Royal Mail bosses accused of ‘lacking Christmas spirit’

[TrueBlueTerrier]

http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/4819932 ... mas_spirit___/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

PEOPLE sending Christmas cards to friends and relatives could be unwittingly costing them money by sending out mail with the insufficient postage price.

One York woman said she was charged £1.17 for an undelivered card because it was a few millimetres thicker than Royal Mail’s prescribed five millimetre limit for a 39p first class stamp.

Janet Parkin, of Heworth, said she feared thousands of people had sent out embossed or hand-crafted cards, which were then being taken back to sorting offices undelivered.

She accused Royal Mail of a lack of Christmas spirit for not delivering cards just a few millimetres over the limit.

After having to visit the Leeman Road sorting office to collect her card and pay the surcharge, Mrs Parkin, 45, said she spoke to a Royal Mail representative.

“I asked why I was having to pay extra for it and the girl said it was because it had some little silver bells on it.

“I measured the card and found it to be eight millimetres and the maximum thickness is five millimetres.

“My friends were afraid that all the cards they sent would have to have extra paid on them. It’s not as if they are doing it on purpose.”

A spokeswoman for Royal Mail said the company was not making any money on the extra charges.

She said: “The £1 handling fee for the small fraction of mail with underpaid postage is to help cover the costs of the extra administrative work involved in handling mail on which no or insufficient postage has been paid.

“In collecting surcharges, Royal Mail is ensuring only that the correct amount of postage is paid.

“This is important for helping keep down the cost of postage and ensuring that those who pay the correct postage are not subsidising those who don’t.”

She pointed out that Royal Mail undertook a widespread publicity campaign when new system of charges was introduced in 2006.

[ndevr]

Typical of that stupid rag, pick up on daft stories (remember the story about the woman crying over a christmas card saying it was insulting to Ginger people). Why didn't the person who received the card ring up the person who sent the card and ask to be reimbursed as it was their mistake, instead of going sobbing her heart out to the York Depress.

[norbert]

Typical of that stupid rag, pick up on daft stories (remember the story about the woman crying over a christmas card saying it was insulting to Ginger people). Why didn't the person who received the card ring up the person who sent the card and ask to be reimbursed as it was their mistake, instead of going sobbing her heart out to the York Depress.

Pricing in Proportion instead of weight has gone on long enough - it costs more to manual sort and cancel stamps if necessary - most businesses have tariffs and rates , I've had to measure height , depth and width + exact weight for a Parcel Firm like many others , who didn't ring up the local ass wipe either .

[not me]

i knew before i even clicked on the story
yawn,yawn,yawn

[steven100]

How are people expecting to know the correct weight etc when most post offices are closing down. Its no point on moaning about customers and we are doing this for the customers when out on strike when on the other hand rm are closing post offices left right and centre and people have to go 2/3 miles to their local post office, only to queue 30 mins before being served.
What are we selfish postman or do we really want a better postal service!!!!!

[not me]

How are people expecting to know the correct weight etc when most post offices are closing down. Its no point on moaning about customers and we are doing this for the customers when out on strike when on the other hand rm are closing post offices left right and centre and people have to go 2/3 miles to their local post office, only to queue 30 mins before being served.
What are we selfish postman or do we really want a better postal service!!!!!

and how many make any effort to check?
most of the cards i have bought in recent times show the size of letter it is