royal mail / post office charges

ever had a red/white note through your door from the royal mail?

upon reading it, it says, 'you were out blah blah come and pick it up from the sorting office?

so after a couple of days you take time off work ( a very quick 30mins) and drive in poor traffic to reach the said sorting depot only to find there is indeed an item waiting for you and as youve won something off ebay you are eager to collect and unwrap like a child at xmas expecting for the detained package to be that very same item, you watched it all week and expertly timmed a sneaky bid with 8 sec to go and bedazzled all the other bidders with your keyboard dexterity and 'POW' you won it, paid for it and now..... want it

but wait ..... whats this... the unhelpful noob behind the glass at the sorting depot says there is a charge of 1.06 because the item is too big/over weight for the price thats on the stamp/label?

not your fault you say, you paid what was asked and any mistake made is surely someones elses problem.... either way the onlyway to get the item is to pay the extra and be damned. reluctantly you pay it as this item means something.

or is it all cloak and dagger trick?

this has happened 3 times to me since July and i suspect foul play. so much so that i took the last parcel which had a 98p label on it (one of those printed white labels they put on your items once its been weighed at the local post office) still complete with all its wrapping etc and got my local post master to weigh it and quote the cost of posting it..... guess what... 98p he said,so why the extra cost at the sorting depot?

dodgey scales? a quick pound here and there into the posties xmas booze fund? a desperate royal mail eager to screw us all for a little bit more? im not sure.., what do you think?

i mentioned similar things on my next visit to the sorting office only to be met be a blank stare and the threat of if i refused to pay in future then the item would be returned to whence it came. how dare i question the might of a national institution etc all this brought looks of spite from the other slacker/loafers in the back room. so i filled out a complaint form, but im still waiting a reply

in a nutshell, if the sending post office charge the wrong price to the seller then i pay, if the price is correct to the weight on their charges is correct, i pay. if i want the goods i fought so hard to get, i still pay, another 30 mins of my life wasted and ive done nothing wrong... i still pay

catch 22. i cant win and there seems to be nothing i can do about it.... anyone else had similar goings - on?