hoppyloo - you can get a card sizing guide from the Royal Mail website and then use that to check the sizes of things you're sending. I've also been selling books online and it's really useful to be able to try out different envelopes/packaging methods to find out what will fit through the slot. Oh, and then make sure the post office don't still try to charge you the packet rate instead of the large letter rate!

I know in the US there is a media rate for mailing books. I sold a couple of textbooks on Amazon and they were big and heavy but all cost under $3.99 to mail because they were books.

mustxbexfate, I've heard, probably from here, that you actually do have to pay the postage due. That they have a file at the PO with your name on it that has a list of your postage dues and how much you owe. I get them all the time too. And I live in a fairly large city. When we lived in Atlanta, I would get a pink slip in the mail, saying I had a postage due envie and to come get it at the PO. Here, they just deliver it. So I'm pretty sure I owe the PO about $10 since I started here on SB. You can also take the package up to the PO and ask them if you owe anything.

SMBee... we have similar here for when you send abroad, if it is "printed matter" it is cheaper to send. Also was told that if you send, for example, a book to somewhere like Greece, if you say its only a book, it will be cheaper to post than a book with a letter enclosed! How DO they think these procedures up?!

The cheap printed matter rate is mostly intended for publishers sending magazines and books overseas, I think. They don't want individuals taking advantage of the cheaper rate to send other types of items. You aren't suipposed to put letters into packages sent Small Packet either, other than a brief note relating directly to the contents. That works for swaps as you can explain a bit about the items you have sent and why you chose them, but strictly you should not include chat about yout kids or pets or the state of the weather.

Its so complicated..... myletter for the British Birds swap had to go small packet because it had a gift in it. The package easily went through the hole in the template, but because it weighed too much it had to go small packet. So how are you supposed to send a gift and a letter? In two envelopes?!

CelestialFreak, Thanks for the tid bit, Retirement fund hmmmmmmmmmmm Oh well, we all need a sucker like me once in a while LOL. I still love to make my swappers happy if I can. You all are awesome ladies and or gents if there are any in here.

hoppyloo, I think you could have sent it letter rate, as you can use that for up to 2 kg, as you can see here. If you sent a heavier package than that, I want to be your partner next time!!! I suspect your PO person advised you to send it small packet as above about 60g it is cheaper to send small packet. So, it seems your choices were to send:

• gift and letter together by letter rate and pay more
• gift by small packet and letter by letter rate, which can work out cheaper depending on weights
• gift by small packet, with just a quick note instead of the letter
• gift and letter together by small packet and hope that customs don't check it.

As long as there was nothing suspicious about it, I don't suppose they randomly check more than a tiny proportion anyway, so the last option is usually pretty safe.

I don't think they really care about the small packet/letter difference any more other than that if it's blatantly got something that's not a letter you have to send it as a packet not a letter. It used to be that they'd ask you when sending a packet whether there was a letter inside and they'd also make you write 'SMALL PACKET' on the envelope/box if sending it small packet rate, but neither of those have happened for years.

I've sent a lot of things that blatantly aren't letters by letter rate and never had a problem. I have heard of people having problems over sending something small packet with a letter enclosed, but I don't know how recently that happened, so you are probably right that they don't really care. I am sure they used to quote different expected delivery times, with Small Packet taking a bit longer, so that used to be an incentive for sending Letter rate, but I notice they don't do that now.

So why the heck can't they just rationalise them into a single price structure, with the cheaper of the current Small Packet and Letter rates for each weight band plus the Printed Matter option, as a knowledgeable sender would choose anyway and a helpful PO counter assistant should recommend? Because if they don't, some people will send things by the more expensive method and they will get extra profit, I suppose.

Now you say that Jenny, I think it's just the one old guy at my local post office that won't let me send non-letter items as letters when it's cheaper. I remember sending stuff from the post office by my work that wasn't a letter by letter rate, and I've printed my own postage online as letter rate and not had a problem.

It would be very nice if they rationalised it wouldn't it - maybe then the queues at the post office would go down a little too.

Hear, hear! I'm all for a uniform, simplified rate that is understandable enough to be applied uniformly. Then I can avoid the trip to the post office which kills an hour of my day!

our post ladies always write small packet on it!

Celestialfreak I hope it wasn't my cards that you had to pay postage on as I actually took them to the p.o. to get the postage put on!

I hate getting postage due stuff. If I have the money I will go get it then compile a long email explaining why there was postage due & if they do it again I will pick it up & send it COD back to them. But I do not have the money I tell them to return it to the sender. If it gets returned to you for that reason you only have to pay the extra amount & they will resend it. Well at the local post offices they do. that actually reminds me of Mouse Ttrap when they sent that mouse to Fidel Castro & was short a few cents. LOL.

What would happen if you address the letter to the receiver and put their address as the return address too? LOL! It's probably illegal or something....

actually, i signed up for a secret santa swap with a bunch of people on another site i am on. most of us put the return address as the address we were sending to(because we were trying to keep our identities secret). they didn't seem to have a problem with it at the post office... of course, i did take it TO the post office.... of course, what with enhanced security on everything, i could definately understand why they wouldn't want you to do that...(and it wouldn't work at all internationally...)

All my international mail comes with enough postage even if there is no postage on them. I don't get charged. I will now cuz I said something.

I hope none of my packages ever arrived with postage due. PLEASE let me know if I do. I will happily send some stamps or something to make up for it.

I use my work address as my send to addy. I guess if I ever received something with postage due, my company paid for it cos I have yet to receive a notice.

i have received three cards with one atc in each and had to pay 32 cents on them, postage due. personally i wasn't mad at the swappers because i don't believe they did anything wrong. they stamp on the cards should have been enough. because i was worried that mine were not good enough i took my cards with atc's to the post office and had them weighed. the girl was like, "these are fine!" so i asked her to weigh the ones i owed on and again it came back that the one stamp should have been enough! also, i used to put seals on my envelopes and everything was fine, all my christmas card and swaps went out with these pretty little seals AND THEN as if randomly i got three cards back and they said i owed more postage because the seal made them non-machinable. i was like "50 of these went out and it's special seal to be able to go through a postal machine." the girl said it wasn't her department and if i wanted to mail them i needed to pay more." i guess what i am saying is that it might not be your swapper not caring or trying, it could be the fruity postage system! hope it gets better! :)

I agree with the "fruity postage system" comment- it is extremely annoying!! I made my own template, to use for things... I cut a 1/4 inch and a 3/4 inch slit in a piece of cardboard. If the envelope can fit thru the slit, I figure it's good, per their requirements. But, when I take it to my PO, the guy behind the counter thinks differently than me. He said "let's just put extra on it, that way it won't get kicked back when it gets to the main PO."

Sooo, your swapper, and your swapper's PO, might have thought it was the correct postage, and somewhere along the way, someone else disagreed. Postage due still stinks, though, I agree!!

what sense does that make, that the guy at the post office would be like, let's just put a little extra. you are the post office dude - you should knoe exactly what is needed! grrrrr!

I had 2 identical envelopes which each contained 2 ATCs. I went to the PO I usually go to and they charged one amount for 1 of the envelopes. I forgot the second envelope at home so I went to a closer PO to mail it. They charged MORE for it because they said it had to be mailed as a parcel!!! Yup. 1 day apart I got charged 2 different amounts for the EXACT SAME envelope at 2 different post offices!!

Thats terrible. I thought that they were all supposed to follow one guideline for prices, not make their own up. I would go and question both of them on that. Better yet I will send you my postoffice ladies. Some men can be so hard hearted at postoffices. I live in a little town and these two ladies have been here forever and treat everyone like their own kids. They are a joy.

The postman at our postoffice is nice,but we have known each for years,plus his wife is my CEO.He is always helpful,he tells me when I wrap packages wrong,and about my bad handwritting. But the carriers just throw what ever letter in whatever box,at my apartment,If a unfamilar name pops up they just sit the letter in between the mailboxes on the wood,its like everyone has to touch it to see if its theres,there are only 6 mailboxes geez. Sometimes they rubber band parcels to two boxes so a person has to turn them around to see who they belong to