Post Office pushing more expensive postal services for letters

[SassitudeandSparkle]

This is not about the PO staff asking what is inside your parcel - I do think that's a fair exchange for them carrying your stuff to it's destination.

It's letters. Perhaps it's just the PO that I go to but today, I was returning an out-of-date passport for renewal. The Passport Office say you can return it by standard post or special delivery. The Post Office wrongly claimed that the Passport Office recommend special delivery which was more expensive than standard first class by a fiver!

I said no, I'll send it first class it is out of date anyway. I was then told it was still personal data and the loss wasn't covered by first class mail and when I still requested that it go first class, they wrote on my receipt and said that was to indicate that they had told me about the data risk and I had declined

I wouldn't mind if they were right, but they are wrong about what the Passport Office recommends! I need to find another PO which isn't such a hassle to use, I just want to send an envelope without a written note afterwards!

Agree with the post office an out of date passport is very valuable in the wrong hands.

It's a bit off though, that the person selling you the service is basically telling you that the standard service is so shit that they will only actually do what you ask them to if you pay them ten times as much.

What possible use would an out of date passport be in the wrong hands?

It's not legal ID still is it?

BarbaraofSeville

^^ This. Pay us to do something then pay us lots more to make sure we actually do it.

DD1's expired passport got nicked out of the envelope containing her renewal forms, so someone obviously thought it was worth something. It held the process up for ages, so personally I would suck up the extra postage cost next time.

A just out of date passport can be used as legal ID in some situations; until they're about a year old. It's also got all your personal information on, which makes getting a forgery done a lot easier.

It's up to you how you post your letters, but I don't think they were unreasonable to suggest the more secure service for your passport, and you weren't unreasonable to decline if you are happy with the risk.

I agree with them.

They have always advised that for passports, legal documents etc. It's nothing new.

I'm with the post office to be honest. I wouldn't send anything so vital to my personal identity through anything other than a secure channel.

As with all businesses they can only do so much to ensure the people working for them aren't taking advantage of their position, they have to use an element of trust or the service would be prohibitively expensive. Where that element of trust needs to be verified they have a special service that costs more money.

It's the same as a bankers draft. You're paying for the privilege of a cheque that is guaranteed to clear for the person you are paying it too. It's about removing as much risk as possible in a world where some people are happy to rip each other off.

they wrote on my receipt and said that was to indicate that they had told me about the data risk and I had declined

^Dont see the problem here. They are covering their back by writing this on your receipt in case it did get lost and you wanted to make a complaint. Get over it.

A passport that is out of date can be used as ID on internal flights, but only if the passenger has your name. If someone is booking tickets in your name and looks enough like you that the passport is accepted then you have bigger problems.

A passport contains very little private information: an expired passport number, name and date of birth. What else?

Passport Office do not require exotic postal services to send expired (or even in date) passports, and return your new passport to you by ordinary post anyway.

Thanks for the responses.

Do you work for the PO greendale or is the name a coincidence?!

I didn't say I was going to complain but it's a good point that I may well consider, I do think they gave misleading information because it's not the case that the Passport Office say you have to send it by one method and they certainly send back the new passport by ordinary mail unless you opt for special delivery.

The passport is out of date, has no signature and was an online renewal so no forms with it (I would recommend the online renewal, it was fab). If it goes astray on the way to the office or to the recipient then that's what happens, I don't feel that Special Delivery will stop that happening or what difference it makes - you may be able to track at which point it goes missing but it's still missing, unfortunately!

I've had a text and email from the Passport Office this morning, to say that the old passport has arrived, that's a lot faster than I was expecting tbh! I would definitely recommend the online renewals as the updates are useful.

They do try and push you to buy the most expensive service, which can be annoying.

I tried to send a 2nd class standard parcel today and was asked did I want it insured, signed for, first class etc.

Bog off. If I wanted those things I would have asked for them.