topic Australia Post Insufficient postage in Selling

Australia Post Insufficient postage

dylan11235813 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 14:11:42 GMT

This is a picture of a letter sent to a customer (that they took) and had to pay a fee to get the item. The "letter" is under 50g and under 5mm (the compontents contained are 3.5mm accross the longest width) and I passed the item over the counter at the LPO. I measure the width after I package an item and the envolepe is flexible.

I had applied the stamps myself, which I will do more often as it is at least 20% cheaper (sometimes 50% cheaper) to buy stamps on the secondary market.

Does anyone see a problem with this?

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

digital*ghost — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 15:19:23 GMT

@dylan11235813 wrote:

Does anyone see a problem with this?

I see 2, aside from the issues you mentioned.

1 - Your return address is on the envelope, so any underpaid postage notice / fees (legitimate or not) should have been sent to you.

2 - Having received an underpaid notice (as the sender) myself, I know that the processing fee is $1.50, unless it's a different rate for receivers, that would suggest the claim is that the postage was underpaid by $1 - no matter which way you do the math, that doesn't add up.

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

cq_tech — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 15:20:32 GMT

I certainly can't see anything wrong with your letter. If you are convinced that it falls within the guidelines as specified below, I'd be questioning AP's decision and asking them for an explanation. Although it's not a particularly large sum of money there is still a principle involved here and it's wrong of them to charge excess postage without at first giving the sender the right of reply. I note that you had you return address on the envelope so why did the recipient have to pay the extra when the request should have been sent to you instead? I thought that was the usual procedure.

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

i-love-my-sheep — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 15:21:30 GMT

@dylan11235813 wrote:
This is a picture of a letter sent to a customer (that they took) and had to pay a fee to get the item. The "letter" is under 50g and under 5mm (the compontents contained are 3.5mm accross the longest width) and I passed the item over the counter at the LPO. I measure the width after I package an item and the envolepe is flexible.

I had applied the stamps myself, which I will do more often as it is at least 20% cheaper (sometimes 50% cheaper) to buy stamps on the secondary market.

Does anyone see a problem with this?

Is it a standard sized envelope? Did you or the buyer ask why they wanted extra if it was in a regular sized envelope and under 20mm?

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

dylan11235813 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:17:00 GMT

Ausrtralia POst did the wrong thing in many resepects. I am sick of it. If they force my hand then so be it.

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

dylan11235813 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:19:38 GMT

it was a small letter. The envolope is a hard card type which is expensive. It was under 5mmm.

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

dylan11235813 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:23:04 GMT

there were three

Just kidding

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

dylan11235813 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 16:27:20 GMT

number 1 is right/......

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

crowsman53 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 20:01:52 GMT

I am not trying to be smart here. But you say you buy your stamps were bought else where??? I do as well, are you 100% sure they were completely un-franked???? With the latest equipment AP have these days it is very easy to detect if a stamp has been used before..

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

cq_tech — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 20:28:43 GMT

If the stamps were somehow invalid, the fine would have been $2.20 and not $2.50, so whichever way you look at it, the figures just don't add up. Somebody at AP has clearly blundered somehow, and I have to wonder just how often this happens.

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

happyinoz — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:55:30 GMT

You say the envelope was under 5mm. Did the envelope freely pass through the small envelope slot in the letter gauge? If AP deems a small envelope as not freely fitting through, then they will consider it a large letter.

Having said that, the maths still don't add up in this instance. Certainly, a mystery.

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

chezzy — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 21:58:26 GMT

Coming from another angle, I am wondering if the contents could move around and bunch up while in transit, this could make the letter bulkier and push it into the "large letter" (more than 5mm) category. There is also a risk of loose or uneven/bulky items causing the letter to jam in the sorting equipment. I tend to think if the items werent held safely in place between cardboard or something that anything could happen!

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

jerryman12a — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 22:12:37 GMT

These stickers are applied by the PO and it wouldn't be unusual for a small franchise one to 'try' it on to see if they can get away with it .

My local PO does this which usually occurs when a AP staff member stands in for the owner ( who is often absent)

That aside , 70c standard mail should never contain anything else but written material . As a buyer I'd be pretty annoyed to receive items like this as they are easily caught into the sorting machines .

Charge the appropriate rate ($1.40 for you) plus a padded envelope and you won't have any issues .

The amount of times I've had beads/findings sent to me in an letter envelope and 70c stamp and it's been damaged/contents lost etc is beyond a joke.

Sellers know better , anyone sending mail like that are asking for trouble just to save yourself a few cents . And if your return adress was on there you would get the bill , so if you don't put your return address on there IMO your doing it on purpose.

Just my opinion

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

happyinoz — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 22:16:43 GMT

Like Jerryman, I also wondered about the contents being an issue. Did some AP staffie feel the envelope and decide it contained something other than printed matter? Maybe.

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

curraone — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 22:18:32 GMT

simple really - they decided it had to be a large letter at $3.10 - forgetting that large letters are now $3.50

without a calculator they couldn't add up the 2 stamps to 70c and thought it was 60c paid - decided wouldn't make you pay the fine this time, just the extra postage

= balance owing $2.50

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

bigbrickshop — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 22:23:54 GMT

Mail sent at the small letter rate has to meet fairly specific requirements for size and flexibility, even the density of the envelope, to avoid damage to the sorting machines.

See section L8.1 of this guide.
http://auspost.com.au/media/documents/letters-products-services-guide-may13.pdf

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

chezzy — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 22:29:26 GMT

I honestly think a lot of people simply don't think, don't care, just want to get that sucker sent and as cheaply as possible.

At the moment I am trying to deal with people who send things like dvds in paper envelopes. For around 'only' 50c extra

they could invest in a cardboard mailer and still send the thing at large letter rates..

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

clarry100 — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 22:30:19 GMT

Here's another angle...

The buyer is a scammer.

They have one of these stickers they got from some other seller.

Then they just overlay it onto any envelope they wish, take a pic and send it to you knowing that you will refund them the $2.50. They get a free $2.50 each time they do this to a seller, never having actually paid the fee themselves.

I say this because it simply does not make any sense that the recipient would get the fee when your return adddress was clearly on the envelope.

Not sure what checks you could do at Aust Post to find out if this buyer has really gotten this fee.

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

digital*ghost — Wed, 25 Jun 2014 23:53:52 GMT

@clarry100 wrote:
Here's another angle...
The buyer is a scammer.

They have one of these stickers they got from some other seller.
Then they just overlay it onto any envelope they wish, take a pic and send it to you knowing that you will refund them the $2.50. They get a free $2.50 each time they do this to a seller, never having actually paid the fee themselves.

I say this because it simply does not make any sense that the recipient would get the fee when your return adddress was clearly on the envelope.

Not sure what checks you could do at Aust Post to find out if this buyer has really gotten this fee.

I thought of that possibility primarily because the figure doesn't make sense (not unless the processing fee has increased to $1.80). Not sure what records AP would keep, but OP may be able to ask for the name of the PO where they picked up / paid for the letter.

Re: a couple of other things that have been mentioned - unfortunately, there have been instances in the past where AP have charged the buyer the underpaid mail fee even when the sender's address is on the envelope, so while the standard procedure is usually to charge the sender, it doesn't always happen that way.

A small letter does not only have to contain printed material, as the guide posted above will show, there is in fact no stipulation in any of AP's letter restrictions (large or small) about printed material, only some services where you can only send documents, and a CD is considered a document, which is quite rigid - the contents of small letters have to be (to quote the guide) "reasonably flexible", so something like a hankerchief would be fine (the contents of this do look rigid to me, so if that's the case they should have gone as a large letter).

Re: Australia Post Insufficient postage

gec2002 — Thu, 26 Jun 2014 00:46:27 GMT

Bit hard to tell from the photo, but the other odd thing is the stamps don't appear to have been cancelled??