Magazine postage underpaid

[John Watkins]

Got my magazine as usual with no problem and no surcharge. At work we use lots of plastic A4 envelopes for mail to clients for a good number of years and have never had one issue with a surcharge with them on material ground. All of our mail is franked at work though, but this should not make a difference.

Take it up with the Post Office as the material the envelope is made out of should make no different at all as their rules are as follows from 5/10/2015:

Item Old process New process
Letters/Large Letters – no postage paid £1 handling fee plus outstanding postage £2 flat fee
Letters/Large Letters - insufficient postage paid £1 handling fee plus outstanding postage £1.50 flat fee
Small Parcel - underpaid/no postage paid £1 handling fee plus outstanding postage £3 flat fee
Medium Parcel - underpaid/no postage paid £1 handling fee plus outstanding postage £1.50 plus incremental postage rounded to the nearest 10 pence

I hope the above "posts" OK as a table. Looks like they are stating there was insufficient postage paid.

[andyburnett]

Got my magazine as usual with no problem and no surcharge. At work we use lots of plastic A4 envelopes for mail to clients for a good number of years and have never had one issue with a surcharge with them on material ground. All of our mail is franked at work though, but this should not make a difference.

Take it up with the Post Office as the material the envelope is made out of should make no different at all as their rules are as follows from 5/10/2015:

Item Old process New process
Letters/Large Letters – no postage paid £1 handling fee plus outstanding postage £2 flat fee
Letters/Large Letters - insufficient postage paid £1 handling fee plus outstanding postage £1.50 flat fee
Small Parcel - underpaid/no postage paid £1 handling fee plus outstanding postage £3 flat fee
Medium Parcel - underpaid/no postage paid £1 handling fee plus outstanding postage £1.50 plus incremental postage rounded to the nearest 10 pence

I hope the above "posts" OK as a table. Looks like they are stating there was insufficient postage paid.

Thanks John, I had a look at that table last night. The magazines are the same size as they always were - they are classed as letters, and second class postage is always used and fine for this purpose.

I will try to devise a way to refund all those who paid the excess, although Royal Mail will probably ask everyone to apply separately.

[Ken_Stewart]

Does the issue relate to the weight? This time it was very close to 100g which seems to be the maximum for a letter as opposed to a "large letter". Accordingly if PO thought weight was over 100g that may be reason for its actions.
Though I was OK, Eric Martin, just down the road, was charged.

[Patrick McGovern]

me too

[John Watkins]

I just weighed my magazine. Nothing better to do on a Sunday night. It comes to 89g. So there must have been some heavy envelope, label and stamp to take it above 100g.

[Gerald Lobley]

Similarly in darkest Aberdeenshire a slip though the door stating I need to pay 1.50 to have the delivery. Paid online and should arrive on Wednesday.
Went into local Post Office and asked them to weigh couple of previous issues
Oct 2015 (36 pages) 76g
Aug 2015 (40 pages) 84 g

BUT not just weight she said, also thickness. The August magazine barely went through the sample slot and if you add any internal packing plus the envelope it would have been tight fit. So if current tome is a 'bumper' version it may be classified as large rather than regular. Cost for 2nd class regular would be 54p while for the same as large would be 74p. So what did you pay?

Could check again at the Post Office when it arrives (and unopened) if you want.

Hope this helps

Gerald

[andyburnett]

Similarly in darkest Aberdeenshire a slip though the door stating I need to pay 1.50 to have the delivery. Paid online and should arrive on Wednesday.
Went into local Post Office and asked them to weigh couple of previous issues
Oct 2015 (36 pages) 76g
Aug 2015 (40 pages) 84 g

BUT not just weight she said, also thickness. The August magazine barely went through the sample slot and if you add any internal packing plus the envelope it would have been tight fit. So if current tome is a 'bumper' version it may be classified as large rather than regular. Cost for 2nd class regular would be 54p while for the same as large would be 74p. So what did you pay?

Could check again at the Post Office when it arrives (and unopened) if you want.

Hope this helps

Gerald

Hi Gerald,

Thanks for that! When my brother Walter went to post the 'international' ones, the woman claimed they were too big for the slot, but when asked to retry it they were just fine.

I have yet to receive a reply from Royal Mail, but it sounds as though the sorting offices/Post Offices have generally just been a bit lazy and/or have been told they should err on the side of taking extra money if something is 'close'. Just my 'uneducated' opinion however.

Will keep this thread updated as and when I receive more information, and my apologies to everyone affected.

Andy Burnett

[Gerald Lobley]

Just to follow up - the magazine arrived today and I took the unopened package to the local Post Office
Weight fine (94g)
2D size fine for small envelope

BUT difficult to go through standard slot (plastic wrapping tended to bunch and needed to be forced through).
Suggestion made that probably would have been OK if paper envelope used rather than plastic wrapping.

Decision on thickness is decided at delivery office so that explains the erratic nature of surcharge or not from different parts of the country.

Now I can open the package and read the contents!