Bohtieque Design

For Etsy sellers: Using SCAN forms with PayPal

It’s not infrequent for someone to convo me with the following:

“I just wanted to check on the status of my order because I have not yet received the labels that were ordered on Feb. 8th. I hope that they were not lost in the mail? Is this time frame normal?
Thank you in advance for your help and update.”

Thank god we have delivery confirmation, right?

Well, not necessarily.  If you print online postage with delivery confirmation, the post office won’t scan the package until it is delivered.  Until it hits your customer’s door, all the customer will see when he or she enters the confirmation in the box at USPS.com might be this:

“The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on February 9, 2008 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available. Information, if available, is updated every evening. Please check again later.”

They’re thinking:  “Crap.  I paid for this THING and now she doesn’t even send it?  What has Etsy come to!”

Yeah, not exactly confidence inspiring, is it?

Shipping is a pain.  For us all–buyers and sellers.  I actually really like USPS–for what I ship, it would be crazy to try another carrier.  However, things do happen–which is why we should all be using delivery confirmation domestically, at least.  If you prepare your packages at home and buy your postage online, one of the best ways to give your buyers a little confidence in you is use the SCAN form available with PayPal Multiorder Shipping.

The SCAN form is sheet that provides one bar code for your postal carrier or counter person to scan, showing that your delivery has been accepted by the post office. It’s pretty simple to print one off in PayPal Multiorder Shipping.

1. Log into PayPal
2. Click the multiorder shipping link in the link list on the left side of the screen.
3. Select the customers you’d like to ship to and choose what type of shipping you’d like as well as how heavy the package is. As you highlight each, don’t forget to check that the address list on the right side of the screen against the addresses you were provided in Etsy. Believe me, although this isn’t directly related to the SCAN form, it is important.
4. Click the Print link at the upper left hand corner.
5. Check that all the packages you want to print are listed.  Then, at the upper middle, make sure you choose the day you plan to put these in the mail–it defaults to today’s date, even if it’s well past shipping hours. Postal carriers can refuse a package if the postage isn’t dated correctly.
6. Click Pay & Print.
7. Click the Print SCAN Form button when the print dialogue box pops up.  It’s right next to the Print Label button.
8. Then, print the labels as usual.

A few tips:  these are only available on PayPal with the multi-order shipping tool.  Also, although your mail carrier will have the correct scanner, if you drop them off at the post office counter, the counter person should use a hand scanner, not the normal scanner they use for everything else.  Although these have been around for a few years, this fall I was the first person at my post office to bring in a SCAN form, so you might have to help educate them on how to do  it.  Remember, be nice!

You can use these handy little forms for shipments of 1-50 packages per form.  And, they really work.  Now none of my buyers sit around wondering if I really put their package in the mail or not, and I’d much rather have them cursing the post office than me.