Calling Royal Mail experts...

[socialgiraffe]

I'm aware this isn't dye sub but I know many of you use RM a lot and hopefully one of you will know the answer. I have had a look online and could not see a definitive answer so am hoping to save a trip to the post office...

I have a few hundred parcels to send out, they are all small parcels and the cost of the post is £1.53 (second class). The customer is adamant they want stamps which I have already purchased. My question is, do I need to mark the outside of the parcel with "2ND CLASS" to make sure the item is not sent first class and the recipient being charged the additional cost or can I just put the stamps on the outside and drop off at the post office?

Many thanks in advance.

[GoonerGary]

At £1.53 are you sure that they aren't Large Letters? You would use a large letter stamp which would have second or first class marked on it.

https://shop.royalmail.com/50-x-large-l ... tamp-sheet

[socialgiraffe]

You are correct they are large letters, just got a bit mixed up.

But as the cost for each one is £1.53 it means that “stamp wise” there will be three stamps on each one. £1.50 a 2p and a 1p

Usually I have sent items with stamps that say “first” or “second large letter” etc etc, so am just wondering how RM deal with a consignment that does not have the selected service written on the outside.


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[socialgiraffe]

I was told you can not purchase large letter stamps to the value of £1.53 each and that large letter stamps are £1.29


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[Mrteajunkie]

As far as I’m aware it’s all automated.
a machine reads the stamps and their values and processes them with size and stamp value.

no matter what you wrote on it it would still send as the value of the stamps.
if you look stamps have a banding on the surface in UV ink.
this tells the sorting machines the values and the machines detect the sizing.

watch the first 8 minutes of this.
it explains a lot. (Like your a 5yr old)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bjpk7q

[John G]

As long as the total adds up to the 2nd class amount for a large letter (£1.53 up to 250g) they'll go 2nd class automatically.
I used to do this using several different stamps to make up the amount when sending badges out and couldn't be bothered to wait at post office in queue.

[GoonerGary]

I was told you can not purchase large letter stamps to the value of £1.53 each and that large letter stamps are £1.29


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If you put weights into this, it leaps from 66p to £1.53. So nothing inbetween. Royal Mail expect your mail to be separated into letters, large letters or parcels. At the post office, can your mail be put into a sack and labelled as a large letter?

When I only used to post letters or large letters, I would put LL in marker to make sure that it wasn't confused as an out of size letter. I don't ever recall a customer being surcharged.

https://send.royalmail.com/send/yourite ... ightUnit=G

[GoonerGary]

Did you buy these stamps before the 1st April? The price went up recently. Old 2nd class stamps are valid for today's prices.

[socialgiraffe]

Did you buy these stamps before the 1st April? The price went up recently. Old 2nd class stamps are valid for today's prices.

No, just purchased a couple of days ago direct from RM. They are the type that show a value instead of a type of letter anyway.

Thanks everyone for all your help. All sorted now


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