The following comes courtesy of the Postal Service’s COVID-19 Continuity of Operations Updates. The USPS has adjusted many of its Business Mail Acceptance procedures due to COVID-19. The following lists some key items for business mailers:
Transition from CAPS payment accounts to EPS:
In consideration of impacts related to COVID-19, the Postal Service has established the migration dates as follows:
- CAPS Accounts Inactive past 15 months – Closed April 2020
- CAPS Trust with a BCG Account – May 1, 2020
- The Postal Service will create the account on behalf of the customer and customers will be notified with instructions on how to access their new account
- CAPS Debit Account – Moved from May 1, 2020 to August 2020
- CAPS Trust Account without a Business Customer Gateway (BCG) Account – Moved from May 1, 2020 to August 2020
Seamless Parallel Update:
There are no plans to delay the implementation of Seamless Parallel for all CRIDs. The current timeline is to transition customers to Seamless Parallel by June 2020. Seamless Parallel is an interim step to Seamless and allows customers to evaluate their mail quality for automated verifications through the mailer scorecard and determine readiness for Seamless Acceptance. Moving to Seamless Parallel does not require action on the part of customers. Mail quality data is already available on the Seamless tab of the Mailer Scorecard, however, customers will have access to supplementary quality metrics from the results of additional sampling of customer mailings, a byproduct of being in Seamless Parallel.
Refund processes for Retail, PC Postage and eVS Customers:
Customers are entitled to a full refund of shipping costs when service to the country of destination is suspended. Follow the refund process outlined below based on the type of payment utilized for shipment:
- Retail: Customer may request a refund on USPS.com: https://www.usps.com/help/claims.htm
- PC Postage and other online label platforms (i.e. Shippo): PC Postage customers should request a refund directly through their provider.
- eVS customers, may submit a manual refund via the Business Customer Gateway (BCG). Customers who request a manual refund in the BCG must submit a regular refund request and not the unused labels refund request.
For additional details on obtaining refunds for Retail Postage, eVS, PC Postage, and BMEU entered mail, please go to: https://postalpro.usps.com/international-refunds.