Confused about USPS Package Pickup on Christmas Eve?

Some sellers are confused about USPS package pickup on Christmas Eve. With Christmas falling on a Saturday, Post Offices are open on Friday, December 24th. But some will have reduced hours – and some others will have extended hours.

In eBay’s recent weekly chat session, a seller described how difficult it was to find out if their mail carrier would be picking up packages on Friday, and the seller asked what eBay’s policy would be if there was not.

A moderator pointed to another thread where someone from eBay’s shipping team wrote the following: “We are aware that some post offices and areas will have reduced hours or pick up on December 24th. For sellers impacted by shorter hours, you will be protected for late shipment as long as the package receives an acceptance scan by end of day Monday, December 27.”

But what about USPS blue collection boxes? The regional press office of the USPS sent a press release on Sunday in which it said blue collection boxes with final collection times before noon would not be affected by an early closing December 24.

“If a box has a final collection time after noon, its mail may be picked up earlier. For mail pickup on Dec. 24, customers are asked to either put their mail into blue collection boxes by noon regardless of the final collection times posted on the box, or take their items to one of our more than 34,000 Post Office locations.

“Customers who are unable to mail items before the scheduled collection box pickup times on Dec. 24 should visit the online Postal Locator tool at tools.usps.com to find Post Office locations that may be open late.

“As a reminder, blue collection boxes are not serviced on Sundays.”

The concerns from sellers demonstrate that while proprietors of brick-and-mortar retail stores can simply put a “closed” sign on their front doors, online sellers must be responsive 7 days a week, even hours before a major holiday.

Ina Steiner

Ina Steiner is co-founder and Editor of EcommerceBytes and has been reporting on ecommerce since 1999. She's a widely cited authority on marketplace selling and is author of "Turn eBay Data Into Dollars" (McGraw-Hill 2006). Her blog was featured in the book, "Blogging Heroes" (Wiley 2008). She is a member of the Online News Association (Sep 2005 - present) and Investigative Reporters and Editors (Mar 2006 - present). Follow her on Twitter at @ecommercebytes and send news tips to ina@ecommercebytes.com. See disclosure at EcommerceBytes.com/disclosure/.