another postage whine

soolin

I'm sitting here and I'm really cross, the poor keyboard is being banged as I type really really hard and grit my teeth.

I package my items carefully, I have new bags to take into account the new postage, ie whenever possible i use a bigger bag and package my items flatter, I've even given up stocking some of my regular items as they are uneconomic as they are big but very very light.

I'm having a disastrous day, work problems and a serious illness in family so rushed into my little PO at 5 O clock. All my items today went through the large letter slot, but three she quoted me over a pound for..and when I questioned it she said they touched the side and showed me on her own plastic gauge that although they went through easily they did touch the sides.

I was fuming and asked her to give them back..and I only posted the items she let go as a large letter.

The ones she refused are ones I sell regularly and definitely go through the slot and have been sent as a large letter before. Those three people will have to wait another day and I'll now have to walk into town and post them from the main post office tomorrow.

Remind me again how this new service benefits us all?

Soo

Agutka

*big hug*

Give in to them. Just put your p&p prices up and you can relax... and send everything as a parcel... The 60p your buyers save is not worth it...

serial-secure

just to echo the previous poster, just slap up your postage costa and take it on the chin, ive added to my postage price and up-graded my service to recorded small package, .60p more expensive but there the next day and now requires a signature.

5thElement_2

The new system is a joke, total pointless imo.

soolin

serial-secure wrote:

just to echo the previous poster, just slap up your postage costa and take it on the chin, ive added to my postage price and up-graded my service to recorded small package, .60p more expensive but there the next day and now requires a signature.

Recorded is an additional 68p per item and as I send so many packages it isn't something I ever use. 100 parcels a month would set me back an additional £68!

Also these items will go through the slot so all other POs will allow me to send them as letters and as my competitors are only charging a £1 for post and packing I need to restrict my postage to the same. That's fine if I can visit the main PO and send the stuff as letters for 44p but not good when my PO wants £1 for the self same item. I'm also stck as my new size bags cost me 15p each rather than the 8p I used to pay for the small bags.

I just wish the post offices would all interpret the rules the same so I knew where I stood.

Soo

Agutka

soolin wrote:

as my competitors are only charging a £1 for post and packing I need to restrict my postage to the same.
Soo

Oh.

Okay, bad idea about increasing your p&p...
Did you contact RM about this discrepancy in your PO experience, you're very good at getting answers - maybe they can re-train your local PO... I haven't had the opportunity to test my local vs town PO yet, as I have no set items I sell, so have no direct competitors and besides I need to wrap my lego warmly, so everything is now a package.

Other than that, whine away, that's what we're here for

G-man_3

Are you getting a certificate of postage with each item you send? If you are then your stuck but if not why not use the online facility.
I've recently started selling a few things on Amazon and was down at my local grotty post office just about everyday (not easy to slip away from work, why don't PO's stay open later?). I soon got sick of it and now use the online 'self service' for anything under £15. I'm willing to take the risk for the convience of not bunking off work and queueing for ages.

Of course if your selling high value items then I think you should put your prices up to cover costs. Everyone else will have to so it should still be a level playing field.

I'm really unlucky when it comes to post offices. The main one in town is always packed and I have stood in there for over an hour before now. The one near work is a grotty, filthy place (doesn't look like its been cleaned or painted since the 50's) and the guy behind the counter is very old and very argumentative. The new one near my house is great but is shut whenever I can get to it.

Sorry to ramble.

zcaprd7

Yep, I use the Smartstamp service - its an extra £5 a month but it prints the address and postage lables for you.

I stick them on and if its too big for the letter box, leave them in the little hatch at the Post Office.

I've considerd 'experimenting' with sticking on cheaper prices though - how on earth are the Royal Mail going to sort and check the prices?

soolin

Sorry for whining yesterday I'm just having a few days from hell here and it is steadily getting worse.

I had thought about online postage and had read Apprentice Tycoons post on another thread with great interest. As I used to work my postage I found it rather pleasant to wander down to the PO have a chat with the lady behind the counter, or if i was really pushed I could send one of the children and they could do it all for me. I got COPs completed before I went and that system suited me.

This new system means that if I send the children the PO send everything as a package..I mean everything so I had to stop sending them. Having to go to the main PO frustrates me as the queues are horrendous, but where I have two or more 'doubtful' packages it pays to queue as I save so much.

I suppose I'm just cross as my routine that worked for years has been disrupted and just to send the packages now requires military type planning.

Soo

kevinyork

soolin wrote:

I'm sitting here and I'm really cross, the poor keyboard is being banged as I type really really hard and grit my teeth.

I package my items carefully, I have new bags to take into account the new postage, ie whenever possible i use a bigger bag and package my items flatter, I've even given up stocking some of my regular items as they are uneconomic as they are big but very very light.

I'm having a disastrous day, work problems and a serious illness in family so rushed into my little PO at 5 O clock. All my items today went through the large letter slot, but three she quoted me over a pound for..and when I questioned it she said they touched the side and showed me on her own plastic gauge that although they went through easily they did touch the sides.

I was fuming and asked her to give them back..and I only posted the items she let go as a large letter.

The ones she refused are ones I sell regularly and definitely go through the slot and have been sent as a large letter before. Those three people will have to wait another day and I'll now have to walk into town and post them from the main post office tomorrow.

Remind me again how this new service benefits us all?

Soo

Such an annoying system isnt it? Not sure if anyone has touched on it but at the end of the day if they dispute which category an item falls in, cant we just ask for stamps for the right value and affix them ourselves and get a proof of postage? That would only be the same as us popping it in a post box ourselves anyway? Then we take the risk that someone down the line may believe its underpaid and seek additional money off the recipient but at least its our choice? I did this on an item I ship which has always been on a borderline weight for 1st class. It should be £4.74 but if it goes 2 grammes over it costs me £5.60 or something...quite a difference. Twice the lady at PO said it was over when I had weighed it on my digital postal scales at home so I bought the stamps, stuck them on and got her to stamp the COP. She didnt seem to mind and said it was nothing to do with her just as long as she didnt calculate the charge and stick a postage label on it. My buyers didnt get charged extra either.

Kev

soolin

My PO lady will not stamp a COP unless she re weighs the package. A couple of times before I've stuck stamps on something with the intention of chancing it to the post box, but at the last moment taken it to the PO instead. On those occasions she will only take the package through the PO window if she confirms that the postage is correct.

Soo