@barry.110 wrote:
You only have to pay more if you are buying Tracked 24 or Tracked 48 online and taking it to the Post Office.
Correct; it's a recent oddity. Until very recently it was possible to buy (non-account) Tracked online and take it to a PO counter without being surcharged. I suspect the recently introduced surcharge is in part due to the current wrangling by the NFSP.
Tracked services used to be account only; if a retail customer wanted a service with tracking they had to purchase Special Delivery. Royal Mail then introduced non-account Tracked services that could be dropped off at a PO counter; non-account Tracked has different terms to account Tracked due to the statutory rights consumers have. For example, account Tracked only offers compensation for "actual loss" and requires the recipient to state in writing they haven't received the item even if the tracking indicates the item has been lost. Non-account Tracked offers compensation for "market value" and doesn't require the recipient to state they haven't received their item in writing. There are other differences but other than the price and terms account Tracked and non-account Tracked are treated the same within RM's delivery network.
The National Federation of Subpostmasters (the union) wanted non-account Tracked to be available at the counter. This is likely because once people realised they could buy Tracked online - which is a cheaper and superior service to Special Delivery - many PO customers stopped buying SD at the counter. It seems the agreement was in place for this to happen but the NFSP decided their members should be paid more than the company (Post Office Ltd) was offering for each item they process. I can see their point; if someone buys their postage from Royal Mail online and takes the item to the PO counter the subpostmaster likely receives some token amount of a few pence; I certainly wouldn't like to work for nothing!
Give me ambiguity or give me something else.
