Not sure how this works
Shipped the same item all 3 Origin in NYC area
One went to SUMAS, WA cost $5.98 distance 3003 mi Zone 8
One went to FRUITA, CO cost $5.98 distance 2073 mi Zone 8
One went to LYLES, TN cost $7.69 distance 974 mi Zone 5 WTF?
Double checked the weight and dimensions all 3 were the same 2.4 OZ 6x10x1 padded envelope
If the last address is considered rural or difficult to serve, it might have been charged as a 15oz package as per the new USPS rates.
I think.
FFS
The Fi Fie Fo Fum fee
Copy of my response on the NSFE for all the questions I am seeing there –
REMOTE LOCATION CHARGES.
In addition to the ‘normal’ charges by ZONE, the USPS woke up one morning and decided that they can charge more for remote locations.
For AK, HI, PR , GU, and other territories, EVERYTHING that is 1 ounce is rounded up to 15.9 ounces and charged more.
In addition, there is no way to protect ourselves from the undisclosed list of ‘REMOTE’ locations that cost extra. I had one 4 ounce package that would have cost about $5.80 if it was in Seattle WA but it was in some smaller, more remote area (still about 10,000 people). It was priced out at 15.9 ounces and charged at OVER $8.00.
And, of course, we can not expect to see any help or guidance from Amazon… 
FWIW
Last week Veeqo instituted the rural surcharge. They had not been charging it before.
@HobbesIsMyTiger got it right. This rural pricing was part of the July 12, 2026 USPS price updates.
Zone 5 rural is $7.69 (GA less than 15.99) no matter what the weight is … anything 1oz up to 15.99oz would be charged the $7.69.
To protect ourself from the hidden “rural” addresses, we raised our price $1.00 across the board. We will make a little extra on the non-rural addresses to offset the rural addresses (and HI, AL, PR, etc.).
Veeqo has been weird. It doesn’t give me all the options that Amazon gives me. I often can’t ship via USPS on Veeqo, but I can ship via USPS on Amazon. (USPS is active on Veeqo; I just don’t always get that option.) I’ve sometimes seen high USPS rates on Veeqo that are not as high on Amazon. Veeqo does not always have the lowest prices.
Not related to your continental shipments however, we were burned last week by an HI shipment.
Amazon is so ■■■■■■■ Stupid.
The USPS is not far behind.
I remember when we first started on Amazon, we sent a custom artwork item to an HI location, they were so happy with us doing that with free shipping, they sent coffee from their farm. We reciprocated sending Christmas Wreaths from New England. Likely not allowed however, they were honored as were we.
I had free shipping to those areas until recently.
I just removed them from the ‘Economy’ section a few days ago after I got hit with several orders from HI. I suspect a friend told a friend who told another friend, etc. and it cost me a few bucks to learn the lesson!
The ‘remote’ ones lurking out there are the bigger problem because there is no way (currently) to know where they are. Even IF we knew, there is no surcharge capability available on any of the sites that I am selling on as far as I can see.
We would like to do a test with USPS.
If you all could take a minute and look up the price a 3oz 8"x6"x1" package going from your location to each of the following:
John Smith
PO Box 670
Anton, Tx 79313-0670
John Smith
302 Edwards
Anton, Tx 79313-1413
Both the PO Box and house address are empty (property going up on market) so no one is being harmed in this test.
The town and addresses should qualify as rural to many of you.
Reply with what Zone it is to you and the USPS price you would be charged for the PO Box and the address.
This should be interesting to see.
Ground Advantage Pirate Ship Zone 7 Street address or PO Box $8.07
Ground Advantage USPS Business account Zone 7 Street address or PO Box $5.67
Zone 7, $8.07 for both on Pirate Ship.
Are you able to check PayPal shipping?
We have seen this also with our USPS Business account. Have you connected your account up to Amazon Buy Shipping? If so, we would like to explore the process step by step in doing so. We have our USPS Business account but are not sure we have all of our ducks lined up to be able to connect it to Amazon Buy Shipping.
The $5.67 USPS business account price is $0.05 cheaper than a Zone 7 Amazon Buy Shipping price of $5.72. In fact, we see that $0.05 savings on all zones when comparing USPS Business account to Amazon Buy Shipping.
Can we connect USPS to Veeqo? If so, would it give us the Veeqo discount in addition to the USPS rate? I know; I’m dreaming.
I have not. I ship in the neighborhood of 100 orders/month these days so the savings being only $5/month might not be worth taking on another account to reconcile. Now if I had a lot of rural addresses, that would be another issue. Since the rate increase, I’ve only seen one label charged a rural rate.
It might work better for me to raise my prices slightly( I have parity across all venues). If I use the USPS account across all venues, I would have to connect them and I don’t know if that is possible and it might be time consuming to do them manually.
Still thinking about it but if Amazon does a further increase, I’ll be reconsidering.
I had 2 today.
Wabasha, MN 55981-1325
$7.46 USPS Ground Advantage
10x8x2 5 oz
Non-rural $5.97
Bean Station, Tennessee 37708
$7.46 USPS Ground Advantage
9x9x3 3oz
non-rural $5.62
John Smith
302 Edwards
Anton, Tx 79313-1413
From 53066 $7.69 for both on Stamps/Dazzle/Endicia
