Royal Mail seem to have increased number of Fee to Pay cards - just their bit of Christmas Cheer?

45tobyjug

We haven't had a 'fee to pay' card (where Royal Mail claim the sender failed to pay the correct postage) from Royal Mail for years but over the last couple of weeks have had four !

The 'handling fee' (excess charge) is massive in proportion to the postage charge - though they do not actually state how much postage was paid originally. Funny isn't it how Royal Mail charge large excess charges to deliver under-paid items, yet when they fail to deliver items on time, they don't pay ANY compensation - just offer your original money back (if you make a claim)?

I am wondering if anyone else has experienced an increase in these 'fee to pay' cards recently?

I suspect people may have posted slightly oversized Christmas cards which used to go through without being picked up, but are now being held by RM for the extra cash. Alternatively, I wonder if they are charging full stamp charge plus handling fee when people post cards with the old-type stamps ? (I strongly feel that RM are in breach of contract in failing to deliver items posted on old-type stamps)

The 'fee to pay' card claims that RM return the item to the sender if the fee isn't paid. Given that most people do not put their details on the cards, I very much doubt this is true. Has anyone out there had a letter or card returned by Royal Mail, explaining that the postage paid was insufficient ?

Personally, I think Royal Mail are conning us. What is your opinion?

p.s. Sorry whoever sent the items in question. I'm not paying Royal Mail £6.30 to deliver a Christmas card no matter how lovely it may be ! 

la531983

Or, its probably a case that this time of year will see more people post things who dont normally post things, and who are generally clueless about the rules and are applying the wrong postage to things.  No conspiracy.

born_again

Cost to handle underpaid postage will not be cheap.
Never understand why people do not put house no & postcode on the back, so simple & easy.

forgotmyname

We are waiting for ours because the wifes sister buys the larger cards and sticks a normal 2nd class stamp on them.

molerat

With the losses RM are making I suspect they are just tightening up on the underpaid postage.  New machinery will also be able to pick out underpaid items more easily.  There are many that still do not understand how the current system of postage works with regard to weights and sizes.  So a combination of factors.

oldernonethewiser

la531983 said:

Or, its probably a case that this time of year will see more people post things who dont normally post things, and who are generally clueless about the rules and are applying the wrong postage to things.  No conspiracy.

Having stood behind these people in the Post Office I agree there is no conspiracy only misunderstanding by members of the public.

[Deleted User]

forgotmyname said:

We are waiting for ours because the wifes sister buys the larger cards and sticks a normal 2nd class stamp on them.

That would annoy me no end.
It's just plain selfish, ignorant, or insulting - she lives in the real world, she knows that's going to incur cost to yourself.😡
Knowing it's going to turn up shortly i'd pop it into a bigger parcel/envelope/whatever and post it back to her - underpaid 😈

SteveJW

I take part in the Royal Mail correctly delivered survey, recently I had a test item that had a fee to pay.

No different in size, weight or postage than other items received, that did not have a fee to pay

Lavendyr

I've experienced the opposite. Bought something from Ebay, got an unpaid postage message. I didn't manage to get to the PO in time. Royal Mail delivered it anyway a couple of days later. Unexpected nice surprise - I'd written it off as a bad job!

molerat

Got a £5 fee card this morning.  Looking at the charge list it is for no postage / counterfeit stamp on a letter / large letter.  Not expecting anything important, if it is important it will go back to sender and they will send out again, so not going to bother collecting it.  In the surname box it just has MrsM's and my forenames, mine spelt incorrectly, so probably a Christmas card.

CaptainA1

I've had a few of these recently due to older stamps being used. What annoys me is that I regularly recieve mail that isn't addressed to me and have to either deliver it to neighbours myself or put it back in the post. It would be interesting to see if I can claim a handling charge from Royal Mail.