Royal Mail mess

sir – Tim Horne (Letters, December 29) got off lightly with only a £2.50 “fine” from Royal Mail for receiving a card with outdated stamps.

We too received a notification from Royal Mail that there was an undelivered item for us with insufficient postage. To retrieve it, there was a charge of £5. Thinking it might be a birthday present for my wife, I paid up.

When the item arrived, it was only a Christmas card, bearing a sticker giving the reason for the additional charge as “counterfeit stamp”.

It was a second-class stamp complete with barcode and looked indistinguishable from the genuine article. On comparison under a bright light with a recently purchased stamp from the Post Office, however, the barcode on the genuine stamp had a shiny surface, whereas the counterfeit was flat and dull.

So I contacted the sender, who told me that they had purchased their stamps from the Post Office.

Is there a printing error which is costing recipients and raising extra profits for Royal Mail?

Stephen Ennis Thames Ditton, Surrey

sir – A Christmas card arrived yesterday bearing a perfectly normallooking first-class stamp. The Post Office had placed a yellow sticker on the envelope saying “counterfeit stamp” and demanding £5.

I fail to see how any penalty can be more than the cost of another firstclass stamp, as I am not the culprit.

The card was from an old friend who is now very concerned as he has sent a batch of cards to a large number of grieving widows with stamps from the same sheet.

Alan Green Moreton-in-Marsh, Gloucestershire

sir – Before Christmas, I received a notification from Royal Mail that an item could not be delivered but must be picked up from the sorting office some distance away.

On arrival I was presented with a Christmas card which had no stamp on it, and a charge of £5. I recognised the writing so declined to pay and left.

J Lockwood Honley, West Yorkshire