Post Office Scales........

Marc

Marc

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..........How accurate are they?

Just got back from the Post Office, sending my A700 off for repair. I placed the package on the scakles and it came up as 1.3kg! The camera itself weighs 690g and I'm pretty sure the box and bubble wrap didn't weigh over 600g. This cost me an extra £2, I'm pretty sure the scales were wrong and Sue said that there were occasions where she had sent same weight articles from different post offices in the past and the difference has been quite large. I'm wondering how much extra the post office is making from these "errors".
 
I pay for postage using paypal.

Weigh it yourself and print the postage label off yourself.
 
millions we have a set of scales at work and check them to make sure before sending but we are withing a few pence normally

best bet buy a set of e bay they are £30.00 plus del and you will be able to argue with them i did it in the past and we saved a fortune more than the scales were worth so they have earnt there money and good for checking prices online im going to be doing the same shrtlyfor home
 
Borats Baby said:
I pay for postage using paypal.

Weigh it yourself and print the postage label off yourself.
Click to expand...

Didn't know you could do that. Will try it next time. :thumbs:

wegotitugetit said:
millions we have a set of scales at work and check them to make sure before sending but we are withing a few pence normally

best bet buy a set of e bay they are £30.00 plus del and you will be able to argue with them i did it in the past and we saved a fortune more than the scales were worth so they have earnt there money and good for checking prices online im going to be doing the same shrtlyfor home
Click to expand...

I have a set of scales at home but didn't even think to actually weight it first. Have just weighed it and the camera+battery is 800g. These are kitchen scales so I know they are accurate. Pretty sure the packaging wasn't over 200g.
 
They use'd to be calibrated at a very regularly interval to make sure they where to spec. Not sure if they still are or what interval they are tested to this days if at all.
 
I would have hoped that they would Be checked regularly
but having sent identical items from different post offices in the past
and been charged different rates I doubt that they are :(
 
also if you are not using e bay to sell a item you can use parcels to go and use e bay to link to it too so you can do a direct post and courriers collect and they accept pay pal i havd a big box of plastics to send this morning and parcel farce didnt want to know and a bad customer services didnt even know what there doing so parcels to go nice and simple got a accurte price and now have sent the item well tommorrow but easy as to sort out
 
Borats Baby said:
I pay for postage using paypal.

Weigh it yourself and print the postage label off yourself.
Click to expand...

Careful here. I had a 'discussion' with my post office recently. They weighed mine and found it was more than the stated weight - 1100g on the label and 1200g on their scales, and were refusing to take it. I argued that the price I'd paid still covered 1200g anyway, but because the price wasn't on the label I couldn't prove it other than by just telling them what I'd paid. We had a bit of a standoff for 5 mins. They eventually gave in, with dire warnings that it may not be delivered. It was. Since then I've always pre-paid a couple of hundred grams more.
 
MisterE said:
Careful here. I had a 'discussion' with my post office recently. They weighed mine and found it was more than the stated weight - 1100g on the label and 1200g on their scales, and were refusing to take it. I argued that the price I'd paid still covered 1200g anyway, but because the price wasn't on the label I couldn't prove it other than by just telling them what I'd paid. We had a bit of a standoff for 5 mins. They eventually gave in, with dire warnings that it may not be delivered. It was. Since then I've always pre-paid a couple of hundred grams more.
Click to expand...

Which brings us back to the accuracy of the scales. :shrug:
 
I reported my local post office because the scales were reading 20% more on the staff side of the counter than on the customer side........
 
There should be a lable on the scales to say when they were last calibrated I think.
 
Post office scales have to be tested every morning when the post office opens, and like Steep says, I believe they're supposed to display, or at least be able to produce, a calibration certificate.
 
Ive alway wondered how effective it would be to fill the top half of a box with helium balloons :D
 
Borats Baby said:
I pay for postage using paypal.

Weigh it yourself and print the postage label off yourself.
Click to expand...

Can you explain more about how you do that please?

I know how to link it to an ebay sale but not been able to do it otherwise :bonk:
 
MisterE said:
Careful here. I had a 'discussion' with my post office recently. They weighed mine and found it was more than the stated weight - 1100g on the label and 1200g on their scales, and were refusing to take it. I argued that the price I'd paid still covered 1200g anyway, but because the price wasn't on the label I couldn't prove it other than by just telling them what I'd paid. We had a bit of a standoff for 5 mins. They eventually gave in, with dire warnings that it may not be delivered. It was. Since then I've always pre-paid a couple of hundred grams more.
Click to expand...

I never realised that. Typical of paypal to do something in a cackhanded way.

I use SmartStamp which puts the price paid on the label - not the weight.
 
i use paypal too (you have to pay extra for smartstamp just for the privelege of saving them stamps by using your own labels!)

i weighed one item at 1.9kg and put enough postage on it for special delivery (approx £11 or something)
I took it to a different post office to normal and they weighed it at 2.1kg (if you send things special delivery a lot you will know that the price rockets over 2kg). So the post master wanted me to pay the extra £9.. I said get stuffed i dont believe you scales are accurate.
So i took it back and took it to another post office which weighed it at 1.9kg again.

So, in other words no, post office scales arent all accurate and could cost you an extra £9!!!
 
oldestswinger said:
Can you explain more about how you do that please?

I know how to link it to an ebay sale but not been able to do it otherwise :bonk:
Click to expand...

Just checked and it seems you can only do it when you've received a payment for something weather it be from ebay or somewhere else.
 
2blue4u said:
I never realised that. Typical of paypal to do something in a cackhanded way.

I use SmartStamp which puts the price paid on the label - not the weight.
Click to expand...

There is the option to have the price printed on the label too when paid for via Paypal. But I had chosen not to display it on that occasion. There are lots of odd people on ebay who start quibbling, moaning, negging if they see they've paid a couple of pounds more than shown on the package. Even though packaging is part of the term P&P, they seem to forget that. This was one of my first ebay sales, so it's still a learning process for me.
 
ChrisMClark said:
Post office scales have to be tested every morning when the post office opens, and like Steep says, I believe they're supposed to display, or at least be able to produce, a calibration certificate.
Click to expand...

Yes, they should be. The ones at my local PO obviously weren't as I received an apology letter and some books of stamps a few days later..
 
Go to
Royalmail.com
Click on Personal Customers
Click on Print postage online
Click on Print postage, under Online Postage-Home postage solution
(Not Smart Stamp which is for businesses only)

You pay by credit card for the price of the stamp.
The label is an Adobe file which you can print onto ordinary paper and sellotape to your item.
It has to be posted by the end of the next day, I think-it tells you the cut off date

I use it mainly for sending heavy letter and sending letters abroad.
 
fabs said:
Thanks for all the replies.Just one question though, If you pay on line and print the label at home, do the post office not weigh the package when you take it in? Surely then they'll demand the extra money if their scales say it weighs more than you paid for.
Click to expand...

I refer the Honourable Gentleman to my earlier post no 8.

And no, they weren't wanting me to pay the difference. They were wanting me to pay all over again and leave it up to me to get a refund.
 
fabs said:
Thanks for all the replies.Just one question though, If you pay on line and print the label at home, do the post office not weigh the package when you take it in? Surely then they'll demand the extra money if their scales say it weighs more than you paid for.
Click to expand...

When I was still in the UK, I would use the Royal Mail 'print your postage' for just about everything. I never had any issues with big parcels (too large for the post box) I had to leave at the post office. I used to hand the package over and leave - beats waiting in a big queue.
 
MisterE said:
I refer the Honourable Gentleman to my earlier post no 8.

And no, they weren't wanting me to pay the difference. They were wanting me to pay all over again and leave it up to me to get a refund.
Click to expand...

minimeeze said:
When I was still in the UK, I would use the Royal Mail 'print your postage' for just about everything. I never had any issues with big parcels (too large for the post box) I had to leave at the post office. I used to hand the package over and leave - beats waiting in a big queue.
Click to expand...

Hmm, two conflicting answers there. Is it a case of maybe/mabe not as far as the post office check weighing the package I wonder.
 
fabs said:
Hmm, two conflicting answers there. Is it a case of maybe/mabe not as far as the post office check weighing the package I wonder.
Click to expand...

depends if the guy/gal behind the post office window is a jobsworth or not I guess
 
minimeeze said:
I used to hand the package over and leave - beats waiting in a big queue.
Click to expand...

But with most, if not all, egay transactions you would want proof of posting or the 'Signed For' service or RMSD. All of which require queuing at the counter.
 
Just drifting off slightly, on the topic of paying online. A couple of weeks ago I had an ebay sale specifying UK only. Somebody from Dublin won it. I know that what constitutes the UK and GB might not be familiar to most people, so anyway, Dublin isn't in the UK. I wanted RMSD and had a look for a price. Now RMSD is a UK only service, but it let me put in Dublin, gave me a price and let me pay for it. I thought maybe I was wrong about what is the UK, or perhaps that Dublin being close to NI, they might deliver there anyway. So off I went to the PO.

There the lady said sorry, can't deliver, Dublin is not UK. So I had to pay again for a standard parcel delivery, no tracking. I applied for a refund online, and it was done within 2 or 3 days. I emailed RM asking why did their service allow me to pay for a non-UK destination and surely it can't be that difficult to design it to know the difference. They replied that it can't, and it's up to the customer to know. So make sure you know which territories and outlying islands constitute the UK.
 
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