Parcelforce tried to charge said Large Package surcharge for extra £130 from parcel2go

marcobdt

I was sending an used rug from marketplace sale and dimension of rug was 230cm when folded, and circumference was 20cm, when I purchase from parcel2go i put everything so much more to allow room for error to avoid miscalculating.

The actual measurement was 230cm x 20cm x 31cm, 19kg
when paying the postage i input as follow 250cm x 35cm x 35cm, 25kg 

So i was very generous with my measurement as mistake bound to happen, but shocked to see email they said the measurement was off by 6cm, length of carpet become 256cm x 19cm x 31cm, which magically i am confused how come 230cm enlarged to 250cm? packed in plastic foil, no wrapper just tape, I was asking them to provide proof as I was invoiced and asked to pay £130 extra for this.

Can they force me to pay without evidence? I can share the actual product dimension its a 230x200cm rug, I can also ask the recipient to remeasure the carpet it self when rolled if needed, I am so shocked and angry because this feels like thievery to me, I did measure everything before buying postage because I did had bad experience in the past getting surcharge by royal mail for extra weight of 100gr of my parcel and I must paid 3x worth of the postage price, so since then I was very vigilant with dimensions and weight, now I learned hard way should have take photo for every parcel too.

I am still waiting for parcelforce with proof of their measurement, and can they charge my card for this surcharge? this is very upsetting the carpet not even worth as much, but paid 85 for initial delivery and now they invoiced me 130, why they don't contact me first asking my permission if i agree to pay the surcharge but delivered the parcel and then tried to rob me after? If i know it, I would ask them to return the parcel to me because no way buyer would pay this extra surcharge

DullGreyGuy

You booked with Parcel2Go or ParcelForce? 

Assuming it's the former then PF will bill P2G who will bill you. Your contract is with P2G and its them that you need to be dealing with. If you ask them they should, eventually, provide the evidence. 

Had it happen to me once, they sent me a photo from their autoscanner/measure thing and clearly there was my parcel and another one tucked under it but sticking out and it had measured the two as a single parcel hence claiming mine was oversized. It's all straight through processing so no human had looked at it before bills sent etc. They did concede it was an error and waived the costs.

RFW

I had something similar too. It turned out mine was a piece of tape that had come unstuck and gave a larger reading. From what I remember it's all automated and they try and suggest it's infallible, it isn't.
It's a ludicrous surcharge anyway, I can send a full pallet for under £100.

marcobdt

DullGreyGuy said:

You booked with Parcel2Go or ParcelForce? 

Assuming it's the former then PF will bill P2G who will bill you. Your contract is with P2G and its them that you need to be dealing with. If you ask them they should, eventually, provide the evidence. 

Had it happen to me once, they sent me a photo from their autoscanner/measure thing and clearly there was my parcel and another one tucked under it but sticking out and it had measured the two as a single parcel hence claiming mine was oversized. It's all straight through processing so no human had looked at it before bills sent etc. They did concede it was an error and waived the costs.

Yes i am using parcel2go service and taking parcelforce out of selection from the quote the other day, i have contacted them and they said it's not really them trying to gave this surcharge but parcelforce invoicing them, so I am asking the proof of pictures and measurement from parcelforce for now, they can write whatever they want but i need hard evidence if my parcel suddenly expanded by 24cm as they claim, and the only thing I want to know are they able to enforce payment and take money from the card I used to purchase the label the other day, very upset about this £130 is a lot of money

marcobdt

RFW said:

I had something similar too. It turned out mine was a piece of tape that had come unstuck and gave a larger reading. From what I remember it's all automated and they try and suggest it's infallible, it isn't.
It's a ludicrous surcharge anyway, I can send a full pallet for under £100.

So do they provide photo evidence for you of their measurement? 

marcobdt

And moreover, why did they not contact me first said seems like your measurement is wrong if that is the case, they just shipped the product and forced me to pay the insane penalty after, this seems to me more like a trick to harvest money more than the surcharge itself, at least royal mail sending a card to recipient said postage is underpaid and the recipient can decide to pay the surcharge or leave it as it is and parcel returned to sender.

Who in their right mind thinks it's ok to pay £215 for delivering rolled carpet between 2-hour city trips? this is proper thievery from the Parcelforce

RFW

marcobdt said:

RFW said:

I had something similar too. It turned out mine was a piece of tape that had come unstuck and gave a larger reading. From what I remember it's all automated and they try and suggest it's infallible, it isn't.
It's a ludicrous surcharge anyway, I can send a full pallet for under £100.

So do they provide photo evidence for you of their measurement? 

They did. It's a while ago. I'd assume their system is better now with improved tech.

There was one other where they tried it but didn't have a picture. It was a type of parcel I'd sent loads of so the size and weight had never been questioned. I had an account with Parcelforce at the time and got that waived from memory. 
I'd assume it's harder with a third party. Don't let them take any money while you dispute it. A lot of them will take the money from you and make you fight to get it back. It's a lot easier to fight if they haven't got your money. I'd be surprised if they pursued it vigorously, I can't imagine a court looking too favourably on the excessive surcharge no matter what any ts&cs say.

DullGreyGuy

marcobdt said:

RFW said:

I had something similar too. It turned out mine was a piece of tape that had come unstuck and gave a larger reading. From what I remember it's all automated and they try and suggest it's infallible, it isn't.
It's a ludicrous surcharge anyway, I can send a full pallet for under £100.

So do they provide photo evidence for you of their measurement? 

For me it wasnt PF but they all operate the same way... I had to get it from P2G though because they are the one you are in contract with.