Bloody post office? stamp related

[Mooycow]

This week we have had 2 notices delivered re "underpaid revenue" on christmas cards, 1 for 9p the other for 19p. For both we were charged £1 cost, WTF, When i asked why they said that a LARGE 1st class stamp should have been used as they were a larger than normal xmas card?
I also had this in april when i sent my father a birthday card with a left over stamp from xmas . ( clearly a xmas stamp as had xmas trees on ) he also got charged which i never heard the last of
AIBU, if i paid for a stamp then surely i paid to send a letter regardless of when i use it ?

Yes you paid for a stamp. But not the right stamp

Sorry not clear the 1st two were cards sent to us?

Using an Xmas stamp isn't the issue - they can be used at any time.

Putting the wrong stamp on (ie not paying enough) is a problem. If the dimensions of the card meant it should have been the 'large' letter rate and it had only the 'standard' rate stamp, then yes they can raise this charge.

You have to remember to check the back of birthday cards to see if it says letter or large letter because you need different stamps for them.

The £1 handling fee for an underpayment of 9p is disgraceful though, I agree.

If you object to paying then don't collect the mail from the delivery office. They can't pass the charge onto the sender as they are often anonymous so the only option is to pass the charge onto the recipient. You can always ask the sender to reimburse you for their error.

It's not about when you use the stamp, a large letter stamp is more expensive.

So if you used a standard stamp on a letter that is bigger than the maximum for standard then you underpaid the postage, because it should have had a large letter stamp on it.

xmas stamps can be used at any time of year - I have a friend currently using up odd combinations of stamps from a childhood collection where some of them are 11 1/2 p etc!

the issue is the size and weight of the object - if its bigger than the regular 1st class stamp bracket, you need to buy the correct stamp or stamps to make up the difference.

Whether the underpayment is 9p or £9 the process and costs are exactly the same hence having a flat rate handling charge of £1.00

I think the handling charge, whilst excessive, is intended to encourage people to use the right stamp! I've refused a couple, because I know they are things not worth paying the extra for. But I've also paid up as I wasn't sure what the letter was, & it turned out to be a sizeable cheque!!

I had to pay £1 once for a letter which should have been a large letter. It turned out to be a (pretty enormous) wedding invitation. Which means that ALL the guests would have had to pay for their invites

Northern- LOL @ guests paying for their own invites, now, why have I not seen a thread about that......

as others note, the post office charge more for a large letter than a normal letter. Guides are available at the post office (thickness also matters) or you can see the dimensions online and measure up.

this came in at least two years ago!

The 'large letter' was introduced over a year ago so not sure why people would still be posting with a standard stamp.

The letter sizes were introduced while I still worked for royal mail and I left over 4 years ago so it was probably about 6 years since they were introduced. How time flies.

Time is flying indeed!

I can remember where I was working when the change come in- it was in 2006