Post Office undercharged me and charged buyer excess

henge

I have had a message from one of my Amazon buyers saying that he has been charged excess postage to receive a book I sent him. (Reason: 'the sender did not pay full postage'). He is demanding I repay him. The excess is £1.37.

What bugs me is that I posted my parcel over the counter at the Post Office - ie. it was weighed, sized up, paid for and the cashier popped a printed sticker on it and it went into their sack. I paid what they quoted - £1.09 for 2nd class large letter which easily slipped through the size template. As a seasoned Ebayer (& 50+ Amazon sales) I made sure I got a COP and receipt for that batch of post.

I guess I have to repay the buyer, and it makes sense to do it through Amazon. My first question is - If I hit the REFUND button on the Order Details page, do I get an option to edit the amount to repay, or will it just dump all his money back to him?

Secondly, as I'm peed off with the Post Office for not honouring their own quote, I feel like I ought to try to reclaim the £1.37 back. - I know it's a small amount and hardly worth the effort, but I feel I have done nothing wrong in the first place. Has anyone any experience of this?

reehsetin

the paper (cant remember which) said that theyd sent a bunch of parcels and some stupid figure like 8 out of 10 the postage was wrong.
blumin post office
never used amazon so cant help with that bit

apprentice_tycoon

Yes, you can refund any amount out of the total that you were paid.

I Daily Mail article was saying that the PO had been putting stickers on underpriced packages and letters saying that 'the postage was underpaid, please tell the person that sent it to you so they can send it correctly next time' or words to that effect, but the impression given is that applied to ones that were posted in the corner post box, (by amateurs!) NOT by the PO.

I think that it might be worth phoning customer services and having a little whingette and see what happens

Amazombie

henge wrote:

I have had a message from one of my Amazon buyers saying that he has been charged excess postage to receive a book I sent him. (Reason: 'the sender did not pay full postage'). He is demanding I repay him. The excess is £1.37.

What bugs me is that I posted my parcel over the counter at the Post Office - ie. it was weighed, sized up, paid for and the cashier popped a printed sticker on it and it went into their sack. I paid what they quoted - £1.09 for 2nd class large letter which easily slipped through the size template. As a seasoned Ebayer (& 50+ Amazon sales) I made sure I got a COP and receipt for that batch of post.

I guess I have to repay the buyer, and it makes sense to do it through Amazon. My first question is - If I hit the REFUND button on the Order Details page, do I get an option to edit the amount to repay, or will it just dump all his money back to him?

Secondly, as I'm peed off with the Post Office for not honouring their own quote, I feel like I ought to try to reclaim the £1.37 back. - I know it's a small amount and hardly worth the effort, but I feel I have done nothing wrong in the first place. Has anyone any experience of this?

On the Amazon refund issue when you hit the refund button you will then be taken to a page which gives you the option to issue a partial refund. You're also given the option whether to refund from the item price or from the postage credit and I would assume that it would be better to refund from the item price as Amazon will credit back part of their fees.

As regards the Post Office mistake, the COP will show the weight of the item and you need to ask your local Post Office how you recover the £ 1.37.

Alfie_E

henge wrote:

What bugs me is that I posted my parcel over the counter at the Post Office - ie. it was weighed, sized up, paid for and the cashier popped a printed sticker on it and it went into their sack.

Are the Royal Mail thick, or what? I guess it’s a case of… well, see my signature. Those printed stickers that the Post Office do are called Horizon Labels, and the Post Office are the only ones that can produce them. You would have thought that, when a Royal Mail sorting system spat out an item because of incorrect postage, it would highlighted the fact that it’s seen a Horizon Label, so it was obvious it was the Post Office who’ve ballsed up.

hjb123

I would ask them to possible scan or email you a copy of the paper saying under charged postage etc and then refund them and claim from the post office then

Mr_Squiddy

This is a situation where a certificate of posting is really useful as it practically proves that the item was priced and posted in a post office. I'd get in to the habit of always asking for a CoP.

~cleo~

yeah i would definatly get the buyer to get u a copy of the undercharged postage notification to you and defintly make a call to customer services - im not sure but i believe there is a £1 admin charge so its possible that ur package was only understamped by 37p

- also is there any indication that he might be trying to scam money out of u seems ridiculous but i had someone trying to get £2 out of me saying a (very light) parcel i sent was understamped even though i post at the counter and had sent dozens of this item at the same postage price

martindow

If this was me I would ask them to send the card requesting the extra postage, refund the £1.37 and then fight the PO. As you can quote the book, size and have COP and receipt I'm sure you will get a refund or a book of stamps - although it will probably take weeks.

funkyfunkymonkey

henge wrote:

I have had a message from one of my Amazon buyers saying that he has been charged excess postage to receive a book I sent him. (Reason: 'the sender did not pay full postage'). He is demanding I repay him. The excess is £1.37.

What bugs me is that I posted my parcel over the counter at the Post Office - ie. it was weighed, sized up, paid for and the cashier popped a printed sticker on it and it went into their sack. I paid what they quoted - £1.09 for 2nd class large letter which easily slipped through the size template. As a seasoned Ebayer (& 50+ Amazon sales) I made sure I got a COP and receipt for that batch of post.

I guess I have to repay the buyer, and it makes sense to do it through Amazon. My first question is - If I hit the REFUND button on the Order Details page, do I get an option to edit the amount to repay, or will it just dump all his money back to him?

Secondly, as I'm peed off with the Post Office for not honouring their own quote, I feel like I ought to try to reclaim the £1.37 back. - I know it's a small amount and hardly worth the effort, but I feel I have done nothing wrong in the first place. Has anyone any experience of this?

Something doesn't add up.

If you paid £1.09 and the buyer had to pay an additional £1.37, the item you sent would have cost £1.46 + £1 admin charge.

There is no weight or class that requires £1.46 postage.

The easiest thing to do is just to refund the £1.37 and move on, but (although I am usually very trusting of buyers), I'm not sure this one rings true.

FFM

KatieKins

It is annoying isn't it. I paid £1.68 for something to go rec del to a family member. The receipt and label showed £1 so they had to pay £1.68 to receive!

Definitely get a copy of the undercharged postage note just to check