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Aug. 7th, 2007 02:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jackWhat do you do if you want to post a wide flat 101g envelope? According to the royal mail website you can't send it straight first class, it's too heavy. You can't send it large letter first class, it's too wide. And you can't send it first class packet because it's too thin.
What's wrong with that picture? First class packet rates apply if *any* of the four dimensions (length, width, thickness, weight) supernumerarynesses apply.
OK, you can deduce that after considering the page. It's the only way you'd ever design it. But (a) by that argument, they might as well just encrypt everything with a 20-bit key. You can deduce what that says, right? And (b) Sometimes bureaucracies polices do have to be complicated and counter-intuitive, so you can't always just assume it's the way you'd do it.
Why don't they just say what they mean? Then you wouldn't have to guess.
*gasp* *inhale* I also have a lot of objections to the pricing.
I the "ways to pay" section, there's half-a-dozen, including "first class stamps". You used to be able to use *any* stamps adding up to the required postage, nth-class stamps being valued at the current rate. I *assume* you still can. I bet it says somewhere. But I couldn't find it.
Surely more people have two first class stamps than one large letter first class stamp? And don't get me started on the idea of placing the weight boundaries so the prices are all simple multiples of each other!
OK, the site is *fairly* well designed. And ok, to be fair, I ought to know exactly how it works beforehand. And there is a convenient local post-office which I bet would have sold me whatever I needed. But a nice little tutorial on posting a letter wouldn't seem out of place -- someone has to do this for the first time, making it easy for them can only encourage them! :)
What's wrong with that picture? First class packet rates apply if *any* of the four dimensions (length, width, thickness, weight) supernumerarynesses apply.
OK, you can deduce that after considering the page. It's the only way you'd ever design it. But (a) by that argument, they might as well just encrypt everything with a 20-bit key. You can deduce what that says, right? And (b) Sometimes bureaucracies polices do have to be complicated and counter-intuitive, so you can't always just assume it's the way you'd do it.
Why don't they just say what they mean? Then you wouldn't have to guess.
*gasp* *inhale* I also have a lot of objections to the pricing.
I the "ways to pay" section, there's half-a-dozen, including "first class stamps". You used to be able to use *any* stamps adding up to the required postage, nth-class stamps being valued at the current rate. I *assume* you still can. I bet it says somewhere. But I couldn't find it.
Surely more people have two first class stamps than one large letter first class stamp? And don't get me started on the idea of placing the weight boundaries so the prices are all simple multiples of each other!
OK, the site is *fairly* well designed. And ok, to be fair, I ought to know exactly how it works beforehand. And there is a convenient local post-office which I bet would have sold me whatever I needed. But a nice little tutorial on posting a letter wouldn't seem out of place -- someone has to do this for the first time, making it easy for them can only encourage them! :)
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Date: 2007-08-07 03:05 pm (UTC)fold it in half?
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Date: 2007-08-07 03:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-07 04:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-08-07 04:47 pm (UTC)I think my actual letter fit within normal envelope size, though it might have been pushing too thick. (And shouldn't have been folded anyway.)
For my hypothetical wide flat package, I guess that would work after all, although it could have been 2cm thick (when folding would be a real challenge anyway :)) I guess my description would have been more applicable for something too wide to fit in envelope, but narrow enough to fit in large letter, then it would have been too heavy and too wide, but folding it would have made it too heavy and too thick, conservation :)