Discussion Forums - Questions about SwapaCD

Anyone else having trouble with printable postage?

The last time I did it was Tues, 4/20, and it worked okay then.  I have a couple to go out that are waiting on Wish List Hold.  So when they come through, I'll have another chance to test it out.

I just remembered about this thread.  I tried to print pre-paid postage several times today and it failed.  It kept complaining about things being wrong that really were not.  My messages to the site have so far gone unanswered.  My trading here has stopped until they get this fixed.

Hmm, I've got a couple that will need to go out soon, so I hope someone gets the message. Mark, did you send something to tech support?

I contacted the admins. They deducted the cost of the postage from my account and told me I could go back in and reprint the label, which I was able to do, even though I never successfully printed it in the first place.

Seems to be there is a glitch they need to figure out.

Last night, I received a message from the site.  Here is part of what they said:

"This is a known glitch that occurs when the member's money balance barely covers the postage needed. If deducting the postage leaves you with less than $1 in SwapaCD Money, you are going to get that error message. [...] We do not have a timeframe as to when that glitch will be fixed."

I had $3.60 left in my account, and I wanted to print postage that would cost $3.44, and it failed.  So, you have to keep a minimum of $1.00 more than you need in your account or else printing postage will fail.

Their explanation about keeping $1 in your account doesn't match my experience...unless this is a new rule or update to their system. It's possible this is unique to SwapaCD, but I've printed postage in the past that took my balance down to $0.00 and did not have a problem. At least, that is my recollection. I use Printable Postage much more frequently over at SwapaDVD. I almost NEVER keep money in my account over there. When a request for a DVD comes in, I add money to my account for exactly the cost of postage plus the fee. Then I print my label and my balance returns to $0.00. I have done this MANY MANY times and have never run into any errors or an inability to print my label until this week. If it works at SwapaDVD, why doesn't it work here? Presumably, the sister sites use a similar IT infrastructure, back end, etc.

The odd thing is that the two errors that were reported were not true at all.  And it said nothing about account balance.  So apparently there is more than one thing broken.

And it seems I've found another broken thing!

I'm trying to print postage but again keep getting returned to the Customize Your SwapaCD Wrapper page with the message " We are sorry, but the information you entered has been rejected by our system. Please double-check the CD weight and ensure that you have sufficient SwapaCD money."

I have a total of $4.93 in SwapaCD money in my account. I'm trying to print postage for $2.89 + $0.55 fee, which totals $3.44.

$4.93 in available money less $3.44 = $1.49 remaining in my account after I pay for the postage and fee. This is CLEARLY above the $1 required, which is what they told Daniel (see above).

However, it's not working and won't let me print postage. I'm hesitent to add more money to my SwapaCD account. And by the way, I NEVER have this problem at SwapaDVD. There, I can add $3.44 to my account, print postage and fee totalling $3.44, which takes my balance to ZERO and have no issues. Here, a completely different story.

Oh, I tried this in both Firefox and Microsoft Edge browsers with the same result.

Has anyone else experienced printable postage not working today?

I used it twice yesterday (the day you posted) and now I'm left with $1.30 in my account.  Clearly, you are cursed by the system.  ;o)

Tried it again several times last night and again this morning. STILL didn't work. I'm mailing 5 requested CDs plus a few freebies. The system suggested 5.3 ounces, but I changed to 13 ounces (the actual weight with envelope, materials, etc). This is still under 1 pound so the Media Mail rate would not be any different from SwapaCDs suggested weight of 5.3 ounces.  I've done this dozens of times before...

I finally got it to work by accepting SwapaCDs suggested weight of 5.3 ounces and not changing that amount. When the label printed, at the top it says "1 lb Media Mail Rate."  So I guess I found a NEW glitch where you can't change the suggested weight or printable postage won't work...

I printed postage today, and last Friday and was able to print postage.

The only issue I've recently noticed is minor.  

I use a non-mainstream browser and print wrappers using my smart phone.

Recently when .pdfs generate they have a semi-colon appended fo the file name and need to be renamed from .pdf; to .pdf

Sort of a minor inconvenience.  I attribute that to a possible browser security quirk enhancement to ensure .pdf extensions are actually downloaded instead of opened.

Have been able to modify weights, etc.  I use the instacredit option.