So frustrated... large letter rates

[retrogeekaustralia]

Hey guys, Just venting my frustration here. I went to post a product today which i normally send through at my local post office as a large letter. However this particular customer wished to have it sent express and being fairly late in the afternoon i decided to take a trip down to another post office with longer trading hours. Upon asking to send it express she asked me if it was merchandise or a document. I sort of ummed and arred and so i made it pretty obvious it wasn't a document. She then tells me i have to send it in a 500g express satchel which is going to cost me over $10 instead of the $5.55 it says on the australia post website to send as a large letter. I then asked, can't anything be regarded as a document as long as in within the 20mm limit? Which she said no as it has to go through an automatic feeder.

So i was almost going to send it as a parcel when i decided to grab it out of her hands and said i would take it to my local post office, thank you very much. Now my poor customer has to wait an extra day, although he did only pay for the item about an hour ago so i guess this is still acceptable.

Just wondering what everyone elses experience with sending items as large letters? It's obvious everybody does it and i always assumed it was fine. I post nearly 20 items a day that way and never had one back. Whenever i have taken these to my local post office none of the staff there have ever had an issue with it.

So frustrating!!! This particular parcel just looks like an envelope as well, the item is so thin it looks like theres nothing even in it. I wish i had of just said it was a document!

[*sparklz*]

It could have been merchandise of a document so why should that make a difference to postage?

Sounds like they have no idea to do that and it could have just gone into an express envelope not the satchel.

[retrogeekaustralia]

That's what i figured, i was even at my local post office this morning and asked them how i go about sending my usually parcel express, if i can just put it in the same envelope with the same labels i use. They said that fine we can just add an express label to it and it will cost $5.55.
I would have gone back there but unfortunately i ran out of time.

That's the last time i take my mail anywhere else. This other post office is a business center as well so you would think they would have more experience with it and know better, i guess not...

[digital*ghost]

The lady at the post office was correct, while anything that meets the large letter dimensions can be sent standard post, only documents can be sent as an express letter and everything else has to go as a parcel, so they did know better 😉

Anything that contains reproducable information is classified as a document by Australia Post, including SD cards and CDs. Read the letter guide (pdf) here: http://auspost.com.au/media/documents/letters-products-services-guide-may13.pdf

[retrogeekaustralia]

Hmm now I feel like a right douch lol. My local post office said the same thing. Although they said its fine to send merchandise as a large letter with standard postage, however when sending express the envelopes actually say they cannot be merchandise.

[digital*ghost]

You'll probably find that you get different (conflicting) information from different post offices, I even have different staff from the same post office I always go to sometimes try to tell me I can't send items as a large letter by standard post, and once when I had something that was small enough to go as a letter but I was sending it express, said I could use the express letter envelopes, so there are a lot of AP staff who don't know the official AP guidelines.

[dylan11235813]

"Anything that contains reproducable information is classified as a document by Australia Post, including SD cards and CDs."

I am not having a go at you DG nor have I read the Aus Post guide lately but does a blank piece of paper have "reproducable information" does an LED have "reproducable information" or anything for that matter, a molecule of air or a piece of dirt all contain information that can be reproduced. Well IMO they do.

Also the printed express post labels that they use are a little cheaper and you get a lodgment receipt with address (well they used to)

.

[digital*ghost]

Perhaps they should change it to "contains human readable data that can be reproduced", but then I guess that would cancel out blank pieces of paper, and you might get the odd person taking in a microscope etc and showing how something has readable / reproducible data. 

[aussie-picker]

Its Horrific when sometimes you have to pay a extra $2 on what you planned its it 🙂

[dylan11235813]

I was thinking more along the lines of sending a a piece of silicon (or any other partical) that has a particular structure (or not) that contains information and I assume in most cases can be duplicated. AusPost should replace the word 'information' with the word 'knowledge'.

Also they seem to refer to a letter and document in the same context and seems ambiguous. For example an 'express post pre paid letter' must be a document but there is such a thing as a large/small letter.

My local post office told me the express post document only envelopes had to be paper....