To feel fucked off at having to describe the contents of my parcels to all and sundry in the post office queue?

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Just returned from a trip to the post office (bad enough at this time of year too!): Anyway, apparently my answer of "chocolates" & "a kitchen gift" were not sufficient explanation for its contents and ended up having to say "chocolates", "trivia game", "kitchen gadget for your pans to stop them from boiling over".

I swear a man in the queue let out a snort of amusement at the last one!

Proceded to do same with the 2 other parcels I had.

Why can they not just ask if you're sending anything prohibited or not?! I don't have to itemise the contents of my suitcase at check in so why for my parcels? It feels so bloody embarrassing!

Or cocaine!

I dont mind giving a description of packets and parcels I send, most of the items I post are craft items that I sell On ebay. Stops nosy / lightfingered postmen from opening the box. All my sent items arrive

I live in Ireland, and you have to fill in a customs form when sending to the UK . Which means all my relatives know what's in their Christmas presents before they open them! I try to be vague, but it's a bit annoying.

You don't have to tell them, I refuse ans simply state it doesn't contain prohibited items.
As an aside I used hermes this year instead if royal mail. Pay online and print label, drop off at corner shop. Online tracking. A third of the price!
I shan't be queuing in the stuffy, nosy, expensive po again.

I just say 'clothes'. Doesn't matter what it is. Alcohol miniatures. Nail varnish (yeah, I'm a rebel.) "Clothes".

Sorry if I missed it but why have this brought in this ridiculous police state regulation?

I used to buy 80's toys and sell mostly to the US. This was a few years ago when DD was small.
Not long after 9/11 I sold a Care Bear alarm clock to someone in New York. All good until I got to the post office where being jostled in my bag must have jarred the clock and I handed over a loudly ticking parcel to a very postmaster.
Fortunately he knew me and knew the type of stuff I sold but I was amazed that it actually arrived in NY.

To his credit, flatmate lied like a good'un when posting my Xmas presents along with his, and came up with "DVD box set" when pressed (it was lego).

I think 30 mins in a Christmas queue had rather dented his normal scrupulous honesty.

I work for Post Office in HQ, so I've been among those happy people in branch (with the fetching maroon fleeces) quizzing customers on the contents of their parcels. It generates some lively conversations...but we have no choice. There have been various instances of fires that have been caused by lithium batteries, which if they happen on a plane, can and have been disastrous. When you post your parcel in the UK, you (and we) don't know how it will travel to its destination as a lot of UK as well as international mail goes by plane. I am less clear on the problems with nail varnish and aftershave, but I guess that the risks are to do with flammability.

Quite frankly I don't care if your parcel contains a dildo - but if it does, I'll want to know what type of battery it has and whether the battery is connected - and where you want your dildo sent as that matters too. And I hope your dildo is well packaged, and fits inside my parcel size box. Apart from that, I don't care if it's a dildo, a handbag or a jumper. Please don't give me a hard time .

If you don't know what's in the parcel, I can't accept it. If you tell me it's a knife, I can't accept it even if you then tell me it's actually a jumper. If you tell me it's Christmas presents, I need to know a bit more so that I can figure out if it's a problem. Most people genuinely don't know what's banned or restricted (it's pretty dull frankly) so it's our job to know and to ask.

I know it's a pain, but it's not some random Post Office policy. If other parcel carriers aren't asking, that's them being negligent, rather than us being overly zealous.

And if anyone approaches me in branch tomorrow and tells me they've got dildos and butt plugs, I'll do the secret MN wave to see if you're an MNer too - or just someone who likes to post sex toys

My Hermes parcel was picked up from my home today. You can order a pick up day, and also tell them if you are leaving it in a safe place for collection, such as a porch, or behind a bin. I find it a great boon, as I am disabled and cannot walk to the post office with heavy parcels.

Yes, because asking people to list the entire contents of a parcel in great detail is a more efficient way of finding out whether it contains a lithium battery than asking "Does it contain a lithium battery?"

I'm willing to bet a generic "what does it contain?" weeds out fewer batteries than a direct question. People forget or don't bother listing all of a mixed parcel, and don't know what you're really trying to ask - because you haven't asked it!

I've had it worse. I use to have a foreign girlfriend and I left a book at her parents house. I asked her mum to mail it back to me, but as she has spare space in the box she called my girlfriend and asked what else she would like sent. For what ever reasons she asked her to send her a load of pants from her draw to fill up the box without telling me.

Fast forward two weeks and a parcel with bad handwriting arrives at my work. Security can't decipher it so open the box to see if they can figure out who it belongs to. About 10 am I get a call from HR "Can you please come to my office". I turn up in HR and she just points at the box and says "I think that's yours, security opened it to find out the owner". Me none the wiser thank her with a massive stupid grin on my face thinking its just my book, I even had a normal chat about some upcoming projects we have won. I march back to my desk and open the box. To my horror it is filled with like 20 pairs of pants.

Luckily I was good mates with the security guard so we just laughed it off. The poor HR lady never did look at me quite the same again however....

Aaaaaah I feel the rage! For the last 8 years, I have made and posted Christmas cakes to friends and family in Japan and Canada and haven't been asked what I'm posting (little neighbourhood PO in SE London). Went to post cakes in Victoria last week and had the third degree. When I told her what was in the parcels she went through a list and said she couldn't let me post anything with butter in. I looked at her blandly and said they were made with oil, not butter. She then said I couldn't post fruit to Canada, at which point I have to confess I did put up a fuss, whereupon the counter manager came over to find out what was going on and told her to accept them. She was just so bloody rude and officious about it. Next year, I'll be sending round, heavy tins full of... clothes.

Our PO does this - to degrees depending on who you get. There's one person there with a face like a whole bag of dropped pies who is really really inquisitive about the contents of each package. It irks me because I could just lie and what could they do about it? It's not like they make a note anywhere of what you say!
I've decided anyway. I have three to post tomorrow and the exchange is going to go like this
"Dildo"
"Another dildo"
"Glass Anal Juicer and a Dildo"

The queue gets awfully long and it's a very confined space!

But lemon why can't you just ask (genuine question - I know it's not the PO staff making the rules) if the parcel contains any of the following items? Even have a little card up saying the following items are prohibited and point and ask - why do people have to be asked exactly what is in the package - I mean someone has said they said 'knitted items' and were questioned further. I think a lot of it is over zealous staff - unless there have been a lot of exploding jumpers or something.

I think it's interesting that several pps have suggested other carriers, have you seen the other threads about the poor service from the likes of Hermes and Yodel??

Whippet there is a card - if your post office has one of the self service kiosks, it's on top of those. They are behind the counter too, and your counter clerk will probably whip it out if they need to. I guess I could arm myself with a copy to use when I ask customers in the queue what is in their parcel - but it's not a simple list, there's all sorts of things - and some are only banned overseas, but restricted in the UK, others are banned in some countries but not others, the list goes on! It genuinely feels easier to ask what's inside, and if it's clearly not dangerous, we don't have to ask anything else. But if you tell me it's a phone, or a Swiss Army knife, or aftershave, I have to ask you a few more questions. I cannot account for any reason why anyone would need to make further enquiries about knitted items! Unless they were battery operated...

Would a knitted balaclava count as a prohibited item?

And all parcels get sent (flown) to the sorting office in Belfast. A crazy job-creation expensive project. Probably one of the reasons Royal Mail cannot compete against the other carriers.

What's the problem with sending a Swiss Army knife by post? It's not going to leap out of the packaging and attack someone.

Nor is it a licensed item like a firearm. It's perfectly legal for anyone to own a knife.

And I'm pretty that you don't even bother having a card at your counter, Lemon.

There's a woman who uses my local PO who has a serious speech defect and uses a mobility scooter. When staff ask her questions all she can do is loudly repeat answers over and over and over again until they guess what she's saying.

Do you really want to be that member of staff, making a disabled person exhausted and embarrassed in front of a lengthening queue when you could just have read out the card?

I had fun in ours last weekas I had to send some samples toGlasgow vetinery college. He went through all sorts of leaflets because it said biohazard, I have had packing guidance from Glasgow and all the correct paperwork but he still ended up ringing Glasgow to get the okay. It's part of a nationwide study into a virus and there are strict guidelines as to how it has to be sent.

Frozen water!