Underpaid postage on Xmas card.

custardy

TONY1 wrote: »

we had the same last year sent 18 cards all the same size and weight 16 got through 2 was stop saying not enough postage and charged £1.19 to get delivered

So were they or not?

Dozey_crow

Dozey_crow wrote: »

Not a problem at all for us as we werent expecting anything and therefore didn't bother fetching the 'parcel' from the depot. We had a card with absolutely no information other than the parcel box ticked and 19p underpayment with a£1 handling charge.

So we would be expected to pay £1.19 plus petrol to fetch a random parcel that we weren't expecting?? Ridiculous!

RM should charge but the actual POSTAGE deficit was 19p postage costs are high anyway and as someone else had pointed out the system is unnecessarily confusing. The additional pound is for the post person ticking a box and returning the item to the depot where it is placed in a purpose built section for collection. The postage cost is entirely reasonable not the so called handling free in my opinion.

custardy wrote: »

So in your world. Why would anyone bother with postage? If you dont have any extra cost.
Why not send without postage and hope not to get caught?
You have no idea oviously. The 'post 'person' isnt returning an item.
Charge items are handled in a different pipeline once identified as having a deficit in postage. If the postage cost is reasonable,where does the extra costs in charge items get covered?
Its all about time and costs through the network. You are basing your point on postage is too expensive and why should you pay petrol to collect. Who do you see covering the costs in charge items?
If they only charged postage,you wouldnt have an issue collecting that unexpected parcel?
FYI,there is no parcel box to 'tick' on the charge cards.£1.19 would in most cases be an underpaid large letter. Pay online and have it delivered with no petrol costs. save the planet

Not sure that you understood my reply. Quite simply yes the RM are right to ask for any additional postage costs and then it is up to the recipient to pay or not to pay. Bit yes the £1 handling charge is ttp in my opinion. I am entitled to my opinion and we are entitled to decide what we choose to pay our not to pay. We decided not to collect... Our choice... Simple. Oh and to be clear even if was 19p, as I said we aren't expecting anything so still would not collect.

I have not suggested that people should not bother with postage and hope not to get caught.... Not sure where that came from. My point is that the price of postage is very high and the system for assessing the correct amount of postage of complex and difficult unless you take everything to the post office.

I will have to bow to your superior knowledge of the internal RM system and freely admit that 'I have no idea.. Obviously'. All I can assure you is that the card we received from RM had the'parcel' box ticked.

In my world the postage costs would be clearer either via the card manufacturers or by RM communicating it better and charges for underpaid items would be made to the sender rather than the recipient. If I sent something through the post I would be mortified if the receipting had to pay because I made a mistake. I know that this is pretty much impossible being clearer about pricing however isn't and is something they need to look at?

Perhaps you can suggest it. I am guessing you work for them?

custardy

Dozey_crow wrote: »

Not sure that you understood my reply. Quite simply yes the RM are right to ask for any additional postage costs and then it is up to the recipient to pay or not to pay. Bit yes the £1 handling charge is ttp in my opinion. I am entitled to my opinion and we are entitled to decide what we choose to pay our not to pay. We decided not to collect... Our choice... Simple. Oh and to be clear even if was 19p, as I said we aren't expecting anything so still would not collect.

I have not suggested that people should not bother with postage and hope not to get caught.... Not sure where that came from. My point is that the price of postage is very high and the system for assessing the correct amount of postage of complex and difficult unless you take everything to the post office.

I will have to bow to your superior knowledge of the internal RM system and freely admit that 'I have no idea.. Obviously'. All I can assure you is that the card we received from RM had the'parcel' box ticked.

In my world the postage costs would be clearer either via the card manufacturers or by RM communicating it better and charges for underpaid items would be made to the sender rather than the recipient. If I sent something through the post I would be mortified if the receipting had to pay because I made a mistake. I know that this is pretty much impossible being clearer about pricing however isn't and is something they need to look at?

Perhaps you can suggest it. I am guessing you work for them?

Once more,there is no parcel box.
There is too large for your letterbox,RD/SD
I know the 'systems' very well.
What is your answer then? Charging generates costs through manual handling and accounting.
If there were no extra fee,how would you cover the costs?
How would you make pricing 'clearer'?
How would you have RM communicate it? You are online,so have access to all information available. Every house in the UK got a leaflet when Price In Proportion was introduced.
The simple fact is larger letters generate higher handling costs.
larger packets the same.
A great example is the helium balloons people order.
under the old weight system,they were very cheap to post
however they could take up half a york trolley in space
So how will you charge for that without a pricing structure that takes size into account?

fannyadams

the MAJORITY of card makers/suppliers will have some icon on the back of the card to state clearly it usually says LARGE LETTER next to the envelope icon.

IrishRose12

custardy wrote: »

Once more,there is no parcel box.
There is too large for your letterbox,RD/SD
I know the 'systems' very well.

You can't know the systems very well then as if you look at the card it has to sections which the delivery man has to tick.
The first tells you what it is i.e if it was a letter, parcel etc.

Then it will tell you why it couldn't be delivered, I.E it was too large for the postbox, there was no safe place to leave it, it required a signature OR not enough postage was paid.

There is also a place for them to tell you if it has been left elsewhere, or how long it will be before you can phone up and arrange for a re-delivery or go down and pick it up yourself. I have had to wait at least a day before going down to pick up a parcel.

Now, my brother-in-law who works in the main depot here, just brings it up for me as soon as it comes in. And a few times he has taken post home for us or his neighbours that have been charged for postage, but he doesn't pay, he writes it off.

ALSO this bit

custardy wrote: »

How would you have RM communicate it? You are online,so have access to all information available. Every house in the UK got a leaflet when Price In Proportion was introduced.

Yes most of us are online, HOWEVER there are many people in this world who ARE NOT ONLINE. Pensioners for a start. I know my mother can't use the internet, she doesn't even own or know how to use a computer.

RM do need to make their prices a lot clearer and simpler for all of us to understand. I know I certainly don't understand them. I've been stung too many times by their size guides. I measure and buy size appropriate packaging to go by their "guidelines" however when I get to the Post Office it doesn't fit it their mock post boxes etc. Yet I have measured and weighed it at home, priced it on the RM website and it doesn't match when I get to the till. And now they have brought in this ridiculous thing about not being able to post liquids over a certain size and all this rubbish, they're just making themselves go out of business.
They don't give a damn about their customers, all they care about is the money.

It's not up to card manufactures etc to state whether they are small or large letter on their packaging. WHy should they?? It's not their problem, they don't know if the cards are being posted or not. And also, Royal bloody Mail change their minds that often there would be no point!

custardy

IrishRose12 wrote: »

You can't know the systems very well then as if you look at the card it has to sections which the delivery man has to tick.
The first tells you what it is i.e if it was a letter, parcel etc.
I think you will find you are confusing P739 cards(The red cards) with the grey charge cards.
Then it will tell you why it couldn't be delivered, I.E it was too large for the postbox, there was no safe place to leave it, it required a signature OR not enough postage was paid.
There is no card from RM that covers both undelivered and fee to pay
There is also a place for them to tell you if it has been left elsewhere, or how long it will be before you can phone up and arrange for a re-delivery or go down and pick it up yourself. I have had to wait at least a day before going down to pick up a parcel.
Once more,still confused
Now, my brother-in-law who works in the main depot here, just brings it up for me as soon as it comes in. And a few times he has taken post home for us or his neighbours that have been charged for postage, but he doesn't pay, he writes it off.

He doesnt write it off. He defrauds RM and risks losing his job.
Would you say thats a smart move?

Charge card(though slightly out of date design)



Red card

Callie22

fannyadams wrote: »

the MAJORITY of card makers/suppliers will have some icon on the back of the card to state clearly it usually says LARGE LETTER next to the envelope icon.

I noticed that this year M&S seemed to have stopped doing this on their Christmas cards. I know they usually do this on their general cards and I thought they did it on their Christmas cards, but I noticed that on some I bought it didn't mention that they would need a large letter stamp. It would be really helpful if card manufacturers could do this, especially on cards that are a bit thicker than normal.

Dozey_crow

custardy wrote: »

Once more,there is no parcel box.
There is too large for your letterbox,RD/SD
I know the 'systems' very well.
What is your answer then? Charging generates costs through manual handling and accounting.
If there were no extra fee,how would you cover the costs?
How would you make pricing 'clearer'?
How would you have RM communicate it? You are online,so have access to all information available. Every house in the UK got a leaflet when Price In Proportion was introduced.
The simple fact is larger letters generate higher handling costs.
larger packets the same.
A great example is the helium balloons people order.
under the old weight system,they were very cheap to post
however they could take up half a york trolley in space
So how will you charge for that without a pricing structure that takes size into account?

Wow.,, what a lot of questions???!!! How much thought have you d given this?!!

I have said all that I want to on the issue now... I have absolutely no interest in sorting out RMs internal pricing structure or discussing it further. I am entitled to my opinion and also entitled to impart my experience as a consumer.

I won't be commenting again as I have nothing else to add.

custardy

Dozey_crow wrote: »

Wow.,, what a lot of questions???!!! How much thought have you d given this?!!

I have said all that I want to on the issue now... I have absolutely no interest in sorting out RMs internal pricing structure or discussing it further. I am entitled to my opinion and also entitled to impart my experience as a consumer.

I won't be commenting again as I have nothing else to add.

aww,thats a shame.

sleepymans

I have long noticed that since RM started charging by size/thickness/weight that many many cards available in the shops are, by deliberate design, likely to attract the higher postage.
Many of the most attractive cards have embelishments, beads, applique, badges, deep embossing etc etc....I just thought that the card manufacturers and RM are working hand in hand on this!


Conspiracy theory?? LOL