I went to the post office today and purchased some stamps for a book I was mailing. At home I had printed off the PaperBackSwap mailing label with Delivery Confirmation bar code (postage NOT printed) and added enough stamps to cover the postage due (media mail $2.23 + DC $0.18).

The postal worker question: "How could a postal carrier confirm that the fee for the delivery confirmation was paid to USPS? There is nothing printed on the mailing label to show that it was paid. The stamps only can cover the Media Mail postage rate for your package."  He then cancelled the stamps, added a PVI label for $0.00 (the post office label to show that a postal worker had verified it), and suggested I contact PaperBackSwap about this issue.

He makes a good point. I'm sure that PaperBackSwap has this covered, and that the USPS, in fact, got paid, but I'd like an answer that satisfies the next postal worker who asks me this.

Should PaperBackSwap print of the label that DC fee was paid via <insert appropriate verbage here>?

You CAN'T print online delivery confirmation without paying at least a portion of it up front. The very fact that the DC label is on the package is proof that it was paid for. If your postal worker isn't aware of this, he needs to talk to his supervisor/local postmaster about it.

When you have an e/DC number on your package, the value of the stamps should equal the Media Mail postage rate plus 18 cents. PBS doesn't pay the USPS anything for the Delivery Confirmation. This why both the postage amount and the 18 cents are printed in the upper right corner of the label with a total underneath.

If the clerk told you that "The stamps only can cover the Media Mail postage rate for your package." he is incorrect. If you see him again and he continues to insist on this, ask him to speak to his postmaster about it. If that doesn't work, call 1-800-ASK-USPS and explain the problem to them. This guy needs to be retrained and they can help.

When you use printable postage, the 18 cents and the postage amount are both paid from your PBS Money account. I'm not sure if PBS pays Endicia and they pay USPS, or if PBS pays USPS directly. But anyway, there is a license number on the printed label and USPS can verify that they got the correct amount from that licensed vendor.

I'm not sure if PBS pays Endicia

Yes.  From the Help Center Printable Postage FAQs:

How much does it cost?

• The Printable Postage fee is 43 cents.
  • PBS gets 27 cents of this
  • Endicia, our printable postage provider, gets 16 cents.  (my bold)
• The fee to USPS is 18 cents (for the electronic DC). 
  • Delivery Confirmation is required by USPS for all printable postage, so the option to print postage without DC is not available.

****

Keep in mind that PBS-DC and Printable Postage are not the same thing.  For just DC you are only charged the 27cent PBS fee from your PBS Money, the USPS get their 18cents in postage.  There is no Endicia fee, or direct USPS fee, when using only PBS-DC.

From the Help Center about PBS DC fees:   What is PBS Delivery Confirmation?   Following is a clip....

Ok, formatting started to mess up on me before I was done.  My question, I guess, would be:  What fee does the USPS worker think they should be paid?  They get the fee for their service on the package, 18 cents.  I don't pretend to know more about this than my own personal experience and that which the Help Center tells me.  However, based on that, the Endicia/USPS fee only seems to apply when you actually print postage, not just eDC.

I finally had a postal worker give me a hard time about the PBS DC the other day.  He said that if I"m not using the printed postage than I should get a discount on the DC. That the DC should be full price through the PO.  I had never had a problem before. WHen he scanned the PBS DC it kept telling him it was an invalid # which only supported his position and not mine. 

LOL Beth, I know PBS pays Endicia for the service they provide. I meant I wasn't sure how the postage and eDC portion of the fee got to USPS -- whether that goes through Endicia or whether PBS pays it directly.

Anyway, I think it's a moot point because John was specifically asking about the DC Only option for wrappers, not the Printable Postage plus DC option. I should not have brought up printable postage and confused the issue.

He makes a good point. I'm sure that PaperBackSwap has this covered, and that the USPS, in fact, got paid, but I'd like an answer that satisfies the next postal worker who asks me this. - He doesn't make a good point because he is just wrong. Postal workers knows USPS got paid because the postage is on the book, it covers the MM rate + eDC just like it should. That is all the USPS gets paid for electronic DC, there is no fee so there is nothing for PBS or Endicia to send to the on eDC only labels.

No fee was paid for the electronic delivery confirmation if you print the label without postage. If you use your paper and ink to print the confirmation, you get a discount when you mail it. On priority mail the electronic delivery confirmation is free and on all other classes the fee is 18 cents. You pay the 18 cents whenever you pay the postage. If your post office has the POS computer system, it will scan the correct price.

The money paid to Endicia (or any other company that does printable postage) and PBS is a service fee. If you pay the postage when you print the label, the postage money goes to the post office and the service fee stays with the company doing the service.

For the label that did NOT scan, it could be several different things. Is the label printed clear? If the ink is runs, is too light or has lines through it, it might not scan. Is the label flat and not covered in tape? I see some labels around edges or around a tube that the scanner cannot read the entire thing. Others come in with wrinkles that cannot be scanned. Tape often reflects the scanner light and will not read. Ask the clerk to type the human readable number under the bar code. (Not the best solution but it should work. The poor carrier out in the weather or sitting on a busy street will not like that!)

Thanks to all who responded to my question. After reading your responses, here is what I think answers the original question.

The post office is paid $0.18, by the mailer, via stamps for Delivery Confirmation. Likewise, the post office is paid $2.23, by me, via stamps for package delivery.

The postage stamps thus cover both package delivery AND Delivery Confirmation. The postal carrier is assured that the fee was paid by the extra postage (i.e., the extra  $0.18) above the normal media mail rate. Presumably his/her training indicates that the pre-printed DC bar codes requires $0.18 above the Media Mail rate required by the weight of the package.

When the DC bar code is printed, no payment to the post office is made. Payment is made via stamps added by the mailer.

The additional fee ($0.27) charged by PaperBackSwap at time of label printing goes to PaperBackSwap to pay for their expenses of running the web site and no portion of that $0.27 goes to USPS. (Presumably a small fee goes to Endicia who provides the bar code printing service.)

The discount cost for DC is given to mailer by USPS because no post office worker need add a DC sticker (a labor and material savings to the post office).

John, you got it.

Postal workers who work at the counter should have had this training but they also have had tons of other training and rules to remember. If the person is new to the job or the electronic delivery confirmation is new to them, it might take a few minutes to get it right.

There are some transactions that I do once or twice a year. I have to stop and think to get those ones right and make sure the rules have not changed since the last time I had to do it. Other things I do daily and it is much easier to keep everything straight. As printed postage becomes more common (and it has in the last year or so around me), most of these issues should disappear.

I have a regular endicia account for business purposes. Endicia charges .18 for DC, PBS charges .27 cents, .18 of which pays for the DC, and .09 goes to PBS. they should not be charging you at the post office for the DC over again. From the Endicia site:

Carole

Carole -- That information about Endicia is not applicable if you choose the "DC only" wrapper option here. You do have to pay the 18 cents to the USPS when you use this option. Here's a quote straight from the Help Center:

• When you print your wrapper with PBS Delivery Confirmation (PBS-DC), a DC barcode is generated that prints out on the wrapper.
  • postage (plus 18 cents for the USPS fee to scan the barcode) must still be applied to the wrapper for Mailing