I have a return at Athleta which allows 45 days but I think I’m about 3 weeks in. I’ll have to see what the charge is to return by mail and whether it’s worth it to go that route. On the other hand, I’m in the Bay Area where we’re sheltering in place so not that excited about going to the post office. It’s just one item that was on sale so maybe I should just keep it and pass it along to a friend. Not much of a problem in the scheme of things for sure.
@college all returns to Athleta are free online always. You go into your account and print off a return label. They are very easy to work with.
Coming on her to say that Nordstrom is discounting almost everything 25%. I looked this morning and it’s even cosmetics.
Many stores are offering free shipping with low minimums. Ulta has daily beauty specials 50% off. I bought a pricy cream that I had a sample I liked for half off, free shipping.
@collage1 - if you print your own label and package it up you should be able to drop it in a drop box somewhere if it’s small enough. You can go online and find maps of where UPS, USPS, and FedEx have drop boxes. They are not only at the shops/post offices.
If it’s a larger package and you send it USPS, some post offices have really large drop boxes inside for large boxes that you label and put postage on yourself. Our main post office has one and it’s open late too. (they also have a scale and all the stuff to do the postage yourself - no going to the counter needed).
It’s worth a try because I had to drop something off at UPS in mid January and the line was out the door! So many people shop online that everything is busy, and it’s probably worse now.
I’m not 100% sure how he does it, but H has an eBay business in retirement and the last couple of days he has arranged (somewhere online) for our mailman to pick up his packages from our home. He fills out some form and he gets email notification that it has been received. Then he either leaves the packages on the front step or puts a note on the door to knock. He was doing it because he had a medical procedure that kept him from driving to the post office for a couple of days.
I imagine that could be overwhelming if everyone did it and maybe it’s different in a real urban setting but we don’t feel bad about using this perk because our mail person parks his truck right outside our house daily anyway to do his route.
Thank you so much! I just assumed there was a charge with Athleta. I am driving to an outdoor area to take a walk today and will drop it off in the box at the PO on the way home. One of the many reasons I love CC!
@abasket - you just “request a pickup” on the USPS site. I’ve never done it but you can print labels for shipping on the site and it’s cheaper than going to the post office. When I mail things Priority Mail I do that, and I have a small pile of Priority mail boxes and envelopes at home that are ready to go. Then I just drop them off but I can see how “request a pickup” would be really useful, especially now. Your regular mail carrier picks them up.
Another good thing is that you can choose to have notifications about that tracked package, by text or email, to yourself and/or the person it’s going to.
I packed a small priority mail box, printed a label, and left it for the mail person at our mailbox. She took it, no problem. She parks across the street and we are the last house before she moves the truck. The USPS site gives an option of normal mail delivery time if you want to actually schedule a pickup. But somewhere I’m pretty sure it also says you can hand it to your postal deliverer. We’ve done this before with no problem.
@collage1 You just reminded me I also have a return to go back to Athleta. I just printed my UPS return label, taped the bag up, and will drive it to a drop box around the corner. I guess that will be my outing for the day
That said, I just received an email from them that they are closing their stores beginning tomorrow. I have no idea what that means for their return hubs, but I will keep my tracking information in the event I don’t receive a credit in a timely manner.
For those who have requested a pickup by USPS: Can you do the same for Media Mail? Or is it only Priority Mail? I’d love to send a package of children’s books to family members stuck at home, but don’t want to go to my local post office. I’d have to over-estimate the weight as measured on my bathroom scale as well. Priority mail would be far too expensive for books.
@kjofkw - research shows that Media Mail has to be taken to a post office. “ USPS.com does not provide an option for “Click 'n Ship” postage labels to be created online, you’ll need to mail it from the post office.”
I don’t think you can do media mail with “click and ship” online services. Go to USPS.com and look around. I clicked on “mail and ship” and then “calculate a price”, put in some parameters, and on the page of options it said media mail wasn’t available for click and ship, which is online label you print yourself. But you should try, maybe I messed up.
For those of you that bought Cheesecake Factory gift cards during Christmas time and received “free slices of joy” vouchers that were set to expire end of March. They have extended the deadline to use them till 6/30/20.
Bumping up - businesses need our business. If you spy a good website deal, significantly good prices on winter clearance, whatever, please post it here!
Just had to say that I found some toilet paper at Walmart last night! Woo hoo! It’s the little things. We are limited to 1 pack, so I got one and had older S get another to ship to a friend who is getting desperate.
