Pensioner's Christmas postal warning

[johnnyp]

Pensioner's Christmas postal warning
Comment
A PENSIONER is warning people sending Christmas cards this festive season to make sure they attach enough postage after paying fees that she called a "con".

Jean Burchett, 70, of St Martins Close, Winnall, Winchester, said she had received several cards from friends who had not put enough postage for a large' letter on the envelope, under the Royal Mail's pricing structure, which came into effect 18 months ago.

Each time she had to collect the card from the sorting office in Winnall Manor Road - and stump up the £1 fee plus the difference in the price each time.

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A basic first class stamp costs 34p, but a large one is 48p. If an insufficient amount is stuck on an envelope, the Royal Mail charges the £1 fee, plus the difference in postage.

All items are treated as second class, so Mrs Burchett had to pay the difference of 6p between a basic first class stamp and a large second class stamp (40p).

Mrs Burchett, who lives with her partner, Harold Robbins, 79, said: "I think it's deplorable that they're charging that sort of money.

"It's if it's a large envelope, but when it comes from miles away it's hard to say buy a small card'.

"Most of the Christmas cards in the shops are large, it's a con as far as I'm concerned. It's a nuisance and it's disgusting that it's cost me £3.18 extra.

"I think it should be publicised that people should not buy large cards."

She said there was a big queue at the sorting office each time and that many people, like her, were collecting Christmas cards.

Richard Hall, a spokesman for Royal Mail, said: "We do surcharge items where the postage has been underpaid; however, that charge does not cover the additional costs to us in handling those items and collecting the shortfall in postage, so we're losing money on those items anyway.

"The changes were made 18 months ago; most cards now, if you look on the back of them, will say letter' or large letter' to advise customers."

He said every household in the country was given a size guide template 18 months ago and they are available at all post offices.

Mr Hall added: "The onus does have to be on the sender to pay the correct postage."

*What do you think about this? Add your comments below.

[Lounge Lizard]

I remember in the 1960s the Royal Mail intended charging by the size of envelope and, even though it never happened, long in advance all smaller envelopes and greetings cards sold carried the "Post Office Preferred" words and logo to indicate that they qualified for the lower postage rate. Why then with the new 'Letter', 'Large Letter' and 'Packet' charging system is it only eighteen months later that cards etc. start carrying an indication of whether they're the 'Letter' or 'Large Letter' rate ? Royal Mail must have planned this a good while in advance of August last year, so why didn't they get the envelope producers and card manufacturers on board in good time ? If they had they wouldn't now be getting all this flak about the £1.06 surcharges for Christmas cards that are a bit too tall or wide.

[pinstripe]

Much as I hate to defend RM, but this system has been in place since August last year. If you remember last Christmas incorrectly paid items like cards and large letters were not surcharged as it was felt that the public hadn't had enough time to get used to the new pricing structure. I had loads of items that I delivered last year that had a label stuck on them notifying the customer that the item was underpaid, but on this occasion would not be charged. Maybe if RM had charged the full amount from them last year then we wouldn't be having the problem now. Customers must realise that they are responsible for paying the correct amount of postage on the items that they send. You couldn't go into Tesco to do your shopping and expect to pay what you paid the week or the year before. Prices usually go up, and it's not the fault of the cashier on the till is it? I'm afraid that too many people expect too much. If it was only one or two items that were underpaid there wouldn't be a problem, but there must be thousands and thousands of them. Imagine if there were only 1000 underpaid items by 6p, a day over say 15 days of Christmas postings. If my arithmetic is correct thats £900 alone in unpaid postage. Now add in the actual amount......

Anyway, Merry Christmas

[andy2007]

The point is, that it is the RECIPIENT who has to pay the charges. This could add up to a lot of money, if they get lots of cards posted to them. Most of the year, people don't tend to get as many items posted to them from members of the Public. Most of them will be sent by Companies (bills, etc.), or will be parcels. Which are posted at the Post Office, so the sender can have their mistake pointed out to them at the time.

This is an unneccesarily complicated system for most people, as they have to measure each item. Cards vary in size, and some of them are quite close to the boundry between normal and large letter Postage.

[Lounge Lizard]

The point is, that it is the RECIPIENT who has to pay the charges. This could add up to a lot of money, if they get lots of cards posted to them. Most of the year, people don't tend to get as many items posted to them from members of the Public. Most of them will be sent by Companies (bills, etc.), or will be parcels. Which are posted at the Post Office, so the sender can have their mistake pointed out to them at the time.

This is an unneccesarily complicated system for most people, as they have to measure each item. Cards vary in size, and some of them are quite close to the boundry between normal and large letter Postage.

Just shows what a nation of tight-fisted whingers we have now. In Italy during the nineteenth century it was normal practice NOT to prepay postage, the recipient then paying, Postage Due stamps having been added by the Post Office - there and then the recipient might have been offended if the sender paid implying that the recipient might not be able to afford the postage.

[not me]

fact is that people just need to learn the postage costs.
pure and simple.
how many people stop unofficially redirecting mail when told they should have a redirection?
how many stop when they start getting hit by charges?

RM let these slide last year and ive had many in who say the same person didnt put enough postage on last year
but they didnt have to pay.
for RM its a nice earner just now as the fee's are racking up serious amounts in our office so i assume its the same nationally.

postage costs what it costs.if people struggle to get the concept of costs then they cna take the cards to their local po(if they still have one!)
and hopefully generate extra income for the post office and maybe use other PO services

[DGP1]

ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/publi ... lchart.pdf Poster for pricing from RM (with sizing)

ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/publi ... 6Jan07.pdf full pricelist including d2d prices and business pricing

[not me]

handy links