South Ayrshire Council has recently been working closely with trading standards services across the West of Scotland, checking local post offices to make sure the public are being charged correctly for letters and packets they post.
All letters and packets taken in at Post Offices are priced according to both weight and size and counter staff should use a size template to put items into a particular price grouping, according to size, prior to being weighed to calculate the price.
As part of the exercise, letters and packets of different sizes and weights were made up by weights and measures inspectors and then posted at local Post Offices.
The items were designed specifically to fall within a particular price band, to make it easier to check whether they were being charged at the correct cost in relation to their size and weight.
Overall, 18% of post offices visited overcharged and a worrying number had no price information on display, or size templates for customers to use. In South Ayrshire only one of the nine post offices targeted failed.
Commenting on the South Ayrshire results Councillor Peter Convery, Portfolio Holder for Sustainability and the Environment said: "While post offices are valuable asset to their community, people need to have confidence that they will not be overcharged when posting items there.
"The key factor here is that some postal staff are not measuring letters or packets before calculating the charge to customers.
"When mistakes are made, it is usually when items are placed in higher, incorrect price bands. Add to this a lack of pricing information and sizing templates, it becomes difficult for customers to know or calculate the correct price independently."
"We have been at the forefront in highlighting this issue for the past few years, so it is pleasing that of the nine packages sent in South Ayrshire only one was incorrectly charged.
"In this instance the package was not measured correctly and the post office in question is taking steps to remedy the situation. All South Ayrshire post offices had the templates available for customer use and people should make use of these to be confident that they are getting charged the correct price".
There is helpful advice available on the Royal Mail website to guide customers on the proper amount of postage appropriate to different weights and sizes of articles.
Customers should also be prepared to query post office staff on prices quoted for letters and packets if they feel the price is too high.
Councillor Convery concluded: "If you were charged £2.38 for a 98p loaf of bread you would question the shopkeeper over the price difference.
"An overcharge for posting a letter should be viewed no differently."