How long does a buyer have to print a return label sent to them?

[FamilyCeramicBisque]

I had a frequent buyer want to return an item and buy a bigger version of the item.  She is an older lady who bought from me several times.  We decided it would be a nice thing to pay for the return shipping even though there was not anything wrong with the item.

A few days later two boxes arrived from the lady and one box was labeled duplicate label and had $13.82 postage due one it!  She must have decided while she was at it she would return another item too!  Either she printed two copies of the label or went in again and printed it again.

We contacted the post office and they said the letter carrier should not have delivered the second package without collecting the postage due, but since the letter carrier did not, we would not have to pay.

My question is could she print that label again?  What if she printed out more copies and decide to use them at a later date?  Just thinking out loud, she could have stuck my label on one of her other purchases from another seller and the return item would have come to me.  Every once in a while I have a buyer think Etsy is one big seller and starts talking about an item that I did not sell.

I contacted the lady and she said she would pay the postage due, but since the post office said to forget about it, no harm to me was done.

[PillowDetails]

Oh, yes, that could happen.  Anyone can re-print the download page, nothing prevents you from doing that.  I imagine others have tried this.  One would think future attempts would be stalled at the first scan - but USPS recycles tracking numbers, I've seen this myself, so maybe it's not that easy to catch?

[ThePurplePuppy]

@PillowDetails 

I can see why we might be allowed to reprint a label. MY printer decided to run out of ink--well, at least to the point--where the barcode did not quite fully print so I had to reprint so I sure would not want to be "limited" in only printing once.

[FamilyCeramicBisque]

so, a month later it could be printed again?

[CryzalisDesigns]

A label can only be scanned once here which activates the label, surely this would be the same around the world?

[CraftyCornishMaids]

 a label can be printed as many times as you want,

you can download it,
and then print it a million times to infinity

I have accidently put the wrong label on the wrong package before, and had to reprint it.....
and tried to be clever and save paper, and accidently put the paper back  in the wrong way, and overwrite one label with another, so had to print them both out again

HOWEVER, there is a date on our labels on how long it can be used for, it depends where you get the label from
Etsy's last for a week, Amazons last 2 days, click and drop last a week..... our post office don't accept them after that .... the scan fails
and once scanned, our post office won't accept the second, as the scan will show it's already been used

[mommawhazelsquilts]

Am I missing something?  Re-printing does not re-charge - at least the ones I have had to reprint haven't cost me anything.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@mommawhazelsquilts 

they were charged, because the buyer printed the label off twice, and used the same label for 2 different packages

somehow it got past the scan check at the post office

[mommawhazelsquilts]

I guess I missed the part about two separate packages...lol

Going to get that second cup right now!

[PillowDetails]

Return labels on Etsy don't have a date on them, which is a convenient thing for our customers, I think.  I guess we only have them in the US?  But yes, the track # is unique, and you'd think it would be refused at the first scan - BUT, as I stated, USPS recycles track #s (I've seen it after 4-5 months) - so not sure how they do that!