Can the Recipient Pay for Shipping?
In most situations, it is the sender of a parcel who is responsible for paying the shipping costs. Can you ship something and have the recipient pay for it? There are several ways to have the addressee pay the shipping expenses, but all of them are “indirect”, so to say.
Most postal and courier companies require that shipping expenses be paid upfront, so it is the sender who ends up paying for shipping. One of the ways to have the recipient pay for shipping is to use the service called “Cash on Delivery” or “Collect on Delivery”, depending on the carrier. This service allows to collect money for merchandise, postage, fees etc. from the recipient and have it paid to the sender.
However, the service is a little more complicated than it might seem. With COD, the sender does have to pay postage and fees when they mail the package. Once the mail carrier / delivery driver delivers the package and collects money from the recipient, postage and fees are reimbursed to the sender. The sender still has to pay the shipping costs upfront; they simply get their money back at a later date. Another downside of COD is that the service is unavailable for international shipments.
A much easier option is to have the recipient create a shipping label online and email it to the sender. This way, the recipient pays the shipping costs upfront while generating the label, and all that’s left for the sender to do is print the label, affix it to the package, and have the package mailed. This works for both domestic and international shipping labels.
Let’s figure out how the addressee can pay for shipping and email the shipping label to the sender using PostageMaker. PostageMaker is a shipping label printing service that allows to print USPS and UPS shipping labels, both domestic and international, at discounted rates (up to 50% off). With PostageMaker, you can generate and pay for shipping labels whenever and wherever you want, as long as you have a computer, tablet, or smartphone with Internet access.
The process of creating a shipping label with PostageMaker is pretty straightforward. First, you need to sign up in order to create a personal account in the system; don’t worry, the process won’t take much of your time. Once you’ve logged in to your account, you need to add funds that will be used to pay for shipping labels. We accept different payment methods: credit and debit cards, PayPal, and even cryptocurrency.
So, you have added funds to your account, now you can finally generate a shipping label. Click on Create Label in the menu, fill out an online form, and choose one of the shipping options available to you. If you’re the recipient creating a shipping label for the sender, reach out to them before filling out the form and ask about the package dimensions and weight because they affect the shipping cost. If it is an international package, you will also need a full list of items in the package (including their quantity, price and weight) for the customs declaration. It is important to make sure you haven’t accidentally typed your address in the “Sender’s address” section of the form.
The payment for shipping will be charged to your PostageMaker account when you generate the label. While it is possible to void an erroneous label, there is a cancellation fee, so double-check everything before creating your shipping label. Once the label is generated, all that’s left for you to do is save it as PDF and email the file to the sender. It’s the easiest way to have the recipient pay for shipping, both for the sender and the recipient, as long as you are willing to work together and have good communication.