt.

[banditpony]

Good post.

I have heard many times of people getting charged extra because of this practice. Some people even modify the size of boxes first, so it doesn't look like a typical priority box, and less likely to get caught. :/ It's just not good to do.

[saply]

I send Priority boxes wrapped in brown paper all the time, especially my overseas packages.

Oh god, I've done that before too D: Never again!

[Bergamot]

As indicated by some of the members here, I doubt it's often an intentional infraction! I really do think that folks just do this not knowing any better. I think reusing boxes for shipping is a pretty common practice, and, well, a box is a box!

... Except for when it's a Priority box, I guess.

I'm glad it worked out for you, ClosestAvalanche. Your seller is probably telling the truth; this is probably the first time it's ever happened to them. Hopefully they'll learn from it and not cause anybody else trouble down the line!

[teresat]

I've had this happen too. I've had people turn the box inside out too. Sometimes I get charged and other times not.