Royal Mail £8 Internal Post Handling Fee scam?

jahman

custardy wrote: »

perhaps you are one of the people like many i deliver to who find the concept of a full address too much for them?
eg the package addressed to 2 christian names but not at any combination of the flat numbers used.
the return address being mummy and daddy.
now im sure mummy and daddy will be incensed at their package being 'stolen'

This is the forum for venting, right? Just checking.

I'm fully conversant with the concept of, not only postcodes, but also the fairly obvious fact that surnames can also be Christian names and vice versa, unlike you evidently Cyclops. Ever heard of Clive James? In fact, if it weren't for the fact that you claim to be in Edinburgh, I could swear you were my postman. If he can't be arsed walking around the corner, which is most days, he just posts any old crap in my post box and expects me to do it. Guess what?

Cheers,

jahman

custardy

jahman wrote: »

This is the forum for venting, right? Just checking.

I'm fully conversant with the concept of, not only postcodes, but also the fairly obvious fact that surnames can also be Christian names and vice versa, unlike you evidently Cyclops. Ever heard of Clive James? In fact, if it weren't for the fact that you claim to be in Edinburgh, I could swear you were my postman. If he can't be arsed walking around the corner, which is most days, he just posts any old crap in my post box and expects me to do it. Guess what?

Cheers,

jahman

fair enough,ive personally never heard of a 'Simon and Jemima' as a name but obviously you have the greater wealth of knowledge on the subject.
however just for the cyclops jibe i win on points
maybe i am your postie,in which case i look forward to you calling me a lazy thief.
the area i deliver to is full of vermin(so you are probably from there),i still have the scar from a knife attack but that was dealt with on the street.
FYI the eye injury was from a sparring session in my combat class so maybe with that one not so good eye you might just get the upper hand.......

molerat

If you don't want to pay RM the £8 you could always arrange your own customs clearance. It will only cost you around £50 per consignment plus £15 handling fee for paying the import duties. The choice is yours.

Ivory_Tinkler

Jahman you obviously have some sort of problem with Royal Mail but that doesn't give you licence to be so obnoxious. Custardy has helped lots of folk on these boards with his postal knowledge. You, however, have contributed nothing except for rude, patronising comments which have no place on this board. If you speak to your postie in same tone you have demonstrated in your few unhelpful posts then is it hardly any wonder that your postie is so unhelpful (so you say)? I don't expect he is lazy at all, he's probably just avoiding you and your nasty ways.

wanye

jahman wrote: »

I was charged £4.22 in VAT, which I don't have an issue with but a totally disproportionate £8 handling fee. Why go to the trouble of calculating the VAT and then not be bothered to implement a fair system of proportional and proportionate charges based on the value of the item?

indeed. surely with the massive increase in international deliveries over the last few years, they have managed to cut their overheads, meaning most (if not all) of this £8 admin fee is now "profit"?

isn't it about time for a PPI-style campaign to get rid of these completely disproportionate and (arguably) unfair charges.

i propose a sliding scale, depending on the value of the item. for example, under £30 is free, under £100 incurs a £2 admin fee, under £500 is £4 and everything over that is the full £8.

or something...

i know i'm sick of paying £12+ of which, two thirds of the cost isnt actually the tax that by law we have to pay (and i'm not disputing this), but a completely OTT fee because royal mail (and the other delivery companies) have paid this fee on our behalf?

failing that, how about some sort of prepayment account for those of us expecting deliveries that will incur import tax? we sign up, pay an amount into a "wallet" (playstation store-style), and then tax is deducted from this wallet when an item hits customs. that way we dont need them to pay on our behalf, bypassing these unfair fees.

anyone?

custardy

wanye wrote: »

indeed. surely with the massive increase in international deliveries over the last few years, they have managed to cut their overheads, meaning most (if not all) of this £8 admin fee is now "profit"?

isn't it about time for a PPI-style campaign to get rid of these completely disproportionate and (arguably) unfair charges.

i propose a sliding scale, depending on the value of the item. for example, under £30 is free, under £100 incurs a £2 admin fee, under £500 is £4 and everything over that is the full £8.

or something...

i know i'm sick of paying £12+ of which, two thirds of the cost isnt actually the tax that by law we have to pay (and i'm not disputing this), but a completely OTT fee because royal mail (and the other delivery companies) have paid this fee on our behalf?

failing that, how about some sort of prepayment account for those of us expecting deliveries that will incur import tax? we sign up, pay an amount into a "wallet" (playstation store-style), and then tax is deducted from this wallet when an item hits customs. that way we dont need them to pay on our behalf, bypassing these unfair fees.

anyone?

use a courier who offers this service such as UPS

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In addition to speedy customs clearance for your everyday international shipments, we offer the expertise and depth of resources needed to help you transport goods that require special treatment in customs at little or no additional charge. The services include:

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or(and ive said it many many times) perhaps ask HMRC why they dont offer you a service to pay directly
exactly how would you administrate the prepay system? given many packages are untracked?
remember your package is traveling via another carrier so you want RM to 'find' these packages then administrate this system?

as for

indeed. surely with the massive increase in international deliveries over the last few years, they have managed to cut their overheads, meaning most (if not all) of this £8 admin fee is now "profit"?

so dealing with more packages cost less?

wanye

custardy wrote: »

use a courier who offers this service
or(and ive said it many many times) perhaps ask HMRC why they dont offer you a service to pay directly

as for


so dealing with more packages cost less?

if it was a personal shipment, i WOULD use a courier who did that (or more likely, mark it as zero value and bypass taxes complately), but you dont really get a choice of delivery company. like in the UK most people are stuck with citylink if they order from certain places. if youre ordering something that can be bought from loads of places, you have that choice, but if you are buying from one supplier who is the only place selling this item (they make them), then you dont have much choice.

as yes, i believe that it would cost less to handle more. are you saying that if the amount of items being imported doubled, they would need twice as many staff? this implies that the current level of staff is already completely maxed out in all departments (i doubt it)

are you saying the £8 flat fee *is* fair to people who only have ~£4 worth of import tax to pay?

custardy

wanye wrote: »

if it was a personal shipment, i WOULD use a courier who did that (or more likely, mark it as zero value and bypass taxes complately), but you dont really get a choice of delivery company. like in the UK most people are stuck with citylink if they order from certain places. if youre ordering something that can be bought from loads of places, you have that choice, but if you are buying from one supplier who is the only place selling this item (they make them), then you dont have much choice.

as yes, i believe that it would cost less to handle more. are you saying that if the amount of items being imported doubled, they would need twice as many staff? this implies that the current level of staff is already completely maxed out in all departments (i doubt it)

are you saying the £8 flat fee *is* fair to people who only have ~£4 worth of import tax to pay?

well marking an item as zero value is a method of tax avoidance
the courier doesnt do this,the sender does
as you can see on this thread,RM have provided their costs
you made the statement the increase in packet traffic would cut costs.
so its up to you to back this up,no?if your own business doubled without extra income(remember you didnt pay RM to carry those packets) then the buisness could absorb that workload at less cost?
if you dont like citylink then choose a different supplier,if you dont like RM then use an international supplier who uses a courier
then you can pay the couriers clearence rates

wanye

custardy wrote: »

if you dont like citylink then choose a different supplier,if you dont like RM then use an international supplier who uses a courier
then you can pay the couriers clearence rates

yet again, choice of delivery company usually isnt up to the customer. and its not like i can buy the item from a different supplier.

custardy

complain to your supplier then