Printing UPS shipping label off PayPal

[zunde]

I recently sold a receiver on US Audio Mart. The buyer paid through PayPal. In the past I have almost always used FedEx to ship items, since they were always cheaper than the quote I got with UPS (and faster delivery as well.)
This time I got a quote from FedEx, and it was $79 for a 26 x 21 x 17 box weighing 58 lbs to ship from Ark to NY.
That seemed a little high to me, so i decided to see what the discount deal was with printing a UPS shipping label directly off PayPal. (I had signed up for that some time back but never used it, I thought even with the discount the UPS quote at best would probably be a wash with FedEx.)
Holy cow, it was only $46!! I was all excited and immediately hit "print label"-- only to find out that those sorry MF'ers make you have the actual cost of the shipping label in your PayPal account before you can print it!! What a load of horses@#%^. Since I had already transferred the funds from the sale to my bank account, I had to transfer the funds BACK to my PayPal account to get the deal-- and it is taking freaking forever.
Buyer has been plenty nice and understanding during all this but I know he is losing his patience- wouldn't you if your item is being delayed freaking 4-5 days because of this stupid policy??! Why the hell can't it just take the funds from my linked bank account, or a linked credit card???!
Lesson- from now on, anytime I sell something online and get paid through PayPal, get a UPS shipping quote through PayPal FIRST, before transferring the funds. One buyer angry at me is more than enough

 

[captouch]

Is it a special price going through PayPal? Wondering if you could just go down to your local UPS and ship it for the same price to avoid the wait and do it through PayPal next time when you have a balance.

It does seem strange though that they won't let you get the $ from a linked account since you can do that for any normal purchase.

 

[zunde]

Is it a special price going through PayPal? Wondering if you could just go down to your local UPS and ship it for the same price to avoid the wait and do it through PayPal next time when you have a balance.

It does seem strange though that they won't let you get the $ from a linked account since you can do that for any normal purchase.

Yes UPS apparently offers a considerable discount going through PayPal. I already double checked a regular UPS shipping quote online- surprisingly it WAS still cheaper than FedEx (it never has been before)-- $62. But still enough of a difference to make me want to get the discount through PayPal instead.
When I found out about this policy I went on PayPal discussion forum to see if anyone else had commented on it, yep there are PLENTY of remarks about that policy.

 

[jdurbin1]

There have been problems with people hijacking accounts to print and later refund shipping labels, that I think led to them tightening up the payment aspect. In my case, someone ran through my entire PayPal cash balance and started drawing down my linked bank account and then its linked credit card line. Sounds horrific but in fact was fairly painless. Once I'd called them to point out the fraudulent activity, within a few hours the balances of the accounts in question were restored other than it took a couple of days for the credit card account to update.

Not sure how that scam was making anyone rich, could be the system just inadvertently cross-linked my account to someone that was really busy printing labels, they never did come clean on that part.

That said, I just maintain enough balance in PayPal to not worry about whether I can pay for shipping labels, which I only print using their tool - mainly because I have peel and stick labels and I've tweaked the page layout for the browser such that the labels print accurately, which doesn't work when I print from eBay - and I can't be bothered with going through that page layout BS again. Have I mentioned screw Acrobat and its print layout settings, and Firefox for its lack of same?

John

 

[jdangel38]

UPS wants you to have funds in your account, and you cannot use an instant bank transfer to pay for the label.
FedEx doesn't care if you have funds or not, but you cant pay them immediately, you must wait for the monthly invoice to
pay them, which I really hate, since I don't always know how much I paid them during the month.

Here's how get money in your PayPal account right now, without the normal bank transfer hassle;

* Send whatever funds you need as an instant "friends or family" payment to a trusted person.
* Have that person send you back the same money to your PayPal account, again via "friends or family".

Viola! You now have the money you need in minutes, not days.