Post offices caught overcharging customers

Dec 19 2008

A SHOCKING 30 per cent of post offices have been caught overcharging to send letters and parcels.

One office even overcharged a trading standards officer by a whopping 79 per cent.

A survey into the South Ayrshire branches of the service revealed a vast difference in the cost of postage in some offices.

Trading standards took parcels and letters of different sizes and weights to several post offices across the county.

They had each been weighed and measured beforehand to make sure they fell within particular price band for first class mail.

Although 25 of the 27 offices weighed the packets only 14 of them measured them using the letter size guide, making it difficult to calculate the correct price.

The actual price charged for posting the 27 items was £37.17 – well above the £32.68 it should have cost.

The most significant over charging involved four large letters which were charged at £1.94 instead of £1.08, an over charge of 79 per cent.

Trading standards manager David Thomson said: “We enforce many pieces of legislation designed to protect people from incorrect pricing, weighing or measuring and strive to ensure that people within South Ayrshire are getting the value and services they deserve.

“This is the second year we have carried out these checks and although the fail rate has dropped there needs to be a further improvement as a 30 per cent fail rate is not acceptable.”

And Mr Thomson hasn’t ruled out prosecuting the Post Office for their mistakes.

He added: “A decision on whether formal enforcement action is required will be taken once we have met with the Post Office.

“We will also be seeking assurances that immediate steps will be taken to remedy this.”

And Councillor Peter Convery, who is responsible for trading standards issues, insists that customers need to have confidence in their post offices.

He said: “The crucial factor in these failures appears to be the fact that many of the staff in post offices are not measuring letters or packets prior to charging customers.

“The inaccuracies we have detected tie in with the items being placed in higher, incorrect price bands.

“It was very obvious during the checks that many of the counter staff were using their personal judgement to size the letters rather than actually measuring them.

“Anyone who is sending items through the post should ensure that the items are measured and weighed to calculate the correct price.”