Warning Royal Mail tried to destroy my Solexes but DDK won!

[David Rooke]

On reflection I feel rather foolish about this but the retrospectroscope is a powerful tool...

Monday - I eventually got around to sending my 912 carbs down to Chris @ Fenn Lane for repair / refurbishment. Spurred on by the plan to get all of my cars working by spring I took them off the car, drained the fuel, double wrapped them and took them to the post office... Yes, yes, I know now....

They were accepted at the post office, i told the lady they were old carbs and insured them for the max amount of £1k. No problem I was told and off they went, next day, 1pm signed for and tracked.

Tuesday - they weren't there - which is not unusal with things posted from Scotland. I checked the tracking thingamijig and found out that they had been intercepted at the sorting office in Edinburgh suspected as being "dangerous or prohibited" and were to be inspected. It's really hard to speak to a real person that has any idea of what on earth is going on in the royal mail but after a long while the "dangerous and prohibited team" were on the phone.

They were pessimistic. To my horror and amazement. Apparently devoid of any common sense they advised that although they are forbidden, dangerous and prohibited items that shouldn't have left the post office and were likely to cause huge havoc and severe injury (I exaggerate but this was the feeling I was left with) they were sending them (presumably by two trucks and a flippin ferry) to Belfast to be inspected. Where they are likely to be "disposed of" if found to contravene the policy. Which they "will". Because they are used car parts that have once been near fuel.... I double checked this assessment. Probably three times. "Yes, it's highly likely you won't see them back"

Cue my huge supression of rage and switch into panic mode. They are 50 years old. Irreplaceable. Valuable. (Pretty bloody hard to detroy even if, as supposed, they were fully laden with fuel)...

"We'll see what we can do, give it a few days..."

Wednesday - A real person, Ian, has emailed me now indicating that he has emailed Belfast and has asked for some relevent details...

I'm still waiting, fretting and drinking strong belgian beer to take my mind off it.

Has anyone else ever either 1. been so stupid as I feel now or 2. had a similar situation with a good outcome?

Better still - does anyone here have any useful contacts in the Royal Mail to get the carbs back to me? I told Chris @ Fenn Lane not to expect the parcel and he was super helpful - he has a man in Belfast that can pick them up. I just need somebody somewhere to see sense and release them from their current fate.

The world works in strange ways some days...

Cheers all

[C3s]

I had a similar problem recently but didn’t involve car parts. I gave my ‘helper’ 2 envelopes, 1 for posting in a letter box and the other for the internal post box at Barclays, each envelope was clearly marked. Can you guess what happened....... luckily the RM sorting office is down the road so went in to speak to someone and was told the same Belfast horror/destroy story and no exceptions. Now faced with phoning a mostly awkward customer for a replacement cheque or just letting it go. Next day had a phone call asking me to collect the unwanted envelope from a different PO collection centre, so in a few days it went from doom n gloom to normal without explanation. I hope they see sense & you have a similar outcome.
Please keep us informed of ‘progress’

[redrobin911]

If needed I will collect the carbs from the Belfast office for you then work out how to get them to you later. If you get the tracking number and office address etc. and let them know I'll do this tomorrow.

Robin

[David Rooke]

Thanks Robin.

No news from Belfast yet - probably working out how much PPE they need to open the box but if I hear that they can be collected I would very much appreciate the help

[redrobin911]

Thanks Robin.

No news from Belfast yet - probably working out how much PPE they need to open the box but if I hear that they can be collected I would very much appreciate the help

Thats no problem David, I use UK-NI couriers every week, I'll get them to you if we can get them out of the compound. I'd tell them rather than inspect them that they're being collected - see how that goes.

[David Rooke]

Thanks - I'll give it a go and see what they say. I'm yet to make contact with the Belfast crowd but have had a couple of emails from a team in the W. Midlands. Will email them again now and see if collection is an acceptable option.

[Mr Pharmacist]

Unbelievable! How can they ship them to Belfast for inspection if they were so dangerous?

The world has gone flipping mad

[bjmullan]

Scary story, I sent my carbs a couple of weeks ago to Chris via parcel post. They did arrive

[Burma-Shave]

...hmm, maybe David should’ve set his on fire before he posted em

[gridgway]

But you can understand that a package smelling of petrol would be kind of hard to ignore!

You know they are just old carbs, how do they know that even if they are, they are not dangerous and how do they know you aren't just saying that!!

Really feel for you though, horrid place to be.

I would most likely have made the same mistake.

Graham

[David Rooke]

But you can understand that a package smelling of petrol would be kind of hard to ignore!

Yes - good point, I get the theory of inspect what may be suspicious and I can understand why they are concerned but to adopt of default position of disposal / destruction is the part that seems illogical and ill thought out.

Which reminds me - must give them another 'phone call...

[gridgway]

I'm wondering what else you might do if you were them?
Got all my fingers crossed for you!

Yes - good point, I get the theory of inspect what may be suspicious and I can understand why they are concerned but to adopt of default position of disposal / destruction is the part that seems illogical and ill thought out.

Which reminds me - must give them another 'phone call...

[David Rooke]

I'm wondering what else you might do if you were them?

I think I expected items that were clearly valuable and sent in error but not immediately posing risk to life or limb (radioactive sludge / bottles of acid ?? ) would be set aside for customers to collect and their own expense / inconvenience

As it turns out extensive appeals to their team has achieved exactly that and I'm hoping that they release the parcel to the super kind redrobin911 later on today for their onward journey.

Thanks for the collective crossing of fingers. Mine still will remain so until I hear the carbs are back in safe hands

[neilbardsley]

I posted two webers to a German ebay buyer (a few years ago) via hermes with no problems. Must be Solexes that are dangerous

[David Rooke]

I posted two webers to a German ebay buyer (a few years ago) via hermes with no problems. Must be Solexes that are dangerous

Agreed - it's all the extra power they have compared to Webers...