topic Re: At the Post Office in Postage

At the Post Office

plummetairlines — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 20:12:24 GMT

I often have a few items to post. Some of them will be Simple Delivery, and others have labels from Click & Drop.
Some of the ladies at my sub post office only weigh the ones with Click&Drop labels, and don't bother to weigh the Simple Delivery ones. Some do it the other way round!
And one of them always asks me whether the Simple Delivery packets are Large Letters or Small Parcels as it doesn't say on the labels.
I don't actually mind what they do, but I'm curious to know what they should be doing.

Re: At the Post Office

c_of_e84 — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 21:24:19 GMT

They ask because they get paid different rates for accepting different size parcels.

Re: At the Post Office

style_wise — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:04:44 GMT

The Royal Mail employees have a tool for measuring whether something is Large Letter or Small Parcel - they should be telling you! (Not the other way around 😂.) Otherwise we could all just say 'It's Large Letter' and save a lot of money!

Re: At the Post Office

sml192 — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 22:56:48 GMT

There is definitely no need for Simple Delivery items to be weighed or measured provided the item is within the maximum weight and dimensions permitted by the carrier. As Simple Delivery items are sent as part of a flat rate business contract, between eBay and the carrier, the Post Office won't be penalised for accepting any overweight/oversized items.

Re: At the Post Office

neovass0 — Fri, 20 Mar 2026 03:03:06 GMT

Yeah, my local post office will ask whether the Simple Delivery packets are Large Letters or Small Parcels, but I'm glad of that. I sell books, so many are borderline and I would rather they be the largest item in the letter sack, than the smallest item in the parcel sack, lol. Speaking to them, the staff at my branch do this out of courtesy, not because they are obliged to. Furthermore, I've asked and they are indeed under instructions to randomly weigh some of the simple delivery items. I doubt they can monitor it properly, but the Post Office /Royal mail are not stupid, they know people abuse the system, even with simple delivery. I bought a large toy last year (not simple delivery) and the seller only paid postage for a letter under 100g, even though I was charged parcel postage ! They showed me the label at the depot, as the postman left a card asking me to pay ~£7 to receive it. I declined and just asked for a refund a week later when it wasn't delivered.