The letter regarding auction house's postage charges in ATG No 2539.
This month I bought a single, small, unframed, work on paper from an auction house in south-west England for £40 (inc premium).
I asked whether they would post it to me – they duly added a further £20 (inc VAT) to their invoice.
I baulked at the price but they would offer no alternative, saying that they had “run out of envelopes” – so I asked if I could send them my own stamped-addressed packet. I duly posted a stiff 1st class stamped ‘Large Letter’ envelope, placed inside another. Total postage £3.66.
When I hadn’t received my own package back within a few days I asked what had happened. They said that there had been an excess to pay (I had posted the package weighed at a Post Office counter) and my envelopes had been reused to post other client lots! I duly resent another envelope (in an unnecessarily higher weight class) for certainty.
The overall postage (including previous ‘error’) notwithstanding totalled only £8.44.
A day later I was relieved to receive everything safely.
Extremely helpful
There are those, however, who are extremely helpful and should be given real credit.
In December I bought various lots of ephemera from Denhams of Horsham. They were happy to put the items in their own excellent packet and posted everything for a total cost of £2.50. A massive ‘thumbs up’ to them.
Sandy Rich
