I posted a box today, admittedly I didn’t measure it as I hoped it would be around a small parcel size.
I took it to the PO and the lady measured it.
Turns out that depending on where you put the address, dictates which measurement applies to the PO measurements.
eg (Ive made these dimensions up) PO says box can be 20cm deep and 16cm across, but depending on where the address is, it could be measured as 16cm deep and 20cm across making it too big one way and the postage price goes up.(Ii hope that made sense)
The lady didn’t seem too sure which wasn’t helpful, I changed where Id put the address and luckily it went through as a small parcel.
As far as I’m aware ( and I could be wrong ) where you put the address is irrelevant, it’s the overall dimensions that matter. As long as the parcel passes through their guide thingy it should be okay.
My PO will just measure the box in their guide, if it fits it doesn’t matter what side the label is on. After all, when going through the automated machines at the sorting office they don’t stand them all one way up to go through the size sorter. I’m sure some of the PO staff make up their own rules so that they can charge extra.
I’ve never had any thing like that before. I take my parcel to the same PO if I can and they’ve now got to know me more, they don’t even ask me any more what’s in the parcel because its always the same answer and in fact I was told by One postmaster lady that the owner might be interested in selling my things in there.
That doesn’t sound right. Unless it is when the parcels go through the conveyor belt at the sorting office the address has to be showing on top (or wherever the computers read it from) so if it’s stuck on the wrong side it could make the depth too much (that’s more than likely the measurement that would take it out of small parcel as that’s the shortest at 16cm). That’s all I can think would be the reason for that.
Never ever had this happen and I’ve posted plenty random shaped things where the address label just gets shoved anywhere.
It sounds like this PO lady really didn’t know what she was doing.
Our post office is very helpful, they have a box for you to fit your parcel into it, if it fits then they know the price. It makes it easy for me when posting my cushions.
I know our little PO have a box but it’s behind the counter and they always put my parcels in to double check but I usually do it all myself at home. It’s a nightmare in our house trying to find the right size boxes. I keep any decent boxes which I receive items in, so my spare room is packed to the rafters with boxes.
I reckon Post Offices charge what they want !!! The Post Office near me charges £3.15 to post earrings or a bracelet to the US. The one in Reading town centre wanted to charge me nearly £6 and my mum posted a necklace 2 weeks ago and she was only charged £2.70 ish !!! Everything has always arrived and no-one has ever advised me that they have had to pay extra for postage. My friend posted her wedding invites which were exactly the same and posted from the same Post Office at the same time. All the ones my side of Reading got delivered but all the ones on the other side of Reading were undelivered because they said there wasn’t enough postage on them !!!
I asked my postie friend and Im happy to report that my original concern is total rubbish, it doesn’t matter where the address goes or which bits are measured, as long as it fits the appropriate dimensions.
