Postoffice pricing and charging methods

Addstra

I went to the local Post Office yesterday to have a document certified. The clerk quoted a price for £16.50 including a copy of the document for £0.50. I found it a bit dear at the time but I agreed.

After paying, I looked at the receipt I was given and it had no indication that it was for the service I had just paid for. The receipt was instead for a direct withdrawal from my account.

When I challenged the clerk, they had no explanation for it. I asked for a refund and they would not approve it because the document was already in the postbox.

I then looked up the price for document certification on the Post Office website which came out to £12.75. When I challenged the clerk with this new information, I was told the branch charges its own surplus fee on top of that of the official Post Office price.

I submitted a complaint to Post Office on their website and I am waiting for their reply. Any thoughts?

BlueonBlue

Was it a sub postoffice ? and if so are sub-postoffices charging Surplus fees ? …

What are these branch surplus fees and where are they posted ?

Woodstok2000

The price should be the same everywhere. Has she charged you for the passport Digital Check and Send service? That is £16…..

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/identity/passport/digital-check-send-service

flaneurs_lobster

Sounds like a bit of free-form entrepreneurship - you've been done.

The fee for 1-3 copies being certified is set at £12-75. If you don't supply your own copies then I guess they can charge whatever they like for photocopying.

Did you fill out - and get back with the date stamp/receipt attached - one of these forms?

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/dam6/jcr:0ee8ca5e-c8da-4bcf-b66e-614e0905706c/document-certification-service-application-form-march-19.2026-01-16-12-08-09.pdf

That would also ensure that the transaction has gone into, ahem, Horizon and there's an official record of the certification. You should have got an official Post Office receipt too, not just a card debit report.

Be interesting to see what the complaint to Post Office Central yields.

Is it too soon after Mr Bates vs The Post Office to accept that some post office staff are just at it?

Okell

I'm surprised PO staff can certify documents as being copies of originals.

Do the staff have any special training?

Is there specific legislation?

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82184318#Comment_82184318

They can do loads of stuff including this

https://www.postoffice.co.uk/identity/document-certification

Don't think you need much training to certify that a document is a copy of another document.

Are you suggesting that they need to verify that the eg passport is genuine? Or that the bank statement hasn't been run up in Word? Not what they're doing.

sheramber

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82184318#Comment_82184318

I don’t think they are carrying they are copies of an original.

Nor are they certifying that the document is genuine.

They are certifying it is a copy of what was given to them.