THE Royal Mail was decidedly pale in Chepstow this week after surcharging over 4,000 customers in and around the town and the Forest of Dean for delivering a mailshot that had already been paid for.
While postal staff were left with egg on their faces, staff at the well known Chepstow department store Herbert Lewis were getting hot under the collar as scores of account customers contacted them to complain that they were having to pay 39p for the company's mailshot.
"It's been a huge blunder. It was a Christmas promotion to our account customers and we paid for 4,250 of them to be delivered. But they have all been hand-stamped '19p owing' plus a 20p surcharge," explained the store's merchandising director Dee Griffith.
"We have had loads of complaints and obviously we will reimburse everyone who contacts us," she said.
Meanwhile the company is asking Royal Mail to reimburse them for the blunder... "we have sent our proof of postage by fax, just in case," said Dee.