Royal Mail has suspended controversial fines for letters with stamps it deems counterfeit after claims that it was penalising the public for its own inadequate technology.
Addressees have been forced to pay a levy of £5 to receive post if Royal Mail suspects that a fake stamp was used by the sender.
Some customers whose letters were surcharged claim that the stamps used were bought from Post Office branches and Royal Mail’s own website and questioned the effectiveness of the scanners used to detect fraud.
Critics have warned that issue has echoes of the Horizon scandal in which bugs in accounting software led to hundreds of post office operators being accused of fraud.
However, in a sudden U-turn it today announced that it would suspend issuing surcharges until the end of July while it develops an app to allow customers to authentic their own stamps.
Nick Landon, the chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: “The combination of new barcoded stamps with added security features and Royal Mail actively working with retailers, online marketplaces and law enforcement authorities, has led to a 90% reduction in counterfeit stamps.
The original article contains 381 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 51%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Royal Mail has suspended controversial fines for letters with stamps it deems counterfeit after claims that it was penalising the public for its own inadequate technology.
Addressees have been forced to pay a levy of £5 to receive post if Royal Mail suspects that a fake stamp was used by the sender.
Some customers whose letters were surcharged claim that the stamps used were bought from Post Office branches and Royal Mail’s own website and questioned the effectiveness of the scanners used to detect fraud.
Critics have warned that issue has echoes of the Horizon scandal in which bugs in accounting software led to hundreds of post office operators being accused of fraud.
However, in a sudden U-turn it today announced that it would suspend issuing surcharges until the end of July while it develops an app to allow customers to authentic their own stamps.
Nick Landon, the chief commercial officer at Royal Mail, said: “The combination of new barcoded stamps with added security features and Royal Mail actively working with retailers, online marketplaces and law enforcement authorities, has led to a 90% reduction in counterfeit stamps.
The original article contains 381 words, the summary contains 187 words. Saved 51%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!