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

lincroft1710

CaptainA1 said:

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. 

If the envelope has your address on it then it has been correctly delivered. RM deliver to the address not the person

molerat

lincroft1710 said:

CaptainA1 said:

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. 

If the envelope has your address on it then it has been correctly delivered. RM deliver to the address not the person

It sounds like they are referring to incorrectly delivered mail, put into the wrong letterbox.

Torea

Yes, this has happened to me 3 times within the past month and always £3 to pay. It seems rather excessive for the items that are being sent. For example I ordered a sample coffee which comes in a sachet with a weight of 80g, it was held for several weeks without my knowledge and in the meantime I had been chasing my order with the company and eventually they re-sent my order. I received a card unknowingly from the first order informing there was a fee to pay, I paid it and two days later it arrived and it was the coffee sample in a large letter envelope which had already had a postage fee paid £1.55 by the sender, that same day I received the second re-sent order with no fee to pay, exactly the same thing a coffee sample in a large envelope same postage paid but that was delivered no problem. I contacted the company to inform them and they said they were having so many problems with this and that royal mail have been taken over and that's when the problems started, they'd never had a problem previous. They are looking for a new carrier in the new year. I can imagine royal mail will lose a lot of custom if this carries on. Todays payment is for a lightweight phone case, I haven't received it yet but I've paid the fee today, I would think that has also been sent in a large letter envelope and weighs less than the coffee sample. It's certainly put me off using royal mail.

Zebras74

Had three Xmas cards from my daughter with fee to pay. All three had stamps - two with old, pre coded stamps and one larger card with 2 legit stamps but 2 stamps not enough. 
I have asked several people and they, as I was, were ignorant of the changes made in January giving a six months grace, we are obviously not letter writers!
I went to the local sorting office, now only open 2 hours a day!, to add the return address to the cards. I did this and was told the charges would be passed back to my daughter. You have to buy your own property back?
What annoyed me most was a £5 charge paid by the elderly woman behind me for a 6x4" card with what appeared to be a legitimate Xmas stamp. I asked the two postmen why, and they shrugged their shoulders.
Told them I would avoid using Royal Mail in future and I would pass on that message. 
I always thought Royal Mail had government control but apparently not. The Czech billionaire 25% major shareholder will be pleased his staff are doing the right thing for him.
Merry Christmas fro R, not! 

GrubbyGirl_2

a lot of people are buying fake stamps from eBay and marketplace as well and now they are barcoded they are easy to spot

westiemac

I posted 3 Christmas cards to family which had the correct postage (2nd class Christmas barcoded stamp)  for the size and weight of the cards but Royal Mail then incorrectly charged £1.50 for each card if my family wanted to receive them.  I have been struggling since 21 December to make a complaint to Royal Mail about this - have sent numerous emails clearly stating the reason for my complaint - have had replies from 4 different Royal Mail employees, none of whom seem able to read and understand my emails as their replies have in no way related to my complaint.  I was asked to send photos of the cards I had posted! I was told the item in question has a 1st class barcoded stamp which was counterfeit and incurred a surcharge of £3.50 - absolute nonsense. You have to wonder how many people are being charged incorrect surcharges and how much extra revenue Royal Mail are receiving by doing this. Customer Service is abysmal - I wish there was an alternative to Royal Mail that personal customers could use for sending small amounts of mail as I am loath to use Royal Mail any more.

sheramber

There have been claims before that some barcoded stamps were fske.

Since three cards were affected and it is unlikely they were dealt with as one lot, it would appear there was a problem with the stamps being read by the bar code reader, which was picked up on three separate occasions.

Peppa537

I had a fee to pay of £1.50 and as I was expecting a birthday card for my eldest from my Auntie thought I'd better pay it (she'd put money in it). It was the card, she put a barcoded 1st class stamp on and the card hardly weighed anything and easily fit through the letterbox. Because it was 20cm sq though I presume it counted as a large letter, standard is 24 x 16.5 cm. I'm sure I've had things like this arrive before ok without having to pay the extra so perhaps they're being stricter. Why not just send it on a 2nd class service instead? As it is the fee to pay card was delivered to me 9 days after she posted the card.
I'm getting fed up of Royal Mail, I've had 3 items of post not arrive at all that I was expecting since before Christmas to now, I get post for random numbers in the road put through my door from time to time, the last 2 letters were hospital ones (thankfully I wasn't away and was able to deliver them correctly) and I'm not convinced we even have postal deliveries every day. 

Sam_Jnr_3

Yip, had "Fee to Pay Card".
I paid on website, item will be delivered, it wasn't.
Called the complaints number and after the routine, 'sorry for unusually high call volumes recorded messages' one hour wait.  Sorted with sincere apologies, it will be delivered said the man who I was kind to, as per the Royal Mail's request. 
It wasn't delivered and I'm still trying to get back in touch with Royal Mail, some 6 weeks of delay on their behalf.  I love the, 'sorry for unusually high call volumes' recorded messages.  Be kind to the team they ask, after some 6 hours this is getting thin.  
Pity there is no Royal Mail option on Martin's current campaign reporting unusually high call volumes. 
The item is either a Christmas Gift of perfume stolen by someone at Royal Mail!  Highly likely, yes I did write "highly likely".  Or it may be the Will that my late Aunt's solicitor is looking for.
Nice one "Royal Mail back room cluster", collectively you let down your public facing team who do a great job despite your incomparable incompetence!

HaxbyLass

45tobyjug - read your note with interest. Doing a search to see if anyone else having problems. I've sold on ebay for 20 years and as I always go to a PO to post so they can check weight and size and get proof of posting never had an issue with postage. However in last 2 weeks I've had 2 buyers contact me to say they have had a fee to pay card for items I've sent them. Seeing as I have a proof of postage to show I paid the postage at a PO I rang customer services to be told "the label must have come off" (they tend to use APL labels rather than stamps at the PO. )I'm sorry I think this is disgusting after having paid they want a further £7 to deliver. I've had to refund both buyers so am out of pocket and I've just received a fee to pay card myself this morning and expect it is the first parcel being returned to me - interestingly the person at customer services said it would be returned to me free of charge if my return address was on. If you can prove you paid the correct postage would you not think they would accept that? It really is time the Government took over. I'm lucky to get mail twice a week. I've read they are prioritising parcels yet in a major Sunday paper's colour supplement before Christmas they had taken out a full page ad encouraging people to send Christmas cards!! how ironic is that. 
Would be interested to hear if anyone else has problems like mine.