I experienced similar nonsense this morning. Honestly, sometimes I feel like that Michael Douglas character in Falling Down. Barclays bank wasted my time last week when it came to certifying my passport application and today, the Post Office.Mr_Knight wrote: ↑Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:26 pmRegarding posting from UK to Ireland at around midday the post office refused to allow me to send a letter to Ireland without a customs declaration (this is insane) I returned a few hours later with the customs declaration attached & was told it wasn't necessary and they accepted it as track & signed.
Confusing
I put my passport application together in a C4 envelope, so the whole thing was categorised as a large letter in size and weight. The person behind the post office counter said I needed to attach a customs declaration. I replied that it wasn't needed because the envelope contained only documents, nothing of commercial value. Then began the madness. Documents are different to letters she said, and they need a customs declaration. She then held up a roll of customs declarations stickers. But I can't give you one of these, we can't process international post that needs a customs declaration because of the cyber attack. But you can go online and print it out yourself and then bring it back to me.
So, I trotted off home and went to the Royal Mail website. More madness followed. One of the questions when applying for international post is "Does your package contain only letters/documents and have no commercial value?". Answering yes completes the process and results in payment and a printable postage label. To generate a customs form I had to answer 'no' to that question and then within the customs form section, declare 'documents only-no commercial value'.
Anyhow, I finally got it all printed off and labelled up. Went back the post office and explained what I'd just done. Blank stare. I half-thought she'd come up with another reason to reject my letter but no, it's finally in the system. Jesus wept.