Many things are delivered by post these days, and every now and again someone may send you something important. Once you have been informed that they have sent it you just have to sit and wait. And wait. And wait…

A First Class stamp should ensure that a piece of post arrives the next day. But what happens if the post is too big for one stamp and some more postage needs to be paid? Well, in my experience, you have to wait 19 days to get a card through the letterbox stating that the postage paid for your item was 9 pence short, and you will have to pay this 9 pence plus a £1 handling fee. Paying a handling fee for what exactly? For my post to sit in an office for 19 days while the card is delivered (by foot from the other end of the country I assume).

Having received the card I went to the local sorting office to pay up and finally receive my post. Now, in all other instances of collecting post from here I have been asked to produce some id, you know in case I fancy collecting someone else’s post just for the fun of it… but it seems that if you are paying to collect some post then it does not matter who you are so long as you pay, as on this occasion I did not have to show any id.

The date stamp on the envelope informed me that it had been processed 19 days before which left me wondering why it had taken so long for me to get the card.

Given the expense and time frame that the normal postal service offers, it will be a lot quicker and a lot cheaper when I get myself an owl to deliver and retrieve my post in future. Well if it works for Harry Potter…