£1.50 To Pay - What For??

My experience today is bothering me on more than one level. Basically, I bought a cheap stamp from ebay, and received a card through the door saying insufficient postage had been paid. So off I went to the sorting office to pay £1.50 and find out what the problem was.

Apparently ... nothing. Even the guy in the sorting office was mystified. He slipped the envelope through the measuring slot no problem. It contained nothing of size or weight.

Here it is:




Nothing I could do apart from pay up!

Two more things bug me. First, they haven't even cancelled the stamp! It was apparently underpaid, but then they are giving me 55p worth of stamps which (I know I shouldn't, but...) I can use again. In other words, by not cancelling the stamp they are giving me more than I could possibly owe them in underpayment.

Secondly, look at that bright yellow sticker. Britain's had some attractive postage due stamps in its time - some even issued in presentation packs. And this is what it's come to...




OK, rant done. But I'm still peeved about the whole experience!

You should complain to the ebay seller and ask for £1.50 credit back to you. If that happens in Australia the person who sent the letter has to pay the underpaid fee not the person receiving the letter. Totally unfair to you so seller should have to pay you back. If not leave him bad feedback. The yellow fee to pay sticker looks terrible, I like the postage due stamps from the 1960s better. Stamps getting uncancelled happens everywhere. They say its illegal to reuse those stamps, on the other hand how could post office prove its been used before if its uncancelled?

I don't understand why the sorting office didn't simply cancel the postage due claim, given that it was plainly correctly stamped for the size and weight.

I can't hold the seller responsible. As I see it, he's done nothing wrong.

As for the sorting office, I don't know if they are allowed to waive the fee, but I asked the guy if ther was anything I could do, and he said no.

Hey, it's only £1.50 - but (at the risk of sounding old) a sad reflection on how things are these days.

Its not the sellers fault but a lot of good sellers out there would do right by you and give you back the £1.50 even when they are not in the wrong. Its really the fault of the sorting office, like Geoff said why didn't they simply cancel the postage due claim. Hey keep the envelope and resell it in ten years time the postage due label may become a collectible. There are lots of collectors around for postage due covers.

Surely not the sellers fault ,so leave him out of it . Contact the supervisor of the local Post Office and ask if you could have a meeting with him/her . If that fails ,have a friend call him/her and say again you want a meeting and they as a reporter wants to attend for a possible story ......you will have a refund before the meeting .

£1.50 short? How much does it cost to mail a letter in the UK?!

£2.05p does not fit any price in the Royal Mail price guide. The sad fact is it will most likely cost more to get your money back than it would to do nothing. [Petrol, Public Transport, telephone etc].

Sad looking label too.

Edited: Just seen the new pricing [October 2015] for postage due so it is now a flat rate for letters. Looking at the price guide was a waste of time !

Oddly, I had almost the opposite experience with Royal Mail charging a few months ago. I sent off an ebay lot. A couple of months later it was returned to sender. It had a Ringo-style sticker, but the recipient had obviously declined to claim it from the sorting office. In essence, my package's internal packing had come adrfit, making the envelope fatter and thus pushing it into the"large" category. However, Royal Mail, having not delivered it to the buyer because of this, then returned it to me without charge. The other odd aspect was the purchaser. He hadn't told me that the cards hadn't appeared. When I got them back, I apologised profusely via ebay and re-sent them. But still not a flicker of recognition!