UK Postal Rate Madness!!

This morning I popped into the post office to send some seeds to Norway. Gave the lady the addressed envelope and said " I need a first class stamp for this". She looked at it, felt it and then tried to put it through the thickness testing slot. As it was over 5mm thick it failed and she said "That'll be 73p please".
I replied "That's cheap to Norway" and she looked at the address again before saying "Oh sorry, could you put it on the scales please". I did and she replied "That's 68p please". First class I asked and she confirmed that it was!

So, 73pence here in the UK, as being thicker than 5mm it does require extra effort to deliver, or 68pence to Norway as it's light enough not to require any extra effort to deliver!

Go figure, because I'm darned if I can work it out!!

 

Perhaps the average Norwegian post office worker is considerably stronger than the average British one, and therefore for them its no effort?

I've met a few Norwegians. They are big powerful people, or the few that I've met were at least.

 

What was that about rip off Britain?

 

Mad isn't it? I questioned it, but deffo correct.

No wonder this organisation is failing.

I sent the same Lathyrus seeds to someone over here with just a first class stamp - they had to pay £1.19 and collect it from the local depot because I had used the wrong stamp!

 

May be it's because Norway's postmen are delivering it the other end and they come cheaper than British postmen!

 

that's probably as a favour to Norwegians since they send each year a big Christmas tree to Oxford street.:happydance:

 

Upto about 4 years ago we had a regular postie,good as gold could set your watch by him,9.00 every morning he would park his push bike next to neighbours wall, back then we hardly had any junk mail perhaps 2-3 per week.
Now we are told the Royal Mail can not afford to function without junk mail as this subsides our letter costs,but now we have 2 postmen in a van who arrive when they choose.After Paul retired (the original postie) when had loads of temporary posties come and go and wrong addressed mail on a regular basis.

 

Royal Mail here on the island functions without junk mail, in fact it's illegal along with hawkers.

 

Thats a nasty side of GPO. There has been a trend of companies sending letters to private addresses and not affixing stamps.
GPO charge £1.00 + any underpayment of postage and (subject to the individual at the service desk at the sorting office) you may have to pay the charge BEFORE being given sight of the letter/package you have been asked to collect.
It feels like daylight robbery when it's a circular from some inane company.
Mind you it's not much better when you receive a Christmas card from someone who sends a large thick card and puts the minimum 2nd class postage on the envelope (bitter experience - once, never again)

Royal Mail Please Note:- give the customer the chance of declining the invitation to invest in the delivery by letting them see the package they are being asked to pay for.

 

I sometimes wonder if the post offices across the country add a few extra grams to the scales so they can charge the customer a bit more than they really need to pay. Earning a bit of cash on the side in the process.

 

That is outrageous!

Sheal - I like the junk mail that comes with pre-paid envelopes. Simply save, jumble it all up and then pop it in the post using the pre-paid! Stepson used to work in one of these places (lasted a week before he walked out) and the manager of the sales team used to rant about it!

JJ - how would they make a bit extra on the side? I use three local PO's and trust them implicitly. If there are queues, I just go to the front, slide everything under with the cash/cheque and pop back later.

 

On another forum we were sharing a book, when read, post to next on the list
I got it from someone in Essex postage £2.21, My next on the list was CANADA
OMG I went to the P.O in trepadition, £1.35 please ?, no it was not sea mail they got it in two days

Jack McHammocklashing

 

Confirmation if it were needed that our PO is barking mad!!!

 

If you think the prices mentioned above are high - look at my post of yesterday - Link: http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/non-gardening-discussion/40295-postage-price-increases.html