Royal Mail

[BensGrandad]

One of my grandchildren has just had to pay £1.12p for his birthday card as my wife sent it without thinking about it being a large letter so the postage wasnt sufficient. Hence the extra 12p postage and £1charge. I know that they are right and wife was wrong but you would think that Royal Mail would realize it was abirthday card and let it through.

Come to that they could exclude what are obviously greetings cards from the size rules altogether and just base the postage on weight.

 

[adrian29uk]

I have been caught out many times by the pricing. £1.12 sounds a bit step to me.
If the letter is under 100g and less than 25mm in thickness, then it should £0.66 first class
If the letter is between 101g - 250g and less than 25mm in thickness then it should be £0.96 first class

 

[ATFC Seagull]

Are you actually suggesting that they should bend the rules "seeing as its someone's birthday"?

 

[seagullondon]

Are you actually suggesting that they should bend the rules "seeing as its someone's birthday"?

i think so. this is capitalism people. its every man for himself

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

One of my grandchildren has just had to pay £1.12p for his birthday card as my wife sent it without thinking about it being a large letter so the postage wasnt sufficient. Hence the extra 12p postage and £1charge. I know that they are right and wife was wrong but you would think that Royal Mail would realize it was abirthday card and let it through.

Come to that they could exclude what are obviously greetings cards from the size rules altogether and just base the postage on weight.

I expect in years gone by Royal Mail would have let this one go, but with revenues and volumes down and the company being asked to run like a business and not a public service, they will chase incorrectly priced letters.

 

[Stat Brother]

We're not a charity.

 

[bhaexpress]

One of my grandchildren has just had to pay £1.12p for his birthday card as my wife sent it without thinking about it being a large letter so the postage wasnt sufficient. Hence the extra 12p postage and £1charge. I know that they are right and wife was wrong but you would think that Royal Mail would realize it was abirthday card and let it through.

Come to that they could exclude what are obviously greetings cards from the size rules altogether and just base the postage on weight.

Unfortunately the Post Office have tried to make people aware of the charges for for oversized envelopes (by TV advertising when it was first introduced in August 2006 or by adverts in the Post Office). Unless you post at a Post Office (which frankly few people do) you possibly wouldn't know. However by the same token the post person was merely doing their job and they don't have any discretionary powers as regards instances like this. Just put it down to experience.

 

[Del Boy]

my wife sent it without thinking

This is the problem, not the rm.

 

[Uncle C]

I know that they are right and wife was wrong but you would think that Royal Mail would realize it was a birthday card and let it through.

Exactly, its not as if they open letters on a regular basis to see if there's anything worth having.

 

[BensGrandad]

I fully accept their need to raise extra revenue etc but my view is that obvious greetings cards should be excluded and delivered at the 2nd class rate provided they are posted in good time. The extra postage was 12p and the penalty charge was £1.00. As somebnody said if you post it locally ata post box you will not perhaps nptice the differenece. Maybe a case for having 2 different size slots on the post box if they want to charge at 2 different rates.

 

[Stat Brother]

There's a fairly good chance the card in question had 'large letter delivery charge' (or words to that effect) within it's packaging.

So now, in order to stop your wife making a mistake you fully accept and understand you want Royal Mail to remove and upgrade every post box.
How many surcharges you think the company raise?.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

Surely if it became known that the RM were allowing oversized letters to slip through without charge "because they're birthday cards", then sooner or later, everyone with half a brain would be sending their large business and personal letters in big, cheery purple envelopes to try and avoid the postage by stealth.

 

[the wanderbus]

perhaps restaurants could do half price meals & drinks if you wear a big badge with Birthday Boy on it.

 

[Gullywog]

why didn't they just open it and take the £5 to cover it?

 

[BensGrandad]

I cannot see the need to have a 2 tier charging system, does it cost more to deliver a large birthday card or come to that an A4 letter than it does a small one. I wouldnt think so.

 

[Lady Whistledown]

I think the could easily afford to let birthday cards through the net.

I mean, you've only got, what, 60 million people in this country. Divide that by 365 to get a rough idea of all those whose birthday falls on Christmas Day, thus avoiding the need to send them a separate card, and subtract that:

60,000,000- 164,384= 59,835,616.


Take off roughly 600,000 people who die every year (no point in sending them a card, it'll only upset them, and no need to add the newborn kids on as they won't care about cards until they're at least a year old)

=59,235,616

Subtract 130,000 Jehovah's Witnesses living in the UK (they don't celebrate birthdays as a rule)

=59,105,616

So they've only got just over 59 million people's cards to deal with. They could EASILY wave them through I reckon.

 

[Stat Brother]

I cannot see the need to have a 2 tier charging system, does it cost more to deliver a large birthday card or come to that an A4 letter than it does a small one. I wouldnt think so.

Because a 'regular' size letter is sorted by machine and A4 predominately by hand.

 

[beorhthelm]

I cannot see the need to have a 2 tier charging system, does it cost more to deliver a large birthday card or come to that an A4 letter than it does a small one. I wouldnt think so.

no, but it does cost more to send a letter across the county than say from Brighton to Preston, Inverness or Torquay. but we pay the same. they've implemtent a change to presumably charge larger business post a bit more. it does seem a little unfair and a high charge, but those are the breaks.

 

[brakespear]

Surely if it became known that the RM were allowing oversized letters to slip through without charge "because they're birthday cards", then sooner or later, everyone with half a brain would be sending their large business and personal letters in big, cheery purple envelopes to try and avoid the postage by stealth.

Precisely this

 

[Southover Street Seagull]

I cannot see the need to have a 2 tier charging system, does it cost more to deliver a large birthday card or come to that an A4 letter than it does a small one. I wouldnt think so.

Smaller pop size cards are much more likely to be machinable, which makes it cheaper to process for Royal Mail.