USPS & prepaid shipping labels??

[Dhiana]

I'm sending a small piece of art to a gallery in NY and they would like a prepaid shipping label as is the norm.

Unfortunately when I went to my USPS they refused to give me one because, "It wouldn't have the right date."???

I've tried to look up the rules & regs regarding these prepaid labels but the USPS site keeps sending me to a place I need
to create an account.
Does anyone have experience with setting this up? Is it quick and easy, like ordering a book on Amazon?
or is it a longer process.

The date thing makes no sense because Amazon sent me a prepaid shipping label and had no idea when I would ship my item.
AND it was processed at this same USPS.

Any advice?

[ToomuchStuff]

Amazon has an account and gets billed when sent. Also most Amazon prepaid I am aware of, use UPS, NOT USPS, as rules may be different at United Parcel Service, from the post office.

[Dhiana]

My Amazon prepaid shipping label was most definitely United States Postal Service and it was processed by the same guy who denied me mine.

Having an account seems to go against the idea of "Prepaid?"

So I'm still not sure how to handle this?

[ToomuchStuff]

My Amazon prepaid shipping label was most definitely United States Postal Service and it was processed by the same guy who denied me mine.

Having an account seems to go against the idea of "Prepaid?"

So I'm still not sure how to handle this?

Not quite sure how you think that. Amazon I am sure has a contract with them with an account that pays USPS upon accepting a return package. For the ones not returned, I would expect either a full refund, or more likely a rebate, so there would always be money in the account.
For someone like you and me, that would probably be a credit or debit card on file, for billing purposes.

[Blackdog Lin]

Post Offices are not able to print out the label you can print at home, from an account with USPS.com. The local Post Office can only print an actual piece of postage (the same as a piece of metered postage), and yes, they cannot give those out as the mailing date would be wrong, along with I'm sure other reasons I'm no longer aware of.

It is easy to set up an account with USPS.com. Then you print out your mailing label with the postage - but it's really just potential postage, the postage isn't actually deducted from your account until the piece is actually placed into the mailstream - at which time it is scanned and then the system knows to charge your account for the postage. If that label is never used, your account is never charged. I don't know how refunds would work.

[Dhiana]

Thanks for the update. I think my friends realized they misread it as UPS and that is where I started to have confusion on my end.
In the end I called the gallery and spoke to them about sending a check to cover the postage for the return of the piece.

Time for me to set up a USPS.com account before I need to send out another piece :)
Thank you!