Hello, I've had many problems and a strong case against a bank for failing to put a transaction into dispute. I had a small claims judgement by default in my favour but the bank wrote to have it set aside saying I used the wrong address (and giving this wrong address) when in fact I had served correct address it was just baliffs who were sent in to this right "wrong" address. Having set aside, they sought to have my claim struck out and I sought to have their defence struck out. The court mucked up and lost my case which took time precedent. Eventually hey said both would be debated at the hearing date. For each, I requested written judgement under CPR 27 but they have treated the case as if I didn't turn up and struck my claim out (with no mention of my request)!! Advice please?

Keep me posted, if you'll pardon the pun.

The former. I wouldn't worry about the wording as long as you read the above post I made and mention that you were charged a fee before they released the package contrary to the Postal Services Act (the illegal bit) and ALSO that you feel the fee is unreasonable. The first is the most important as it kind of negates the second but you should win on either point.

Royal Mail have broken the law and must surely be aware of this. I built on the good work of the initial poster and did some strategic research into this fee. It would indeed appear to be both illegal and unreasonable. So I took them to the small claims court and they settled, in full, out of court. They took my case very seriously however their lawyer Mandy Talbot tried to, in my opinion, deliberately mislead me. I wasn't having any of it. I encourage everyone to take them to the small claims court, eventually they will do what the banks did (i.e get fed up and/or not be able to afford it). I don't fancy their chances as they are solely relying on a thread to justify £8 is the actual cost to them of clearing through customs. I bet it certainly isn't. The fee is also unlawful because you cannot hold a parcel to ransom. Royal Mail seem to know this hence why they intentionally delay your parcel by leaving it at the depot free from arguments. This is point no.1. Royal Mail cannot defend this ground. Launch a small claims as I did and they will offer to settle out of court. The international Postal services union make clear this charge must be reasonable and a fair reflection of the charges. £8 is far too high. This is point no.2 and like bank charges I suspect anyone would win a small claims here. They must deliver your parcel and bill you for it later, of course then don't pay it by ignoring any demands from DCA's (debt collection agencies) etc as their fee will be most unlikely to stand up in civil court. Section J Customs matters Article 18 3 Postal administrations which are authorized to clear items through the Customs on behalf of customers may charge customers a customs clearance fee based on the actual costs. http://www.upu.int/acts/en/3_parcel_en.pdf Until enough people do small claims (judgements which are only binding to you alone) or someone uses a different court track then they will continue getting away with murder. Note you do feel for them as courier companies do this, and despite trying to pass parcels to Parcel Force in yet another hazy move of avoiding the Postal services act, Royal Mail are contrained by the Universal Postal regulations above. However, this does not condone illegal behaviour and deliberately misleading letters where they attempt to pass off the £8 fee as theirs and also advise the sender they "ATTEMPTED DELIVERY ABROAD" when they blatantly did not (point no. 3). What is really worrying is because I stated "Bill" Not "Act" in my letter, Mandy Talbot senior legal counsel at Royal Mail deliberately tried to mislead me by ignoring the fact she was breaking the law. She didn't mark her document private so ask me for a copy if you want it. My advice - pay the fee then use small claims moneyclaim.gov.uk to get it back and cost them £25 plus admin work in the process. Eventually if enough people do this it will cost them, make them rethink their policy or scuttle over the fine points of the Act (or lobby for it to be changed as Ms Talbot seems to suggest) to try and find a loophole. At the moment, they haven't yet found a way out SO SUE THEM!! They publish their £8 / £13.50 fee respectively in the Successor Postal Services Company Overseas Parcel Post Scheme 2001 (section 9) and Successor Postal Services Company Overseas Letter Post Scheme 2001 (section 15(3)) http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content1?catId=400147&mediaId=400283 http://www.royalmail.com/link/download?catId=4200004&mediaId=36800672 http://www.royalmail.com/link/download?catId=4200004&mediaId=48500708