Don't forget to put a stamp on!

That happened to us this year. The postman put a card through the door to say they couldn't deliver a letter as it hadn't the correct postage. We ended up going to the local sorting office to pay £2.50 for a simple birthday card as the stamp on it didn't have the barcode on. This was before the last day of the use of old stamps. I should've complained.

A similar thing happened to us when our sister-in-law sent us a large card with not enough postage on it. We had to drive to the sorting office and pay a surcharge.

I had one a few days after my birthday. Assuming it was just a card I didn't pay and forgot about it.
A couple of weeks later the offending item popped through the letterbox. It was marked as a large letter but only normal postage had been paid. Yes it was a thicker than usual birthday card.

I received a note a couple of days with my mail in the morning from Royal Mail stating they had mail for me which did not have the correct postage but if I went online and paid £1.50 it would be delivered within the next few days. As I get cards from quite a few elderly friends and thought they may not be aware of the new type of stamp I did the necessary and the card arrived this morning first class stamp but with a scrawl written across it that not enough postage paid - it was about half an inch larger than it should have been!! I have a Royal Mail measuring chart from when I was working so checked and it was! I suppose it was caught out by machine - can't imagine sorting staff checking every envelope and stamp! I won't be mentioning anything about this to my friend. The thing is that when I completed the form on line there was no question of a fee nor when it was delivered this morning!!!!

We had the card from the sorting office and I paid £5. It was a card with a counterfeit stamp. The man said they have had quite a lot. People have been buying them from ebay, and they are forgeries. We had an email from the sender apologising. I think it's a bit much charging such a large amount from me, the innocent party. I would have told them who sent it and they could have asked him where he got them. Of course, I know they wouldn't.

Rubysong-thankyou! It makes sense now, the sticker on the envelope had the box ticked counterfeit postage from the Royal Mail. So it wasn't that our friends had forgotten to put a stamp on, they had but it was a spoof stamp.

Is it possible some stamps that say "counterfeit" are actually used ones?

I believe they know now if a stamp has been re-used.