Many of you will have heard this story reported this week; but if you haven't seen the details you can currently read the Daily Mail story in full here.
"With his son Danny serving on the front line in Afghanistan, Darren Smith was glad to take advantage of the Royal Mail's offer of free postage for parcels to soldiers. He sent off a package containing books, toothpaste, biscuits and sweets, along with two Remembrance Day poppies to remind Danny how much his family cared. A week later, however, he received a letter saying it could not be dispatched because it was 0.192 of a gram over the 2kg limit - the equivalent of a feather and less than the weight of the two 1gram poppies."
Whatever the rights and wrongs of this incident; the most important thing to remember is to weigh your items yourself if possible before taking them to the post office. For several years, when sending to a BFPO address, I have always ensured that my parcel weighed no more than 1.9kg allowing a small margin of error (e.g. in the calibration of the scales) and allowing for the weight of any stickers or paperwork that might be attached to the parcel. A little over-cautious perhaps, but it has served me well, and spared me what this poor father has had to go through!
Comments