High price for mail delivery

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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THE postman dropped a card through the door of my 87-year-old mum's house telling her they will not be delivering a letter as there was an underpayment of 9p.

To get the item she could either travel from Sketty to collect it in Llansamlet or pay the outstanding online.

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However the price is now not 9p, but £1.09.

Anyway I thought I'd pay it online for her then it could be redelivered.

However after being forced to set up an account, I finally got to the payment screen and paid, but I got an error message saying "payment unsuccessful".

I tried again and got the same message, so I checked my card provider who said the card was showing payment as having been taken four times!

Now the fun began, calling Royal Mail Customer services.

This is where the profit really begins as I am put in a queue. After about 20 minutes I gave up.

I tried later and after another 20 minutes an unhelpful agent tells me I will have to phone another number as it's a technical problem and no refund is given for telephone calls.

Only a 10 minute wait this time as I need to know if payment has been made, otherwise the letter will be returned to sender.

A helpful person discusses the problem with the system and transfers again so that I can make a payment so that the letter will be delivered.

If you take into account the profit Royal Mail made from this 9p underpayment with first the £1 for handling added, then the cost of the lengthy waits due to under-staffing of their customer services, we must all be in the wrong business!

[Lounge Lizard]

"To get the item she could either travel from Sketty to collect it in Llansamlet or pay the outstanding online. However the price is now not 9p, but £1.09."
In such circumstances recipients of £1.09 To Pay cards on my round are most likely to give me the card and the cash the following day for the underpaid item to be delivered one day after that.

[Pinky 1]

As well as LL's suggestion, why didn't she just put stamps to the value of £1.09 on to the back of the card ?
The item would have then been delivered, saving her a trip to Llansamlet .

[Lounge Lizard]

As well as LL's suggestion, why didn't she just put stamps to the value of £1.09 on to the back of the card ?
The item would have then been delivered, saving her a trip to Llansamlet .

Indeed. A first Class stamp plus a Second Class stamp totals £1.10, just 1p wasted and no trip to Llansamlet.

[TeeferTiger]

As well as LL's suggestion, why didn't she just put stamps to the value of £1.09 on to the back of the card ?
The item would have then been delivered, saving her a trip to Llansamlet .

Indeed. A first Class stamp plus a Second Class stamp totals £1.10, just 1p wasted and no trip to Llansamlet.

Or even if she was near a post office, she could've got exact postage put on... no 1p wasted or a trip to Llansamlet, and it gets her out the house

[FairyFoot]

To companies make money on 0845 numbers?

[Stormproof]

To companies make money on 0845 numbers?

I don't think they make money on 0845 numbers. A lot of call providers have 0845 numbers free of charge as part of a package.