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Mon July 4 2022 08:52:01

Amazon Rolls Out USPS Shipping Rate Hike a Week Early

By: Ina Steiner

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Amazon sellers got a surprise on Friday when they printed USPS Media Mail shipping labels. Instead of costing $3.19, Amazon showed the rate as $3.49.

A seller reported the issue on Ecommerce EKG, writing in part, "On my Shipments on Friday July 1st Amazon charged me the new rate by USPS, but they aren't suppose to be effective until July 10th."

The problem has yet to be fixed - a reader experienced the problem on Sunday evening: "I just printed a shipping label for an order I sold on Amazon 10 Oz Media Mail which should be $3.19 and was charged 3.49 - the new rate that starts on July 10th."

Sellers also reported the problem on the Amazon discussion boards. "Postage increase is supposed to happen July 10th. Looks like the Amazon programmer dropped the zero," a seller wrote.

One seller who responded pointed to another issue they encountered when trying to correct for the problem. "When I go into my many templates and start changing the shipping charges so that I am not LOSING money on shipping I get this message," they wrote, posting the following message:

Shipping Template Freezing
Abnormally frequent updates to ship charge in your shipping templates have been identified in the past 24 hours. We temporarily disabled shipping template updates and creation until 07/02/2022 11:23:55 to protect customer experience.

It's not unusual for sellers to encounter issues when the Postal Service changes rates, but it is unusual for the problem to occur a week before the scheduled change.

The timing - the Friday before a major holiday weekend - was unfortunate. If anyone has seen Amazon's acknowledgement of the problem, please let us know.



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Perminate Link for Amazon Rolls Out USPS Shipping Rate Hike a Week Early   Amazon Rolls Out USPS Shipping Rate Hike a Week Early

by: AddyUp This user has validated their user name.

Wed Jul 6 18:11:24 2022

I see that Amazon is currently being investigated for anti-competitive practices. I wonder how that is going to turn out?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62064830?at_medium=RSS
&at_campaign=KARANGA

Perminate Link for Amazon Rolls Out USPS Shipping Rate Hike a Week Early   Amazon Rolls Out USPS Shipping Rate Hike a Week Early

by: Marie This user has validated their user name.

Thu Jul 7 02:38:26 2022

Yes that happened to me three times now.  The most recent one was today.  I've been trying to work this out with Amazon via their email customer service.  The first THREE attempts resulted in a canned response that did not address the issue at hand.

This evening I received an email that gives me hope.  This CSR actually understood the issue and appears to be trying to get it in front of the correct people for answers, corrections and refunds.

Only time will tell.

Perminate Link for Amazon Rolls Out USPS Shipping Rate Hike a Week Early   Amazon Rolls Out USPS Shipping Rate Hike a Week Early

by: Marie This user has validated their user name.

Fri Jul 8 13:11:46 2022

I guess this just goes to show how powerful Amazon is or at least they think they are as clearly they feel they have the power to change a FEDERAL mandate.

Here is the answer I FINALLY got regarding this problem.

Hello from Amazon Selling Partner Support,

Thank you for your patience. I understand that you are concerned about being overcharged for your USPS Shipping Label.

Please note that the rate adjustment was implemented on July 1st, instead of July 10th.

Tools like Buy Shipping take time to implement changes.

Due to the relative closeness to Prime Day (July 12 - 13), there were concerns the changes could impact your ability to Buy Shipping during this time. As such, the change was implemented early.

We understand the inconvenience this change creates, we want to ensure that you have a successful Prime Day without any risk to your ability to fulfill orders.

You can learn more about USPS price changes on the USPS website.

Thank you for your understanding.

To help us continually improve, we ask that you take a moment to complete our survey below to tell us about your experience with this specific interaction.

Were you satisfied with the support provided?



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