Latest Royal Mail money making scam

[leigull]

What was the £8 royal mail fee for? Sounds like you've been done.

Taken from their website on the Customs bit:

"If you are receiving a package from overseas (unless it’s from another EU Country), please be aware that it may incur customs charges. Any package assessed as being liable for customs charges will also incur a Royal Mail handling fee of £8."

£8 worth of handling...

 

[Brian Fantana]

What was the £8 royal mail fee for? Sounds like you've been done.

Taken from their website on the Customs bit:

"If you are receiving a package from overseas (unless it’s from another EU Country), please be aware that it may incur customs charges. Any package assessed as being liable for customs charges will also incur a Royal Mail handling fee of £8."

£8 worth of handling...

To broadly summarise the breakdown of the fee:

The £8 is the customs clearance fee that RM are charging you for acting as your customs agent.

It is for partly for presenting your package to customs. RM have to provide the invoice details to customs. They have to provide the package for inspection. (This may mean unpacking a container with thousands of packages and then repackaging the container for onward delivery). RM may have to open the package for presentation to customs. If they do, then RM have to repack your goods.

You'd struggle to employ your own customs agent for cheaper than £8.

 

[leigull]

To broadly summarise the breakdown of the fee:

The £8 is the customs clearance fee that RM are charging you for acting as your customs agent.

It is for partly for presenting your package to customs. RM have to provide the invoice details to customs. They have to provide the package for inspection. (This may mean unpacking a container with thousands of packages and then repackaging the container for onward delivery). RM may have to open the package for presentation to customs. If they do, then RM have to repack your goods.

You'd struggle to employ your own customs agent for cheaper than £8.

Thank you and fair do's. I wasn't too bothered about the amount in the end, just came as a bit of a surprise as I've had never had it before on anything so bit annoyed my £30 order, suddenly became £45. I know now for future!

 

[spongy]

I can top that.

Last October I had a note through the door saying something couldn't be delivered so I went to the P.O to get it.

It was a birthday card. With a first class stamp on. I asked why I had a fee to pay and it was because the stamp was in the wrong place so the scanners wouldn't pick it up

It looked like it was as it was in the right hand corner. It was rejected because the card wasn't a normal envelope size.

The bloke on the counter even got a stencil to prove it showing envelope sizes and the "stamp limit spacing boundaries"

What made it worse was the fact I knew who it was from and that it had a £10 note in it

So I only got £8.65 for my birthday!!!

 

[timco]

What was the £8 royal mail fee for? Sounds like you've been done.

It is the fee for collecting the tax on it same if the cost is £500000000000000000.00 or £0.01

 

[desprateseagull]

do you have option t reject it, or just ignore- R/M then return to sender (and charge them for short postage, and admin fee instead!)

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Half the cards in Clinton Cards and elsewhere, the cards with the 'I am 9' or whatever, will fail the Royal Mail cash cow scam because they're not flat. Got an xmas card last year, must have been about four inches square maximum, and had a happy xmas badge stuck on the front. Meant a trip to the sorting office and the obligatory 'processing fee'. Are we seriously supposed to make a trip to the living hell that is a post office queue every time we want to send any kind of unusually shaped card or similar? Life's too short. Reckon they don't actuially want joe public sending private mail at all, they'd be just as happy delivering government brown envelopes and Virgin Media junk mail.

 

[Arkwright]

In the days before the Royal Mail Group I work for became a business you had plenty of helpful staff across the thousand of Post Offices around the country who would've ensured you had the correct postage on the item you were posting.

That's progress for you...

Most Post Office staff are helpful but I would say that.

The problem is that postage pricing is not customer friendly with "Pricing in Proportion" which has caused mass confusion with weight and size to be taken into consideration. If you have to pay extra it isn't a fault of Royal Mail or the Post Office but the sender for not putting on the correct postage.

If in doubt when posting an item don't just put on a stamp but take it to the Post Office and get it handled by a someone in the know. A friend put 1st class stamps on 100 wedding invitations when they should have been 1st Large stamps all guest had to pay an extra £1.30 (£0-30p difference in postage and £1.00 handling fee) to receive the invites to the big day.

 

[spongy]

they should have been 1st Large stamps.

What on earth is a large first class stamp? That's a new one to me. Saying that most of my stuff is done by email now and haven't actually sent a letter in a long time...

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

What on earth is a large first class stamp? That's a new one to me. Saying that most of my stuff is done by email now and haven't actually sent a letter in a long time...

Its a 1st class stamp for a larger than average letter.

 

[drew]

We received loads of cards in small envelopes and never paid a fee. Surely all you need to do is go to the sorting office, ask for them to show you how it was underpaid and when they show you the item, decide if it is worth the fee! If not, walk away.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

If in doubt when posting an item don't just put on a stamp but take it to the Post Office and get it handled by a someone in the know.

After shuffling along in a queue of Former Eastern Bloc proportions? Don't think so.

 

[The Modfather]

I never get anything of an interest through the post, so would just leave it with the Post Office to eventually return to the sender.

 

[BensGrandad]

My wife takes all letters that are not standard size to the PO and uses the self scan facility to weigh them.

 

[Arkwright]

After shuffling along in a queue of Former Eastern Bloc proportions? Don't think so.

Then don't moan when your post is wrong.

 

[BlockDpete]

Most shop sold cards now say if you need to pay large letter rate to post them. Just look on the back of the card.

Any badge on the card will take it over the 5mm thickness, so that usually makes it a large letter.

 

[Shropshire Seagull]

2nd class parcels are also a scam.
I sold an old set top box on eBay for 99p

Unfortunately, it was just over 2kg, which for normal 2nd class parcels meant a jump from £8 to £13.35.
But Parcel Force 48, for up to 5kg, which also provides tracking and sign-for, is only £12.92
And all for an item of 99p in value

The old boy in the post office told me that Royal Mail want to phase out the 2nd class service ....

I messaged the guy to explain, and rightly he did not want to pay £13 quid, so I chucked it in the bin ....

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

Most Post Office staff are helpful but I would say that.

The problem is that postage pricing is not customer friendly with "Pricing in Proportion" which has caused mass confusion with weight and size to be taken into consideration. If you have to pay extra it isn't a fault of Royal Mail or the Post Office but the sender for not putting on the correct postage.

If in doubt when posting an item don't just put on a stamp but take it to the Post Office and get it handled by a someone in the know. A friend put 1st class stamps on 100 wedding invitations when they should have been 1st Large stamps all guest had to pay an extra £1.30 (£0-30p difference in postage and £1.00 handling fee) to receive the invites to the big day.

I think you have me confused with someone who doesn't work for Royal Mail Group. I'm on your side but I was making the point that in the past there were more Post Office staff and more Post Offices to help the public with queries about odd sized letters. One more thing I'd like to add is that since Royal Mail Group became more business orientated they created things like 'Pricing in Proportion'; which in turn has caused this problem.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

After shuffling along in a queue of Former Eastern Bloc proportions? Don't think so.

Thank unfair regulation and government meddling for that.

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

Half the cards in Clinton Cards and elsewhere, the cards with the 'I am 9' or whatever, will fail the Royal Mail cash cow scam because they're not flat. Got an xmas card last year, must have been about four inches square maximum, and had a happy xmas badge stuck on the front. Meant a trip to the sorting office and the obligatory 'processing fee'. Are we seriously supposed to make a trip to the living hell that is a post office queue every time we want to send any kind of unusually shaped card or similar? Life's too short. Reckon they don't actuially want joe public sending private mail at all, they'd be just as happy delivering government brown envelopes and Virgin Media junk mail.

I work for Royal Mail and I know that a Christmas card four inches square would not be classed as a large letter as it is too small. What may have happened is the card did not have the correct 1st or 2nd class stamp on it. It does create extra work to process odd shaped items and seeing Royal Mail is no longer a public service new things like 'Pricing in Proportion' were introduced to tackle that.