With Christmas looming, may I, through your columns, make a plea for postal users to ensure stamps are well stuck down onto their parcels?

Last December, I received a post office card telling me that a parcel awaited my collection from the East Croydon sorting office.

After trudging uphill from West to East Croydon, I had to hand over £5.14 before the uniformed counter clerk would give it to me.

He claimed no stamps had been bought for it in the first place. This was nonsense, as without them, it could not have entered the postal system. The post mistress in Lincolnshire (who had accepted the parcel at the start of its journey) later confirmed this.

To really bring on the violins, I am a 74-year-old female pensioner.

My advice is that postal customers should take strong glue with them to post offices and secure the stamps on their parcels before parting with them. Unless, of course, they are happy with the postal fee being paid twice.

Margaret Evans

Vanguard Close

Croydon

December 5, 2001 17:30