Different postal rates at different post offices?

Eliza_2

I took a package in to the local post office on Mon and because of its odd shape and size they measured it and said it would have to go Parcel Force at around £11. I didn't have enough cash on me so said I'd come back another time. However I was driving past another PO today and asked in there. She said it would go first class normal post and cost me £6 something. I sent it.

Now I'm worried that the recipient will have to pay excess postage or maybe it won't be delivered at all or really late.

There's nothing much I can do but I'm worried about this now. Has anyone experienced this?

polskiegowLondynie

One thing I've noticed our local main Post office do is try to upsell everything. They only give you the most expensive option. I've learned to ask for the cheapest or 'is there any cheaper service'

Which is often met with a 'Well if you don't want it to get there tommorow...'

Where as I sometimes go to a smaller local office and the staff are much more friendly and offer several options from the start. It may be this thats happened?

earthstorm

its all in relation to the size scale system.

I have an exact same hard plastic slot board as in post offices and have packages things that fit clearly fit in the standard slot and the weight also matches for normal post rates, but taken to PO and they say it needs to go Large Letter as it just fits the small slot but may fail at the sorting office.

cattie

It certainly seems to depend on who you get serving you. I've certainl;y found that at my nearest post office. In fact they only seem to have one member of staff who gets it right every time.

As I'm currently selling quite a few things on ebay I weigh my stuff on digital scales so I can give buyers a close p&p cost. Once fully wrapped I weigh again & have been overcharged twice at my local post office where they have charged for parcel rate instead of large letter rate & unfortunately I didn't notice until getting home & looking at the receipts.

Now I've bought one of the size gauges from Ebay so know before going to the post office what rate my packages should go at & what the cost should be. In spite of this I still got overcharged on one package.

So what I do now is write in pencil on the package where the stamp will go the weight of the package, what it should go as, ie; LL for large letter, & the cost. I tell the post office cashier that if they feel anything costs more than what I've written to tell me plus I explain that everything has been pre measured & weighed. To date nobody has tried to charge me more than I know it should really cost.

mrcol1000

It does seem to depend on the post office. Our normal post office view is that if it goes through the slot, whether it is easy or its a struggle to get it through then it can go that size. Our nearest post office which we avoid for various reasons view is that if there is any kind of struggle at all to get through the slot then it needs to go at the next size up.

This of course makes a huge difference in price. At first I was worried when our normal post office was sending things as large letters that they struggled to get through the sizing slot but we have never had anyone contact to say they have been charged more as it was underpaid.

RFW

Eliza wrote: »

Now I'm worried that the recipient will have to pay excess postage or maybe it won't be delivered at all or really late.

Someone posted on here a while ago that if it is a printed price ticket, that you are highly unlikely to get surcharged as they rareky get checked again. If they just put stamps on and it is underpaid then there is a good chance of a surcharge.

I also mentioned on another thread that someone should do a survey taking the same size package to different Pot Offices and see the difference in charges. I suggested a 95-99g just fitting large letter size that only needs to be sent second class, I wonder how many would charge 69p?

soolin

RFW wrote: »

Someone posted on here a while ago that if it is a printed price ticket, that you are highly unlikely to get surcharged as they rareky get checked again. If they just put stamps on and it is underpaid then there is a good chance of a surcharge.

I also mentioned on another thread that someone should do a survey taking the same size package to different Pot Offices and see the difference in charges. I suggested a 95-99g just fitting large letter size that only needs to be sent second class, I wonder how many would charge 69p?

I think this would make a very useful project for any Watchdog or consumer magazine.

earthstorm

RFW wrote: »

Someone posted on here a while ago that if it is a printed price ticket, that you are highly unlikely to get surcharged as they rareky get checked again. If they just put stamps on and it is underpaid then there is a good chance of a surcharge.

I also mentioned on another thread that someone should do a survey taking the same size package to different Pot Offices and see the difference in charges. I suggested a 95-99g just fitting large letter size that only needs to be sent second class, I wonder how many would charge 69p?

well i print my own labels, i have a set of postage scales and a slot chart and i have still been overcharged.
Once i was told that i had not printed the correct postage and they could not take the extra to place stamps on, so i would have to go print a correct postage label. I know i have the correct postage as i had sent many of the same items before.

I contacted my account manager about this giving him the dimensions and weight and he concluded i had the correct postage and he even told me even it it was wrong the PO should take the difference and place stamps on the parcel. he told me to take the parcel back to the PO to post. i told him why should i at my cost. so i was told to take it to the PO have it posted and then let him know when i done this and if i had to pay any extra. i took this back and it went through without any extra needed. when i informed account manager he refunded what i paid in postage back to my online account as a good will

porto_bello

RFW wrote: »

Someone posted on here a while ago that if it is a printed price ticket, that you are highly unlikely to get surcharged as they rareky get checked again. If they just put stamps on and it is underpaid then there is a good chance of a surcharge.

Yes, since the printed label price can only have been produced by post office staff, the resulting mistake can only be attributed to them.

However, if postage stamps have been used, the mistake could have been on either side of the counter, so fines result.

earthstorm

porto_bello wrote: »

Yes, since the printed label price can only have been produced by post office staff.

This is not true

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/online-postage

You can use RM online postage service and print your own postage labels. You can also print postage labels through Paypal

RFW

earthstorm wrote: »

This is not true

http://www.royalmail.com/personal/uk-delivery/online-postage

You can use RM online postage service and print your own postage labels. You can also print postage labels through Paypal

The printed labels at Post Office counters are different to labels that can be printed at home, I'd assume they were sorted differently too.