post office

[tony b]

the post woman has just posted a card through me door saying they wont deliver summat coz the potee has not paid enough to have this item sent to me ,hows this happened when items are supposed to be weighed when posted,i dont have any idea what it is ,should i bother picking it up.

[Manky Monkey]

Depends what it is Tony.
Would only be weighed if it's a parcel that was taken to a Post Office for delivery. The system of postal charges was changed a while back & now includes size as well as weight. It might be a large Christmas card that's too big for normal letter post & has been classed as a small packet instead. It might be a Christmas card with a large wad of cash inside that's too thick & heavy to be a normal letter.
"Post Office Counters ltd" are run as a completely seperate business to the delivery side of things, so I've no idea of the pricing structure, but they use a plastic template with a slot in it -if your packet fits through that it goes as letter post. If not, it becomes a parcel & is charged accordingly.
The Post Office charge you a £1 handling fee for underpaid items, so if your card says you need to pay £1.39 for instance, it'll probably be a letter that someone's forgotten to put a stamp on, (£1 fee plus the cost of the missing postage).
You can either go to your local delivery office as directed on the card, pay the fee & collect the item there & then, or you can stick stamps to the value of the fee on the top of the card, bung it back in the post box & the Postie will redeliver the item to you.

[BikerGran]

Apparently a lot of folks are having trouble with Christmas cards - it's so easy to forget about them being oversize.

[Manky Monkey]

Most common colour for Christmas card envelopes is red. Unfortunately Royal Mail's much heralded automated sorting machines can't read black ink on red envelopes so they all still have to be sorted by hand.
I learnt on the online BBC News today that first class stamps are to go up in April from 39p to 41p. First I'd heard of it. They don't tell us anything. I guess that must be to pay for the top guy's 1 1/2 million quid annual bonus, cos we had a pay freeze this year & got nuffink.

[BikerGran]

You're not the only ones where the 'mushroom system' is applied - I read in the local paper today that Dorset Police may have to cut officer numbers and services.  They don't tell us anything either.

[SteveRedd]

I have to say I made a point of opening the door today and telling our postie what a good job he is doing, it's been compacted snow here for miles around for days and they are working extra shifts and long hours to get the post out....who'd be a postie


...well some soppy so and so's would 

[Manky Monkey]

  24 years, man 'n' boy.
I used to be a plasterers mate, (the labourers who mix the plaster & do all the cr*p bits the real plasterer doesn't fancy doing). Got snowed off a job in Andover one Christmas so took a job at Royal Mail just to tide me over for a couple of weeks. Been there ever since.