Pirate Ship can only charge you once when you purchase a label
You Only Get Charged Once for a Label: Sometimes you may run into situations where it looks like you have been double-charged for a label... but rest assured Captain, you haven't! Pirate Ship never charges you more than once per label purchase.
More often than not, there ARRrrr rational explanations for what appear to be double charges in your Pirate Ship account 😊
"Get Rates" is Only Shown for Labels You Haven't Purchased: If you see the "Get Rates" button, it means the label you're viewing hasn't been purchased...and therefore, you haven't been charged for it 😉
If you're confident you've purchased the label already, head to your Ship page to find the purchased label.
There are a few situations where it may seem like you have been charged twice for a label, even though you haven't been
Here are some common explanations for what appear to be double charges on your account, including accidentally duplicating labels, carrier adjustments, and more:
A label was accidentally duplicated
Accidental Label Duplicates: More often than not, you'll see what appears to be a double charge in your account when you duplicate a label and accidentally buy it twice.
You can see if you duplicated a label by going to your Ship page and looking for labels with the same recipient as another that you already printed. In this case, you can submit a refund request for the label you didn't print 👍
Here's an example of how that looks, with the duplicate label highlighted:
You purchased multiple labels that cost the same
Multiple Labels at the Same Cost: Buying multiple labels at the same cost is one of the most common situations that make it appear like you've been charged twice.
This can happen sometimes when purchasing flat-rate services that cost the same no matter where you're shipping, or when you're sending batches of the same box to multiple recipients 😅
You tried making a purchase that didn't go through
Purchases That Don't Go Through: Failed purchases for labels display an "Error" message on your Ship page, but you may still see a pending authorization charge in your bank account. When a label purchase doesn't go through, that pending charge with fall off your statement within 24 hours.
Your label incurred a carrier adjustment after you shipped
Carrier Adjustments from UPS or USPS: A final situation where it might seem like you were charged twice is when your label incurred a carrier adjustment after you shipped your package.
UPS and USPS apply carrier adjustments to your Pirate Ship account when they determine that the size or weight of your shipment was different from what you entered 🙈 Carrier adjustments appear as charges on your shipment page, which can make it seem like an additional charge to your postage cost.
Learn more about carrier adjustments.
View your Transaction History to see and understand all your charges
Navigating Your Transaction History: The best way to keep track of all the charges and labels you have purchased on your account is to view your Transaction History on your Reports page.
Along with displaying every label you've purchased, your Transaction History can be sorted by the "Type" of charge (i.e. label, carrier adjustment, refunds, etc) to make it easier to find what you're looking for 👌
Here's where to search by different types of charges in your Transaction History:
Learn more about navigating your Transaction History to understand your charges.