Buyer Beware!!!

I just got back from shipping a box at the Post Office. I was sending my mom her birthday present. I chose a box that was a bit larger than I needed because I wanted to have extra space for padding. Unbeknowst to me, the USPS has completely redone the way they compute shipping boxes via Priority Service. For boxes over 1 cubic foot, postage is no longer figured via actual weight. It is figured via dimensional weight.

What is dimensional weight? Well, I didn't get a good answer, but apparently because my box was 16X20X20 but only held 4 lbs of weight, the price went from $15 (which I thought was already insane) to a whopping $26 because of the size of the box. Yeah! That makes sense!

Apparently, the post office did this because the airlines that carry Priority mail are now billing them for dimensional weight. The airlines simply calculate the "volume" of space the pallet of boxes takes up in their cargo hold and then charges a flat rate regardless of weight.

So the post office is just passing along their cost to their customers. Yippee!

I chose to send my mom's gift via standard ground which will take 7 days, so I will miss her birthday. I felt it was ridiculous to spend $26.00 for something that 2 months ago cost $15.00.

Just a little consumer awareness for anyone who reads this. Either plan way ahead and use their 7 day rate, use a small box and pack the hell out of it, or use a competitor (which is what I will be doing).