Royal Mail has been forced to admit it overcharged customers more than £30,000 – with some individuals being hit for an extra £200 – after a glitch on its online stamp-buying services.
Two sites, SmartStamp and Online Postage – which allow customers to frank mail from their own homes or offices – have been beset by problems since the company upgraded its IT systems last month.
The company said that nearly 600 customers have had their bank cards debited twice. The average amount was £50, meaning that £30,000 has been taken in error, but it is claimed some customers have had as much as £200 taken twice.
Royal Mail said that affected customers will be contacted “as a matter of urgency” and their accounts will be credited in full. Customers who have been affected will also be given a £25 “goodwill gesture”.
In a joint statement Moya Greene, the chief executive of Royal Mail Group, and Paul Hermelin, the chief executive officer of Cap Gemini, which runs the website on Royal Mail’s behalf, said: “We would like to apologise for the difficulties some customers are experiencing with a number of the applications on the website. We very much appreciate that this is the busiest trading period of the year for many of our customers.”
