do some post offices charge more

victoriav

I had to return an ebay item, as it was a size too small, it had cost £3.99 to send to me 2nd class...however when I went to return it the rural post office said it was too heavy for 2nd class, I told him that it had been sent to me 2nd class, this seemed to him to be irrelevant - he seemed to have a limited understanding and the queue was fast growing with tutters and throat clearers..so i begrudgingly had to pay near £6 first class..this is not the first time my parcels have been dearer to send from here than at a central post office. I regularly for a birthday, send an item (part of an ongoing set,) ie one part of it birthday one christmas, sometimes easter, and they seem to be more expensive to post at a rural post office, up by about £1.50. Do rural post offices have the power to charge more? because of competitiveness in order to stay open?

techspec

victoriav wrote: »

I had to return an ebay item, as it was a size too small, it had cost £3.99 to send to me 2nd class...however when I went to return it the rural post office said it was too heavy for 2nd class, I told him that it had been sent to me 2nd class, this seemed to him to be irrelevant - he seemed to have a limited understanding and the queue was fast growing with tutters and throat clearers..so i begrudgingly had to pay near £6 first class..this is not the first time my parcels have been dearer to send from here than at a central post office. I regularly for a birthday, send an item (part of an ongoing set,) ie one part of it birthday one christmas, sometimes easter, and they seem to be more expensive to post at a rural post office, up by about £1.50. Do rural post offices have the power to charge more? because of competitiveness in order to stay open?

No - 2nd class is up to 1000g - so was it over?

Some with old scales used to round the weight up. I changed post offices because of it.

Did it have a pre-paid lable on. I get many that are too big for 2nd - but the seller as got away with it. Also, some post offices are customer friendly - and allow things through. They are usually the commission ones. Mine allows packets through as large letters.

Didn't they offer you standard parcels? Its crap anyway - but they should have offered it.

I use myhermes and collect plus for items over 1kg.

railbuff

techspec wrote: »

I use myhermes and collect plus for items over 1kg.

true most times its cheaper sending by courier for anything over 1KG

soolin

There is no £3.99 postage, so seller probably subsidised it- so nothing at all to with Post offices and any conspircacy theories about charging different amounts.

As has been said the most you can pay for 2nd class is £3.50.

bod1467

Or (more likely) the seller likely INFLATED the postage price (to cover packaging, time etc.). Doesn't mean they sent it first class and subsidised.

techspec

soolin wrote: »

There is no £3.99 postage, so seller probably subsidised it- so nothing at all to with Post offices and any conspircacy theories about charging different amounts.

As has been said the most you can pay for 2nd class is £3.50.

Good point - i assumed the OP was going off the lable - and not just assuming the price she paid was the postage cost.

Hopefully the OP will clarify if the item did indeed arrive 2nd class (49p could have been for packing).

Otherwise we will have people saying their item arrived in the post for free - but the post office says it costs money to return it :rotfl::rotfl:

soolin

techspec wrote: »

Good point - i assumed the OP was going off the lable - and not just assuming the price she paid was the postage cost.

Hopefully the OP will clarify if the item did indeed arrive 2nd class (49p could have been for packing).

Otherwise we will have people saying their item arrived in the post for free - but the post office says it costs money to return it :rotfl::rotfl:

Tech spec, you are far too logical. Don't you recall a year or two ago a thread on the ebay board from a new seller asking how he could get free postage like a lot of the other sellers , and he wasn't joking!

Bod, The reason I mentioned subsidising the postage was that OP said it actually cost near £6 to send back.

railbuff

soolin wrote: »

Bod, The reason I mentioned subsidising the postage was that OP said it actually cost near £6 to send back.

subsidising seems the most logical answer. the seller may have a business account with RM to give him cheaper rates like a lot of business.

amazon for example no matter if you order a dvd or 43" TV the postage charge will be the same

bod1467

soolin wrote: »

Bod, The reason I mentioned subsidising the postage was that OP said it actually cost near £6 to send back.

Which reverts to the whole thrust of the OP's post ... was he fleeced by his local PO whereas the original sender knew that it WOULD be valid 2nd class?

soolin

bod1467 wrote: »

Which reverts to the whole thrust of the OP's post ... was he fleeced by his local PO whereas the original sender knew that it WOULD be valid 2nd class?

As there is no £3.99 postage it would seem more logical that OP meant they were 'charged' £3.99 for postage, not that £3.99 was shown on label.

If £3.99 was shown on the postage label and it was sent Royal Mail then something is horribly wrong.

The other possibility of course is that seller used a courier like Collect plus who would charge £3.99 for a Jiffy bag up to 2kg, and did not use the post office at all.

OP, perhaps you could clarify,

victoriav

Just to clarify, the charge made to me as a buyer was £3.99 for postage and packaging and the label most definitely had a 2nd class sticker on it, however now I cannot be 100% sure that the 2nd class sticker had £3.99 written on it and I will never know know because I stuck my return label actually over it...It may well have been £3.50 then 49p for the packaging - which was a thin polythene mailing bag, the thing is it definitely came 2nd class and the royal mail van delivered it so its definitely royal mail. Its just odd that I was told its too heavy for 2nd, yet it came as such...and it seems a big jump to what I had to pay to send it back.

Thanks for replies, good point about subsidising and business account -this way well be the case then....I was unaware of this. Also good point about the scales they have been the same old ones in use for at least 40 years. The same as those old sort that you used to weigh a baby on with a chrome deep scale pan shaped like a longways halved pear.

Don't know how much the item weighed though, it was a pair of gladiator sandals, flat, summer things. Fairly light weight.

Discussing it locally a few other people - mainly older, but one younger e-bay regular seller which is a good indication I think, as a regular user, have noticed the same as me...that it is dearer to post from there...wonder if it is the scales.?