reported for item being overweight by Royal Mail
Summary: 14dawnie expressed frustration about being repeatedly reported by Royal Mail for exceeding the 1kg limit on large letters, despite ensuring their packages were within the weight limit. They sought advice from the community on how to dispute these claims, as they felt it was unfair with no way to defend against the accusations. sml192 mentioned that there is no contract with Royal Mail when using Simple Delivery, making disputes difficult. podlingsmum suggested marking the weight on the packages to help challenge future issues. 0179cymru shared a similar experience, noting discrepancies between the actual weight and reported issues, likely due to packaging rather than weight. fullers_uk pointed out a tool available to help with sizing packages.
I am only a casual seller mainly selling my clothes. I have been using simple delivery since it started but just recently I have had 3 or 4 instances of Royal Mail reporting me for being over the 1kg limit on large letters. After the first time it happened, I actually always make sure I weigh my letters before I post so I know that definitely 3 of the packages mentioned were not even close to being near 1 kg! I know that eBay are not passing this extra charge on to me so it's not a big issue but it annoys me that I have no way of defending the accusation!
Has anyone else had experience of this and is there anything we can do to dispute it? Or does it really not matter?
thanks
Dawn
fullers_uk
·1 month agoeBay item number: 406220677881 may be useful, others are available, I go my one free from Royal Mail when PIP was introduced.
0179cymru
·1 month agoI have had the same problem twice lately. Two of the items I sold fitted into large letters but I have been notified that not enough postage was paid. The reason they gave was the postage label stated 1kg and the actual parcel weighed 165g which made no sense at all. Obviously they were in the weight limit and I have a plastic ruler template of a large letter measurement and both parcels slipped through the 25mm easily. So annoying.
sml192
·1 month agoIt's more likely to be the size rather than the weight that has caused it to be flagged, just badly worded by eBay.
Do you use rigid packaging or flexible packaging such as a poly mailer? If you use flexible packaging then what sometimes happens is that the item gets bunched up at one end and as a result fails to fit through the Large Letter gauge on the machine.
14dawnie
OP1 month agothat's possible but my post office always takes the bags through the slot which I assume to be the same as letter box depth so it should still be ok. I'm no doing as suggested here and writing the weight on with a sharpie on everything I send. thanks
podlingsmum
·1 month agoI suggest, if you intend to weigh all your large letters anyway, write the weight on the corner of each one with a fine black marker pen. Make your writing big enough for it to be noticed that you know the weight. If you make note of your sales, include this weight, then if you were to get any problems ahead you can challenge them.
sml192
·1 month ago · EditedWhere Simple Delivery is concerned you have no contract with Royal Mail so you won't be able to dispute anything with them. Provided you selected the size recommended by eBay when listing then there shouldn't be any additional charges.
14dawnie
OP1 month agoThat's the issue- I hadn't selected the recommended size, as eBay keep suggesting small parcel for things like a top or sweater when a large letter should suffice. I hate my "customers" being ripped off on postage -I also think it deters sale if postage is too expensive, so I always select large letter and keep to that size and weight. So far I've not incurred any charge but I suspect that will change at some point and then what? We have no way of challenging it?