Thought I would resurrect this thread . . . a recent post by Serl (who's a great guy) got me thinking:
serleran wrote:And then, there are the ones who refuse to allow other shipping methods, which I find to be total BS, outright. For example, maybe I don't want my item in 2-3 days (priority) when I can get it in 3-5 (flat rate) for half. I think I'm going to stop bidding on all auctions that don't let me pick my shipping method. After all, once I pay for it, its no longer the seller's item... its mine; they have my money and my item; why should they be the ones to dictate how I get my own stuff? I can have it sent to me however the hell I want, and if it gets lost or screwed up, it should be my fault because I didn't request it be sent in a better manner.
Needless, this little thing with eBay pisses me off to no end.
I must say, that several months later I am happy and content at home . . . I have not set foot in a post office (except to buy stamps

) for 4 months. Hats off to the postal service! All packages including ALL international packages get picked up at my door. Prior to this, I still had to go to the post office 2 or 3 times a week to send out international mail.
But what does this have to do with Serl's post? Well, automatic international shipping is ONLY for Priority Mail International. This is often a good deal, especially the Flat Rate Envelopes. But often I could still send it letter post for cheaper - especially when shipping to Canada. Except . . . automatic shipping isn't available for Letter Post. So, screw it, I won't offer to mail it that way. I'm not driving to the post office so I can mail one stupid item for $4.00 less.
And another thing . . . Media Mail is NOT available for automatic shipping UNLESS the purchase is through ebay/paypal. So, sometimes on private transactions, I have to go to
USPS online shipping and Priority is the only option. Again, now I am completely spoiled and won't go to the post office, so I have a little loophole where I paypal myself 1 cent from my Wife's account and then use this transaction to Print a Paypal shipping label and edit the address to the one where I want the package to go.
And, of course, I don't have a
FEDEX or
UPS account and even though it might be easy, I would NEVER ship that way as I'm unwilling to devote even 2 minutes of time to figuring out how to do it (and I'm sure it would take more than 2 mintues! ) Of course, in 5 years no one has ever requested I use those methods anyway, so it hardly matters.
All those hundreds of trips to the post office are all just a distant memory now . . .

"Gleemonex makes it feel like it's seventy-two degrees in your head... all... the... time! "