Parcel Post discontinued

[winkingfox]

Hey e-junkie... we need an update to your USPS shipping offerings.

Parcel Post is no more (as of this past January, I believe) and has been replaced with "Parcel Select Nonpresort" offering 2-9 day delivery at lower rate than USPS Priority.

[E-junkie_Guru]

Actually, the new retail successor to Parcel Post is now called Standard Post. The "Parcel Select Nonpresort" service you mention is a high-volume business service, and we can only perform rate lookups for regular retail rates. The new Seller Admin we're building will incorporate the new name in Shipping settings; meanwhile, just bear in mind that the "USPS Parcel Post" setting really means "USPS Standard Post".

[winkingfox]

Nope. Standard Post is not available for online postage and the Parcel Select Nonpresort has been changed to permit single package mailings for online customers. PayPal Merchant service now shows Select Nonpresort in their USPS service type pull-down selection.

[winkingfox]

The stamps.com blog has a brief description. Basically:

--Parcel Post is now called Standard Post but is available ONLY at the walk-in Post Office.

--The 50 package minimum for Parcel Select has been lifted so now Parcel Select Nonpresort can be used online for a single package.

--First Class Package International has been added as a new low cost service for small packages 4lbs or less.

http://blog.stamps.com/2013/02/04/understanding-usps-parcel-select/



While the USPS web site pages describing available services have not yet been updated (sad but true), their postcalc.usps.com pages do offer First Class Package International, but not yet Parcel Select Nonpresort (sad but true, once again).



eBay and PayPal are the opposite. They have updated their services to offer Parcel Select but not First Class Package International (sigh).



While you're considering a change to the shipping options, how about setting up USPS Global Express Guaranteed (GXG)? I have actually had several international buyers request next day delivery despite the high cost.



Thanks Guru!

[E-junkie_Guru]

Thanks for the update, we'll look into adding those options while we update to the new Seller Admin; meanwhile, you can just use our current Parcel Post calculator to look up Standard Post rates for your cart even if you're actually shipping by Parcel Select (which should be slightly cheaper, so you can just pocket the nominal difference).

[winkingfox]

Good thought. Thanks.

It's also true that there is not a huge savings between Parcel Select and Priority, and the saving may be further offset by having to buy and stock your own boxes instead of using the USPS free boxes. Life is complicated, isn't it?



What is the best way for me to keep informed of E-Junkie service or web site updates?

[E-junkie_Guru]

We post notice of service outages and major upgrades in our Service Status and Updates subforum here:

http://www.e-junkie.com/bb/forum/6



If you happen to be into RSS, we have a feed of that subforum that you can subscribe to from this URL:

http://www.e-junkie.com/bb/xml/rss-forum-6.xml