Royal mail issues

I have been having issues with Royal Mail, after having several complaints from buyers who have had items sent to them via Royal Mail, these have been weighted at the post office by the post office staff and paid for there and then.
Customers are saying that l have not paid enough postal charges and asking for are refiund on the payments they have had to make.
Not sure were to go with this one, but seems strange they are all the ones that have been sent to Scotland that have had the issue.
Any help please.

Thanks for the reply, have asked for the paperwork to be sent, as it does seem strange

Is it the weight, or the parcel size? Sometimes PO staff allow things to go as Large Letter when they should be Small Parcel - it’s still their fault, but could be the reason. If you still have the certificate of posting, that should show how it was sent and will help you to prove your case.

Be very thankful that they have contacted you and not left you negative feedback as that is a business killer! As Stevie says, refund pronto and take it up with the PO.

Just come back from a different post office with the same style cards, envelope etc and was told l had paid the right price, clearly shows its not my fault, so will take it up with RM this evening

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Hi, Can I ask if the problem is regarding cards? Are you sending them out as ‘Letters’ but some are being classed as ‘Large Letters’ at the sorting offices and they are therefore being marked as insufficient postage. If so, do you send them in brown ‘do not bend’ envelopes? If so, the brown envelope might be the issue. I’ve been selling cards online for over 6 years and I send them all out in brown ‘do not bend’ envelopes. Last year I sourced a cheaper brown envelope, it was 5mm longer than the ones I had been using, but this still fitted in the ‘Letter’ bracket and I doubled checked this with 2 Post offices to make sure it was OK. Low and behold, all of a sudden I started to get complaints that they had insufficient postage on them! It seems that although the Post Offices confirmed that they were indeed ‘Letters’, some sorting offices were claiming that they were ‘Large Letters’. I’ve now swapped back to original brown envelopes and I haven’t had a single issue since, touches wood. I seem to remember that a couple of the insufficient instances were cards sent to Scotland.

Hi Ali yes it is cards they are being send out in the brown envelope with the words do not bend on them, l know they are large letter size, as that is all l use, going by what you say, maybe that is what ths issue is, as it does seems strange that out of 30 cards l have sent in the last three weeks,the only issue has been the ones going to Scotland.

Ah, so your issue is that you are sending them out as Large Letters already. Out of interest, how big is the brown envelope, what weight is the Post office saying they are, and how thick is the letter?

Yes I think it is the weight too.
There is only a small window on the 90p large letter weight before it jumps to £1.24.
(or thereabouts. …I know Royal, Mail put up the prices last month bug I have yet to catch up)

Sarah x

Have yet to see what weight they have told the customer it is, but my my receipt it weights under the 100grms - 75grams size was 22cm x27cm x 1.5cm

The 95p large letter weight is for up to 100g, £1.24 is for 100-250g which would make for one heck of an embellished card! The size and weight you quote should put it safely within the large letter upto 100g bracket. You might know that they should go large letter but is your post office checking and charging accordingly? Are you sure that they haven’t mistakenly charged to for standard letter rates? I’ve been to my local post office with something that I know should be a certain size (and price) and then had to get them to double check the size when they have just glanced at it and assumed it to be within a different size category.
I’m assuming that the Royal Mail we have in England is the same as the Royal Mail they have in Scotland - with the same size and weight brackets - since privatisation you can never be completely sure with these things. (and what sort of nightmares will we get if Scotland devolves!)
It will be interesting to see how easy it is to get RM to cough up the refunds as it definately soulds like they’ve made a mistake.
Good Luck
Sasha

Oh, it doesn’t sound like the problem is with the size of the envelope then, as it’s well within the large letter size, and I’m guessing that no one at the Post Office would think it’s a standard letter size as it’s too big for that. It must be down to the weight or the thickness, even though it’s 1.5cm, there may be some people at the sorting offices who are saying it’s 2.5!
The problem is that the Post Office and Royal Mail are 2 different companies now, and no matter what the Post Office say, Royal Mail will over ride them. If they say it’s been under paid, then you can’t do anything about it other than complain to Royal Mail and try to get to the bottom of why they are saying it’s underpaid. Good luck