I sent a small, and I mean small package this afternoon. I thought for a bit of extra security I'd use a Jiffy bag. The woman at the Post Office then made a song and dance about it not fitting through a tiny hole cut in a piece of plastic. I pushed it through with no problems and she then had another go just to demonstrate to me how difficult it really was. All the time I was thinking that I've never seen a letter box that narrow, or have I? And what difference paying an extra 29p is going to make on the other side? Is it so the postie can buy a protien bar?
What gives?
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What's this with the Post Office?
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Posted 9 months ago #
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apparently it is the gap the letter passes through in the sorting machine at the depo.
Why not just make the machine bigger?
Posted 9 months ago # -
Riot?
Posted 9 months ago # -
I sent a small, and I mean small package this afternoon
Clearly if it didn't go through the hole it wasn't. Do you think they should have no size restrictions so that you can send a huge box for the same price as an envelope (if it's light enough)?Posted 9 months ago # -
apparently it is the gap the letter passes through in the sorting machine at the depo.
Why not just make the machine bigger?
Good point, well made.Do you think they should have no size restrictions so that you can send a huge box for the same price as an envelope (if it's light enough)?
I would expect the hole in the plastic would be representative of an average letterbox and not one third the size. No problem for paying for something if it's just, just don't like being ripped off or conned.Posted 9 months ago # -
I would expect the hole in the plastic would be representative of an average letterbox
So you don't think that the cost to them of transporting items varies on size providing each individual item will go through a letterbox?Posted 9 months ago # -
What are you talking about?
Posted 9 months ago # -
I thought every house in the country got sent one of those bits of plastic with the different sized holes in it when they started the new postal charges based on size as well as weight.
What did you do with yours ?
Posted 9 months ago # -
I've only been in the country for two weeks. I haven't got one. It's all new to me...
Posted 9 months ago # -
I dislike the fact one has to walk to the Post Office with every single item in case it's a little too thick or heavy for a normal stamp. If I buy a stamp for 50p and stick it on a postcard the Post Office will take it to it's destination with no issues. If I also want to send a cd in a jiffy bag to the same address at the same time I have to pay three times the price for the privilege. I understand that if I want to send a pair of wellies in a box I'll have to pay more, but I fail to see why anything under letterbox size commands a premium. If anything, charge a flat rate of £1 for all parcels, letters and cards under letterbox size (reducing queues at Post Office counters) and go up from there for items which are obviously oversize.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I thought every house in the country got sent one of those bits of plastic with the different sized holes in it when they started the new postal charges based on size as well as weight.
What did you do with yours ?
Ha, first I've heard of it.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Ha, first I've heard of it.
Couldn't get it through your letter box?Posted 9 months ago # -
A 50 foot steel pole will go through a letterbox. Eventually.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Its been that way for 5 years now, please make an effort to keep up.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I fail to see why anything under letterbox size commands a premium.
Like the don, you don't get that being bigger costs them more well before it gets bigger than letterbox size (and that those who post lots of normal letters would be rather unimpressed with your pricing plan)? I also don't understand why you have to traipse to the PO - do you not own a ruler in your household? If it's that big an issue for you, and you have lost (or didn't get - can't recall having one myself) the bit of plastic it's hardly difficult to make a width gauge out of a bit of card.Posted 9 months ago # -
Like the don, you don't get that being bigger costs them more well before it gets bigger than letterbox size
I do understand that, I was slightly amused at something that I was able to get through the little hole without problems, twice, nearly gave the lady on the counter a heart attack so that could show me that it was too big. When I left the country you went to the Post Office, gave them a package/letter, it got weighed and you paid a fair price for a fair service, if it was too big to fit through a letterbox it became a packet. Basically aracer I cand send a letter sized piece of lead for less money than a shoebox of feathers. A bit pissed don't you think?Posted 9 months ago # -
Basically aracer I cand send a letter sized piece of lead for less money than a shoebox of feathers.
You really don't get this do you?
Posted 9 months ago # -
It's all to do with some woman who is niw in charge of the PO trying to charge extra for everything to make the company look good before they float it, nothing ti do with her having a tight box just a tight purse.
Posted 9 months ago # -
If they can't get it through my flap at the front, they usually take it up my back passage. Or my neighbour signs for it.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I'm confused - but not as much as you are. How do you reconcile your understanding that being larger costs them more with:
I cand send a letter sized piece of lead for less money than a shoebox of feathers. A bit pissed don't you think?
Meanwhile you do understand that the hole demonstrates the maximum dimensions rather than being a go/no-go gauge - if you have to force it through then clearly it is larger than specified?
Posted 9 months ago # -
You really don't get this do you?
Explain to me why this new system is better than the old way of simply weighing and using eyesight and common sense without looking stupid.Posted 9 months ago # -
It prices things more closely in proportion to how much it costs them to deliver. How hard is that to understand?
Posted 9 months ago # -
I reckon it makes a lot of stuff easier. I know if i've a letter to post it's one price if it's a wee bit bigger it's another. Means that for the majority of stuff I don't need to go into the post office to get stuff weighed. Which is good as I hate going into the Post Office, mainly because our post office is no longer a Post Office as such but a conversion of the former record department of WH Smiths. Horrible, horrible place.
Posted 9 months ago # -
How does the same weight but slightly bigger affect the price? We're talking small enough to go through the hole except when a song and dance is made.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I've just had a look at the PP page and a letter that weighs between 0-100g will cost either 42p or 75p, simply dependant on size. And you think this is logical? What difference is size going to make? You've been suckered my loverlies...
This is because it believes the size and shape of most mail is a more important factor in the cost of mail sorting and delivery than weight.
From the same page.Posted 9 months ago # -
What difference is size going to make?
None at all. Clearly it's just as cheap for them to deliver your shoebox of feathers as an envelope of lead
Are you having issues with the fact that people on here are disagreeing with you?
Posted 9 months ago # -
Are you having issues with the fact that people on here are disagreeing with you?
No, why?
You still haven't explained the effect of size on the cost. Maybe the lead/feather example was too subtle a reference for you.
Tell me why a letter of 99g of 240mmX165mmX5mm is cheaper to send than a 50g Large Letter of 240mmX165mmX6mm.Posted 9 months ago # -
bigger volume = more money for R.Mail to transport the package
Even if it is for the same weight of package as you get less packages per van load with larger items so you have to pay more for all that extra space you've used up
Which incidentally is why you get silly sized packages from CRC, they're maximising the amount of packages they can get into a van by making them all a uniform size, therefore reducing their packaging costs and maximising their profits
Or something like that, anyway it's late and I can't believe that someone doesn't actually understand this basic principle of logistics
Posted 9 months ago # -
Or something like that, anyway it's late and I can't believe that someone doesn't actually understand this basic principle of logistics
Best tell the airlines as they tend to work on weight and while you're at it tell the major logistic companies, you know, DHL and TNT who charge by weight, and in general, not by volume.
Does RM have special vehicles that don't consume more fuel the more weight they carry?
You've been suckered.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Tell me why a letter of 99g of 240mmX165mmX5mm is cheaper to send than a 50g Large Letter of 240mmX165mmX6mm.
Presumably one goes through an automated mail sorting machine, the other doesn't.More to the point, do you think it unreasonable that a 350x240x20 90g "letter" should cost more than a 230x160x4 90g letter (which it is over 10 times the volume of)?
Posted 9 months ago # -
And what difference paying an extra 29p is going to make on the other side?
If it's only 29p, why not just pay it and STFU?
while you're at it tell the major logistic companies, you know, DHL and TNT who charge by weight
They will all ask you for dimensions of a package when booking a collection, and charge accordingly.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Best tell the airlines as they tend to work on weight
Which is perfectly reasonable because they have volume to spare, whilst extra weight costs them money.
while you're at it tell the major logistic companies, you know, DHL and TNT who charge by weight, and in general, not by volume
They too tend to be limited by weight rather than volume when they're loading delivery vehicles with parcels.
Does RM have special vehicles that don't consume more fuel the more weight they carry?
No, but it has plenty of points in the delivery process which are limited by volume rather than weight - hence if it gets more volume it has to send out 2 vans rather than 1. It's completely fallacious to compare RM with airlines or other delivery companies.Posted 9 months ago # -
Couriers charge by volumetric weight (aka dimensional weight), not actual weight, the size of the package is more important than the weight when it comes to calculating costs
Posted 9 months ago # -
More to the point, do you think it unreasonable that a 350x240x20 90g "letter" should cost more than a 230x160x4 90g letter (which it is over 10 times the volume of)?
Presumably one goes through an automated mail sorting machine, the other doesn't.
Posted 9 months ago # -
not actual weight, the size of the package is more important than the weight when it comes to calculating costs
Why is my DHL price list calculated on weight, with no mention of volume?Posted 9 months ago #
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