Ports Thoughts

Recently our National postal system, The Royal Mail, introduced a new set of pricing that for the first time took account of the shape of an item as well as its weight. They claim that this is in line with the rest of the industry (Fedex, DHL etc.) Today I saw for the first time how petty and stupid this system is. We got this card in the post claiming that they were unable to deliver an item because there was insufficient postage. Fair enough I thought. It did say that there was £1.06 to pay. Was someone sending me gold bullion without putting a stamp on it? Then I noticed the killer line "includes £1 handling fee for underpaid items". So actually the postage was just 6 pence short. Seems a bit petty. Of course we didn't know what the item was at this stage. One option was to take half a day off and go to the sorting office to retrieve the item - which seems a bit extreme for a 6p under payment. The alternative is to attach £1.06 to the card in stamps and send it back an...

I was in a hotel in Vauxhall, London yesterday for an event about collaboration which I was speaking at. It was a fantastic event and I think my presentation was quite well received. To top it off the hosts The Butler Group put on a smashing Gala Dinner afterwards. After the dinner my frolleague Matt and I headed round to the bar for a glass of wine before heading home. I was not surprised to find that 2 standard glasses of house red wine was more expensive than a normal pub or restaurant. £4.70 for a very ordinary wine is a bit steep - but what do you expect in central London hotel? Well what I wouldn't expect is for a 12.5% service charge to automatically be added on top. For pouring an overpriced drink into a glass! Even in cultures like America where, unlike the UK, tipping is expected it would never be automatically added in a bar. At least never anywhere I have seen. Thieving swines. And the wine was rubbish.