Pocket LED torch...

Heh, sounds familiar. A colleague at work had something delivered worth 30 quid. A couple of weeks later a bill turned up for nearly 30 quid tax.

When questioned they claimed they didn't know the value of the parcel so just charged an average and that it would all work out over several parcels!

He ignored it and in the end they agreed to waive the charge "this time".

Darren

Yes, but what on earth would you use them for? Inflicting pain on some poor unfortunate?

I am not spending £xx on couriering a letter to mummy when RM will get it there for ?37p.

And don't mention email - she still has problems with lightswitches.

Owain

You can get Welsh language keyboards and even Windows supports them these days - with proper keys for diacritical W and Y.

Andy will go round and show her how

Yes, but my mother doesn't support either Welsh or Windows.

Owain

But I don't speak enough Cymraeg

Never thought of encouraging her to join a local silver surfers activity?

You can learn ... while you're teaching her how to use her computer

Is that Welsh for 'bollocks'? :-)

No it's Welsh for Welsh.

Neither does she.

Owain

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Peter Parry saying something like:

That poor sod was probably getting paid 50p to deliver your parcel.

Mine turned up this morning.

Pete

The message from "dennis@home" contains these words:

And you've got to be very careful about how you pay it. Attempts to pay it through their automated system frequently result in your card being debited but the goods not released because though they collect your money they don't record it as collected.

I import a lot of items and have found Royal Mail (actually Parcelforce International, who do all their customs clearance) very fair. Their clearance charges are always the lowest, often as a low as a third or even a quarter of the charges levied by UPS or FedEx on comparable items.

However, they have managed to "lose" an item which got sent back to the USA without Parcelforce ever even attempting to deliver it. It languished in a depot 17 miles from my home for four weeks, and was then sent back by surface mail.

I eventually obtained compensation from the US Postal Service. :-(

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Bruce saying something like:

My experience in Ireland is much the same. UPS and Fedex are sods for ferreting out parcels that will attract duty then imposing an unreasonable charge for collecting the duty. I've also found the normal postal service is by far and away much better to deal with - if it's an item below x-value, they simply don't bother with duty and there's a favourable lottery if your higher-value goods will be bothered with too, so it's all good.