AIBU to be hacked off about not being allowed to post this present?

[BreconBeBuggered]

DS1's birthday at the weekend. Mostly getting cash, but bought a few small gifts which I tried to post today.

Got to the post office desk, and was asked as usual about the contents of parcel 1. 'A hand blender', I said, blithely. Frown. Call to back office. No, they had a lady in a couple of weeks ago trying to post a blender, and it was magnetised, and magnets aren't allowed, so no, you cannot post this item. Magnets, in a hand blender? Well bugger me. I have come home to google this, and I cannot find anything about magnets in a cheapo hand blender anywhere. 'Blame the Civil Aviation Authority', says Mrs Post Office (usually perfectly nice, but today my deadly enemy). Well I would, if we lived anywhere near an airport and I thought the parcel might be getting on a plane instead of a 3-hour drive.

She gave me a leaflet about posting hazardous material, but I cannot for the life of me see anything that might have made me rethink matters. So. AIBU or just entirely clueless about electrical matters? And am I safe to give the damn thing to someone to post in a different post office calling it something else?

Use a courier instead?

I'd go elsewhere and say 'a gift' when they ask... I agree, nonsense... How about credit cards (always arrive in the post) with a magnetised strip? weak weak magnetism, but still...

I would just go to a different post office and lie about the contents. I almost always say "clothes" when asked, regardless of the contents.

I just received a 10-year permanent light through the mail. Powered by a nuclear reaction ....

I quickly looked up some couriers, but at the prices I found, it'd be cheaper to order another one online and have it posted first class...I know.

www.engineersgarage.com/insight/how-immersion-hand-blender-works?page=1

There are no magnets in a hand blender.
Go to a different post office . It's madness and the counter assistant in the first PO is clearly wrong. (and costing royal mail money in the process).

..should have said significant magnets. There are some small ones around the main coil but nothing which will throw off RM equipment.

I usually say 'decorative item' when they ask me.

They usually then ask if it contains batteries, and I say no, and then they ask if the value is more than £25, and I say no.

The one time I had any trouble was when DH was away (he's in the forces) and they said I had written the address wrong and they were going to cross a bit out.

The address was exactly as we'd been told to write it, but the woman at the post office was adamant that if a terrorist was working in the post office system they would know where DH was.

"Oh, no," I said, very cheerfully. "It's fine. They already do, they're shooting at him every day!"

The queue behind me went absolutely silent. Post office woman left the address as it was

The magnet thing is utter nonsense. I have orderd very strong magnets through the post before.

That was about right Kim

Do you work for the post office?

This just drives me mad and creates dysfunctional behaviour which ultimately causes people, including myself, to lie.

I tried to return an electronic cigarette by 1st class post, which is the method by which it was delivered to me a couple of days earlier, and was told I couldn't. Of course I just went to another post office and said it was cosmetics.

Perfume is apparently a hazardous thing now. I have been posting a bottle of perfume to my Aunt for her birthday for years and years. I now have to say it is "handcream".

Its getting ridiculous.

That's it exactly, TattyDevine. I usually say chocolates, as it's usually chocolates plus other stuff. This one might pass elsewhere as a giant box of After Eights. Or maybe a dildo. Not a vibrator, which might set off different hazard alarm bells.

Go with My Herpes or Collect Plus, it will still cost you under a fiver.

The P.O have really tightened up over what you can send now. I've told this tale before on here but years ago I used to sell 80's toys, mostly to the USA. Not long after 9/11 I sold a My Little Pony alarm clock to the US. I wrapped it, tossed it in the car and thought no more of it until I handed a small ticking parcel over to our local postmaster. Moving it had started it
Fortunately postmaster was nice and knew me and miraculously it did arrive.

My Herpes

Love it!!

Take it to another post office and say it is a wooden ornament.

The problem with lying is sometimes parcels get x-rayed and you get rumbled. MIL tried to post perfume to NZ, lied on the customs form and the parcel got destroyed anyway!

But there have always been strict rules about posting internationally. I don't understand these new strict rules for domestic post. It just all feels a bit jobsworth, especially when staff misinterpret the rules and refuse things they shouldn't.

Just say 'clothing'. Every single time.

Game

I honestly just choked on my flap jack laughing at that

It really annoys me that a 10ml bottle of nail varnish is now a 'hazardous substance' and needs a special courier at a cost of over £20. Boots charge about £6 to post, and all they use is a bit of bubble wrap in a corrugated paper box.

I tried to order some from mua, and they told me that they didn't have any control over the courier - they could use a cheaper one!!!!

Sorry, but it made me so mad. Anyone wanting to use nail varnish for nefarious purposes would find a way to get around the rules.

Item now has arrived without incident at its destination, disguised as a toy train. All the toy trains that have ever been in my house have had actual visible functioning magnets on them, but perhaps they don't count as hazardous if the trains have smiley faces on the front.

I find ordering from Amazon and getting it delivered direct to the person you want is easier than dealing with the post office.

I never had Thomas the tank engine down as a potential terrorist.