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Four Facepalm Bugs In USPS Label-Printing Site 182

Posted by timothy from the will-immediately-sell-my-stock-in-usps dept.
"The United States Postal Service "Click-N-Ship" site suffered no outages or slowdowns during Christmas rush," writes Bennett Haselton. "It just has bugs that make the process more annoying than just standing in line at the post office, which defeats the purpose. The most frustrating part is that most of these bugs could have been fixed, just by having some testers run through the ordering process and make a note of anything that seems confusing or wrong. (Although I've included notes on how to work around all the bugs, so you really can print your own labels and skip the line.)" Read on for the rest; what other gripes do you have about the current package delivery regime, and how would you resolve them?
This suggestion on the LifeProTips subreddit reminded me that I'd been meaning to try printing my own USPS mailing labels to skip the lines at the post office. I'd been putting it off because I knew that I'd be determined to find the most efficient way of doing everything through the site, and if the site didn't steer me towards exactly the best options, I'd end up forcing myself to reverse-engineer their whole algorithm in order to find the most efficient way myself. That's why I always appreciate it when a website just tells me the best option instead of making me second-guess them.

Right away, the USPS website failed that test because it does not allow you to print first-class mail labels, instead steering you towards the more expensive Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express options. Online users have complained about the lack of first-class-mail options on USPS.com for years, and users on several forums suggested using the PayPal Ship Now site instead, which does let you print first class mailing labels online, along with Priority Mail labels other options.

In my case it was a moot point because I had to use the Priority Mail labels in order for my packages to arrive by Christmas, but the deception was still hugely aggravating. Not just because of the thought of millions of people wasting money (and the finite resources of the postal system) due to the USPS site tricking them into a more expensive upgrade that they didn't need. But because it now meant I'd have to second-guess every recommendation they made, wondering if they were steering me toward something that was worse for me and better for them. The reason sites like Amazon are so stress-free to use is because, for the most part, they do display the options that are best for you, even at the expense of their own short-term profit. Some third-party merchant is selling a book for less than Amazon's list price? They'll let the seller list the book right on their site and undercut Amazon's own sales. The benefit to the user is not just the cost savings, but knowing that you don't have to feel like a chump for not wasting time on search engines trying to find a cheaper deal.

Once I realized the USPS site was concealing the cheaper options, in my determination to avoid getting ripped off by the USPS I almost ended up getting ripped off much worse by one of their "partners". I remembered an ad on a Google search mentioning Stamps.com, so I signed up for an account there and downloaded their software, which does in fact let you print first-class postage. It was only after reading a warning in the original subreddit that I realized I had unwittingly "agreed" to a $15.99/month charge. It turns out that the Stamps.com registration page says above the credit card form that your card info is "required to purchase postage", but this is misleading -- the fine print in the sidebar says you will be charged $15.99 per month if you don't cancel. (And neither the software nor the website gives you a link to cancel -- you have to call their customer service number.) Fortunately, I did call and cancel after realizing I'd been duped, but I was not surprised to learn on Wikipedia that the company had been the subject of over 1,000 Better Business Bureau complaints from users regarding the unauthorized monthly charges. (The part on Wikipedia about "long hold times" is out of date, though -- the automated prompts recognized my account by my phone number and let me cancel without any waiting.)

What does that have to do with USPS.com? Because it never would have happened if the USPS website had been on my side in the first place, giving me all the mailing options that I actually needed. It's bad enough when a private company does this, but the USPS works for us, don't they?

So that's not a "bug" in the traditional sense, but I'm counting it: #1: Not giving users all the mailing options they want to know about.

Most of the other bugs are not self-serving tricks; rather, they're just unclear directions where you have to pause and puzzle out what you're really supposed to do, which is different from what the site tells you to do. For example:

#2: Listing boxes as shipping options that don't fit the dimensions that you've already entered

On the label printing page (requires a USPS.com login if you don't have one) is the option to enter package dimensions. If you specify package details of 1 lbs and 13x5x6 inches, and click to calculate "available Services and Prices" based on the details you've entered, you're presented with a list of options that include 'Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope 12-1/2" x 9-1/2"', 'Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box 5-3/8" x 8-5/8" x 1-5/8"', 'Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2"', 'Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Box 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8"', and 'Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope 9-1/2" x 12-1/2"' -- all of which, of course, are too small to hold the package whose dimensions you just specified.

You could argue that it's the user's responsibility to make sure their package fits into the box they select, but a user could reasonably assume that the whole point of entering the length, width and height is so that the USPS can recommend only those boxes that will hold the item. Remember, the user usually doesn't have these boxes in front of them at the time they're printing the label. They could end up selecting a box option, printing the label, taking it all the way to the post office along with their package, only to find out that the package doesn't fit into the box that they printed the label for, and that they have to wait in line anwyay to pay for an alternate method.

It's a middle-school-level programming exercise to take the length, width, and height of a package as an input, take as a second input a list of boxes of varying lengths, widths, heights, and costs, and find the lowest-cost box that will hold the package (keeping in mind that the package can be rotated to different orientations so that the "height" becomes the "width", etc.). It's reasonable to expect the postal service to be able to do this too.

#3: Everything wrong with the "print your labels" page

Here's a screen grab of the "print your labels" page that appears after you've paid, which you can use to play the Highlights "What's Wrong?" game:

  • The text at the top says "You'll have until 11:59 PM CST of the Ship Date to print these labels." OK, but if I print them at 11:59 PM, what good does it do if the post office closed at 6? Are the labels only valid on the ship date, or will they still work if I take them to the post office the next day? This should be more clear.

  • Text says "A SCAN Form must be printed when taking packages to the Post Office." Fine, but there's a checkbox next to that sentence. If that sentence describes a postal regulation, what does it mean if I un-check the box? That the regulation no longer applies to me? Can someone tell me if the drug laws work that way as well?

  • The next sentence says: "Close out and print your SCAN Form here." I have no idea what that sentence means. Close out of the browser? And where is "here"? When it's not hyperlinked, "here" means here.

  • WHY IS THE "PRINT LABELS" BUTTON DISABLED?? I have the checkboxes checked for both labels. I want to print them. What else do you want me to DO? (My PC has a printer, which the Chrome browser is aware of -- it lets me print from other webpages with no problem.) I got it to work by saving the PDF and printing that, but I never figured out why the Print button was just sitting there, mocking me from behind its veil of grey.

  • The "Schedule a Pickup" button at the bottom -- same problem as the "print until 11:59 PM" message at the top. Since I printed these labels with the ship date specified as today, it should be more clear if the labels will still be considered valid tomorrow, which is the soonest time that a pickup could be scheduled.

#4: Over an hour on hold and never got through.

As an adherent to the touchingly quaint notion that a reporter should talk to the subjects of their story before running it, and also because I just wanted clarification on some of these questions, I called the USPS help line and waited on hold for 30 minutes before their help line disconnected me. I called back and waited for another 40 minutes before I hung up this time. OK, strictly speaking that's not a "bug". They just suck.

In the end, after reverse-engineering their pricing options as I had vowed to do, I determined what appeared to be their rules, (applies only to domestic Priority Mail), which you may find handy:

  • If you're shipping in a Flat Rate box, the weight of the package doesn't matter (up to the 70 lb limit), only the dimensions, to the extent that they determine which Flat Rate box you can fit it into, with the bigger ones being more expensive.
  • On the other hand, if you pick the Priority Mail "Use your own box" option, then the dimensions don't matter (unless you exceed the allowed limits), only the weight -- a 5 lb, 3"x3"x3" package and a 5 lb, 21"x21"x21" package both ship for $15.22, but if you change the weight, that's when the price changes. (If you try to ship a 22"x22"x22" package, you get an error that you've exceeded the dimensions for a Click-N-Ship.)

Using this, I was able to strategically break my one shipment, which would have cost about $30, into two separate shipments which cost $12 and $8. All told, with the effort to reverse-engineer their pricing options and to document all of the bugs for posterity, it took me about an hour to figure out that $10 savings and to print labels that I could take to the post office and skip the line -- which, it turned out, looked only about 3 minutes long -- in order to experience what one redditor described as "feeling the hate from the people standing in line as I casually stroll up and drop my packages off at the front desk". But the important thing is, I did it efficiently.

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Four Facepalm Bugs In USPS Label-Printing Site More

Four Facepalm Bugs In USPS Label-Printing Site

Comments Filter:

  • Christmas break is over! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 08, 2015 @01:57PM (#48767137)

    Hallelujah! Bennett's back! My life has meaning once more.

  • Crap Crap Crap (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 08, 2015 @01:59PM (#48767157)

    Get this crap off the front page.

  • My God... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Lab Rat Jason ( 2495638 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @01:59PM (#48767163)

    ... it's full of stupid.

    • Re:My God... (Score:4, Informative)

      by Aighearach ( 97333 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:14PM (#48767363)

      What, are you gonna claim that calling a telephone number during the holiday season to ask stupid questions, and instead sitting on hold for an hour... isn't part of using a website?!

      The most informative part of the strange person blog post is, "it took me about an hour to figure out that $10 savings and to print labels that I could take to the post office and skip the line -- which, it turned out, looked only about 3 minutes long -- in order to experience what one redditor..."

      Short version: Shipping labels are hard for this guy, the USPS still had short lines during the holiday season, printing your own labels using label software is easier than using a website (duh), and this moron mostly reads reddit, not slashdot.

    • Re:My God... (Score:5, Informative)

      by Archangel Michael ( 180766 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:18PM (#48767389) Journal

      Makes me wonder if timothy is stupid. Gawd that was just awful .

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Ichijo ( 607641 )

        If you need help understanding the issues timothy raised, I suggest reading "The Design of Everyday Things" by Donald A. Norman.

    • Re:My God... (Score:5, Interesting)

      by chihowa ( 366380 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @03:30PM (#48768153)

      You know he reads the comments because he's responded to things before, so you have to wonder why he keeps posting stuff here. It's like the pathetic loser who keeps hanging out with people that constantly abuse him. It's not even funny anymore; it's just sad.

      What's he getting out of this?

  • Hey Bennett, (Score:5, Insightful)

    by aardvarkjoe ( 156801 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:00PM (#48767171)

    Have you asked to be made an editor on Slashdot, so you can post your own stories -- and those that don't want to read your crap can just filter you out instead of filling up the comment sections with complaints like mine?

    • Re:Hey Bennett, (Score:4, Informative)

      by Enry ( 630 ) <enry@@@wayga...net> on Thursday January 08, 2015 @03:17PM (#48767993) Journal

      I moderated your comment incorrectly, so I'm going to fix that now. You're completely correct.

  • It's the post office (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Overzeetop ( 214511 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:00PM (#48767181) Journal

    Nothing is done for the convenience of the user. Why should the website be any different?

    And, for the record, if you can't figure out the USPS website you're an idiot. All these idiosyncrasies have been around for as long as I can remember on their site, and yet we ship out stuff all the time with the system.

    I feel like I've just been trolled by BH.

    • And, for the record, if you can't figure out the USPS website you're an idiot. All these idiosyncrasies have been around for as long as I can remember on their site, and yet we ship out stuff all the time with the system.

      So you're saying because you're a regular user, who is used to their crappy website that they haven't bothered to fix in ages, everyone else who doesn't know all the pitfalls should just suck it up?

      Wouldn't it be nice if someone pointed out all the pitfalls for people who aren't regular users of USPS.com but might have an occasional need to ship something and might try it in future? I wonder where we could find such information...

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by Ksevio ( 865461 )
        But there's a whole stupid section on how he "reverse engineered" the prices. Perhaps he did this by clicking the "Calculate Postage" link and filling out the form? It's spelled out pretty clearly how flat rate vs normal postage works.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by psm321 ( 450181 )
          And he didn't even have to do that (though the calculator is convenient, he implied that it was something hiding information form him). It took me http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300...
      • I agree that it would be nice if a real person, and not just a postal employee, or worse, just the programmer(s) involved, actually tried to use the site and give suggestions ("This may mean something to YOU, but I speak English, not Postalese"). And over the holidays I did use and get frustrated with their site. Mostly because I would say "Hey give me a label" and go through all the stuff and it would drop back to the beginning a number of times before I could actually print out the labels. But I never had

      • Re:It's the post office (Score:4, Informative)

        by Anonymous Coward on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:38PM (#48767633)

        Indeed, I fell into this same trap last year when I needed to ship out several packages. The USPS website is so confusing it's almost deliberately deceptive. I fell for every issue the OP mentions and ended up paying way more than I needed to. The USPS should be ashamed of themselves, and they need to fire the toddlers who designed their site and hire some professional developers and designers.

        In addition to all of the problems with the website, I fell into another UX trap that ended up costing me money. When I got fed up enough to take my stuff to my local post office, the ladies directed me to the stack of flat rate boxes in the corner of the lobby. We had a little "Who's on first" routine. The flat rate boxes have "Priority mail" (or priority mail express) stamped on them in very large letters, with "flat rate" printed in little letters in the bottom corner. It took me some back and forth with the clerk who didn't hide the fact she thought I was as stupid as they get, before I figured out that the priority mail boxes and the priority mail flat rate boxes are not interchangeable. If there are two stacks of boxes that both have "priority mail" printed on them, which one will you grab?

        • and hire some professional developers and designers.

          Such as the professionals who redid the NBC and CNN web sites?

    • Re:It's the post office (Score:4, Insightful)

      by R.Mo_Robert ( 737913 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:36PM (#48767601)

      And, for the record, if you can't figure out the USPS website you're an idiot. All these idiosyncrasies have been around for as long as I can remember on their site, and yet we ship out stuff all the time with the system.

      So how, exactly, do you use their website to print first-class postage, then? (I don't; I use PayPal and don't even bother with their site anymore. That's not an excuse for them, however.)

      • You dont. They dont want you to print first class postage online. It is not very cost effective, and it is not like they have competition for first class. Calling something they used to do, and they dont want to do now, a bug is beyond crazy.

    • Just because you understand these longstanding issues doesn't make them fine. The fact is our company explicitly doesn't use USPS for anything other than first class stamped letters because of this confusion. Doing business with them meant that people constantly had to waste time fielding internal questions about exactly these sorts of problems. Our solution was simple: UPS and Fedex now get all of our shipping business and no one has to deal with the crappy vendor anymore.

  • Free Market (Score:3, Funny)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:01PM (#48767187) Journal

    It's not "deception", it's Innovative Marketing, you commie!

  • USPS direction... (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    About the same time the ridiculous mandate was placed on the USPS to forward fund all their employees' benefits for the next 50 years, my local Post Office in the heart of a major urban area removed the existing fleet (4-6, I don't remember exactly) of vending machines that allowed you to pick and choose various books of stamps in favor of 3 "shipping stations" that allow you to weigh your parcels, select various shipping options, and print exact postage stamps; they can also print sets of one "standard" st

  • Maybe if everyone just stopped posting comments to stories by Bennett, he'd get bored and go somewhere else.

    Active hostility doesn't seem to be working, maybe good old ignoring will.

    • Neither solution worked for Tim Rue on comp.sys.amiga.misc and his endless blatherings on the V.I.C.

      It took the death of the Amiga and the Amiga newsgroups years later to accomplish that.

  • Irony is... (Score:5, Funny)

    by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:14PM (#48767355)

    >> make the process more annoying than just standing in line at the post office

    BH complaining about wasting time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by k6mfw ( 1182893 )

      BH complaining about wasting time.

      but sure has a lot of time to write this article.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by kat_skan ( 5219 )

        Maybe that's why it took him an hour to print a shipping label: every click was accompanied by a pointless rambling five-minute diatribe.

  • You are making things WAY TOO COMPLEX (Score:5, Funny)

    by SuperKendall ( 25149 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:14PM (#48767361)

    I've used the USPS abler printer a number of times, and not once had any issues.

    You seem to veer off the rails all over the place, but the main thing that mystified me is - why would a label NOT WORK the next day (a "confusion" you list more than once)? It's insane to think it would not. People like you are the reason shampoo labels say not to microwave the shampoo or pour it down your throat without breathing.

    • Wait, you mean I'm supposed to breathe while I pour the shampoo down my throat? Thanks, I've been doing it wrong all this time!

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ZipK ( 1051658 )

      You seem to veer off the rails all over the place, but the main thing that mystified me is - why would a label NOT WORK the next day (a "confusion" you list more than once)? It's insane to think it would not.

      From the USPS Report on PRC Rate and Service Inquiries for December 2011 [prc.gov]:

      You must mail your item on the date that you selected for your Click-N-Ship label; this is known as the Ship Date. An electronic record is generated on that date indicating that your mailpiece has been mailed. Packages shipped with labels that have incorrect Ship Dates may be returned to the sender and will not be eligible for a refund. If you are unable to use the label, you should request a refund within ten (10) days of the printing date and create another label with the correct Ship Date.

      That said, local postal offices apparently offer varying amounts of flexibility; but the policy is that you must ship on the Ship Date or cancel within ten days to get a refund. See also here [jseaber.com].

      • I've printed the shipping label the night before countless times. The text on the website is just some lawyer's busywork making sure they can't be sued.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ZipK ( 1051658 )

          I've printed the shipping label the night before countless times.

          Printing date and shipping date are not necessarily the same thing. If you've printed a shipping label "the night before," after business hours in the ship-from zip code, the default shipping date was likely set to the next day. Packages can be (and in some cases are) returned when shipped after the shipping date; it's your chance to take.

          • That's useful to know, thanks. Sorry that useful pointers like these get buried in the comments under all the tripe :)

            Although my poitn is that it would have been nice if the USPS site itself spelled this out.

          • If you've printed a shipping label "the night before," after business hours in the ship-from zip code, the default shipping date was likely set to the next day.

            Nope, at least not with any Paypal labels I've printed. Their site is very stupidly set up too (in many ways). Even if you print a label at 11:55PM, it'll still show that date on the label unless you remember to change the shipping date to the next day.

            I've shipped countless packages a day late BTW, and never, ever had one returned.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by ZipK ( 1051658 )

              Nope, at least not with any Paypal labels I've printed.

              I've shipped countless packages a day late BTW, and never, ever had one returned.

              In the eBay shipping center [paypal.com], next to the selector for Shipping Date is a link to More Info [paypal.com] that states:

              Mailing Date

              The Mailing Date you select determines the date when your postage label is valid. An electronic record is generated on that date indicating that your package has been mailed. When creating an online label, you are responsible for providing accurate information when selecting the mailing date. You will have the option to select a mailing date up to 3 days in the future. Please note that the Mailing Date is formatted in Eastern Standard Time.

              This is corroborated by the USPS notice posted earlier, though from your experience the notice should say "may be returned" rather than "will be returned." You are being given a grace period by the post office that accepts your package; others report their packages being returned, so late mailing is not something that can be counted upon systemwide.

              • Well again, I've mailed countless packages a day or two late, from many different post offices in different parts of the country, and never had a problem. I've mailed almost 2000 packages in the last few years; not a single one returned.

                Where people might be seeing a problem is with Express Mail (now called "Priority Express Mail" for some dumb reason). Express Mail's price does depend on the mailing date to my knowledge. With Priority and First Class, it does not: the price is the same no matter when yo

    • I've used the USPS abler printer a number of times, and not once had any issues....

      I just the USPS label printer a lot, and I've not had any problems..

      .
      Maybe, just maybe, the problem does not reside with the website.

      fwiw, I read the first few paragraphs and then decided "what a waste of time this story is."

      Then I look at who wrote it. Well, there's part of my life I'll never get back......

      Does this BH idiot own a part of /.? Why is he given such preference here?

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jeremyp ( 130771 )

      why would a label NOT WORK the next day

      Off the top of my head, one reason would be that the price is calculated based on the rates on the day of shipping.

      • Although an interesting point, no shipping company charges differently based on when it ships from (if you are not having them come get it and don't care if it actually goes out the day you drop it off).

        Instead they charge more for the day of delivery.

        Basically the USPS label printer is usually just used to put a label on a package so you can just drop it off at the post office without waiting in line - there's an after-hours drop where you can put packages even when they are closed.

  • News for nerds? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    How in the world is this even remotely news of any sort, let alone news for nerds? This looks more like basic information for my grandma. Just print the labels, it works dumbass. I've done it before with ZERO problems. Maybe Bennett needs to go work for an actual company. Start in the mail room because, well that appears to be all he's truly qualified for and move up.

    Bennett, you think WAY to hard about very simple problems and issues. Keep it Simple Stupid

  • Wait... what? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Mr Z ( 6791 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:23PM (#48767451) Homepage Journal

    You could argue that it's the user's responsibility to make sure their package fits into the box they select, but a user could reasonably assume that the whole point of entering the length, width and height is so that the USPS can recommend only those boxes that will hold the item. Remember, the user usually doesn't have these boxes in front of them at the time they're printing the label. They could end up selecting a box option, printing the label, taking it all the way to the post office along with their package, only to find out that the package doesn't fit into the box that they printed the label for, and that they have to wait in line anwyay to pay for an alternate method.

    Ah, you're one of those people who clog up the lobby boxing your stuff up at the post office, using the wrong tape (such as the tape meat to mark an Express package on something you're shipping Priority or First Class) and breaking in line to ask someone behind the desk for scissors.

    You realize that the post office isn't a full service pack and ship place, right? At least none of the ones I've been to around here are. You're supposed to have everything packed up and ready to go before you walk in the door. You also realize that your local PO probably doesn't stock all the sizes and shapes of shipping box the website describes, and that package weight is supposed to include the box, right?.

    That is, you're supposed to have boxed up your parcel by the time you got to this part of the form. The only thing missing should be the label.

    Could be worse. You could be like the person I saw who tried to send a package wrapped in normal Christmas wrapping paper.... That was going to be a shredded nightmare on the other side.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Enry ( 630 )

      There's whole shipping stores that FedEX and UPS run that would do that for you. Staples has a lot of shipping material too. USPS has it because it's convenient, but that's not their goal.

      We had to go to the post office to get our daughter her passport. While there was a line behind us the person helping us did a real good job at it, even retaking the picture for free since she thought the one we got at CVS wasn't cropped properly. She must have been right because the passport showed up a few weeks late

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Ichijo ( 607641 )

      Ah, you're one of those people...using the wrong tape (such as the tape meat to mark an Express package on something you're shipping Priority or First Class)...

      This is why smart people avoid rework by packing their stuff at the post office.

      You're supposed to have everything packed up and ready to go before you walk in the door.

      I guess you just can't please everyone all of the time.

    • You're supposed to have everything packed up and ready to go before you walk in the door.

      They have priority mail boxes stacked in racks on the wall, free for people to take, so I assume they intend for at least some people to box their stuff there.

      In my local post office, there's a counter for boxing things, and then a line which snakes around the counter and (sometimes) out the door. I've never seen the counter anywhere close to being full -- usually only one or two people using it for boxing their stuff -- so as long as you just take a Priority Mail box off the wall, and your stuff fits int

  • On the other hand... (Score:5, Informative)

    by fahrbot-bot ( 874524 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @02:26PM (#48767487)

    ... I have shipped many, many boxes over several years, both USPS Flat-Rate and my own, via Click-n-Ship w/Postage paid via CC w/o any trouble. (and I always keep a small stack of Flat-Rate boxes at home, so I always know which one I need...)

    In all that time, I've only had one problem during transit of a "used my own" box (that I had simply dropped off at the Post Office) in that the website calculated the online discount correctly and the live mail handler at the processing center didn't and the package was returned. Taking that package back to the Post Office and talking with someone behind the counter got that cleared up and the package re-shipped correctly.

    The reviewer has some valid complaints about using the site, but is, perhaps, also an idiot.

  • This is tech news now? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward

    Didn't click through (I don't want to reward the author with ad traffic) but it seems he's looking for ways to get confused just to produce article content.

  • ...all these problems is to give the Post Office more money that it doesn't need to earn, and that is taken by force from people who don't want to pay. Why do they need to improve anything under those circumstances?
  • The package dimensions are the dimension of the package, not its contents. A child would know ths.

    • Re: (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by atomicthumbs ( 824207 )
      on the other hand, a child would also spell "this" correctly, so maybe it's harder than I thought

      • Well, if your fingers are all atomic thumbs, it must be hard to work a keyboard reliably.

        OTOH, I can't picture a plausible excuse for BH's issues. /shrug.

  • Working as intended.

  • Sure, there may be problems with load and usability but it sure as hell beats going to the post office doesn't it?

  • Use PayPal for other shipping options! (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    I searched around and found this out a couple years ago when I also discovered that no first class shipping labels could be printed on the USPS site. Now there is a pay straight from eBay mentioning the "secret" option/ability:

    http://www.ebay.com/gds/Secret-PayPal-Shipping-Labels-Stamps-off-eBay-Mailing-/10000000007215096/g.html

    They provide a "shortcut secret link" as well:

    https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

  • Since I printed these labels with the ship date specified as today, it should be more clear if the labels will still be considered valid tomorrow, which is the soonest time that a pickup could be scheduled.

    On two occasions I have been asked, 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.

    ~C. Babbage

  • Please make him stop.

  • bh;dr (Score:2)

    by xeos ( 174989 )

    perhaps the biggest bug was allowing BH to use the website in the first place?

  • Slashdot keeps aggravating their "audience" (Score:3)

    by kbahey ( 102895 ) on Thursday January 08, 2015 @04:54PM (#48769125) Homepage

    The last time I commented [slashdot.org] about the continued posting of Bennet's rants, some idiot moderators marked it as flamebait.

    I am posting it again below. This is serious, not a troll, nor funny:

    Slashdot's editor team knows that the "audience" here hate Bennet Hasleton's continued long winded drivel, yet they keep posting his stuff regularly.

    This is yet another clear sign that Dice and Slashdot do not care about their "audience", just like the way they handled the Slashdot Beta debacle.

    Dice: keep ignoring your "audience" while expecting viewership to increase. Yeah, that will happen alright ...

  • I could actually feel my IQ points shriveling up while attempting to comprehend WTF I was reading.

    I feel like a Windows machine that needs to be rebooted because all my CPU and memory cycles have been used by recursive stupidity.

  • 1,700 words into this and one of his two conclusions is that flat-rate boxes are flat rate? (Up to 70 lbs which, IIRC, is printed on the side of the fucking box.) Kill me now.

  • Particularly this guy. Most people would have no earthly idea as to which type of First Class Mail they should use for any given item: letter, flat or parcel. The allowed weights and sizes are different for all three and even the price increase per unit weight is different. Many people wouldn't have a scale on hand that is accurate to the tenth of an ounce and would get upset when their item was returned because they guessed to low. All in all, the USPS is quite right to have domestic first class offered th
  • Now they're actually trying to bury the fact that Benny Hill is writing this verbal diarrhea by neglecting to put the warning in the summary we all got used to seeing. So before Ben 10 shows up and whines "but wut i r wrong about?", you're wrong about the entire fucking premise. None of these are bugs. Also, you're an idiot.

  • Of COURSE their system is broken! You missed the point entirely.

    The purpose of ANYTHING the USPS does is to get you to come to a branch and stand in line. Essentially they want you to be so frustrated and give up that you come stand in line. So they can try to upsell you on stuff you don't want, mainly because you might be weak after spending an hour in line and just agree to whatever is suggested.

    This is why the USPS has carefully removed nearly all the stamp vending machines they used to have in every

  • Why do sites insist I enter my town, state, then zipcode? If I enter my zipcode, you can get my state, and 99% of time, my town. I find this maddening. Country should be first, then zipcode, then state and town auto populated with an option to change.

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