Stamp Out Customer Dissatisfaction!

When we got back from Norfolk, among the mail awaiting us was a card from the Post Office saying there was one item they could not deliver as it had insufficient postage. 8p to pay - plus £1 handling charge. Well, I dithered for over a week then decided I would go and collect this item- in case it was something important.

The lady showed me the envelope - "It is too large and too thick for this 37p First Class Stamp,, so it has to go Large Letter Post" she explained. [That's 47p for Second Class]

I am incurably nosey, so I paid up £1.08 and took the card.

I came home and measured it with Bob's Postal Ruler

Yes, it is in fact 194cm² - and the maximum size for the small slot is 165cm²

Inside was, indeed, an attractive and artistic card

And on the back it says "Hearing Dogs for Deaf People" and also "designed exclusively for Tesco Stores Ltd"

If Tesco is dedicated to helping its customers, with its mantra "every little helps" tell me, why are they producing cards which require fancy 47p stamps and not basic 30p stamps?

And was there any indication on the packet of cards that these were too big for regular stamps? I sort of resent that people sending these are forced to give an extra 17p to the Royal Mail for each envelope. [Or did senders just stick 1st class stamps on and hope?] I would rather give the money to charity.

I do not know how much Tesco charged for their cards - but the Hearing Dogs website [here] has its own cards, all of which are standard size, and no pack of ten costs more than £3.50 - in fact you can buy and post ten of their cards for less than £5. So why does Tesco feel the need to make such large ones?

It was good to get the card though and read the greeting inside. I shall display it for a week or so [even though we are at mid-January]

Bob says I just like ranting about Tesco's!!