Post Office charges.

Hi all

This morning I received a notification card through my door. It would seem that a letter could not be delivered due to underpayment of stamp. The card says that I can pay the difference,even though it is the senders fault,in one of three ways:

a) Online,at the cost of my electricity.

b) In person,at the cost of my time and shoe
leather (petrol and leather if I drove)

c) Postage,this is the best one. Apparently I
can affix the cost of the shortfall along
with the admin cost,in the form of stamps,
to the back of the notice and post it.
Please forgive me for sounding daft but
surely my posting it will incurr cost at the
Post Office end? One person to pick up the
mail from the postbox,how many to sort it at
sorting office,another to bag it up and
finally another to post it.

The cost of the shortfall is 6p and the admin cost is �£1. Total �£1.06.

If I don`t collect or pay up the letter then gets returned to the sender.That being the case, does the original sender incurr costs of the 6p shortfall and double admin costs due to it having been handled twice? The mind boggles.

I do appreciate that different size letters require different postal rates and I don`t mind paying.What I do object to is the extortionate admin charge in comparison to the amount due and having to pay for somebody elses error.No doubt the admin charge is a flat fee for all but surely there should be a cut off amount where it is deemed unfesable to collect.

Rip off Britain at it`s best!!!!!!!!!

 

Pip, thank you for the laugh - I needed that.

 

Yes, they're all at it, ripping away at other people's money.I wonder if the new charging system was designed with a mind to confusing people and, thereby, generating more lucre for the PO.
Having once paid to pick up an unstamped letter to find that it was just an advertisement for an Indian restaurant I now never bother to pick up such mail unless I'm certain what it is and that I want to have it. If it's important, the sender will find some way of letting me know!