Overcharging in Earlsfield Post Office? Post Reply

[Supernova]

Hello everyone

I just wanted to ask those of you using the Post Office in Earlsfield (opposite Dumlers the Chemist) if you have had any similar experiences to mine.

Today I attempted to send a 12g letter to Europe and was quoted the price of £1.28 which was wrong. I knew that posting an item weighing less than 21g would cost £0.87. I have double checked with the man behind the counter that the weight/postage situation wasn’t borderline, which it obviously wasn’t, and I was then quoted the correct price.

I am afraid this is not the first time something like this happened to me in that Post Office. On another occasion I was quoted a Signed For price for an A4-sized letter instead of the First Class postage that I asked for. Whilst queuing there before Christmas I witnessed the man behind the counter offering more expensive Signed For service to customer after customer on the premise that the normal First Class mail was “slow and unreliable”.

On yet another occasion my husband and I popped in to the PO to get 6-months car tax – and were quoted a wrong, way more expensive price. My DH had to challenge the man behind the counter quite assertively before he got the right price.

There have been too many occasions for this kind of thing to look like an accident. I should stress that this is only our experience but before considering whether to take it any further I’d be grateful to hear if anyone has had similar experiences that they are willing to share with me. Feel free to post or pm me.

[shaneleone]

On a related note - I've noticed for a while now that I am never given the correct change back at the post office on Trinity Road (opp Marks & Spencer). Every time I've gone in there, I'm shorted a few pence - 10, 20, 50 p. The first couple of times, I thought it must have been a mistake and I'd already left. It's always too small an amount to return for. Yet once I started noticing, I've realised that it happens every single time and I now count my change at the counter. Then I have to ask for the rest to be handed over, which it always is (though without any kind of apology).
I've never thought of complaining to Royal Mail (partly because I've heard horror stories of people complaining and then never receiving their post and partly because it's always such an insignificant amount) -but I do think someone must be making a tidy profit from all the small change that's going into their pocket!

[Hattie]

It's happened to me a few times at the Post Office on Wimbledon Hill (inside the shop) where I've popped something on the scales and they have quoted me something around £5 or more to send something simply recorded delivery - when I questioned the amount, they said it was for guaranteed 9am delivery service, but that's not what I asked for - I simply wanted it signed for. The price then drops to nearer £2. This has happened on more than 4 occasions now so I am on my guard. I find the staff very rude and abrupt in there anyway - even if I put on my best CBeebies smile and say "Good afternoon. How are you?" before asking for anything - they are always very sour. No need for it really.

[skent]

I'm glad this has been mentioned as it's a topic of frequent discussion in our household too. Not long ago, every time i went into Earlsfield Post Office, they wanted to sell me broadband and line rental. That has fallen by the way side but now they're pushing more expensive services on their customers. You often get a grumpy response if you don't concede!
Once I had to challenge the fact that Northern Ireland is still in the UK as they wanted to charge me the international rate.

[The Toadstool]

I notice the same at the Earlsfield post office. I try to book and print postage online whenever possible. However once at the counter they tell me I have to pay on top as so called my weight indication is not correct.

eg my Parcel weighed 950gr, I had prepayed postage online for it. At the post office they said I had calculated weight wrong, and to be honest it could only have been the weight of the printed pre-paid sticker. The parcel was 1008gr so I have to pay 1.50 pound more.

One man is indeed really rude all the time (we have parcels to post on a daily basis). The older guy is more friendly. I often let other customers go before me so I do not need to deal with the grumpy one. However same complaint about the extra costs charged.

[NotAMumOnNorthcoteRd]

I have also been charged the wrong amounts at the Alfriston Road post office.

I used to work for a local shop and so regularly posted items of similar weight. I only realised the issue as I was leaving my job and therefore didn't report to Royal Mail and began using Lavender Hill branch for my personal mail.

I am convinced I have been overcharged on many occasions so it is good to read on this post that I wasn't the only one.

I think it is clear we need to pass this issue to Royal Mail.

[LostInTranslation]

I felt compelled to comment on this thread after my recent experience at the post office on Alfriston Road. Royal Mail will not be interested in your complaints and I’d like to explain why I feel this way.

I needed to send a small package to the States which I do on a fairly regular basis. My neighbour happened to be going to the post office on Alfriston Road (it’s located at the back of the newsagent) and offered to send it for me. This was on a Friday.

The following Tuesday afternoon, I was home sick from work, the postman rang the bell and proceeded to ‘deliver’ the parcel to me. I checked the box, it had a customs slip on it, and the correct overseas postage (in excess of £9). I had a large TO label on one side with the delivery address and a much smaller FROM on the other side with my address. I gave the box back to the postman and showed him that he had delivered me my own package. He apologised profusely and said that he would sort it out. I did not feel reassured.

I decided to tweet Royal Mail about it and was shocked at their response. They grilled me about where the TO and FROM labels were on the box – so far everything had been done correctly. Then they asked me about where the customs label was. It had been put on the back of the box with the FROM label. Royal Mail told me that this was the error, that the customs label should always be on the TO side. In all the years that I have been sending parcels to the US, I have never been told this by any post office staff. In my experience, there is not always room on the TO side and often the customs label gets put wherever it fits.

My neighbour had done this as a favour to me and she was not advised by the staff at Alfriston Road that there was any ‘right’ place to put the label. When I replied to Royal Mail’s tweet about the custom label being in the ‘wrong place’, I said that surely it was the job of the post office staff to advise the customer where the documentation goes? I was shocked that Royal Mail said it was the CUSTOMER’S responsibility to know how to post things! I feel that this is a poor level of customer service. Surely, customers cannot be expected to know the ins and out of posting every kind of envelope, package whether domestic or international? Ridiculous.

If I had any other affordable option in terms of posting small parcels to the States, I would stop using Royal Mail immediately in protest of their poor attitude to customer service.

The following week, I was in the post office on Lavender Hill and watched the staff advise a woman to put the customs label on the side of the box – against Royal Mail’s ‘official policy’ as explained to me on twitter. This confirms my point that the location of the customs label is arbitrary and the information given is inconsistent.

[Stinemor]

I haven't been to the Earlsfield post office, but every time I go to either the Trinity Road or Balham one, I'm being short changed, over charged or they try and sell me a service I have not asked for. It's incredibly cheeky, rude and infuriating as you feel they are deliberately trying to cheat you.

[mummynutterbutters]

I have encountered this so many times, although i've never been to the Earlsfield one in question.
To be honest, I sometimes dread going to my local post office/s.
Put it this way, the manager of one particular post office in the Twickenham area was a nasty piece of work. He seemed to charge what he liked, refuse me receipts, etc....
In fact, more often than not, another customer (usually female) would be having a go at him about his conduct. One even threatened to go to the police. I hope she did.
My other half and I conducted an experiment, whereby we both took in parcels of equal weight, asked for the address printed on receipts etc... etc...
Let's put it this way, my partner amazingly was charged the correct price of £2.80, and was given a receipt to his specifications. I was over-charged and denied everything but a basic receipt.
You can draw your own conclusions on this.
It is certainly worth noting all the details, times, dates etc... and reporting to Royal Mail head office.

[Samalawl]

Never been to Earls field branch but the post office on Queenstown Road is awful at over charging. My sister, who sends several parcels weekly now walks double the distance to a different branch as they charge so much less, this week I want into the Queenstown Road branch with a prepaid package and he told me 90p, I said its prepaid it doesn't need anything, after mumbling he said "do you want a signed for service?" I said no thank you and paid nothing, why would you try to make me pay a random service I didn't ask for?! I would never have known he'd put the extra if I had to pay for it to be sent, as he would have just added to the total!! Not happy!

[Jennie_fab]

Yes that happened to me with one ebay parcels. I paid thinking it was extortionate only to price check at home and ralise it was grossly overcharged. I wonder if they are pocketing the extra money? I wont be visiting again.

[papinian]

I haven't been to the Earlsfield post office, but every time I go to either the Trinity Road or Balham one, I'm being short changed, over charged or they try and sell me a service I have not asked for. It's incredibly cheeky, rude and infuriating as you feel they are deliberately trying to cheat you.

I was reminded of this thread when I went to the Trinity Road post office this morning and they wanted to charge me the price for a medium package instead of for a small package. They've fixed the slot for determining whether something is a small package at an 45 degree angle to the wall so that it's very difficult to push a package through it as one side of it hits against the wall once it goes through. Even though I got the parcel through the slot the person who was serving me claimed that "I had forced it through" and that they would charge me for a medium parcel.

I told them that I was going to report them and went off to the main post office in Balham where the person who served me took the parcel as a small package without even asking me to put it through the slot. When I mentioned the issue I had on Trinity Road and said I would like him to verify, he looked at it was it went through the slot at Balham and said that it went through easily and that Trinity Road had been trying to overcharge me. He gave me a phone number to report my complaint about Trinity Road - 0845 722 3344. I've just phoned it and reported what happened and have been told that it will be investigated and that I will receive a response in writing within 10 working days.

I suppose in the case of my complaint it is easier to prove because anyone going into the Trinity Road post office can see that the slots for measuring letter/parcel size have been fixed so as to be unusable. However, I would urge people having an issue with a post office to make a complaint on the above number. I know that it is difficult for sub-post office owners to make money these days and that these businesses are generally family busineses but that is no reason to rip people off.

[jafina]

I post quite a few items that I have sold on ebay so I get to know the prices pretty well. It really does makes sense to weigh and measure your parcels at home before you take them in as they do try to nudge things up to the next price band. If you know what you're talking about then you can argue your case and they will normally back down.

I always found the post office on Trinity road really good, very friendly and quick service. I will be checking my change in there from now on though!

Balham post office is very hit and miss, sometimes friendly and helpful - they once told me to take a large parcel home and split it into 2 if I could (it contained a few different Xmas gifts) as it would be much cheaper. I saved about £10 doing that. They also advised on how to get the best Euro exchange rate, which they didn't have to do. But they can also be dreadful, long queues where it seems like there are 5 people milling about while 1 person serves. They also like to push the next day guaranteed service when you just want 1st class - etc..... definitely not Postman Pat at his best!

[Caferacer]

I am so glad I read this post - as I thought it was only me!

Every time I go into the Earlsfield Post Office I come out feeling vaguely "ripped off".

When I have to post something I work out the cost on the net beforehand only for the staff at the PO to bamboozle me and say the cheapest alternative is really, say, £9.75 instead of the £6 I was expecting. They tell me First Class is cheaper than the Second class I have calculated (?) and always seem to push the most expensive option.

Of course by the time you get to the head of the queue (15 minutes?) you are in no position to argue. They have the screen in front of them (which you cannot see) and you have to take their word for it (especially as you car may be parked with a short-term ticket outside).

I now try and go to the main Wandsworth PO instead (Southside) . At least the staff there are fully employed PO workers with no interest in upping the prices!

[Vives09]

Not really overcharging, but might be related.

My husband went to the Earlsfield PO to take out some money. He took out £100 and it was only when he got back that he realised that he only had 4 X £20 notes instead of five. Because he noticed immediately he went straight back and they had film of the younger man counting out the money and he could prove that they owed him the extra £20. If he'd noticed the next day though that film might not have been available, I don't know how long it's kept for. As it was he was late for work and not very happy!

It's probably just an accident but at best indicates that they're sloppy. Watch carefully!