Credit where it is due - Royal Mail - and a bit of a gripe

[woodbury22uk]

Yesterday I needed to send a small parcel to the USA. Weighed and priced it before leaving home. At the post office, the charge came out £4.35 more than I expected. Checked the leaflet by the counter and found the charge requested was for World Zone 3 whereas the USA was in World Zone 1. The parcel was a birthday present for a US Army veteran, and I really wanted it to get to her on time. The Post Office system still insisted that I should pay the World Zone 3 price. I paid up and said I would contact Royal Mail for the refund.

When I called the Royal Mail customer service line I was told the wait time was 40 minutes, so just time to do a small supermarket shop before speaking to a real person. Just after leaving the checkout, I was connected to operator, who understood my problem and said she would pass it to "international" who would call me back. Two minutes after leaving the car park, the call came from international. After a moment or two, the operator said I can only see World Zone 3 prices which is wrong. He then said he would refund the overcharge and that there would be a generous ex-gratia payment. He apologised for the fact that the payment would be sent as a cheque. Once he had finished the call, I envisaged a lot of furious activity with IT to correct the system - which had probably been overcharging people all over the country for an unspecified time.

Flushed with success with Royal Mail, I came down to earth with a bump, with an email from the Worcestshire Registrar. Between them the Coroner's office and the Registrar had managed to generate a death certificate for my wife which shows a wrong cause of death. I spotted this when I received the certificate a month ago. Apparently changing a death certificate is a big deal (understandable) and the Passport Office (who are in charge of the General Register) need me to fill out a form and pay them to correct it. The Passport Office does not believe the Registrar's or the Coroner's explanation that they made a mistake. I can imagine that this would cause a good deal of heartache if someone's life insurance claim depended on an accurate death certificate. The deal now is that the Registrar's office will pay the charge, but I will still have to fill out the forms accusing the Coroner and Registrar of making a mistake. I have told them that I will now require to be paid for my time and other costs incurred in trying to correct their error. And don't get me started on Redditch Borough Council who took 4 months to adjust my Council Tax for single person occupancy, and still contrived to sending a polling card for my wife to vote in next week's local election.

Somewhat ironic that my single biggest annual outlay is my Council Tax which funds the Worcestershire coroner and registrar, and Redditch Borough Council.

[Newportnobby]

A sorry tale, Mike
Having been to the Registrar yesterday for a Death Certificate, they told me if any of the info was incorrect there was a charge of £90, and when she checked what she'd typed, she realised she'd made an error with the Doctor's name. Luckily she corrected it (as far as I know!) before selling me the document (£11 each). However, anything below my signature is not my responsibility so  to them

[Bealman]

Still, it's a good job she checked.

[woodbury22uk]

I hope somebody factors in the total cost of the original clerical error. Oh for a "right first time" philosophy in local government.
My contact with the registrar was by phone so I did not get to see the error  and the cause of death she read to me was the correct one. The Coroner's office explained how it happened, which was due to the computer form allowing several mutually exclusive causes of death to be shown.

[GAD]

A sorry and potentially depressing tale.

Sadly all to familiar, I seem to spend hours a month trying to persuade firms, the council, and gibberment to do their jobs correctly or correct yet another 'male chicken' (changed by forum)-up.

[OffshoreAlan]

..... Flushed with success ....

Always a portent of doom IME.  My most "spectacular" example being when I got a significant refund from HMRC.

Less than a week later I got an unpaid tax demand for the identical amount.

[guest10040]

left hand ---- right hand

comes to mind.

but how can You be charged for Their mistake ?

unless 

it's another way to make money 

[jpendle]

I'm sorry to hear about your troubles with the registrar et al.

I only hope your parcel gets to the US quicker than my passport is getting to the UK!

On Monday the 18th I paid $69.95 to get my old passport to the passport office in Durham for renewal. I paid for Priority Express Mail International with a delivery estimate of 3-5 business days, but this could be delayed as there still aren't as many international flights due to Covid.
So far it's got as far as LA 
2 days in Denver, 4 days to get to LA and another 2 days sitting in LA so far!!!

Regards,

John P