RM, OBA, Revenue Protection searches
I want to hang our problem up here, just in case other OBA account holder get anything similar.
Not sure what other RM areas suffer with Revenue protection searches (when sacks are inspected to check the contents match the paperwork). The actions that we have been suffering in East London over the last 2 years. when sacks are searched to check the contents match the paperwork, is simple astounding.
We’ve had our sacks 'detained ’ on several occasions. In most cases, the Revenue protection team have said our paperwork does not match the sack contents, or we have dome the paperwork wrong. Even though on most occasions we know we have done it right, they will NOT send the sack back for our inspection, saying we can go to the sorting office (Mount Pleasent, London) to view, but this is a 2 hour journey, which none of us have the time to do, so we end up paying the supposed difference + the ‘admin’ fee of £27.50p + VAT each time…
Twice last week our sacks were ‘reprimanded’.
The 1st time, is appeared the sack and the paperwork was parted from each other, and they conceded they were wrong.
On Monday, we get an email saying Last FRIDAY’s post had problems, and we had under declared by £4.99p. Wanting to get the post moving (now 3 days late) to our buyers, we just paid it.
Then the bomb shell came.
The guy in the Revenue protection team, said, the codes’ we were using. BPL & BPR were NOT average weight codes and we had under declared some item, which of course we had not.
Horrified, as we had been using average weight for many years, we checked this on google, which said he was wrong, and a phone call to RM business support confirmed this…
I have written to RM, and now await their excuses for this silly situation, awaiting a response.
I am posting this here, because if this happens/ed to you, check that your local revenue protection squad, are not doing the same thing with whatever codes you use… Easy way of RM earning lots of money with wrong information.
Search google:- OBA-Average-Weight-and-Weight-Bands-explained.docx
0 replies
Seller_Wqg5EgqxuOwDD
I thought you had to use CRL to get averaging? The doc you refer to seems to confirm this. I don’t think OBA supports BPL any longer (as of April 2020) though you can use it within click and drop.
Seller_BnqfOH5ahn4zV
We started to use BPL back about 4 years ago - RM manager informed us within weeks that this was incorrect and we were to use CRL for average weight. Not sure if vat comes into play when they advise booking codes (we are vat registered)
Seller_LPQTXAx3oIrLt
I am an OBA customer and now use SU1 for my (average weighted) parcels and large-letters. I was under the impression SU1 is the only code that should be used now for parcels using the 24/48 service??
Seller_xDtaDZ1Iek9Fq
are you using PPI then? if so, they could be including the sack weight as average and hence the difference. It is not known that they might try something like this…
Seller_9Je7OISB3AmIV
BPL is not average weight, never has been
Seller_nIuB4w4l9SM9D
We recently had the same problem with OBA. After letter before Action they stop to humiliating, and now all our parcels and letters become as required.
P.S: we did not change anything, we continue to send all items exactly the same way as sent before, when alleged noncompliance with T&C occurred.
This is the way how RM generates revenue from the air.
Seller_fxBnTYiiYILkG
We are also in East London and have had the same issue for the past year, finally got it resolved as we use both OBA (Amazon) and Click and Drop (ebay), they scan both paperwork but seem to “misplace” one of the documents on route to Romford main sorting hub and then state we are in the wrong!! I challenged them and got the area manager involved in November as we had not posted 700 large letters!!! They opened our mail and several other customers mail and said it was all ours. Our post is never wrong as we do not cheat the system, OBA is based on trust and we understand your frustration, but you need to go higher with your complaint otherwise it will go on forever as they seriously cannot count at any of the Sorting offices!! Good luck
Seller_fxBnTYiiYILkG
Hi, would you like the contact number for the revenue protection manager in Romford? As they will not respond to emails, we have had a whole year of trying to get a reply via email from them and nothing!! Please contact us directly and can give you all of the details as I’m not sure if we are allowed to post them on the forum
Seller_DTufFoxJuMU0M
We’ve used BPL for years (not vat registered so BPL is cheaper for LLs) and they are NOT averaged.
CRL is averaged but we only use that when we want a delivery confirmation
(we use C&D, I believe the equiv for direct orders is UNG/UNA etc)
We have to tell them how many large letters fall into each bandwidth and we are charged at that rate
IE
10 at less than 100g = 10x75p
10 at 100-250g - 10 x £1.05
10 at 250-500g = 10x £1.35
at no stage did we average all 30 and say it was 30 at £1.05.
On CRL we just chuck them all into a sack, weigh the sack and tell them 30 average 150g, but not on BPL
Seller_7VbclcPFFRTnc
Revenue Protection is probably the easiest way now for RM to ensure they are getting their money as there have been so many online sellers abusing the system for years especially before click and drop when everyone used PPI labels and uploaded the weights and quantities themselves - it was all on complete trust.
I know a postie and he says that all over the country Revenue do daily checks on random post bags. Most people just get a spot check once every few months but if it is someone who has been checked and found to be with incorrect weights or amounts, they will flag your account and randomly check you at least once a week for several weeks. If future inspections are deemed to be ok, you’ll go back to random checks. If your post was wrong again in one of those checks, you will be flagged nearly every day.
I agree that the £30 admin charge is high but I think from reading the newspapers, some companies who were putting in false info into OBA account (or not even putting anything in) were getting away with sending tens of thousands of pounds of post.
